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diff --git a/5151.txt b/5151.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1de3083 --- /dev/null +++ b/5151.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11452 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Exploits of Elaine, by Arthur B. Reeve + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Exploits of Elaine + +Author: Arthur B. Reeve + +Posting Date: September 15, 2012 [EBook #5151] +Release Date: February, 2004 +First Posted: May 16, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EXPLOITS OF ELAINE *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + +THE CRAIG KENNEDY SERIES + +THE EXPLOITS OF ELAINE + +BY + +ARTHUR B. REEVE + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I THE CLUTCHING HAND + + II THE TWILIGHT SLEEP + + III THE VANISHING JEWELS + + IV "THE FROZEN SAFE" + + V THE POISONED ROOM + + VI THE VAMPIRE + + VII THE DOUBLE TRAP + +VIII THE HIDDEN VOICE + + IX THE DEATH RAY + + X THE LIFE CURRENT + + XI THE HOUR OF THREE + + XII THE BLOOD CRYSTALS + +XIII THE DEVIL WORSHIPPERS + + XIV THE RECKONING + + + + +THE EXPLOITS OF ELAINE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE CLUTCHING HAND + + +"Jameson, here's a story I wish you'd follow up," remarked the managing +editor of the Star to me one evening after I had turned in an +assignment of the late afternoon. + +He handed me a clipping from the evening edition of the Star and I +quickly ran my eye over the headline: + + "THE CLUTCHING HAND" WINS AGAIN + + NEW YORK'S MYSTERIOUS MASTER CRIMINAL + PERFECTS ANOTHER COUP + + CITY POLICE COMPLETELY BAFFLED + +"Here's this murder of Fletcher, the retired banker and trustee of the +University," he explained. "Not a clue--except a warning letter signed +with this mysterious clutching fist. Last week it was the robbery of +the Haxworth jewels and the killing of old Haxworth. Again that curious +sign of the hand. Then there was the dastardly attempt on Sherburne, +the steel magnate. Not a trace of the assailant except this same +clutching fist. So it has gone, Jameson--the most alarming and most +inexplicable series of murders that has ever happened in this country. +And nothing but this uncanny hand to trace them by." + +The editor paused a moment, then exclaimed, "Why, this fellow seems to +take a diabolical--I might almost say pathological--pleasure in crimes +of violence, revenge, avarice and self-protection. Sometimes it seems +as if he delights in the pure deviltry of the thing. It is weird." + +He leaned over and spoke in a low, tense tone. "Strangest of all, the +tip has just come to us that Fletcher, Haxworth, Sherburne and all the +rest of those wealthy men were insured in the Consolidated Mutual Life. +Now, Jameson, I want you to find Taylor Dodge, the president, and +interview him. Get what you can, at any cost." + +I had naturally thought first of Kennedy, but there was no time now to +call him up and, besides, I must see Dodge immediately. + +Dodge, I discovered over the telephone, was not at home, nor at any of +the clubs to which he belonged. Late though it was I concluded that he +was at his office. No amount of persuasion could get me past the door, +and, though I found out later and shall tell soon what was going on +there, I determined, about nine o'clock, that the best way to get at +Dodge was to go to his house on Fifth Avenue, if I had to camp on his +front doorstep until morning. The harder I found the story to get, the +more I wanted it. + +With some misgivings about being admitted, I rang the bell of the +splendid, though not very modern, Dodge residence. An English butler, +with a nose that must have been his fortune, opened the door and +gravely informed me that Mr. Dodge was not at home, but was expected at +any moment. + +Once in, I was not going lightly to give up that advantage. I bethought +myself of his daughter, Elaine, one of the most popular debutantes of +the season, and sent in my card to her, on a chance of interesting her +and seeing her father, writing on the bottom of the card: "Would like +to interview Mr. Dodge regarding Clutching Hand." + +Summoning up what assurance I had, which is sometimes considerable, I +followed the butler down the hall as he bore my card. As he opened the +door of the drawing room I caught a vision of a slip of a girl, in an +evening gown. + +Elaine Dodge was both the ingenue and the athlete--the thoroughly +modern type of girl--equally at home with tennis and tango, table talk +and tea. Vivacious eyes that hinted at a stunning amber brown sparkled +beneath masses of the most wonderful auburn hair. Her pearly teeth, +when she smiled, were marvellous. And she smiled often, for life to her +seemed a continuous film of enjoyment. + +Near her I recognized from his pictures, Perry Bennett, the rising +young corporation lawyer, a mighty good looking fellow, with an +affable, pleasing way about him, perhaps thirty-five years old or so, +but already prominent and quite friendly with Dodge. + +On a table I saw a book, as though Elaine had cast it down when the +lawyer arrived to call on the daughter under pretense of waiting for +her father. Crumpled on the table was the Star. They had read the story. + +"Who is it, Jennings?" she asked. + +"A reporter, Miss Dodge," answered the butler glancing superciliously +back at me, "and you know how your father dislikes to see anyone here +at the house," he added deferentially to her. + +I took in the situation at a glance. Bennett was trying not to look +discourteous, but this was a call on Elaine and it had been +interrupted. I could expect no help from that quarter. Still, I fancied +that Elaine was not averse to trying to pique her visitor and +determined at least to try it. + +"Miss Dodge," I pleaded, bowing as if I had known them all my life, +"I've been trying to find your father all the evening. It's very +important." + +She looked up at me surprised and in doubt whether to laugh or stamp +her pretty little foot in indignation at my stupendous nerve. + +She laughed. "You are a very brave young man," she replied with a +roguish look at Bennett's discomfiture over the interruption of the +tete-a-tete. + +There was a note of seriousness in it, too, that made me ask quickly, +"Why?" + +The smile flitted from her face and in its place came a frank earnest +expression which I later learned to like and respect very much. "My +father has declared he will eat the very next reporter who tries to +interview him here," she answered. + +I was about to prolong the waiting time by some jolly about such a +stunning girl not having by any possibility such a cannibal of a +parent, when the rattle of the changing gears of a car outside told of +the approach of a limousine. + +The big front door opened and Elaine flung herself in the arms of an +elderly, stern-faced, gray-haired man. "Why, Dad," she cried, "where +have you been? I missed you so much at dinner. I'll be so glad when +this terrible business gets cleared up. Tell--me. What is on your mind? +What is it that worries you now?" + +I noticed then that Dodge seemed wrought-up and a bit unnerved, for he +sank rather heavily into a chair, brushed his face with his +handkerchief and breathed heavily. Elaine hovered over him +solicitously, repeating her question. + +With a mighty effort he seemed to get himself together. He rose and +turned to Bennett. + +"Perry," he exclaimed, "I've got the Clutching Hand!" + +The two men stared at each other. + +"Yes," continued Dodge, "I've just found out how to trace it, and +tomorrow I am going to set the alarms of the city at rest by exposing--" + +Just then Dodge caught sight of me. For the moment I thought perhaps he +was going to fulfill his threat. + +"Who the devil--why didn't you tell me a reporter was here, Jennings?" +he sputtered indignantly, pointing toward the door. + +Argument, entreaty were of no avail. He stamped crustily into the +library, taking Bennett with him and leaving me with Elaine. Inside I +could hear them talking, and managed to catch enough to piece together +the story. I wanted to stay, but Elaine, smiling at my enthusiasm, +shook her head and held out her hand in one of her frank, straight-arm +hand shakes. There was nothing to do but go. + +At least, I reflected, I had the greater part of the story--all except +the one big thing, however,--the name of the criminal. But Dodge would +know him tomorrow! + +I hurried back to the Star to write my story in time to catch the last +morning edition. + + . . . . . . . . + +Meanwhile, if I may anticipate my story, I must tell of what we later +learned had happened to Dodge so completely to upset him. + +Ever since the Consolidated Mutual had been hit by the murders, he had +had many lines out in the hope of enmeshing the perpetrator. That +night, as I found out the next day, he had at last heard of a clue. One +of the company's detectives had brought in a red-headed, lame, partly +paralyzed crook who enjoyed the expressive monniker of "Limpy Red." +"Limpy Red" was a gunman of some renown, evil faced and having nothing +much to lose, desperate. Whoever the master criminal of the Clutching +Hand might have been he had seen fit to employ Limpy but had not taken +the precaution of getting rid of him soon enough when he was through. + +Wherefore Limpy had a grievance and now descended under pressure to the +low level of snitching to Dodge in his office. + +"No, Governor," the trembling wretch had said as he handed over a grimy +envelope, "I ain't never seen his face--but here is directions how to +find his hang-out." + +As Limpy ambled out, he turned to Dodge, quivering at the enormity of +his unpardonable sin in gang-land, "For God's sake, Governor," he +implored, "don't let on how you found out!" + +And yet Limpy Red had scarcely left with his promise not to tell, when +Dodge, happening to turn over some papers came upon an envelope left on +his own desk, bearing that mysterious Clutching Hand! + +He tore it open, and read in amazement: + +"Destroy Limpy Red's instructions within the next hour." + +Dodge gazed about in wonder. This thing was getting on his nerves. He +determined to go home and rest. + +Outside the house, as he left his car, pasted over the monogram on the +door, he had found another note, with the same weird mark and the +single word: + +"Remember!" + +Much of this I had already gathered from what I overheard Dodge telling +Bennett as they entered the library. Some, also, I have pieced together +from the story of a servant who overheard. + +At any rate, in spite of the pleadings of young Bennett, Dodge refused +to take warning. In the safe in his beautifully fitted library he +deposited Limpy's document in an envelope containing all the +correspondence that had lead up to the final step in the discovery. + + . . . . . . . . + +It was late in the evening when I returned to our apartment and, not +finding Kennedy there, knew that I would discover him at the laboratory. + +"Craig," I cried as I burst in on him, "I've got a case for +you--greater than any ever before!" + +Kennedy looked up calmly from the rack of scientific instruments that +surrounded him, test tubes, beakers, carefully labelled bottles. + +He had been examining a piece of cloth and had laid it aside in +disappointment near his magnifying glass. Just now he was watching a +reaction in a series of test tubes standing on his table. He was +looking dejectedly at the floor as I came in. + +"Indeed?" he remarked coolly going back to the reaction. + +"Yes," I cried. "It is a scientific criminal who seems to leave no +clues." + +Kennedy looked up gravely. "Every criminal leaves a trace," he said +quietly. "If it hasn't been found, then it must be because no one has +ever looked for it in the right way." + +Still gazing at me keenly, he added, "Yes, I already knew there was +such a man at large. I have been called in on that Fletcher case--he +was a trustee of the University, you know." + +"All right," I exclaimed, a little nettled that he should have +anticipated me even so much in the case. "But you haven't heard the +latest." + +"What is it?" he asked with provoking calmness, + +"Taylor Dodge," I blurted out, "has the clue. To-morrow he will track +down the man!" + +Kennedy fairly jumped as I repeated the news. + +"How long has he known?" he demanded eagerly. + +"Perhaps three or four hours," I hazarded. + +Kennedy gazed at me fixedly. + +"Then Taylor Dodge is dead!" he exclaimed, throwing off his +acid-stained laboratory smock and hurrying into his street clothes. + +"Impossible!" I ejaculated. + +Kennedy paid no attention to the objection. "Come, Walter," he urged. +"We must hurry, before the trail gets cold." + +There was something positively uncanny about Kennedy's assurance. I +doubted--yet I feared. + +It was well past the middle of the night when we pulled up in a +night-hawk taxicab before the Dodge house, mounted the steps and rang +the bell. + +Jennings answered sleepily, but not so much so that he did not +recognize me. He was about to bang the door shut when Kennedy +interposed his foot. + +"Where is Mr. Dodge?" asked Kennedy. "Is he all right?" + +"Of course he is--in bed," replied the butler. + +Just then we heard a faint cry, like nothing exactly human. Or was it +our heightened imaginations, under the spell of the darkness? + +"Listen!" cautioned Kennedy. + +We did, standing there now in the hall. Kennedy was the only one of us +who was cool. Jennings' face blanched, then he turned tremblingly and +went down to the library door whence the sounds had seemed to come. + +He called but there was no answer. He turned the knob and opened the +door. The Dodge library was a large room. In the center stood a big +flat-topped desk of heavy mahogany. It was brilliantly lighted. + +At one end of the desk was a telephone. Taylor Dodge was lying on the +floor at that end of the desk--perfectly rigid--his face distorted--a +ghastly figure. A pet dog ran over, sniffed frantically at his master's +legs and suddenly began to howl dismally. + +Dodge was dead! + +"Help!" shouted Jennings. + +Others of the servants came rushing in. There was for the moment the +greatest excitement and confusion. + +Suddenly a wild figure in flying garments flitted down the stairs and +into the library, dropping beside the dead man, without seeming to +notice us at all. + +"Father!" shrieked a woman's voice, heart broken. "Father! Oh--my +God--he--he is dead!" + +It was Elaine Dodge. + +With a mighty effort, the heroic girl seemed to pull herself together. + +"Jennings," she cried, "Call Mr. Bennett--immediately!" + +From the one-sided, excited conversation of the butler over the +telephone, I gathered that Bennett had been in the process of disrobing +in his own apartment uptown and would be right down. + +Together, Kennedy, Elaine and myself lifted Dodge to a sofa and +Elaine's aunt, Josephine, with whom she lived, appeared on the scene, +trying to quiet the sobbing girl. + +Kennedy and I withdrew a little way and he looked about curiously. + +"What was it?" I whispered. "Was it natural, an accident, or--or +murder?" + +The word seemed to stick in my throat. If it was a murder, what was the +motive? Could it have been to get the evidence which Dodge had that +would incriminate the master criminal? + +Kennedy moved over quietly and examined the body of Dodge. When he +rose, his face had a peculiar look. + +"Terrible!" he whispered to me. "Apparently he had been working at his +accustomed place at the desk when the telephone rang. He rose and +crossed over to it. See! That brought his feet on this register let +into the floor. As he took the telephone receiver down a flash of light +must have shot from it to his ear. It shows the characteristic electric +burn." + +"The motive?" I queried. + +"Evidently his pockets had been gone through, though none of the +valuables were missing. Things on his desk show that a hasty search has +been made." + +Just then the door opened and Bennett burst in. + +As he stood over the body, gazing down at it, repressing the emotions +of a strong man, he turned to Elaine and in a low voice, exclaimed, +"The Clutching Hand did this! I shall consecrate my life to bring this +man to justice!" + +He spoke tensely and Elaine, looking up into his face, as if imploring +his help in her hour of need, unable to speak, merely grasped his hand. + +Kennedy, who in the meantime had stood apart from the rest of us, was +examining the telephone carefully. + +"A clever crook," I heard him mutter between his teeth. "He must have +worn gloves. Not a finger print--at least here." + + . . . . . . . . + +Perhaps I can do no better than to reconstruct the crime as Kennedy +later pieced these startling events together. + +Long after I had left and even after Bennett left, Dodge continued +working in his library, for he was known as a prodigious worker. + +Had he taken the trouble, however, to pause and peer out into the +moonlight that flooded the back of his house, he might have seen the +figures of two stealthy crooks crouching in the half shadows of one of +the cellar windows. + +One crook was masked by a handkerchief drawn tightly about his lower +face, leaving only his eyes visible beneath the cap with visor pulled +down over his forehead. He had a peculiar stoop of the shoulders and +wore his coat collar turned up. One hand, the right, seemed almost +deformed. It was that which gave him his name in the underworld--the +Clutching Hand. + +The masked crook held carefully the ends of two wires attached to an +electric feed, and sending his pal to keep watch outside, he entered +the cellar of the Dodge house through a window whose pane they had +carefully removed. As he came through the window he dragged the wires +with him, and, alter a moment's reconnoitering attached them to the +furnace pipe of the old-fashioned hot-air heater where the pipe ran up +through the floor to the library above. The other wire was quickly +attached to the telephone where its wires entered. + +Upstairs, Dodge, evidently uneasy in his mind about the precious "Limpy +Red" letter, took it from the safe along with most of the other +correspondence and, pressing a hidden spring in the wall, opened a +secret panel, placed most of the important documents in this hiding +place. Then he put some blank sheets of paper in an envelope and +returned it to the safe. + +Downstairs the masked master criminal had already attached a voltmeter +to the wires he had installed, waiting. + +Just then could be heard the tinkle of Dodge's telephone and the old +man rose to answer it. As he did so he placed his foot on the iron +register, his hand taking the telephone and the receiver. At that +instant came a powerful electric flash. Dodge sank on the floor +grasping the instrument, electrocuted. Below, the master criminal could +scarcely refrain from exclaiming with satisfaction as his voltmeter +registered the powerful current that was passing. + +A moment later the criminal slid silently into Dodge's room. Carefully +putting on rubber gloves and avoiding touching the register, he +wrenched the telephone from the grasp of the dead man, replacing it in +its normal position. Only for a second did he pause to look at his +victim as he destroyed the evidence of his work. + +Minutes were precious. First Dodge's pockets, then his desk engaged his +attention. There was left the safe. + +As he approached the strong box, the master criminal took two vials +from his pockets. Removing a bust of Shakespeare that stood on the +safe, he poured the contents of the vials in two mixed masses of powder +forming a heap on the safe, into which he inserted two magnesium wires. + +He lighted them, sprang back, hiding his eyes from the light, and a +blinding gush of flame, lasting perhaps ten seconds, poured out from +the top of the safe. + +It was not an explosion, but just a dazzling, intense flame that +sizzled and crackled. It seemed impossible, but the glowing mass was +literally sinking, sinking down into the cold steel. At last it burned +through--as if the safe had been of tinder! + +Without waiting a moment longer than necessary, the masked criminal +advanced again and actually put his hand down through the top of the +safe, pulling out a bunch of papers. Quickly he thrust them all, with +just a glance, into his pocket. + +Still working quickly, he took the bust of the great dramatist which he +had removed and placed it under the light. Next from his pocket he drew +two curious stencils, as it were, which he had apparently carefully +prepared. With his hands, still carefully gloved, he rubbed the +stencils on his hair, as if to cover them with a film of natural oils. +Then he deliberately pressed them over the statue in several places. It +was a peculiar action and he seemed to fairly gloat over it when it was +done, and the bust returned to its place, covering the hole. + +As noiselessly as he had come, he made his exit after one last +malignant look at Dodge. It was now but the work of a moment to remove +the wires he had placed, and climb out of the window, taking them and +destroying the evidence down in the cellar. + +A low whistle from the masked crook, now again in the shadow, brought +his pal stealthily to his side. + +"It's all right," he whispered hoarsely to the man. "Now, you attend to +Limpy Red." + +The villainous looking pal nodded and without another word the two made +their getaway, safely, in opposite directions. + + . . . . . . . . + +When Limpy Red, still trembling, left the office of Dodge earlier in +the evening, he had repaired as fast as his shambling feet would take +him to his favorite dive upon Park Row. There he might have been seen +drinking with any one who came along, for Limpy had money--blood +money,--and the recollection of his treachery and revenge must both be +forgotten and celebrated. + +Had the Bowery "sinkers" not got into his eyes, he might have noticed +among the late revellers, a man who spoke to no one but took his place +nearby at the bar. + +Limpy had long since reached the point of saturation and, lurching +forth from his new found cronies, he sought other fields of excitement. +Likewise did the newcomer, who bore a strange resemblance to the +look-out who had been stationed outside at the Dodge house a scant half +hour before. + +What happened later was only a matter of seconds. It came when the +hated snitch--for gangdom hates the informer worse than anything else +dead or alive--had turned a sufficiently dark and deserted corner. + +A muffled thud, a stifled groan followed as a heavy section of lead +pipe wrapped in a newspaper descended on the crass skull of Limpy. The +wielder of the improvised but fatal weapon permitted himself the luxury +of an instant's cruel smile--then vanished into the darkness leaving +another complete job for the coroner and the morgue. + +It was the vengeance of the Clutching Hand--swift, sure, remorseless. + +And yet it had not been a night of complete success for the master +criminal, as anyone might have seen who could have followed his sinuous +route to a place of greater safety. + +Unable to wait longer he pulled the papers he had taken from the safe +from his pocket. His chagrin at finding them to be blank paper found +only one expression of foiled fury--that menacing clutching hand! + + . . . . . . . . + +Kennedy had turned from his futile examination for marks on the +telephone. There stood the safe, a moderate sized strong box but of a +modern type. He tried the door. It was locked. There was not a mark on +it. The combination had not been tampered with. Nor had there been any +attempt to "soup" the safe. + +With a quick motion he felt in his pocket as if looking for gloves. +Finding none, he glanced about, and seized a pair of tongs from beside +the grate. With them, in order not to confuse any possible finger +prints on the bust, he lifted it off. I gave a gasp of surprise. + +There, in the top of the safe, yawned a gaping hole through which one +could have thrust his arm! + +"What is it?" we asked, crowding about him. + +"Thermit," he replied laconically. + +"Thermit?" I repeated. + +"Yes--a compound of iron oxide and powdered aluminum invented by a +chemist at Essen, Germany. It gives a temperature of over five thousand +degrees. It will eat its way through the strongest steel." + +Jennings, his mouth wide open with wonder, advanced to take the bust +from Kennedy. + +"No--don't touch it," he waved him off, laying the bust on the desk. "I +want no one to touch it--don't you see how careful I was to use the +tongs that there might be no question about any clue this fellow may +have left on the marble?" + +As he spoke, Craig was dusting over the surface of the bust with some +black powder. + +"Look!" exclaimed Craig suddenly. + +We bent over. The black powder had in fact brought out strongly some +peculiar, more or less regular, black smudges. + +"Finger prints!" I cried excitedly. + +"Yes," nodded Kennedy, studying them closely. "A clue--perhaps." + +"What--those little marks--a clue?" asked a voice behind us. + +I turned and saw Elaine, looking over our shoulders, fascinated. It was +evidently the first time she had realized that Kennedy was in the room. + +"How can you tell anything by that?'" she asked. + +"Why, easily," he answered picking up a brass blotting-pad which lay on +the desk. "You see, I place my finger on this weight--so. I dust the +powder over the mark--so. You could see it even without the powder on +this glass. Do you see those lines? There are various types of +markings--four general types--and each person's markings are different, +even if of the same general type--loop, whorl, arch, or composite." + +He continued working as he talked. + +"Your thumb marks, for example, Miss Dodge, are different from mine. +Mr. Jameson's are different from both of us. And this fellow's finger +prints are still different. It is mathematically impossible to find two +alike in every respect." + +Kennedy was holding the brass blotter near the bust as he talked. + +I shall never forget the look of blank amazement on his face as he bent +over closer. + +"My God!" he exclaimed excitedly, "this fellow is a master criminal! He +has actually made stencils or something of the sort on which by some +mechanical process he has actually forged the hitherto infallible +finger prints!" + +I, too, bent over and studied the marks on the bust and those Kennedy +had made on the blotter to show Elaine. + +THE FINGER PRINTS ON THE BUST WERE KENNEDY'S OWN. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE TWILIGHT SLEEP + + +Kennedy had thrown himself wholeheartedly into the solution of the +mysterious Dodge case. + +Far into the night, after the challenge of the forged finger print, he +continued at work, endeavoring to extract a clue from the meagre +evidence--the bit of cloth and trace of poison already obtained from +other cases, and now added the strange succession of events that +surrounded the tragedy we had just witnessed. + +We dropped around at the Dodge house the next morning. Early though it +was, we found Elaine, a trifle paler but more lovely than ever, and +Perry Bennett themselves vainly endeavoring to solve the mystery of the +Clutching Hand. + +They were at Dodge's desk, she in the big desk chair, he standing +beside her, looking over some papers. + +"There's nothing there," Bennett was saying as we entered. + +I could not help feeling that he was gazing down at Elaine a bit more +tenderly than mere business warranted. + +"Have you--found anything?" queried Elaine anxiously, turning eagerly +to Kennedy. + +"Nothing--yet," he answered shaking his head, but conveying a quiet +idea of confidence in his tone. + +Just then Jennings, the butler, entered, bringing the morning papers. +Elaine seized the Star and hastily opened it. On the first page was the +story I had telephone down very late in the hope of catching a last +city edition. + +We all bent over and Craig read aloud: + +"CLUTCHING HAND" STILL AT LARGE + +NEW YORK'S MASTER CRIMINAL REMAINS UNDETECTED--PERPETRATES NEW DARING +MURDER AND ROBBERY OF MILLIONAIRE DODGE + +He had scarcely finished reading the brief but alarming news story that +followed and laid the paper on the desk, when a stone came smashing +through the window from the street. + +Startled, we all jumped to our feet. Craig hurried to the window. Not a +soul was in sight! + +He stooped and picked up the stone. To it was attached a piece of +paper. Quickly he unfolded it and read: + +"Craig Kennedy will give up his search for the "Clutching Hand"--or +die!" + +Later I recalled that there seemed to be a slight noise downstairs, as +if at the cellar window through which the masked man had entered the +night before. + +In point of fact, one who had been outside at the time might actually +have seen a sinister face at that cellar window, but to us upstairs it +was invisible. The face was that of the servant, Michael. + +Without another word Kennedy passed into the drawing room and took his +hat and coat. Both Elaine and Bennett followed. + +"I'm afraid I must ask you to excuse me--for the present," Craig +apologized. + +Elaine looked at him anxiously. + +"You--you will not let that letter intimidate you?" she pleaded, laying +her soft white hand on his arm. "Oh, Mr. Kennedy," she added, bravely +keeping back the tears, "avenge him! All the money in the world would +be too little to pay--if only--" + +At the mere mention of money Kennedy's face seemed to cloud, but only +for a moment. He must have felt the confiding pressure of her hand, for +as she paused, appealingly, he took her hand in his, bowing slightly +over it to look closer into her upturned face. + +"I'll try," he said simply. + +Elaine did not withdraw her hand as she continued to look up at him. +Craig looked at her, as I had never seen him look at a woman before in +all our long acquaintance. + +"Miss Dodge," he went on, his voice steady as though he were repressing +something, "I will never take another case until the 'Clutching Hand' +is captured." + +The look of gratitude she gave him would have been a princely reward in +itself. + +I did not marvel that all the rest of that day and far into the night +Kennedy was at work furiously in his laboratory, studying the notes, +the texture of the paper, the character of the ink, everything that +might perhaps suggest a new lead. It was all, apparently, however, +without result. + + . . . . . . . . + +It was some time after these events that Kennedy, reconstructing what +had happened, ran across, in a strange way which I need not tire the +reader by telling, a Dr. Haynes, head of the Hillside Sanitarium for +Women, whose story I shall relate substantially as we received it from +his own lips: + +It must have been that same night that a distinguished visitor drove up +in a cab to our Hillside Sanitarium, rang the bell and was admitted to +my office. I might describe him as a moderately tall, well-built man +with a pleasing way about him. Chiefly noticeable, it seems to me, were +his mustache and bushy beard, quite medical and foreign. + +I am, by the way, the superintending physician, and that night I was +sitting with Dr. Thompson, my assistant, in the office discussing a +rather interesting case, when an attendant came in with a card and +handed it to me. It read simply, "Dr. Ludwig Reinstrom, Coblenz." + +"Here's that Dr. Reinstrom, Thompson, about whom my friend in Germany +wrote the other day," I remarked, nodding to the attendant to admit Dr. +Reinstrom. + +I might explain that while I was abroad some time ago, I made a +particular study of the "Daemmerschlaf"--otherwise, the "twilight +sleep," at Freiburg where it was developed and at other places in +Germany where the subject had attracted great attention. I was much +impressed and had imported the treatment to Hillside. + +While we waited I reached into my desk and drew out the letter to which +I referred, which ended, I recall: + +"As Dr. Reinstrom is in America, he will probably call on you. I am +sure you will be glad to know him. + +"With kindest regards, I am, + +"Fraternally yours, + +"EMIL SCHWARZ, M. D., + +"Director, Leipsic Institute of Medicine." + +"Most happy to meet you, Dr. Reinstrom," I greeted the new arrival, as +he entered our office. + +For several minutes we sat and chatted of things medical here and +abroad. + +"What is it, Doctor," I asked finally, "that interests you most in +America?" + +"Oh," he replied quickly with an expressive gesture, "it is the +broadmindedness with which you adopt the best from all over the world, +regardless of prejudice. For instance, I am very much interested in the +new twilight sleep. Of course you have borrowed it largely from us, but +it interests me to see whether you have modified it with practice. In +fact I have come to the Hillside Sanitarium particularly to see it +used. Perhaps we may learn something from you." + +It was most gracious and both Dr. Thompson and myself were charmed by +our visitor. I reached over and touched a call-button and our head +nurse entered from a rear room. + +"Are there any operations going on now?" I asked. + +She looked mechanically at her watch. "Yes, there are two cases, now, I +think," she answered. + +"Would you like to follow our technique, Doctor?" I asked, turning to +Dr. Reinstorm. + +"I should be delighted," he acquiesced. + +A moment later we passed down the corridor of the Sanitarium, still +chatting. At the door of a ward I spoke to the attendant who indicated +that a patient was about to be anesthetized, and Reinstrom and I +entered the room. + +There, in perfect quiet, which is an essential part of the treatment, +were several women patients lying in bed in the ward. Before us two +nurses and a doctor were in attendance on one. + +I spoke to the Doctor, Dr. Holmes, by the way, who bowed politely to +the distinguished Dr. Reinstrom, then turned quickly to his work. + +"Miss Sears," he asked of one of the nurses, "will you bring me that +hypodermic needle? How are you getting on, Miss Stern?" to the other +who was scrubbing the patient's arm with antiseptic soap and water, +thoroughly sterilizing the skin. + +"You will see, Dr. Reinstrom." I interposed in a low tone, "that we +follow in the main your Freiburg treatment. We use scopolamin and +narkophin." + +I held up the bottle, as I said it, a rather peculiar shaped bottle, +too. + +"And the pain?" he asked. + +"Practically the same as in your experience abroad. We do not render +the patient unconscious, but prevent her from remembering anything that +goes on." + +Dr. Holmes, the attending physician, was just starting the treatment. +Filling his hypodermic, he selected a spot on the patient's arm, where +it had been scrubbed and sterilized, and injected the narcotic. + +"How simply you do it all, here!" exclaimed Reinstrom in surprise and +undisguised admiration. "You Americans are wonderful!" + +"Come--see a patient who is just recovering," I added, much flattered +by the praise, which, from a German physician, meant much. + +Reinstrom followed me out of the door and we entered a private room of +the hospital where another woman patient lay in bed carefully watched +by a nurse. + +"How do you do?" I nodded to the nurse in a modulated tone. "Everything +progressing favorably?" + +"Perfectly," she returned, as Reinstrom, Haynes and myself formed a +little group about the bedside of the unconscious woman. + +"And you say they have no recollection of anything that happens?" asked +Reinstrom. + +"Absolutely none--if the treatment is given properly," I replied +confidently. + +I picked up a piece of bandage which was the handiest thing about me +and tied it quite tightly about the patient's arm. + +As we waited, the patient, who was gradually coming from under the +drug, roused herself. + +"What is that--it hurts!" she said putting her hand on the bandage I +had tied tightly. + +"That is all right. Just a moment. I'll take it off. Don't you remember +it?" I asked. + +She shook her head. I smiled at Reinstrom. + +"You see, she has no recollection of my tying the bandage on her arm," +I pointed out. + +"Wonderful!" ejaculated Reinstrom as we left the room. + +All the way back to the office he was loud in his praises and thanked +us most heartily, as he put on his hat and coat and shook hands a +cordial good-bye. + +Now comes the strange part of my story. After Reinstrom had gone, Dr. +Holmes, the attending physician of the woman whom we had seen +anesthetized, missed his syringe and the bottle of scopolamine. + +"Miss Sears," he asked rather testily, "what have you done with the +hypodermic and the scopolamine?" + +"Nothing," she protested. + +"You must have done something." + +She repeated that she had not. + +"Well, it is very strange then," he said, "I am positive I laid the +syringe and the bottle right here on this tray on the table." + +Holmes, Miss Sears and Miss Stern all hunted, but it could not be +found. Others had to be procured. + +I thought little of it at the time, but since then it has occurred to +me that it might interest you, Professor Kennedy, and I give it to you +for what it may be worth. + +It was early the next morning that I awoke to find Kennedy already up +and gone from our apartment. I knew he must be at the laboratory, and, +gathering the mail, which the postman had just slipped through the +letter slot, I went over to the University to see him. As I looked over +the letters to cull out my own, one in a woman's handwriting on +attractive notepaper addressed to him caught my eye. + +As I came up the path to the Chemistry Building I saw through the +window that, in spite of his getting there early, he was finding it +difficult to keep his mind on his work. It was the first time I had +ever known anything to interfere with science in his life. + +I thought of the letter again. + +Craig had lighted a Bunsen burner under a large glass retort. But he +had no sooner done so than he sat down on a chair and, picking up a +book which I surmised might be some work on toxicology, started to read. + +He seemed not to be able, for the moment, to concentrate his mind and +after a little while closed the book and gazed straight ahead of him. +Again I thought of the letter, and the vision that, no doubt, he saw of +Elaine making her pathetic appeal for his help. + +As he heard my footstep in the hall, it must have recalled him for he +snapped the book shut and moved over quickly to the retort. + +"Well," I exclaimed as I entered, "you are the early bird. Did you have +any breakfast?" + +I tossed down the letters. He did not reply. So I became absorbed in +the morning paper. Still, I did not neglect to watch him covertly out +of the corner of my eye. Quickly he ran over the letters, instead of +taking them, one by one, in his usual methodical way. I quite +complimented my own superior acumen. He selected the dainty note. + +A moment Craig looked at it in anticipation, then tore it open eagerly. +I was still watching his face over the top of the paper and was +surprised to see that it showed, first, amazement, then pain, as though +something had hurt him. + +He read it again--then looked straight ahead, as if in a daze. + +"Strange, how much crime there is now," I commented, looking up from +the paper I had pretended reading. + +No answer. + +"One would think that one master criminal was enough," I went on. + +Still no answer. + +He continued to gaze straight ahead at blankness. + +"By George," I exclaimed finally, banging my fist on the table and +raising my voice to catch his attention, "you would think we had +nothing but criminals nowadays." + +My voice must have startled him. The usually imperturbable old fellow +actually jumped. Then, as my question did not evidently accord with +what was in his mind, he answered at random, "Perhaps--I wonder if--" +and then he stopped, noncommittally. + +Suddenly he jumped up, bringing his tightly clenched fist down with a +loud clap into the palm of his hand. + +"By heaven!" he exclaimed, "I--I will!" + +Startled at his incomprehensible and unusual conduct I did not attempt +to pursue the conversation but let him alone as he strode hastily to +the telephone. Almost angrily he seized the receiver and asked for a +number. It was not like Craig and I could not conceal my concern. + +"Wh-what's the matter, Craig?" I blurted out eagerly. + +As he waited for the number, he threw the letter over to me. I took it +and read: + +"Professor Craig Kennedy, +"The University, The Heights, City. + +"Dear Sir,-- + +"I have come to the conclusion that your work is a hindrance rather +than an assistance in clearing up my father's death and I hereby beg to +state that your services are no longer required. This is a final +decision and I beg that you will not try to see me again regarding the +matter. + +"Very truly yours, ELAINE DODGE." + +If it had been a bomb I could not have been more surprised. A moment +before I think I had just a sneaking suspicion of jealousy that a +woman--even Elaine--should interest my old chums. But now all that was +swept away. How could any woman scorn him? + +I could not make it out. + +Kennedy impatiently worked the receiver up and down, repeating the +number. "Hello--hello," he repeated, "Yes--hello. Is Miss--oh--good +morning, Miss Dodge." + +He was hurrying along as if to give her no chance to cut him off. "I +have just received a letter, Miss Dodge, telling me that you don't want +me to continue investigating your father's death, and not to try to see +you again about--" + +He stopped. I could hear the reply, as sometimes one can when the +telephone wire conditions are a certain way and the quality of the +voice of the speaker a certain kind. + +"Why--no--Mr. Kennedy, I have written you no letter." + +The look of mingled relief and surprise that crossed Craig's face spoke +volumes. + +"Miss Dodge," he almost shouted, "this is a new trick of the Clutching +Hand. I--I'll be right over." + +Craig hung up the receiver and turned from the telephone. Evidently he +was thinking deeply. Suddenly his face seemed to light up. He made up +his mind to something and a moment later he opened the cabinet--that +inexhaustible storehouse from which he seemed to draw weird and curious +instruments that met the ever new problems which his strange profession +brought to him. + +I watched curiously. He took out a bottle and what looked like a little +hypodermic syringe, thrust them into his pocket and, for once, +oblivious to my very existence, deliberately walked out of the +laboratory. + +I did not propose to be thus cavalierly dismissed. I suppose it would +have looked ridiculous to a third party but I followed him as hastily +as if he had tried to shut the door on his own shadow. + +We arrived at the corner above the Dodge house just in time to see +another visitor--Bennett--enter. Craig quickened his pace. Jennings had +by this time become quite reconciled to our presence and a moment later +we were entering the drawing room, too. + +Elaine was there, looking lovelier than ever in the plain black dress, +which set off the rosy freshness of her face. + +"And, Perry," we heard her say, as we were ushered in, "someone has +even forged my name--the handwriting and everything--telling Mr. +Kennedy to drop the case--and I never knew." + +She stopped as we entered. We bowed and shook hands with Bennett. +Elaine's Aunt Josephine was in the room, a perfect duenna. + +"That's the limit!" exclaimed Bennett. "Miss Dodge has just been +telling me,--" + +"Yes," interrupted Craig. "Look, Miss Dodge, this is it." + +He handed her the letter. She almost seized it, examining it carefully, +her large eyes opening wider in wonder. + +"This is certainly my writing and my notepaper," she murmured, "but I +never wrote the letter!" + +Craig looked from the letter to her keenly. No one said a word. For a +moment Kennedy hesitated, thinking. + +"Might I--er--see your room, Miss Dodge?" he asked at length. + +Aunt Josephine frowned. Bennett and I could not conceal our surprise. + +"Why, certainly," nodded Elaine, as she led the way upstairs. + +It was a dainty little room, breathing the spirit of its mistress. In +fact it seemed a sort of profanation as we all followed in after her. +For a moment Kennedy stood still, then he carefully looked about. At +the side of the bed, near the head, he stooped and picked up something +which he held in the palm of his hand. I bent over. Something gleamed +in the morning sunshine--some little thin pieces of glass. As he tried +deftly to fit the tiny little bits together, he seemed absorbed in +thought. Quickly he raised it to his nose, as if to smell it. + +"Ethyl chloride!" he muttered, wrapping the pieces carefully in a paper +and putting them into his pocket. + +An instant later he crossed the room to the window and examined it. + +"Look!" he exclaimed. + +There, plainly, were marks of a jimmy which had been inserted near the +lock to pry it open. + +"Miss Dodge," he asked, "might I--might I trouble you to let me see +your arm?" + +Wonderingly she did so and Kennedy bent almost reverently over her +plump arm examining it. + +On it was a small dark discoloration, around which was a slight redness +and tenderness. + +"That," he said slowly, "is the mark of a hypodermic needle." + +As he finished examining Elaine's arm he drew the letter from his +pocket. Still facing her he said in a low tone, "Miss Dodge--you did +write this letter--but under the influence of the new 'twilight sleep.'" + +We looked at one another amazed. + +Outside, if we had been at the door in the hallway, we might have seen +the sinister-faced Michael listening. He turned and slipped quietly +away. + +"Why, Craig," I exclaimed excitedly, "what do you mean?" + +"Exactly what I say. With Miss Dodge's permission I shall show you. By +a small administration of the drug which will injure you in no way, +Miss Dodge, I think I can bring back the memory of all that occurred to +you last night. Will you allow me?" + +"Mercy, no!" protested Aunt Josephine. + +Craig and Elaine faced each other as they had the day before when she +had asked him whether the sudden warning of the Clutching Hand would +intimidate him. She advanced a step nearer. Elaine trusted him. + +"Elaine!" protested Aunt Josephine again. + +"I want the experiment to be tried," she said quietly. + +A moment later Kennedy had placed her in a wing chair in the corner of +the room. + +"Now, Mrs. Dodge," he said, "please bring me a basin and a towel." + +Aunt Josephine, reconciled, brought them. Kennedy dropped an antiseptic +tablet into the water and carefully sterilized Elaine's arm just above +the spot where the red mark showed. Then he drew the hypodermic from +his pocket--carefully sterilizing it, also, and filling it with +scopolamine from the bottle. + +"Just a moment, Miss Dodge," he encouraged as he jabbed the needle into +her arm. + +She did not wince. + +"Please lie back on the couch," he directed. Then turning to us he +added, "It takes some time for this to work. Our criminal got over that +fact and prevented an outcry by using ethyl chloride first. Let me +reconstruct the scene." + +As we watched Elaine going under slowly, Craig talked. + +"That night," he said, "warily, the masked criminal of the Clutching +Hand might have been seen down below us in the alley. Up here, Miss +Dodge, worn out by the strain of her father's death, let us say, was +nervously trying to read, to do anything that would take her mind off +the tragedy. Perhaps she fell asleep. + +"Just then the Clutching Hand appeared. He came stealthily through that +window which he had opened. A moment he hesitated, seeing Elaine +asleep. Then he tiptoed over to the bed, let us say, and for a moment +looked at her, sleeping. + +"A second later he had thrust his hand into his pocket and had taken +out a small glass bulb with a long thin neck. That was ethyl chloride, +a drug which produces a quick anesthesia. But it lasts only a minute or +two. That was enough, As he broke the glass neck of the bulb--letting +the pieces fall on the floor near the bed--he shoved the thing under +Elaine's face, turning his own head away and holding a handkerchief +over his own nose. The mere heat of his hand was enough to cause the +ethyl chloride to spray out and overcome her instantly. He stepped away +from her a moment and replaced the now empty vial in his pocket. + +"Then he took a box from his pocket, opened it. There must have been a +syringe and a bottle of scopolamine. Where they came from I do not +know, but perhaps from some hospital. I shall have to find that out +later. He went to Elaine, quickly jabbing the needle, with no +resistance from her now. Slowly he replaced the bottle and the needle +in his pocket. He could not have been in any hurry now, for it takes +time for the drug to work." + +Kennedy paused. Had we known at the time, Michael--he of the sinister +face--must have been in the hallway, careful that no one saw him. A tap +at the door and the Clutching Hand, that night, must have beckoned him. +A moment's parley and they separated--Clutching Hand going back to +Elaine, who was now under the influence of the second drug. + +"Our criminal," resumed Kennedy thoughtfully, "may have shaken Elaine. +She did not answer. Then he may have partly revived her. She must have +been startled. Clutching Hand, perhaps, was half crouching, with a big +ugly blue steel revolver leveled full in her face. + +"'One word and I shoot!' he probably cried. 'Get up!' + +"Trembling, she must have done so. 'Your slippers and a kimono,' he +would naturally have ordered. She put them on mechanically. Then he +must have ordered her to go out of the door and down the stairs. +Clutching Hand must have followed and as he did so he would have +cautiously put out the lights." + +We were following, spell-bound, Kennedy's graphic reconstruction of +what must have happened. Evidently he had struck close to the truth. +Elaine's eyes were closed. Gently Kennedy led her along. "Now, Miss +Dodge," he encouraged, "try--try hard to recollect just what it was +that happened last night--everything." + +As Kennedy paused after his quick recital, she seemed to tremble all +over. Slowly she began to speak. We stood awestruck. Kennedy had been +right! + +The girl was now living over again those minutes that had been +forgotten--blotted out by the drug. + +And it was all real to her, too,--terribly real. She was speaking, +plainly in terror. + +"I see a man--oh, such a figure--with a mask. He holds a gun in my +face--he threatens me. I put on my kimono and slippers, as he tells me. +I am in a daze. I know what I am doing--and I don't know. I go out with +him, downstairs, into the library." + +Elaine shuddered again at the recollection. "Ugh! The room is dark, the +room where he killed my father. Moonlight outside streams in. This +masked man and I come in. He switches on the lights. + +"'Go to the safe,' he says, and I do it, the new safe, you know. 'Do +you know the combination?' he asks me. 'Yes,' I reply, too frightened +to say no. + +"'Open it then,' he says, waving that awful revolver closer. I do so. +Hastily he rummages through it, throwing papers here and there. But he +seems not to find what he is after and turns away, swearing fearfully. + +"'Hang it!' he cries to me. 'Where else did your father keep papers?' I +point in desperation at the desk. He takes one last look at the safe, +shoves all the papers he has strewn on the floor back again and slams +the safe shut. + +"'Now, come on!' he says, indicating with the gun that he wants me to +follow him away from the safe. At the desk he repeats the search. But +he finds nothing. Almost I think he is about to kill me. 'Where else +did your father keep papers?' he hisses fiercely, still threatening me +with the gun. + +"I am too frightened to speak. But at last I am able to say, 'I--I +don't know!' Again he threatens me. 'As God is my judge,' I cry, 'I +don't know.' It is fearful. Will he shoot me? + +"Thank heaven! At last he believes me. But such a look of foiled fury I +have never seen on any human face before. + +"'Sit down!' he growls, adding, 'at the desk.' I do. + +"'Take some of your notepaper--the best.' I do that, too. + +"'And a pen,' he goes on. My fingers can hardly hold it. + +"'Now--write!' he says, and as he dictates, I write--" + +"This?" interjected Kennedy, eagerly holding up the letter that he had +received from her. + +Elaine looked it over with her drug-laden eyes. "Yes," she nodded, then +lapsed again to the scene itself. "He reads it over and as he does so +says, 'Now, address an envelope.' Himself he folds the letter, seals +the envelope, stamps it, and drops it into his pocket, hastily +straightening the desk. + +"'Now, go ahead of me--again. Leave the room--no, by the hall door. We +are going back upstairs.' I obey him, and at the door he switches off +the lights. How I stand it, I don't know. I go upstairs, mechanically, +into my own room--I and this masked man. + +"'Take off the kimono and slippers!' he orders. I do that. 'Get into +bed!' he growls. I crawl in fearfully. For a moment he looks +about,--then goes out--with a look back as he goes. Oh! Oh! That +hand--which he raises at me--THAT HAND!" + +The poor girl was sitting bolt upright, staring straight at the hall +door, as we watched and listened, fascinated. + +Kennedy was bending over, soothing her. She gave evidences of coming +out from the effect of the drug. + +I noticed that Bennett had suddenly moved a step in the direction of +the door at which she stared. + +"My God!" he muttered, staring, too. "Look!" + +We did look. A letter was slowly being inserted under the door. + +I took a quick step forward. That moment I felt a rough tug at my arm, +and a voice whispered, "Wait--you chump!" + +It was Kennedy. He had whipped out his automatic and had carefully +leveled it at the door. Before he could fire, however, Bennett had +rushed ahead. + +I followed. We looked down the hall. Sure enough, the figure of a man +could be seen disappearing around an angle. I followed Bennett out of +the door and down the hall. + +Words cannot keep pace with what followed. Together we rushed to the +backstairs. + +"Down there, while I go down the front!" cried Bennett. + +I went down and he turned and went down the other flight. As he did so, +Craig followed him. + +Suddenly, in the drawing room, I bumped into a figure on the other side +of the portieres. I seized him. We struggled. Rip! The portieres came +down, covering me entirely. Over and over we went, smashing a lamp. It +was vicious. Another man attacked me, too. + +"I--I've got him--Kennedy!" I heard a voice pant over me. + +A scream followed from Aunt Josephine. Suddenly the portieres were +pulled off me. + +"The deuce!" puffed Kennedy. "It's Jameson!" + +Bennett had rushed plump into me, coming the other way, hidden by the +portieres. + +If we had known at the time, our Michael of the sinister face had +gained the library and was standing in the center of the room. He had +heard me coming and had fled to the drawing room. As we finished our +struggle in the library, he rose hastily from behind the divan in the +other room where he had dropped and had quietly and hastily disappeared +through another door. + +Laughing and breathing hard, they helped me to my feet. It was no joke +to me. I was sore in every bone. + +"Well, where DID he go?" insisted Bennett. + +"I don't know--perhaps back there," I cried. + +Bennett and I argued a moment, then started and stopped short. Aunt +Josephine had run downstairs and now was shoving the letter into +Craig's hands. + +We gathered about him, curiously. He opened it. On it was that awesome +Clutching Hand again. + +Kennedy read it. For a moment he stood and studied it, then slowly +crushed it in his hand. + +Just then Elaine, pale and shaken from the ordeal she had voluntarily +gone through, burst in upon us from upstairs. Without a word she +advanced to Craig and took the letter from him. + +Inside, as on the envelope, was that same signature of the Clutching +Hand. + +Elaine gazed at it wild-eyed, then at Craig. Craig smilingly reached +for the note, took it, folded it and unconcernedly thrust it into his +pocket. + +"My God!" she cried, clasping her hands convulsively and repeating the +words of the letter. "YOUR LAST WARNING!" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE VANISHING JEWELS + + +Banging away at my typewriter, the next day, in Kennedy's laboratory, I +was startled by the sudden, insistent ringing of the telephone near me. + +"Hello," I answered, for Craig was at work at his table, trying still +to extract some clue from the slender evidence thus far elicited in the +Dodge mystery. + +"Oh, Mr. Kennedy," I heard an excited voice over the wire reply, "my +friend, Susie Martin is here. Her father has just received a message +from that Clutching Hand and--" + +"Just a moment, Miss Dodge," I interrupted. "This is Mr. Jameson." + +"Oh!" came back the voice, breathless and disappointed. "Let me have +Mr. Kennedy--quick." + +I had already passed the telephone to Craig and was watching him keenly +as he listened over it. The anticipation of a message from Elaine did +not fade, yet his face grew grave as he listened. + +He motioned to me for a pad and pencil that lay near me. + +"Please read the letter again, slower, Miss Dodge," he asked, adding, +"There isn't time for me to see it--just yet. But I want it exactly. +You say it is made up of separate words and type cut from newspapers +and pasted on note paper?" + +I handed him paper and pencil. + +"All right now, Miss Dodge, go ahead." + +As he wrote, he indicated to me by his eyes that he wanted me to read. +I did so: + +"Sturtevant Martin, Jeweler, +"739 1/2 Fifth Ave., +"New York City. + +"SIR: + +"As you have failed to deliver the $10,000, I shall rob your main +diamond case at exactly noon today." + +"Thank you, Miss Dodge," continued Kennedy, laying down the pencil. +"Yes, I understand perfectly--signed by that same Clutching Hand. Let +me see," he pondered, looking at his watch. "It is now just about half +past eleven. Very well. I shall meet you and Miss Martin at Mr. +Martin's store directly." + +It lacked five minutes of noon when Kennedy and I dashed up before +Martin's and dismissed our taxi-cab. + +A remarkable scene greeted us as we entered the famous jewelry shop. +Involuntarily I drew back. Squarely in front of us a man had suddenly +raised a revolver and leveled it at us. + +"Don't!" cried a familiar voice. "That is Mr. Kennedy!" + +Just then, from a little knot of people, Elaine Dodge sprang forward +with a cry and seized the gun. + +Kennedy turned to her, apparently not half so much concerned about the +automatic that yawned at him as about the anxiety of the pretty girl +who had intervened. The too eager plainclothesman lowered the gun +sheepishly. + +Sturtevant Martin was a typical society business man, quietly but +richly dressed. He was inclined to be pompous and affected a pair of +rather distinguished looking side whiskers. + +In the excitement I glanced about hurriedly. There were two or three +policemen in the shop and several plainclothesmen, some armed with +formidable looking sawed-off shot guns. + +Directly in front of me was a sign, tacked up on a pillar, which read, +"This store will be closed at noon today. Martin & Co." + +All the customers were gone. In fact the clerks had had some trouble in +clearing the shop, as many of them expressed not only surprise but +exasperation at the proceeding. Nevertheless the clerks had politely +but insistently ushered them out. + +Martin himself was evidently very nervous and very much alarmed. Indeed +no one could blame him for that. Merely to have been singled out by +this amazing master criminal was enough to cause panic. Already he had +engaged detectives, prepared for whatever might happen, and they had +advised him to leave the diamonds in the counter, clear the store, and +let the crooks try anything, if they dared. + +I fancied that he was somewhat exasperated at his daughter's presence, +too, but could see that her explanation of Elaine's and Perry Bennett's +interest in the Clutching Hand had considerably mollified him. He had +been talking with Bennett as we came in and evidently had a high +respect for the young lawyer. + +Just back of us, and around the corner, as we came in, we had noticed a +limousine which had driven up. Three faultlessly attired dandies had +entered a doorway down the street, as we learned afterwards, apparently +going to a fashionable tailor's which occupied the second floor of the +old-fashioned building, the first floor having been renovated and made +ready for renting. Had we been there a moment sooner we might have +seen, I suppose, that one of them nodded to a taxicab driver who was +standing at a public hack stand a few feet up the block. The driver +nodded unostentatiously back to the men. + +In spite of the excitement, Kennedy quietly examined the show case, +which was, indeed, a veritable treasure store of brilliants. Then with +a keen scrutinizing glance he looked over the police and detectives +gathered around. There was nothing to do now but wait, as the +detectives had advised. + +I looked at a large antique grandfather's clock which was standing +nearby. It now lacked scarcely a minute of twelve. + +Slowly the hands of the clock came nearer together at noon. + +We all gathered about the show case with its glittering hoard of +wealth, forming a circle at a respectful distance. + +Martin pointed nervously at the clock. + +In deep-lunged tones the clock played the chords written, I believe, by +Handel. Then it began striking. + +As it did so, Martin involuntarily counted off the strokes, while one +of the plainclothesmen waved his shotgun in unison. + +Martin finished counting. + +Nothing had happened. + +We all breathed a sigh of relief. + +"Well, it is still there!" exclaimed Martin, pointing at the show-case, +with a forced laugh. + +Suddenly came a rending and crashing sound. It seemed as if the very +floor on which we stood was giving way. + +The show-case, with all its priceless contents, went smashing down into +the cellar below. + +The flooring beneath the case had been cut through! + +All crowded forward, gazing at the black yawning cavern. A moment we +hesitated, then gingerly craned our necks over the edge. + +Down below, three men, covered with linen dusters and their faces +hidden by masks, had knocked the props away from the ceiling of the +cellar, which they had sawed almost through at their leisure, and the +show case had landed eight or ten feet below, shivered into a thousand +bits. + +A volley of shots whizzed past us, and another. While one crook was +hastily stuffing the untold wealth of jewels into a burlap bag, the +others had drawn revolvers and were firing up through the hole in the +floor, desperately. + +Martin, his detectives, and the rest of us fell back from the edge of +the chasm hastily, to keep out of range of the hail of bullets. + +"Look out!" cried someone behind us, before we could recover from our +first surprise and return the fire. + +One of the desperadoes had taken a bomb from under his duster, lighted +it, and thrown it up through the hole in the floor. + +It sailed up over our heads and landed near our little group on the +floor, the fuse sputtering ominously. + +Quickly we divided and backed away even further. + +I heard an exclamation of fear from Elaine. + +Kennedy had pushed his way past us and picked up the deadly infernal +machine in his bare hands. + +I watched him, fascinated. As near as he dared, he approached the hole +in the floor, still holding the thing off at arm's length. Would he +never throw it? + +He was coolly holding it, allowing the fuse to burn down closer to the +explosion point. + +It was now within less than an inch sure death. + +Suddenly he raised it and hurled the deadly thing down through the hole. + +We could hear the imprecations of the crooks as it struck the cellar +floor, near them. They had evidently been still cramming jewelry into +the capacious maw of the bag. One of them, discovering the bomb, must +have advanced toward it, then retreated when he saw how imminent was +the explosion. + +"Leave the store--quick!" rang out Kennedy's voice. + +We backed away as fast as those behind us would permit. Kennedy and +Bennett were the last to leave, in fact paused at the door. + +Down below the crooks were beating a hasty retreat through a secret +entrance which they had effected. + +"The bag! The bag!" we could hear one of them bellow. + +"The bomb--run!" cried another voice gruffly. + +A second later came an ominous silence. The last of the three must have +fled. + +The explosion that followed lifted us fairly off our feet. A great puff +of smoke came belching up through the hole, followed by the crashing of +hundreds of dollars' worth of glass ware in the jewelry shop as +fragments of stone, brick and mortar and huge splinters of wood were +flung with tremendous force in every direction from the miniature +volcano. + +As the smoke from the explosion cleared away, Kennedy could be seen, +the first to run forward. + +Meanwhile Martin's detectives had rushed down a flight of back stairs +that led into a coal cellar. With coal shovels and bars, anything they +could lay hands on, they attacked the door that opened forward from the +coal cellar into the front basement where the robbers had been. + +A moment Kennedy and Bennett paused on the brink of the abyss which the +bomb had made, waiting for the smoke to decrease. Then they began to +climb down cautiously over the piled up wreckage. + +The explosion had set the basement afire, but the fire had not gained +much headway, by the time they reached the basement. Quickly Kennedy +ran to the door into the coal cellar and opened it. + +From the other side, Martin, followed by the police and the detectives, +burst in. + +"Fire!" cried one of the policemen, leaping back to turn in an alarm +from the special apparatus upstairs. + +All except Martin began beating out the flames, using such weapons as +they already held in their hands to batter down the door. + +To Martin there was one thing paramount--the jewels. + +In the midst of the confusion, Elaine, closely followed by her friend +Susie, made her way fearlessly into the stifle of smoke down the stairs. + +"There are your jewels, Mr. Martin," cried Kennedy, kicking the +precious burlap bag with his foot as if it had been so much ordinary +merchandise, and turning toward what was in his mind the most important +thing at stake--the direction taken by the agents of the Clutching Hand. + +"Thank heaven!" ejaculated Martin, fairly pouncing on the bag and +tearing it open. "They didn't get away with them--after all!" he +exclaimed, examining the contents with satisfaction. "See--you must +have frightened them off at just the right moment when you sent the +bomb back at them." + +Elaine and Susie pressed forward eagerly as he poured forth the +sparkling stream of gems, intact. + +"Wasn't he just simply wonderful!" I heard Susie whisper to Elaine. + +Elaine did not answer. She had eyes or ears for nothing now in the +melee but Kennedy. + + . . . . . . . . + +Events were moving rapidly. + +The limousine had been standing innocently enough at the curb near the +corner, with the taxicab close behind it. + +Less than ten minutes after they had entered, three well-dressed men +came out of the vacant shop, apparently from the tailor's above, and +climbed leisurely into their car. + +As the last one entered, he half turned to the taxicab driver, hiding +from passers-by the sign of the Clutching Hand which the taxicab driver +returned, in the same manner. Then the big car whirled up the avenue. + +All this we learned later from a street sweeper who was at work nearby. + +Down below, while the police and detectives were putting out the fire, +Kennedy was examining the wall of the cellar, looking for the spot +where the crooks had escaped. + +"A secret door!" he exclaimed, as he paused after tapping along the +wall to determine its character. "You can see how the force of the +explosion has loosened it." + +Sure enough, when he pointed it out to us, it was plainly visible. One +of the detectives picked up a crowbar and others, still with the +hastily selected implements they had seized to fight the fire, started +in to pry it open. + +As it yielded, Kennedy pushed his way through. Elaine, always utterly +fearless, followed. Then the rest of us went through. + +There seemed to be nothing, however, that would help us in the cellar +next door, and Kennedy mounted the steps of a stairway in the rear. + +The stairway led to a sort of storeroom, full of barrels and boxes, but +otherwise characterless. When I arrived Kennedy was gingerly holding up +the dusters which the crooks had worn. + +"We're on the right trail," commented Elaine as he showed them to her, +"but where do you suppose the owners are?" + +Craig shrugged his shoulders and gave a quick look about. "Evidently +they came in from and went away by the street," he observed, hurrying +to the door, followed by Elaine. + +On the sidewalk, he gazed up the avenue, then catching sight of the +street cleaner, called to him. + +"Yes, sir," replied the man, stolidly looking up from his work. "I see +three gentlemen come out and get into an automobile." + +"Which way did they go?" asked Kennedy. + +For answer the man jerked his thumb over his shoulder in the general +direction uptown. + +"Did you notice the number of the car?" asked Craig eagerly. + +The man shrugged his shoulders blankly. + +With keen glance, Kennedy strained his eyes. Far up the avenue, he +could descry the car threading its way in and out among the others, +just about disappearing. + +A moment later Craig caught sight of the vacant taxicab and crooked his +finger at the driver, who answered promptly by cranking his engine. + +"You saw that limousine standing there?" asked Craig. + +"Yes," nodded the chauffeur with a show of alertness. + +"Well, follow it," ordered Kennedy, jumping into the cab. + +"Yes, sir." + +Craig was just about to close the door when a slight figure flashed +past us and a dainty foot was placed on the step. + +"Please, Mr. Kennedy," pleaded Elaine, "let me go. They may lead to my +father's slayer." + +She said it so earnestly that Craig could scarcely have resisted if he +had wanted to do so. + +Just as Elaine and Kennedy were moving off, I came out of the vacant +store, with Bennett and the detectives. + +"Craig!" I called. "Where are you going?" + +Kennedy stuck his head out of the window and I am quite sure that he +was not altogether displeased that I was not with him. + +"Chasing that limousine," he shouted back. "Follow us in another car." + +A moment later he and Elaine were gone. + +Bennett and I looked about. + +"There are a couple of cabs--down there," I pointed out at the other +end of the block. "I'll take one you take the other." + +Followed by a couple of the detectives, I jumped into the first one I +came to, excitedly telling the driver to follow Kennedy's taxi, +directing him with my head out of the window. + +"Mr. Jameson, please--can't I go with you?" + +I turned. It was Susie Martin. "One of you fellows, go in the other +car," I asked the detectives. + +Before the man could move, Mr. Martin himself appeared. + +"No, Susan, I--I won't allow it," he ordered. + +"But Elaine went," she pouted. + +"Well, Elaine is--ah--I won't have it," stormed Martin. + +There was no time to waste. With a hasty apology, I drove off. + +Who, besides Bennett, went in the other car, I don't know, but it made +no difference, for we soon lost them. Our driver, however, was a really +clever fellow. Far ahead now we could see the limousine drive around a +corner, making a dangerous swerve. Kennedy's cab followed, skidding +dangerously near a pole. + +But the taxicab was no match for the powerful limousine. On uptown they +went, the only thing preventing the limousine from escaping being the +fear of pursuit by traffic police if the driver let out speed. They +were content to manage to keep just far enough ahead to be out of +danger of having Kennedy overhaul them. As for us, we followed as best +we could, on uptown, past the city line, and out into the country. + +There Kennedy lost sight altogether of the car he was trailing. Worse +than that, we lost sight of Kennedy. Still we kept on blindly, trusting +to luck and common sense in picking the road. + +I was peering ahead over the driver's shoulder, the window down, trying +to direct him, when we approached a fork in the road. Here was a +dilemma which must be decided at once rightly or wrongly. + +As we neared the crossroad, I gave an involuntary exclamation. Beside +the road, almost on it, lay the figure of a man. Our driver pulled up +with a jerk and I was out of the car in an instant. + +There lay Kennedy! Someone had blackjacked him. He was groaning and +just beginning to show signs of consciousness as I bent over. + +"What's the matter, old man?" I asked, helping him to his feet. + +He looked about dazed a moment, then seeing me and comprehending, he +pointed excitedly, but vaguely. + +"Elaine!" he cried. "They've kidnapped Elaine!" + +What had really happened, as we learned later from Elaine and others, +was that when the cross roads was reached, the three crooks in the +limousine had stopped long enough to speak to an accomplice stationed +there, according to their plan for a getaway. He was a tough looking +individual who might have been hoboing it to the city. + +When, a few minutes later, Kennedy and Elaine had approached the fork, +their driver had slowed up, as if in doubt which way to go. Craig had +stuck his head out of the window, as I had done, and, seeing the +crossroads, had told the chauffeur to stop. There stood the hobo. + +"Did a car pass here, just now--a big car?" called Craig. + +The man put his hand to his ear, as if only half comprehending. + +"Which way did the big car go?" repeated Kennedy. + +The hobo approached the taxicab sullenly, as if he had a grudge against +cars in general. + +One question after another elicited little that could be construed as +intelligence. If Craig had only been able to see, he would have found +out that, with his back toward the taxicab driver, the hobo held one +hand behind him and made the sign of the Clutching Hand, glancing +surreptitiously at the driver to catch the answering sign, while Craig +gazed earnestly up the two roads. + +At last Craig gave him up as hopeless. "Well--go ahead--that way," he +indicated, picking the most likely road. + +As the chauffeur was about to start, he stalled his engine. + +"Hurry!" urged Craig, exasperated at the delays. + +The driver got out and tried to crank the engine. Again and again he +turned it over, but, somehow, it refused to start. Then he lifted the +hood and began to tinker. + +"What's the matter?" asked Craig, impatiently jumping out and bending +over the engine, too. + +The driver shrugged his shoulders. "Must be something wrong with the +ignition, I guess," he replied. + +Kennedy looked the car over hastily. "I can't see anything wrong," he +frowned. + +"Well, there is," growled the driver. + +Precious minutes were speeding away, as they argued. Finally with his +characteristic energy, Kennedy put the taxicab driver aside. + +"Let me try it," he said. "Miss Dodge, will you arrange that spark and +throttle?" + +Elaine, equal to anything, did so, and Craig bent down and cranked the +engine. It started on the first spin. + +"See!" he exclaimed. "There wasn't anything, after all." + +He took a step toward the taxicab. + +"Say," objected the driver, nastily, interposing himself between Craig +and the wheel which he seemed disposed to take now, "who's running this +boat, anyhow?" + +Surprised, Kennedy tried to shoulder the fellow out of the way. The +driver resisted sullenly. + +"Mr. Kennedy--look out!" cried Elaine. + +Craig turned. But it was too late. The rough looking fellow had wakened +to life. Suddenly he stepped up behind Kennedy with a blackjack. As the +heavy weight descended, Craig crumpled up on the ground, unconscious. + +With a scream, Elaine turned and started to run. But the chauffeur +seized her arm. + +"Say, bo," he asked of the rough fellow, "what does Clutching Hand want +with her? Quick! There's another cab likely to be along in a moment +with that fellow Jameson in it." + +The rough fellow, with an oath, seized her and dragged her into the +taxicab. "Go ahead!" he growled, indicating the road. + +And away they sped, leaving Kennedy unconscious on the side of the road +where we found him. + + . . . . . . . . + +"What are we to do?" I asked helplessly of Kennedy, when we had at last +got him on his feet. + +His head still ringing from the force of the blow of the blackjack, +Craig stooped down, then knelt in the dust of the road, then ran ahead +a bit where it was somewhat muddy. + +"Which way--which way?" he muttered to himself. + +I thought perhaps the blow had affected him and leaned over to see what +he was doing. Instead, he was studying the marks made by the tire of +the Clutching Hand cab. Very decidedly, there in the road, the little +anti-skid marks on the tread of the tire showed--some worn, some +cut--but with each revolution the same marks reappearing unmistakably. +More than that, it was an unusual make of tire. Craig was actually +studying the finger prints, so to speak, of an automobile! + +More slowly now and carefully, we proceeded, for a mistake meant losing +the trail of Elaine. Kennedy absolutely refused to get inside our cab, +but clung tightly to a metal rod outside while he stood on the running +board--now straining his eyes along the road to catch any faint glimpse +of either taxi or limousine, or the dust from them, now gazing intently +at the ground following the finger prints of the taxicab that was +carrying off Elaine. All pain was forgotten by him now in the intensity +of his anxiety for her. + +We came to another crossroads and the driver glanced at Craig. "Stop!" +he ordered. + +In another instant he was down in the dirt, examining the road for +marks. + +"That way!" he indicated, leaping back to the running board. + +We piled back into the car and proceeded under Kennedy's direction, as +fast as he would permit. So it continued, perhaps for a couple of hours. + +At last Kennedy stopped the cab and slowly directed the driver to veer +into an open space that looked peculiarly lonesome. Near it stood a one +story brick factory building, closed, but not abandoned. + +As I looked about at the unattractive scene, Kennedy already was down +on his knees in the dirt again, studying the tire tracks. They were all +confused, showing that the taxicab we were following had evidently +backed in and turned several times before going on. + +"Crossed by another set of tire tracks!" he exclaimed excitedly, +studying closer. "That must have been the limousine, waiting." + +Laboriously he was following the course of the cars in the open space, +when the one word escaped him, "Footprints!" + +He was up and off in a moment, before we could imagine what he was +after. We had got out of the cab, and followed him as, down to the very +shore of a sort of cove or bay, he went. There lay a rusty, discarded +boiler on the beach, half submerged in the rising tide. At this tank +the footprints seemed to go right down the sand and into the waves +which were slowly obliterating them. Kennedy gazed out as if to make +out a possible boat on the horizon, where the cove widened out. + +"Look!" he cried. + +Farther down the shore, a few feet, I had discovered the same prints, +going in the opposite direction, back toward the place from which we +had just come. I started to follow them, but soon found myself alone. +Kennedy had paused beside the old boiler. + +"What is it?" I asked, retracing my steps. + +He did not answer, but seemed to be listening. We listened also. There +certainly was a most peculiar noise inside that tank. + +Was it a muffled scream? + +Kennedy reached down and picked up a rock, hitting the tank a +resounding blow. As the echo died down, he listened again. + +Yes, there was a sound--a scream perhaps--a woman's voice, faint, but +unmistakable. + +I looked at his face inquiringly. Without a word I read in it the +confirmation of the thought that had flashed into my mind. + +Elaine Dodge was inside! + + . . . . . . . . + +First had come the limousine, with its three bandits, to the spot fixed +on as a rendezvous. Later had come the taxicab. As it hove into sight, +the three well-dressed crooks had drawn revolvers, thinking perhaps the +plan for getting rid of Kennedy might possibly have miscarried. But the +taxicab driver and the rough-faced fellow had reassured them with the +sign of the Clutching Hand, and the revolvers were lowered. + +As they parleyed hastily, the rough-neck and the fake chauffeur lifted +Elaine out of the taxi. She was bound and gagged. + +"Well, now we've got her, what shall we do with her?" asked one. + +"It's got to be quick. There's another cab," put in the driver. + +"The deuce with that." + +"The deuce with nothing," he returned. "That fellow Kennedy's a clever +one. He may come to. If he does, he won't miss us. Quick, now!" + +"I wish I'd broken his skull," muttered the roughneck. + +"We'd better leave her somewhere here," remarked one of the +better-dressed three. "I don't think the chief wants us to kill +her--yet," he added, with an ominous glance at Elaine, who in spite of +threats was not cowed, but was vainly struggling at her bonds. + +"Well, where shall it be?" asked another. + +They looked about. + +"See," cried the third. "See that old boiler down there at the edge of +the water? Why not put her in there? No one'll ever think to look in +such a place." + +Down by the water's edge, where he pointed, lay a big boiler such as is +used on stationary engines, with its end lapped by the waves. With a +hasty expression of approval, the rough-neck picked Elaine up bodily, +still struggling vainly, and together they carried her, bound and +gagged, to the tank. The opening, which was toward the water, was +small, but they managed, roughly, to thrust her in. + +A moment later and they had rolled up a huge boulder against the small +entrance, bracing it so that it would be impossible for her to get out +from the inside. Then they drove off hastily. + +Inside the old boiler lay Elaine, still bound and gagged. If she could +only scream! Someone might hear. She must get help. There was water in +the tank. She managed to lean up inside it, standing as high as the +walls would allow her, trying to keep her head above the water. + +Frantically, she managed to loosen the gag. She screamed. Her voice +seemed to be bound around by the iron walls as was she herself. She +shuddered, The water was rising--had reached her chest, and was still +rising, slowly, inexorably. + +What should she do? Would no one hear her? The water was up to her neck +now. She held her head as high as she could and screamed again. + +What was that? Silence? Or was someone outside? + + . . . . . . . . + +Coolly, in spite of the emergency, Kennedy took in the perilous +situation. + +The lower end of the boiler, which was on a slant on the rapidly +shelving beach, was now completely under water and impossible to get +at. Besides, the opening was small, too small. + +We pulled away the stone, but that did no good. No one could hope to +get in and then out again that way alive--much less with a helpless +girl. Yet something must be done. The tank was practically submerged +inside, as I estimated quickly. Blows had no effect on the huge iron +trap which had been built to resist many pounds of pressure. + +Kennedy gazed about frantically and his eye caught the sign on the +factory: + +OXYACETYLENE WELDING CO. + +"Come, Walter," he cried, running up the shore. + +A moment later, breathless, we reached the doorway. It was, of course, +locked. Kennedy whipped out his revolver and several well-directed +shots through the keyhole smashed the lock. We put our shoulders to it +and swung the door open, entering the factory. + +There was not a soul about, not even a watchman. Hastily we took in the +place, a forge and a number of odds and ends of metal sheets, rods, +pipes and angles. + +Beside a workbench stood two long cylinders, studded with bolts. + +"That's what I'm looking for," exclaimed Craig. "Here, Walter, take +one. I'll take the other--and the tubes--and--" + +He did not pause to finish, but seized up a peculiar shaped instrument, +like a huge hook, with a curved neck and sharp beak. Really it was +composed of two metal tubes which ran into a cylinder or mixing chamber +above the nozzle, while parallel to them ran another tube with a nozzle +of its own. + +We ran, for there was no time to lose. As nearly as I could estimate +it, the water must now be slowly closing over Elaine. + +"What is it?" I asked as he joined up the tubes from the tanks to the +peculiar hook-like apparatus he carried. + +"An oxyacetylene blowpipe," he muttered back feverishly working. "Used +for welding and cutting, too," he added. + +With a light he touched the nozzle. Instantly a hissing, blinding +flame-needle made the steel under it incandescent. The terrific heat +from one nozzle made the steel glow. The stream of oxygen from the +second completely consumed the hot metal. And the force of the blast +carried a fine spray of disintegrated metal before it. It was a +brilliant sight. But it was more than that. Through the very steel +itself, the flame, thousands of degrees hot, seemed to eat its way in a +fine line, as if it were a sharp knife cutting through ordinary +cardboard. + +With tense muscles Kennedy skillfully guided the terrible instrument +that ate cold steel, wielding the torch as deftly as if it had been, as +indeed it was, a magic wand of modern science. + +He was actually cutting out a huge hole in the still exposed surface of +the tank--all around, except for a few inches, to prevent the heavy +piece from falling inward. + +As Kennedy carefully bent outward the section of the tank which he had +cut, he quickly reached down and lifted Elaine, unconscious, out of the +water. + +Gently he laid her on the sand. It was the work of only a moment to cut +the cords that bound her hands. + +There she lay, pale and still. Was she dead? + +Kennedy worked frantically to revive her. + +At last, slowly, the color seemed to return to her pale lips. Her +eyelids fluttered. Then her great, deep eyes opened. + +As she looked up and caught sight of Craig bending anxiously over her, +she seemed to comprehend. For a moment both were silent. Then Elaine +reached up and took his hand. + +There was much in the look she gave him--admiration, confidence,--love +itself. + +Heroics, however, were never part of Kennedy's frank make-up. The fact +was that her admiration, even though not spoken, plainly embarrassed +him. Yet he forgot that as he looked at her lying there, frail and +helpless. + +He stroked her forehead gently, laying back the wet ringlets of her +hair. + +"Craig," she murmured, "you--you've saved my life!" + +Her tone was eloquent. + +"Elaine," he whispered, still gazing into her wonderful eyes, "the +Clutching Hand shall pay for this! It is a fight to the finish between +us!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +"THE FROZEN SAFE" + + +Kennedy swung open the door of our taxicab as we pulled up, safe at +last, before the Dodge mansion, after the rescue of Elaine from the +brutal machinations of the Clutching Hand. + +Bennett was on the step of the cab in a moment and, together, one on +each side of Elaine, they assisted her out of the car and up the steps +to the house. + +As they mounted the steps, Kennedy called back to me, "Pay the driver, +Walter, please." + +It was the first time I had thought of that. As it happened, I had +quite a bankroll with me and, in my hurry, I peeled off a ten dollar +bill and tossed it to the fellow, intending to be generous and tell him +to keep the change. + +"Say," he exclaimed, pointing to the clock, "come across--twenty-three, +sixty." + +Protesting, I peeled off some more bills. + +Having satisfied this veritable anaconda and gorged his dilating +appetite for banknotes, I turned to follow the others. Jennings had +opened the door immediately. Whether it was that he retained a grudge +against me or whether he did not see me, he would have closed it before +I could get up there. I called and took the steps two at a time. + +Elaine's Aunt Josephine was waiting for us in the drawing room, very +much worried. The dear old lady was quite scandalized as Elaine +excitedly told of the thrilling events that had just taken place. + +"And to think they--actually--carried you!" she exclaimed, horrified, +adding, "And I not--" + +"But Mr. Kennedy came along and saved me just in time," interrupted +Elaine with a smile. "I was well chaperoned!" + +Aunt Josephine turned to Craig gratefully. "How can I ever thank you +enough, Mr. Kennedy," she said fervently. + +Kennedy was quite embarrassed. With a smile, Elaine perceived his +discomfiture, not at all displeased by it. + +"Come into the library," she cried gaily, taking his arm. "I've +something to show you." + +Where the old safe which had been burnt through had stood was now a +brand new safe of the very latest construction and design--one of those +that look and are so formidable. + +"Here is the new safe," she pointed out brightly. "It is not only proof +against explosives, but between the plates is a lining that is proof +against thermit and even that oxy-acetylene blowpipe by which you +rescued me from the old boiler. It has a time lock, too, that will +prevent its being opened at night, even if anyone should learn the +combination." + +They stood before the safe a moment and Kennedy examined it closely +with much interest. + +"Wonderful!" he admired. + +"I knew you'd approve of it," cried Elaine, much pleased. "Now I have +something else to show you." + +She paused at the desk and from a drawer took out a portfolio of large +photographs. They were very handsome photographs of herself. + +"Much more wonderful than the safe," remarked Craig earnestly. Then, +hesitating and a trifle embarrassed, he added, "May I--may I have one?" + +"If you care for it," she said, dropping her eyes, then glancing up at +him quickly. + +"Care for it?" he repeated. "It will be one of the greatest treasures." + +She slipped the picture quickly into an envelope. "Come," she +interrupted. "Aunt Josephine will be wondering where we are. She--she's +a demon chaperone." + +Bennett, Aunt Josephine and myself were talking earnestly as Elaine and +Craig returned. + +"Well," said Bennett, glancing at his watch and rising as he turned to +Elaine, "I'm afraid I must go, now." + +He crossed over to where she stood and shook hands. There was no doubt +that Bennett was very much smitten by his fair client. + +"Good-bye, Mr. Bennett," she murmured, "and thank you so much for what +you have done for me today." + +But there was something lifeless about the words. She turned quickly to +Craig, who had remained standing. + +"Must you go, too, Mr. Kennedy?" she asked, noticing his position. + +"I'm afraid Mr. Jameson and I must be back on the job before this +Clutching Hand gets busy again," he replied reluctantly. + +"Oh, I hope you--we get him soon!" she exclaimed, and there was nothing +lifeless about the way she gave Craig her hand, as Bennett, he and I +left a moment later. + + . . . . . . . . + +That morning I had noticed Kennedy fussing some time at the door of our +apartment before we went over to the laboratory. As nearly as I could +make out he had placed something under the rug at the door out into the +hallway. + +When we approached our door, now, Craig paused. By pressing a little +concealed button he caused a panel in the wall outside to loosen, +disclosing a small, boxlike plate in the wall underneath. + +It was about a foot long and perhaps four inches wide. Through it ran a +piece of paper which unrolled from one coil and wound up on another, +actuated by clockwork. Across the blank white paper ran an ink line +traced by a stylographic pen, such as I had seen in mechanical pencils +used in offices, hotels, banks and such places. + +Kennedy examined the thing with interest. + +"What is it?" I asked. + +"A new seismograph," he replied, still gazing carefully at the rolled +up part of the paper. "I have installed it because it registers every +footstep on the floor of our apartment. We can't be too careful with +this Clutching Hand. I want to know whether we have any visitors or not +in our absence. This straight line indicates that we have not. Wait a +moment." + +Craig hastily unlocked the door and entered. Inside, I could see him +pacing up and down our modest quarters. + +"Do you see anything, Walter?" he called. + +I looked at the seismograph. The pen had started to trace its line, no +longer even and straight, but zigzag, at different heights across the +paper. + +He came to the door. "What do you think of it?" he inquired. + +"Splendid idea," I answered enthusiastically. + +Our apartment was, as I have said, modest, consisting of a large living +room, two bedrooms, and bath--an attractive but not ornate place, which +we found very cosy and comfortable. On one side of the room was a big +fire place, before which stood a fire screen. We had collected easy +chairs and capacious tables and desks. Books were scattered about, +literally overflowing from the crowded shelves. On the walls were our +favorite pictures, while for ornament, I suppose I might mention my +typewriter and now and then some of Craig's wonderful scientific +apparatus as satisfying our limited desire for the purely aesthetic. + +We entered and fell to work at the aforementioned typewriter, on a +special Sunday story that I had been forced to neglect. I was not so +busy, however, that I did not notice out of the corner of my eye that +Kennedy had taken from its cover Elaine Dodge's picture and was gazing +at it ravenously. + +I put my hand surreptitiously over my mouth and coughed. Kennedy +wheeled on me and I hastily banged a sentence out on the machine, +making at least half a dozen mistakes. + +I had finished as much of the article as I could do then and was +smoking and reading it over. Kennedy was still gazing at the picture +Miss Dodge had given him, then moving from place to place about the +room, evidently wondering where it would look best. I doubt whether he +had done another blessed thing since we returned. + +He tried it on the mantel. That wouldn't do. At last he held it up +beside a picture of Galton, I think, of finger print and eugenics fame, +who hung on the wall directly opposite the fireplace. Hastily he +compared the two. Elaine's picture was of precisely the same size. + +Next he tore out the picture of the scientist and threw it carelessly +into the fireplace. Then he placed Elaine's picture in its place and +hung it up again, standing off to admire it. + +I watched him gleefully. Was this Craig? Purposely I moved my elbow +suddenly and pushed a book with a bang on the floor. Kennedy actually +jumped. I picked up the book with a muttered apology. No, this was not +the same old Craig. + +Perhaps half an hour later, I was still reading. Kennedy was now pacing +up and down the room, apparently unable to concentrate his mind on any +but one subject. + +He stopped a moment before the photograph, looked at it fixedly. Then +he started his methodical walk again, hesitated, and went over to the +telephone, calling a number which I recognized. + +"She must have been pretty well done up by her experience," he said +apologetically, catching my eye. "I was wondering if--Hello--oh, Miss +Dodge--I--er--I--er--just called up to see if you were all right." + +Craig was very much embarrassed, but also very much in earnest. + +A musical laugh rippled over the telephone. "Yes, I'm all right, thank +you, Mr. Kennedy--and I put the package you sent me into the safe, +but--" + +"Package?" frowned Craig. "Why, I sent you no package, Miss Dodge. In +the safe?" + +"Why, yes, and the safe is all covered with moisture--and so cold." + +"Moisture--cold?" he repeated quickly. + +"Yes, I have been wondering if it is all right. In fact, I was going to +call you up, only I was afraid you'd think I was foolish." + +"I shall be right over," he answered hastily, clapping the receiver +back on its hook. "Walter," he added, seizing his hat and coat, "come +on--hurry!" + +A few minutes later we drove up in a taxi before the Dodge house and +rang the bell. + +Jennings admitted us sleepily. + + . . . . . . . . + +It could not have been long after we left Miss Dodge late in the +afternoon that Susie Martin, who had been quite worried over our long +absence after the attempt to rob her father, dropped in on Elaine. +Wide-eyed, she had listened to Elaine's story of what had happened. + +"And you think this Clutching Hand has never recovered the +incriminating papers that caused him to murder your father?" asked +Susie. + +Elaine shook her head. "No. Let me show you the new safe I've bought. +Mr. Kennedy thinks it wonderful." + +"I should think you'd be proud of it," admired Susie. "I must tell +father to get one, too." + +At that very moment, if they had known it, the Clutching Hand with his +sinister, masked face, was peering at the two girls from the other side +of the portieres. + +Susie rose to go and Elaine followed her to the door. No sooner had she +gone than the Clutching Hand came out from behind the curtains. He +gazed about a moment, then moving over to the safe about which the two +girls had been talking, stealthily examined it. + +He must have heard someone coming, for, with a gesture of hate at the +safe itself, as though he personified it, he slipped back of the +curtains again. + +Elaine had returned and as she sat down at the desk to go over some +papers which Bennett had left relative to settling up the estate, the +masked intruder stealthily and silently withdrew. + +"A package for you, Miss Dodge," announced Michael later in the evening +as Elaine, in her dainty evening gown, was still engaged in going over +the papers. He carried it in his hands rather gingerly. + +"Mr. Kennedy sent it, ma'am. He says it contains clues and will you +please put it in the new safe for him." + +Elaine took the package eagerly and examined it. Then she pulled open +the heavy door of the safe. + +"It must be getting cold out, Michael," she remarked. "This package is +as cold as ice." + +"It is, ma'am," answered Michael, deferentially with a sidelong glance +that did not prevent his watching her intently. + +She closed the safe and, with a glance at her watch, set the time lock +and went upstairs to her room. + +No sooner had Elaine disappeared than Michael appeared again, cat-like, +through the curtains from the drawing room, and, after a glance about +the dimly lighted library, discovering that the coast was clear, +motioned to a figure hiding behind the portieres. + +A moment, and Clutching Hand himself came out. + +He moved over to the safe and looked it over. Then he put out his hand +and touched it. + +"Good, Michael," he exclaimed with satisfaction. + +"Listen!" cautioned Michael. + +Someone was coming and they hastily slunk behind the protecting +portieres. It was Marie, Elaine's maid. + +She turned up the lights and went over to the desk for a book for which +Elaine had evidently sent her. She paused and appeared to be listening. +Then she went to the door. + +"Jennings!" she beckoned. + +"What is it, Marie?" he replied. + +She said nothing, but as he came up the hall led him to the center of +the room. + +"Listen! I heard sighs and groans!" + +Jennings looked at her a moment, puzzled, then laughed. "You girls!" he +exclaimed. "I suppose you'll always think the library haunted, now." + +"But, Jennings, listen," she persisted. + +Jennings did listen. Sure enough, there were sounds, weird, uncanny. He +gazed about the room. It was eerie. Then he took a few steps toward the +safe. Marie put out her hand to it, and started back. + +"Why, that safe is all covered with cold sweat!" she cried with bated +breath. + +Sure enough the face of the safe was beaded with dampness. Jennings put +his hand on it and quickly drew it away, leaving a mark on the dampness. + +"Wh-what do you think of that?" he gasped. + +"I'm going to tell Miss Dodge," cried Marie, genuinely frightened. + +A moment later she burst into Elaine's room. + +"What is the matter, Marie?" asked Elaine, laying down her book. "You +look as if you had seen a ghost." + +"Ah, but, mademoiselle--it ees just like that. The safe--if +mademoiselle will come downstairs, I will show it you." + +Puzzled but interested, Elaine followed her. In the library Jennings +pointed mutely at the new safe. Elaine approached it. As they stood +about new beads of perspiration, as it were, formed on it. Elaine +touched it, and also quickly withdrew her hand. + +"I can't imagine what's the matter," she said. "But--well--Jennings, +you may go--and Marie, also." + +When the servants had gone she still regarded the safe with the same +wondering look, then turning out the light, she followed. + +She had scarcely disappeared when, from the portiered doorway nearby, +the Clutching Hand appeared, and, after gazing out at them, took a +quick look at the safe. + +"Good!" he muttered. + +Noiselessly Michael of the sinister face moved in and took a position +in the center of the room, as if on guard, while Clutching Hand sat +before the safe watching it intently. + +"Someone at the door--Jennings is answering the bell," Michael +whispered hoarsely. + +"Confound it!" muttered Clutching Hand, as both moved again behind the +heavy velour curtains. + + . . . . . . . . + +"I'm so glad to see you, Mr. Kennedy," greeted Elaine unaffectedly as +Jennings admitted us. + +She had heard the bell and was coming downstairs as we entered. We +three moved toward the library and someone switched on the lights. + +Craig strode over to the safe. The cold sweat on it had now turned to +icicles. Craig's face clouded with thought as he examined it more +closely. There was actually a groaning sound from within. + +"It can't be opened," he said to himself. "The time lock is set for +tomorrow morning." + +Outside, if we had not been so absorbed in the present mystery, we +might have seen Michael and the Clutching Hand listening to us. +Clutching Hand looked hastily at his watch. + +"The deuce!" he muttered under his breath, stifling his suppressed fury. + +We stood looking at the safe. Kennedy was deeply interested, Elaine +standing close beside him. Suddenly he seemed to make up his mind. + +"Quick--Elaine!" he cried, taking her arm. "Stand back!" + +We all retreated. The safe door, powerful as it was, had actually begun +to warp and bend. The plates were bulging. A moment later, with a loud +report and concussion the door blew off. + +A blast of cold air and flakes like snow flew out. Papers were +scattered on every side. + +We stood gazing, aghast, a second, then ran forward. Kennedy quickly +examined the safe. He bent down and from the wreck took up a package, +now covered with white. + +As quickly he dropped it. + +"That is the package that was sent," cried Elaine. + +Taking it in a table cover, he laid it on the table and opened it. +Inside was a peculiar shaped flask, open at the top, but like a vacuum +bottle. + +"A Dewar flask!" ejaculated Craig. + +"What is it?" asked Elaine, appealing to him. + +"Liquid air!" he answered. "As it evaporated, the terrific pressure of +expanding air in the safe increased until it blew out the door. That is +what caused the cold sweating and the groans." + +We watched him, startled. + +On the other side of the portieres Michael and Clutching Hand waited. +Then, in the general confusion, Clutching Hand slowly disappeared, +foiled. + +"Where did this package come from?" asked Kennedy of Jennings +suspiciously. + +Jennings looked blank. + +"Why," put in Elaine, "Michael brought it to me." + +"Get Michael," ordered Kennedy. + +"Yes, sir," nodded Jennings. + +A moment later he returned. "I found him, going upstairs," reported +Jennings, leading Michael in. + +"Where did you get this package?" shot out Kennedy. + +"It was left at the door, sir, by a boy, sir." + +Question after question could not shake that simple, stolid sentence. +Kennedy frowned. + +"You may go," he said finally, as if reserving something for Michael +later. + +A sudden exclamation followed from Elaine as Michael passed down the +hall again. She had moved over to the desk, during the questioning, and +was leaning against it. + +Inadvertently she had touched an envelope. It was addressed, "Craig +Kennedy." + +Craig tore it open, Elaine bending anxiously over his shoulder, +frightened. + +We read: + +"YOU HAVE INTERFERED FOR THE LAST TIME. IT IS THE END." + +Beneath it stood the fearsome sign of the Clutching Hand! + + . . . . . . . . + +The warning of the Clutching Hand had no other effect on Kennedy than +the redoubling of his precautions for safety. Nothing further happened +that night, however, and the next morning found us early at the +laboratory. + +It was the late forenoon, when after a hurried trip down to the office, +I rejoined Kennedy at his scientific workshop. + +We walked down the street when a big limousine shot past. Kennedy +stopped in the middle of a remark. He had recognized the car, with a +sort of instinct. + +At the same moment I saw a smiling face at the window of the car. It +was Elaine Dodge. + +The car stopped in something less than twice its length and then backed +toward us. + +Kennedy, hat off, was at the window in a moment. There were Aunt +Josephine, and Susie Martin, also. + +"Where are you boys going?" asked Elaine, with interest, then added +with a gaiety that ill concealed her real anxiety, "I'm so glad to see +you--to see that--er--nothing has happened from that dreadful Clutching +Hand." + +"Why, we were just going up to our rooms," replied Kennedy. + +"Can't we drive you around?" + +We climbed in and a moment later were off. The ride was only too short +for Kennedy. We stepped out in front of our apartment and stood +chatting for a moment. + +"Some day I want to show you the laboratory," Craig was saying. + +"It must be so--interesting!" exclaimed Elaine enthusiastically. "Think +of all the bad men you must have caught!" + +"I have quite a collection of stuff here at our rooms," remarked Craig, +"almost a museum. Still," he ventured, "I can't promise that the place +is in order," he laughed. + +Elaine hesitated. "Would you like to see it?" she wheedled of Aunt +Josephine. + +Aunt Josephine nodded acquiescence, and a moment later we all entered +the building. + +"You--you are very careful since that last warning?" asked Elaine as we +approached our door. + +"More than ever--now," replied Craig. "I have made up my mind to win." + +She seemed to catch at the words as though they had a hidden meaning, +looking first at him and then away, not displeased. + +Kennedy had started to unlock the door, when he stopped short. + +"See," he said, "this is a precaution I have just installed. I almost +forgot in the excitement." + +He pressed a panel and disclosed the box-like apparatus. + +"This is my seismograph which tells me whether I have had any visitors +in my absence. If the pen traces a straight line, it is, all right; but +if--hello--Walter, the line is wavy." + +We exchanged a significant glance. + +"Would you mind--er--standing down the hall just a bit while I enter?" +asked Craig. + +"Be careful," cautioned Elaine. + +He unlocked the door, standing off to one side. Then he extended his +hand across the doorway. Still nothing happened. There was not a sound. +He looked cautiously into the room. Apparently there was nothing. + + . . . . . . . . + +It had been about the middle of the morning that an express wagon had +pulled up sharply before our apartment. + +"Mr. Kennedy live here?" asked one of the expressmen, descending with +his helper and approaching our janitor, Jens Jensen, a typical Swede, +who was coming up out of the basement. + +Jens growled a surly, "Yes--but Mr. Kannady, he bane out." + +"Too bad--we've got this large cabinet he ordered from Grand Rapids. We +can't cart it around all day. Can't you let us in so we can leave it?" + +Jensen muttered. "Wall--I guess it bane all right." + +They took the cabinet off the wagon and carried it upstairs. Jensen +opened our door, still grumbling, and they placed the heavy cabinet in +the living room. + +"Sign here." + +"You fallers bane a nuisance," protested Jens, signing nevertheless. + +Scarcely had the sound ox their footfalls died away in the outside +hallway when the door of the cabinet slowly opened and a masked face +protruded, gazing about the room. + +It was the Clutching Hand! + +From the cabinet he took a large package wrapped in newspapers. As he +held it, looking keenly about, his eye rested on Elaine's picture. A +moment he looked at it, then quickly at the fireplace opposite. + +An idea seemed to occur to him. He took the package to the fireplace, +removed the screen, and laid the package over the andirons with one end +pointing out into the room. + +Next he took from the cabinet a couple of storage batteries and a coil +of wire. Deftly and quickly he fixed them on the package. + +Meanwhile, before an alleyway across the street and further down the +long block the express wagon had stopped. The driver and his helper +clambered out and for a moment stood talking in low tones, with covert +glances at our apartment. They moved into the alley and the driver drew +out a battered pair of opera glasses, levelling them at our windows. + +Having completed fixing the batteries and wires, Clutching Hand ran the +wires along the moulding on the wall overhead, from the fireplace until +he was directly over Elaine's picture. Skillfully, he managed to fix +the wires, using them in place of the picture wires to support the +framed photograph. Then he carefully moved the photograph until it hung +very noticeably askew on the wall. + +The last wire joined, he looked about the room, then noiselessly moved +to the window and raised the shade. + +Quickly he raised his hand and brought the fingers slowly together. It +was the sign. + +Off in the alley, the express driver and his helper were still gazing +up through the opera glass. + +"What d'ye see, Bill?" he asked, handing over the glass. + +The other took it and looked. "It's him--the Hand, Jack," whispered the +helper, handing the glasses back. + +They jumped into the wagon and away it rattled. + +Jensen was smoking placidly as the wagon pulled up the second time. + +"Sorry," said the driver sheepishly, "but we delivered the cabinet to +the wrong Mr. Kennedy." + +He pulled out the inevitable book to prove it. + +"Wall, you bane fine fallers," growled Jensen, puffing like a furnace, +in his fury. "You cannot go up agane." + +"We'll get fired for the mistake," pleaded the helper. + +"Just this once," urged the driver, as he rattled some loose change in +his pocket. "Here--there goes a whole day's tips." + +He handed Jens a dollar in small change. + +Still grumpy but mollified by the silver Jens let them go up and opened +the door to our rooms again. There stood the cabinet, as outwardly +innocent as when it came in. + +Lugging and tugging they managed to get the heavy piece of furniture +out and downstairs again, loading it on the wagon. Then they drove off +with it, accompanied by a parting volley from Jensen. + +In an unfrequented street, perhaps half a mile away, the wagon stopped. +With a keen glance around, the driver and his helper made sure that no +one was about. + +"Such a shaking up as you've given me!" growled a voice as the cabinet +door opened. "But I've got him this time!" + +It was the Clutching Hand. + +"There, men, you can leave me here," he ordered. + +He motioned to them to drive off and, as they did so, pulled off his +masking handkerchief and dived into a narrow street leading up to a +thoroughfare. + + . . . . . . . . + +Craig gazed into our living room cautiously. + +"I can't see anything wrong," he said to me as I stood just beside him. +"Miss Dodge," he added, "will you and the rest excuse me if I ask you +to wait just a moment longer?" + +Elaine watched him, fascinated. He crossed the room, then went into +each of our other rooms. Apparently nothing was wrong and a minute +later he reappeared at the doorway. + +"I guess it's all right," he said. "Perhaps it was only Jensen, the +janitor." + +Elaine, Aunt Josephine and Susie Martin entered. Craig placed chairs +for them, but still I could see that he was uneasy. From time to time, +while they were admiring one of our treasures after another, he glanced +about suspiciously. Finally he moved over to a closet and flung the +door open, ready for anything. No one was in the closet and he closed +it hastily. + +"What is the trouble, do you think?" asked Elaine wonderingly, noticing +his manner. + +"I--I can't just say," answered Craig, trying to appear easy. + +She had risen and with keen interest was looking at the books, the +pictures, the queer collection of weapons and odds and ends from the +underworld that Craig had amassed in his adventures. + +At last her eye wandered across the room. She caught sight of her own +picture, occupying a place of honor--but hanging askew. + +"Isn't that just like a man!" she exclaimed laughingly. "Such +housekeepers as you are--such carelessness!" + +She had taken a step or two across the room to straighten the picture. + +"Miss Dodge!" almost shouted Kennedy, his face fairly blanched, "Stop!" + +She turned, her stunning eyes filled with amazement at his suddenness. +Nevertheless she moved quickly to one side, as he waved his arms, +unable to speak quickly enough. + +Kennedy stood quite still, gazing at the picture, askew, with suspicion. + +"That wasn't that way when we left, was it, Walter?" he asked. + +"It certainly was not," I answered positively, "There was more time +spent in getting that picture just right than I ever saw you spend on +all the rest of the room." + +Craig frowned. + +As for myself, I did not know what to make of it. + +"I'm afraid I shall have to ask you to step into this back room," said +Craig at length to the ladies. "I'm sorry--but we can't be too careful +with this intruder, whoever he was." + +They rose, surprised, but, as he continued to urge them, they moved +into my room. + +Elaine, however, stopped at the door. + +For a moment Kennedy appeared to be considering. Then his eye fell on a +fishing rod that stood in a corner. He took it and moved toward the +picture. + +On his hands and knees, to one side, down as close as he could get to +the floor, with the rod extended at arm's length, he motioned to me to +do the same, behind him. + +Elaine, unable to repress her interest took a half step forward, +breathless, from the doorway, while Susie Martin and Aunt Josephine +stood close behind her. + +Carefully Kennedy reached out with the pole and straightened the +picture. + +As he did so there was a flash, a loud, deafening report, and a great +puff of smoke from the fireplace. + +The fire screen was riddled and overturned. A charge of buckshot +shattered the precious photograph of Elaine. + +We had dropped flat on the floor at the report. I looked about. Kennedy +was unharmed, and so were the rest. + +With a bound he was at the fireplace, followed by Elaine and the rest +of us. There, in what remained of a package done up roughly in +newspaper, was a shot gun with its barrel sawed off about six inches +from the lock, fastened to a block of wood, and connected to a series +of springs on the trigger, released by a little electromagnetic +arrangement actuated by two batteries and leading by wires up along the +moulding to the picture where the slightest touch would complete the +circuit. + +The newspapers which were wrapped about the deadly thing were burning, +and Kennedy quickly tore them off, throwing them into the fireplace. + +A startled cry from Elaine caused us to turn. + +She was standing directly before her shattered picture where it hung +awry on the wall. The heavy charges of buckshot had knocked away large +pieces of paper and plaster under it. + +"Craig!" she gasped. + +He was at her side in a second. + +She laid one hand on his arm, as she faced him. With the other she +traced an imaginary line in the air from the level of the buckshot to +his head and then straight to the infernal thing that had lain in the +fireplace. + +"And to think," she shuddered, "that it was through ME that he tried to +kill you!" + +"Never mind," laughed Craig easily, as they gazed into each other's +eyes, drawn together by their mutual peril, "Clutching Hand will have +to be cleverer than this to get either of us--Elaine!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE POISONED ROOM + + +Elaine and Craig were much together during the next few days. + +Somehow or other, it seemed that the chase of the Clutching Hand +involved long conferences in the Dodge library and even, in fact, +extended to excursions into that notoriously crime-infested +neighborhood of Riverside Drive with its fashionable processions of +automobiles and go-carts--as far north, indeed, as that desperate haunt +known as Grant's Tomb. + +More than that, these delvings into the underworld involved Kennedy in +the necessity of wearing a frock coat and silk hat in the afternoon, +and I found that he was selecting his neckwear with a care that had +been utterly foreign to him during all the years previous that I had +known him. + +It all looked very suspicious to me. + +But, to return to the more serious side of the affair. + +Kennedy and Elaine had scarcely come out of the house and descended the +steps, one afternoon, when a sinister face appeared in a basement +areaway nearby. + +The figure was crouched over, with his back humped up almost as if +deformed, and his left hand had an unmistakable twist. + +It was the Clutching Hand. + +He wore a telephone inspector's hat and coat and carried a bag slung by +a strap over his shoulder. For once he had left off his mask, but, in +place of it, his face was covered by a scraggly black beard. In fact, +he seemed to avoid turning his face full, three-quarters or even +profile to anyone, unless he had to do so. As much as possible he +averted it, but he did so in a clever way that made it seem quite +natural. The disguise was effective. + +He saw Kennedy and Miss Dodge and slunk unobtrusively against a +railing, with his head turned away. Laughing and chatting, they passed. +As they walked down the street, Clutching Hand turned and gazed after +them. Involuntarily the menacing hand clutched in open hatred. + +Then he turned in the other direction and, going up the steps of the +Dodge house, rang the bell. + +"Telephone inspector," he said in a loud tone as Michael, in Jennings' +place for the afternoon, opened the door. + +He accompanied the words with the sign and Michael, taking care that +the words be heard, in case anyone was listening, admitted him. + +As it happened, Aunt Josephine was upstairs in Elaine's room. She was +fixing flowers in a vase on the dressing table of her idolized niece. +Meanwhile, Rusty, the collie, lay, half blinking, on the floor. + +"Who is this?" she asked, as Michael led the bogus telephone inspector +into the room. + +"A man from the telephone company," he answered deferentially. + +Aunt Josephine, unsophisticated, allowed them to enter without a +further question. + +Quickly, like a good workman, Clutching Hand went to the telephone +instrument and by dint of keeping his finger on the hook and his back +to Aunt Josephine succeeded in conveying the illusion that he was +examining it. + +Aunt Josephine moved to the door. Not so, Rusty. He did not like the +looks of the stranger and he had no scruples against letting it be +known. + +As she put her hand on the knob to go out into the hall, Rusty uttered +a low growl which grew into a full-lunged snarl at the Clutching Hand. +Clutching Hand kicked at him vigorously, if surreptitiously. Rusty +barked. + +"Lady," he disguised his voice, "will yer please ter call off the dog? +Me and him don't seem to cotton to each other." + +"Here, Rusty," she commanded, "down!" + +Together Aunt Josephine and Michael removed the still protesting Rusty. + +No sooner was the door shut than the Clutching Hand moved over swiftly +to it. For a few seconds, he stood gazing at them as they disappeared +down-stairs. Then he came back into the center of the room. + +Hastily he opened his bag and from it drew a small powder-spraying +outfit such as I have seen used for spraying bug-powder. He then took +out a sort of muzzle with an elastic band on it and slipped it over his +head so that the muzzle protected his nose and mouth. + +He seemed to work a sort of pumping attachment and from the nozzle of +the spraying instrument blew out a cloud of powder which he directed at +the wall. + +The wall paper was one of those rich, fuzzy varieties and it seemed to +catch the powder. Clutching Hand appeared to be more than satisfied +with the effect. + +Meanwhile, Michael, in the hallway, on guard to see that no one +bothered the Clutching Hand at his work, was overcome by curiosity to +see what his master was doing. He opened the door a little bit and +gazed stealthily through the crack into the room. + +Clutching Hand was now spraying the rug close to the dressing table of +Elaine and was standing near the mirror. He stooped down to examine the +rug. Then, as he raised his head, he happened to look into the mirror. +In it he could see the full reflection of Michael behind him, gazing +into the room. + +"The scoundrel!" muttered Clutching Hand, with repressed fury at the +discovery. + +He rose quickly and shut off the spraying instrument, stuffing it into +the bag. He took a step or two toward the door. Michael drew back, +fearfully, pretending now to be on guard. + +Clutching Hand opened the door and, still wearing the muzzle, beckoned +to Michael. Michael could scarcely control his fears. But he obeyed, +entering Elaine's room after the Clutching Hand, who locked the door. + +"Were you watching me?" demanded the master criminal, with rage. + +Michael, trembling all over, shook his head. For a moment Clutching +Hand looked him over disdainfully at the clumsy lie. + +Then he brutally struck Michael in the face, knocking him down. An +ungovernable, almost insane fury seemed to possess the man as he stood +over the prostrate footman, cursing. + +"Get up!" he ordered. + +Michael obeyed, thoroughly cowed. + +"Take me to the cellar, now," he demanded. + +Michael led the way from the room without a protest, the master +criminal following him closely. + +Down into the cellar, by a back way, they went, Clutching Hand still +wearing his muzzle and Michael saying not a word. + +Suddenly Clutching Hand turned on him and seized him by the collar. + +"Now, go upstairs, you," he muttered, shaking him until his teeth +fairly chattered, "and if you watch me again--I'll kill you!" + +He thrust Michael away and the footman, overcome by fear, hurried +upstairs. Still trembling and fearful, Michael paused In the hallway, +looking back resentfully, for even one who is in the power of a +super-criminal is still human and has feelings that may be injured. + +Michael put his hand on his face where the Clutching Hand had struck +him. There he waited, muttering to himself. As he thought it over, +anger took the place of fear. He slowly turned in the direction of the +cellar. Closing both his fists, Michael made a threatening gesture at +his master in crime. + +Meanwhile, Clutching Hand was standing by the electric meter. He +examined it carefully, feeling where the wires entered and left it +starting to trace them out. At last he came to a point where it seemed +suitable to make a connection for some purpose he had in mind. + +Quickly he took some wire from his bag and connected it with the +electric light wires. Next, he led these wires, concealed of course, +along the cellar floor, in the direction of the furnace. + +The furnace was one of the old hot air heaters and he paused before it +as though seeking something. Then he bent down beside it and uncovered +a little tank. He took off the top on which were cast in the iron the +words: + +"This tank must be kept full of water." + +He thrust his hand gingerly into it, bringing it out quickly. The tank +was nearly full of water and he brought his hand out wet. It was also +hot. But he did not seem to mind that, for he shook his head with a +smile of satisfaction. + +Next, from his capacious bag he took two metal poles, or electrodes, +and fastened them carefully to the ends of the wires, placing them at +opposite ends of the tank in the water. + +For several moments he watched. The water inside the tank seemed the +same as before, only on each electrode there appeared bubbles, on one +bubbles of oxygen, on the other of hydrogen. The water was decomposing +under the current by electrolysis. + +Another moment he surveyed his work to see that he had left no loose +ends. Then he picked up his bag and moved toward the cellar steps. As +he did so, he removed the muzzle from his nose and quietly let himself +out of the house. + + . . . . . . . . + +The next morning, Rusty, who had been Elaine's constant companion since +the trouble had begun, awakened his mistress by licking her hand as it +hung limply over the side of her bed. + +She awakened with a start and put her hand to her head. She felt ill. + +"Poor old fellow," she murmured, half dazedly, for the moment endowing +her pet with her own feelings, as she patted his faithful shaggy head. + +Rusty moved away again, wagging his tail listlessly. The collie, too, +felt ill. Elaine watched him as he walked, dejected, across the room +and then lay down. + +"Why, Miss Elaine--what ees ze mattair? You are so pale!" exclaimed the +maid, Marie, as she entered the room a moment later with the morning's +mail on a salver. + +"I don't feel well, Marie," she replied, trying with her slender white +hand to brush the cobwebs from her brain. "I--I wish you'd tell Aunt +Josephine to telephone Dr. Hayward." + +"Yes, mademoiselle," answered Marie, deftly and sympathetically +straightening out the pillows. + +Languidly Elaine took the letters one by one off the salver. She looked +at them, but seemed not to have energy enough to open them. + +Finally she selected one and slowly tore it open. It had no +superscription, but it at once arrested her attention and transfixed +her with terror. + +It read: + +"YOU ARE SICK THIS MORNING. TOMORROW YOU WILL BE WORSE. THE NEXT DAY +YOU WILL DIE UNLESS YOU DISCHARGE CRAIG KENNEDY." + +It was signed by the mystic trademark of the fearsome Clutching Hand! + +Elaine drew back into the pillows, horror stricken. + +Quickly she called to Marie. "Go--get Aunt Josephine--right away!" + +As Marie almost flew down the hall, Elaine still holding the letter +convulsively, pulled herself together and got up, trembling. She almost +seized the telephone as she called Kennedy's number. + + . . . . . . . . + +Kennedy, in his stained laboratory apron, was at work before his table, +while I was watching him with intense interest, when the telephone rang. + +Without a word he answered the call and I could see a look of +perturbation cross his face. I knew it was from Elaine, but could tell +nothing about the nature of the message. + +An instant later he almost tore off the apron and threw on his hat and +coat. I followed him as he dashed out of the laboratory. + +"This is terrible--terrible," he muttered, as we hurried across the +campus of the University to a taxi-cab stand. + +A few minutes later, when we arrived at the Dodge mansion, we found +Aunt Josephine and Marie doing all they could under the circumstances. +Aunt Josephine had just given her a glass of water which she drank +eagerly. Rusty had, meanwhile, crawled under the bed, caring only to be +alone and undisturbed. + +Dr. Hayward had arrived and had just finished taking her pulse and +temperature as our cab pulled up. + +Jennings who had evidently been expecting us let us in without a word +and conducted us up to Elaine's room. We knocked. + +"Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Jameson," we could hear Marie whisper in a subdued +voice. + +"Tell them to come in," answered Elaine eagerly. + +We entered. There she lay, beautiful as ever, but with a whiteness of +her fresh cheek that was too etherially unnatural. Elaine was quite ill +indeed. + +"Oh--I'm so glad to see you," she breathed, with an air of relief as +Kennedy advanced. + +"Why--what is the matter?" asked Craig, anxiously. + +Dr. Hayward shook his head dubiously, but Kennedy did not notice him, +for, as he approached Elaine, she drew from the covers where she had +concealed it a letter and handed it to him. + +Craig took it and read: + +"YOU ARE SICK THIS MORNING. TOMORROW YOU WILL BE WORSE. THE NEXT DAY +YOU WILL DIE UNLESS YOU DISCHARGE CRAIG KENNEDY." + +At the signature of the Clutching Hand he frowned, then, noticing Dr. +Hayward, turned to him and repeated his question, "What is the matter?" + +Dr. Hayward continued shaking his head. "I cannot diagnose her +symptoms," he shrugged. + +As I watched Kennedy's face, I saw his nostrils dilating, almost as if +he were a hound and had scented his quarry. I sniffed, too. There +seemed to be a faint odor, almost as if of garlic, in the room. It was +unmistakable and Craig looked about him curiously but said nothing. + +As he sniffed, he moved impatiently and his foot touched Rusty, under +the bed. Rusty whined and moved back lazily. Craig bent over and looked +at him. + +"What's the matter with Rusty?" he asked. "Is he sick, too?" + +"Why--yes," answered Elaine, following Craig with her deep eyes. "Poor +Rusty. He woke me up this morning. He feels as badly as I do, poor old +fellow." + +Craig reached down and gently pulled the collie out into the room. +Rusty crouched down close to the floor. His nose was hot and dry and +feverish. He was plainly ill. + +"How long has Rusty been in the room?" asked Craig. + +"All night," answered Elaine. "I wouldn't think of being without him +now." + +Kennedy lifted the dog by his front paws. Rusty submitted patiently, +but without any spirit. + +"May I take Rusty along with me?" he asked finally. + +Elaine hesitated. "Surely," she said at length, "only, be gentle with +him." + +Craig looked at her as though it would be impossible to be otherwise +with anything belonging to Elaine. + +"Of course," he said simply. "I thought that I might be able to +discover the trouble from studying him." + +We stayed only a few minutes longer, for Kennedy seemed to realize the +necessity of doing something immediately and even Dr. Hayward was +fighting in the dark. As for me, I gave it up, too. I could find no +answer to the mystery of what was the peculiar malady of Elaine. + +Back in the laboratory, Kennedy set to work immediately, brushing +everything else aside. He began by drawing off a little of Rusty's +blood in a tube, very carefully. + +"Here, Walter," he said pointing to the little incision he had made. +"Will you take care of him?" + +I bound up the wounded leg and gave the poor beast a drink of water. +Rusty looked at me gratefully from his big sad brown eyes. He seemed to +appreciate our gentleness and to realize that we were trying to help +him. + +In the meantime, Craig had taken a flask with a rubber stopper. Through +one hole in it was fitted a long funnel; through another ran a glass +tube. The tube connected with a large U-shaped drying tube filled with +calcium chloride, which, in turn, connected with a long open tube with +an upturned end. + +Into the flask, Craig dropped some pure granulated zinc. Then he +covered it with dilute sulphuric acid, poured in through the funnel +tube. + +"That forms hydrogen gas," he explained to me, "which passes through +the drying tube and the ignition tube. Wait a moment until all the air +is expelled from the tubes." + +He lighted a match and touched it to the open, upturned end. The +hydrogen, now escaping freely, was ignited with a pale blue flame. + +A few moments later, having extracted something like a serum from the +blood he had drawn off from Rusty. He added the extract to the mixture +in the flask, pouring it in, also through the funnel tube. + +Almost immediately the pale, bluish flame turned to bluish white, and +white fumes were formed. In the ignition tube a sort of metallic +deposit appeared. + +Quickly Craig made one test after another. + +As he did so, I sniffed. There was an unmistakable odor of garlic in +the air which made me think of what I had already noticed in Elaine's +room. + +"What is it?" I asked, mystified. + +"Arseniuretted hydrogen," he answered, still engaged in verifying his +tests. "This is the Marsh test for arsenic." + +I gazed from Kennedy to the apparatus, then to Rusty and a picture of +Elaine, pale and listless, flashed before me. + +"Arsenic!" I repeated in horror. + + . . . . . . . . + +I had scarcely recovered from the surprise of Kennedy's startling +revelation when the telephone rang again. Kennedy seized the receiver, +thinking evidently that the message might be from or about Elaine. + +But from the look on his face and from his manner, I could gather that, +although it was not from Elaine herself, it was about something that +interested him greatly. As he talked, he took his little notebook and +hastily jotted down something in it. Still, I could not make out what +the conversation was about. + +"Good!" I heard him say finally. "I shall keep the +appointment--absolutely." + +His face wore a peculiar puzzled look as he hung up the receiver. + +"What was it?" I asked eagerly. + +"It was Elaine's footman, Michael," he replied thoughtfully. "As I +suspected, he says that he is a confederate of the Clutching Hand and +if we will protect him he will tell us the trouble with Elaine." + +I considered a moment. "How's that?" I queried. + +"Well," added Craig, "you see, Michael has become infuriated by the +treatment he received from the Clutching Hand. I believe he cuffed him +in the face yesterday. Anyway, he says he has determined to get even +and betray him. So, after hearing how Elaine was, he slipped out of the +servant's door and looking about carefully to see that he wasn't +followed, he went straight to a drug store and called me up. He seemed +extremely nervous and fearful." + +I did not like the looks of the thing, and said so. "Craig," I objected +vehemently, "don't go to meet him. It is a trap." + +Kennedy had evidently considered my objection already. + +"It may be a trap," he replied slowly, "but Elaine is dying and we've +got to see this thing through." + +As he spoke, he took an automatic from a drawer of a cabinet and thrust +it into his pocket. Then he went to another drawer and took out several +sections of thin tubing which seemed to be made to fasten together as a +fishing pole is fastened, but were now separate, as if ready for +travelling. + +"Well--are you coming, Walter?" he asked finally--the only answer to my +flood of caution. + +Then he went out. I followed, still arguing. + +"If YOU go, _I_ go," I capitulated. "That's all there is to it." + +Following the directions that Michael had given over the telephone +Craig led me into one of the toughest parts of the lower West Side. + +"Here's the place," he announced, stopping across the street from a +dingy Raines Law Hotel. + +"Pretty tough," I objected. "Are you sure?" + +"Quite," replied Kennedy, consulting his note book again. + +"Well, I'll be hanged if I'll go in that joint," I persisted. + +It had no effect on Kennedy. "Nonsense, Walter," he replied, crossing +the street. + +Reluctantly I followed and we entered the place. + +"I want a room," asked Craig as we were accosted by the proprietor, +comfortably clad in a loud checked suit and striped shirt sleeves. "I +had one here once before--forty-nine, I think." + +"Fifty--" I began to correct. + +Kennedy trod hard on my toes. + +"Yes, forty-nine," he repeated. + +The proprietor called a stout negro porter, waiter, and bell-hop all +combined in one, who led us upstairs. + +"Fohty-nine, sah," he pointed out, as Kennedy dropped a dime into his +ready palm. + +The negro left us and as Craig started to enter, I objected, "But, +Craig, it was fifty-nine, not forty-nine. This is the wrong room." + +"I know it," he replied. "I had it written in the book. But I want +forty-nine--now. Just follow me, Walter." + +Nervously I followed him into the room. + +"Don't you understand?" he went on. "Room forty-nine is probably just +the same as fifty-nine, except perhaps the pictures and furniture, only +it is on the floor below." + +He gazed about keenly. Then he took a few steps to the window and threw +it open. As he stood there he took the parts of the rods he had been +carrying and fitted them together until he had a pole some eight or ten +feet long. At one end was a curious arrangement that seemed to contain +lenses and a mirror. At the other end was an eye-piece, as nearly as I +could make out. + +"What is that?" I asked as he completed his work. + +"That? That is an instrument something on the order of a miniature +submarine periscope," Craig replied, still at work. + +I watched him, fascinated at his resourcefulness. He stealthily thrust +the mirror end of the periscope out of the window and up toward the +corresponding window up stairs. Then he gazed eagerly through the +eye-piece. + +"Walter--look!" he exclaimed to me. + +I did. There, sure enough, was Michael, pacing up and down the room. He +had already preceded us. In his scared and stealthy manner, he had +entered the Raines Law hotel which announced "Furnished Rooms for +Gentlemen Only." There he had sought a room, fifty-nine, as he had said. + +As he came into the room, he had looked about, overcome by the enormity +of what he was about to do. He locked the door. Still, he had not been +able to avoid gazing about fearfully, as he was doing now that we saw +him. + +Nothing had happened. Yet he brushed his hand over his forehead and +breathed a sigh of relief. The air seemed to be stifling him and +already he had gone to the window and thrown it open. Then he had gazed +out as though there might be some unknown peril in the very air. He had +now drawn back from the window and was considering. He was actually +trembling. Should he flee? He whistled softly to himself to keep his +shaking fears under control. Then he started to pace up and down the +room in nervous impatience and irresolution. + +As I looked at him nervously walking to and fro, I could not help +admitting that things looked safe enough and all right to me. Kennedy +folded the periscope up and we left our room, mounting the remaining +flight of stairs. + +In fifty-nine we could hear the measured step of the footman. Craig +knocked. The footsteps ceased. Then the door opened slowly and I could +see a cold blue automatic. + +"Look out!" I cried. + +Michael in his fear had drawn a gun. + +"It's all right, Michael," reassured Craig calmly. "All right, Walter," +he added to me. + +The gun dropped back into the footman's pocket. We entered and Michael +again locked the door. Not a word had been spoken by him so far. + +Next Michael moved to the center of the room and, as I realized later, +brought himself in direct lines with the open window. He seemed to be +overcome with fear at his betrayal and stood there breathing heavily. + +"Professor Kennedy," he began, "I have been so mistreated that I have +made up my mind to tell you all I know about this Clutching--" + +Suddenly he drew a sharp breath and both his hands clutched at his own +breast. He did not stagger and fall in the ordinary manner, but seemed +to bend at the knees and waist and literally crumple down on his face. + +We ran to him. Craig turned him over gently on his back and examined +him. He called. No answer. Michael was almost pulseless. + +Quickly Craig tore off his collar and bared his breast, for the man +seemed to be struggling for breath. As he did so, he drew from +Michael's chest a small, sharp-pointed dart. + +"What's that?" I ejaculated, horror stricken. + +"A poisoned blow gun dart such as is used by the South American Indians +on the upper Orinoco," he said slowly. + +He examined it carefully. + +"What is the poison?" I asked. + +"Curari," he replied simply. "It acts on the respiratory muscles, +paralyzing them, and causing asphyxiation." + +The dart seemed to have been made of a quill with a very sharp point, +hollow, and containing the deadly poison in the sharpened end. + +"Look out!" I cautioned as he handled it. + +"Oh, that's all right," he answered casually. "If I don't scratch +myself, I am safe enough. I could swallow the stuff and it wouldn't +hurt me--unless I had an abrasion of the lips or some internal cut." + +Kennedy continued to examine the dart until suddenly I heard a low +exclamation of surprise from him. Inside the hollow quill was a thin +sheet of tissue paper, tightly rolled. He drew it out and read: + +"To know me is DEATH Kennedy--Take Warning!" + +Underneath was the inevitable Clutching Hand sign. + +We jumped to our feet. Kennedy rushed to the window and slammed it +shut, while I seized the key from Michael's pocket, opened the door and +called for help. + +A moment before, on the roof of a building across the street, one might +have seen a bent, skulking figure. His face was copper colored and on +his head was a thick thatch of matted hair. He looked like a South +American Indian, in a very dilapidated suit of castoff American clothes. + +He had slipped out through a doorway leading to a flight of steps from +the roof to the hallway of the tenement. His fatal dart sent on its +unerring mission with a precision born of long years in the South +American jungle, he concealed the deadly blow-gun in his breast pocket, +with a cruel smile, and, like one of his native venomous serpents, +wormed his way down the stairs again. + + . . . . . . . . + +My outcry brought a veritable battalion of aid. The hotel proprietor, +the negro waiter, and several others dashed upstairs, followed shortly +by a portly policeman, puffing at the exertion. + +"What's the matter, here?" he panted. "Ye're all under arrest!" + +Kennedy quietly pulled out his card case and taking the policeman aside +showed it to him. + +"We had an appointment to meet this man--in that Clutching Hand case, +you know. He is Miss Dodge's footman," Craig explained. + +Then he took the policeman into his confidence, showing him the dart +and explaining about the poison. The officer stared blankly. + +"I must get away, too," hurried on Craig. "Officer, I will leave you to +take charge here. You can depend on me for the inquest." + +The officer nodded. + +"Come on, Walter," whispered Craig, eager to get away, then adding the +one word, "Elaine!" + +I followed hastily, not slow to understand his fear for her. + +Nor were Craig's fears groundless. In spite of all that could be done +for her, Elaine was still in bed, much weaker now than before. While we +had been gone, Dr. Hayward, Aunt Josephine and Marie were distracted. + +More than that, the Clutching Hand had not neglected the opportunity, +either. + +Suddenly, just before our return, a stone had come hurtling through the +window, without warning of any kind, and had landed on Elaine's bed. + +Below, as we learned some time afterwards, a car had drawn up hastily +and the evil-faced crook whom the Clutching Hand had used to rid +himself of the informer, "Limpy Red," had leaped out and hurled the +stone through the window, as quickly leaping back into the car and +whisking away. + +Elaine had screamed. All had reached for the stone. But she had been +the first to seize it and discover that around it was wrapped a piece +of paper on which was the ominous warning, signed as usual by the Hand: + +"Michael is dead. Tomorrow, you. Then Kennedy. Stop before it is too +late." + +Elaine had sunk back into her pillows, paler than ever from this second +shock, while the others, as they read the note, were overcome by alarm +and despair, at the suddenness of the thing. + +It was just then that Kennedy and I arrived and were admitted. + +"Oh, Mr. Kennedy," cried Elaine, handing him the note. + +Craig took it and read. "Miss Dodge," he said, as he held the note out +to me, "you are suffering from arsenic poisoning--but I don't know yet +how it is being administered." + +He gazed about keenly. Meanwhile, I had taken the crumpled note from +him and was reading it. Somehow, I had leaned against the wall. As I +turned, Craig happened to glance at me. + +"For heaven's sake, Walter," I heard him exclaim. "What have you been +up against?" + +He fairly leaped at me and I felt him examining my shoulder where I had +been leaning on the wall. Something on the paper had come off and had +left a white mark on my shoulder. Craig looked puzzled from me to the +wall. + +"Arsenic!" he cried. + +He whipped out a pocket lens and looked at the paper. "This heavy fuzzy +paper is fairly loaded with it, powdered," he reported. + +I looked, too. The powdered arsenic was plainly discernible. "Yes, here +it is," he continued, standing absorbed in thought. "But why did it +work so effectively?" + +He sniffed as he had before. So did I. There was still the faint smell +of garlic. Kennedy paced the room. Suddenly, pausing by the register, +an idea seemed to strike him. + +"Walter," he whispered, "come down cellar with me." + +"Oh--be careful," cried Elaine, anxious for him. + +"I will," he called back. + +As he flashed his pocket electric bull's-eye about, his gaze fell on +the electric meter. He paused before it. In spite of the fact that it +was broad daylight, it was running. His face puckered. + +"They are using no current at present in the house," he ruminated. "Yet +the meter is running." + +He continued to examine the meter. Then he began to follow the electric +wires along. At last he discovered a place where they had been tampered +with and tapped by other wires. + +"The work of the Clutching Hand!" he muttered. + +Eagerly he followed the wires to the furnace and around to the back. +There they led right into a little water tank. Kennedy yanked them out. +As he did so he pulled something with them. + +"Two electrodes--the villain placed there," he exclaimed, holding them +up triumphantly for me to see. + +"Y-yes," I replied dubiously, "but what does it all mean?" + +"Why, don't you see? Under the influence of the electric current the +water was decomposed and gave off oxygen and hydrogen. The free +hydrogen passed up the furnace pipe and combining with the arsenic in +the wall paper formed the deadly arseniuretted hydrogen." + +He cast the whole improvised electrolysis apparatus on the floor and +dashed up the cellar steps. + +"I've found it!" he cried, hurrying into Elaine's room. "It's in this +room--a deadly gas--arseniuretted hydrogen." + +He tore open the windows and threw them all open. "Have her moved," he +cried to Aunt Josephine. "Then have a vacuum cleaner go over every inch +of wall, carpet and upholstery." + +Standing beside her, he breathlessly explained his discovery. "That +wall paper has been loaded down with arsenic, probably Paris green or +Schweinfurth green, which is aceto-arsenite of copper. Every minute you +are here, you are breathing arseniuretted hydrogen. The Clutching Hand +has cleverly contrived to introduce the nascent gas into the room. That +acts on the arsenic compounds in the wall paper and hangings and sets +free the gas. I thought I knew the smell the moment I got a whiff of +it. You are slowly being poisoned by minute quantities of the deadly +gas. This Clutching Hand is a diabolical genius. Think of it--poisoned +wall paper!" + +No one said a word. Kennedy reached down and took the two Clutching +Hand messages Elaine had received. "I shall want to study these notes, +more, too," he said, holding them up to the wall at the head of the bed +as he flashed his pocket lens at them. "You see, Elaine, I may be able +to get something from studying the ink, the paper, the handwriting--" + +Suddenly both leaped back, with a cry. + +Their faces had been several inches apart. Something had whizzed +between them and literally impaled the two notes on the wall. + +Down the street, on the roof of a carriage house, back of a neighbor's, +might have been seen the uncouth figure of the dilapidated South +American Indian crouching behind a chimney and gazing intently at the +Dodge house. + +As Craig had thrown open Elaine's window and turned to Elaine, the +figure had crouched closer to his chimney. + +Then with an uncanny determination he slowly raised the blow-gun to his +lips. + +I jumped forward, followed by Dr. Hayward, Aunt Josephine, and Marie. +Kennedy had a peculiar look as he pulled out from the wall a blow-gun +dart similar in every way to that which had killed Michael. + +"Craig!" gasped Elaine, reaching up and laying her soft white hand on +his arm in undisguised fear for him, "you--you must give up this chase +for the Clutching Hand!" + +"Give up the chase for the Clutching Hand?" he repeated in surprise. +"Never! Not until either he or I is dead!" + +There was both fear and admiration mingled in her look, as he reached +down and patted her dainty shoulder encouragingly. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE VAMPIRE + + +Kennedy went the next day to the Dodge house, and, as usual, Perry +Bennett was there in the library with Elaine, still going over the +Clutching Hand case, in their endeavor to track down the mysterious +master criminal. + +Bennett seemed as deeply as ever in love with Elaine. Still, as +Jennings admitted Craig, it was sufficiently evident by the manner in +which Elaine left Bennett and ran to meet Craig that she had the +highest regard for him. + +"I've brought you a little document that may interest you," remarked +Kennedy, reaching into his pocket and pulling out an envelope. + +Elaine tore it open and looked at the paper within. + +"Oh, how thoughtful of you!" she exclaimed in surprise. + +It was a permit from the police made out in her name allowing her to +carry a revolver. + +A moment later, Kennedy reached into his coat pocket and produced a +little automatic which he handed to her. + +"Thank you," she cried eagerly. + +Elaine examined the gun with interest, then, raising it, pointed it +playfully at Bennett. + +"Oh--no--no!" exclaimed Kennedy, taking her arm quickly, and gently +deflecting the weapon away. "You mustn't think it is a toy. It explodes +at a mere touch of the trigger--when that safety ratchet is turned." + +Bennett had realized the danger and had jumped back, almost +mechanically. As he did so, he bumped into a suit of medieval armor +standing by the wall, knocking it over with a resounding crash. + +"I beg pardon," he ejaculated, "I'm very sorry. That was very awkward +of me." + +Jennings, who had been busy about the portieres at the doorway, started +to pick up the fallen knight. Some of the pieces were broken, and the +three gathered about as the butler tried to fit them together again as +best he could. + +"Too bad, too bad," apologized Bennett profusely. "I really forgot how +close I was to the thing." + +"Oh, never mind," returned Elaine, a little crestfallen, "It is smashed +all right--but it was my fault. Jennings, send for someone to repair +it." + +She turned to Kennedy. "But I do wish you would teach me how to use +this thing," she added, touching the automatic gingerly. + +"Gladly," he returned. + +"Won't you join us, Mr. Bennett?" asked Elaine. + +"No," the young lawyer smiled, "I'm afraid I can't. You see, I had an +engagement with another client and I'm already late." + +He took his hat and coat and, with a reluctant farewell, moved toward +the hallway. + +A moment later Elaine and Craig followed, while Jennings finished +restoring the armor as nearly as possible as it had been. + + . . . . . . . . + +It was late that night that a masked figure succeeded in raising itself +to the narrow ornamental ledge under Elaine's bedroom window. + +Elaine was a light sleeper and, besides, Rusty, her faithful collie, +now fully recovered from the poison, was in her room. + +Rusty growled and the sudden noise wakened her. + +Startled, Elaine instantly thought of the automatic. She reached under +her pillow, keeping very quiet, and drew forth the gun that Craig had +given her. Stealthily concealing her actions under the covers, she +levelled the automatic at the figure silhouetted in her window and +fired three times. + +The figure fell back. + +Down in the street, below, the assistant of the Clutching Hand who had +waited while Taylor Dodge was electrocuted, was waiting now as his +confederate, "Pitts Slim"--which indicated that he was both wiry in +stature and libellous in delegating his nativity--made the attempt. + +As Slim came tumbling down, having fallen back from the window above, +mortally wounded, the confederate lifted him up and carried him out of +sight hurriedly. + +Elaine, by this time, had turned on the lights and had run to the +window to look out. Rusty was barking loudly. + +In a side street, nearby, stood a waiting automobile, at the wheel of +which sat another of the emissaries of the Clutching Hand. The driver +looked up, startled, as he saw his fellow hurry around the corner +carrying the wounded Pitts Slim. It was the work of just a moment to +drop the wounded man, as comfortably as possible under the +circumstances, in the rear seat, while his pals started the car off +with a jerk in the hurry of escape. + +Jennings, having hastily slipped his trousers on over his pajamas came +running down the hall, while Marie, frightened, came in the other +direction. Aunt Josephine appeared a few seconds later, adding to the +general excitement. + +"What's the matter?" she asked, anxiously. + +"A burglar, I think," exclaimed Elaine, still holding the gun in her +hand. "Someone tried to get into my window." + +"My gracious," cried Aunt Josephine, in alarm, "where will this thing +end?" + +Elaine was doing her best now to quiet the fears of her aunt and the +rest of the household. + +"Well," she laughed, a little nervously, now that it was all over, "I +want you all to go to bed and stop worrying about me. Don't you see, +I'm perfectly able to take care of myself? Besides, there isn't a +chance, now, of the burglar coming back. Why, I shot him." + +"Yes," put in Aunt Josephine, "but--" + +Elaine laughingly interrupted her and playfully made as though she were +driving them out of her room, although they were all very much +concerned over the affair. However, they went finally, and she locked +the door. + +"Rusty!" she called, "Down there!" + +The intelligent collie seemed to understand. He lay down by the +doorway, his nose close to the bottom of the door and his ears alert. + +Finally Elaine, too, retired again. + + . . . . . . . . + +Meanwhile the wounded man was being hurried to one of the hangouts of +the mysterious Clutching Hand, an old-fashioned house in the +Westchester suburbs. It was a carefully hidden place, back from the +main road, surrounded by trees, with a driveway leading up to it. + +The car containing the wounded Pitts Slim drew up and the other two men +leaped out of it. With a hurried glance about, they unlocked the front +door with a pass-key and entered, carrying the man. + +Indoors was another emissary of the Clutching Hand, a rather studious +looking chap. + +"Why, what's the matter?" he exclaimed, as the crooks entered his room, +supporting their half-fainting, wounded pal. + +"Slim got a couple of pills," they panted, as they laid him on a couch. + +"How?" demanded the other. + +"Trying to get into the Dodge house. Elaine did it." + +Slim was, quite evidently, badly wounded and was bleeding profusely. A +glance at him was enough for the studious-looking chap. He went to a +secret panel and, pressing it down, took out what was apparently a +house telephone. + +In another part of this mysterious house was the secret room of the +Clutching Hand himself where he hid his identity from even his most +trusted followers. It was a small room, lined with books on every +conceivable branch of science that might aid him and containing +innumerable little odds and ends of paraphernalia that might help in +his nefarious criminal career. + +His telephone rang and he took down the receiver. + +"Pitts Slim's been wounded--badly--Chief," was all he waited to hear. + +With scarcely a word, he hung up the receiver, then opened a table +drawer and took out his masking handkerchief. Next he went to a nearby +bookcase, pressed another secret spring, and a panel opened. He passed +through, the handkerchief adjusted. + +Across, in the larger, outside study, another panel opened and the +Clutching Hand, all crouched up, transformed, appeared. Without a word +he advanced to the couch on which the wounded crook lay and examined +him. + +"How did it happen?" he asked at length. + +"Miss Dodge shot him," answered the others, "with an automatic." + +"That Craig Kennedy must have given it to her!" he exclaimed with +suppressed fury. + +For a moment the Clutching Hand stopped to consider. Then he seized the +regular telephone. + +"Dr. Morton?" he asked as he got the number he called. + +Late as it was the doctor, who was a well-known surgeon in that part of +the country, answered, apparently from an extension of his telephone +near his bed. + +The call was urgent and apparently from a family which he did not feel +that he could neglect. + +"Yes, I'll be there--in a few moments," he yawned, hanging up the +receiver and getting out of bed. + +Dr. Morton was a middle-aged man, one of those medical men in whose +judgment one instinctively relies. From the brief description of the +"hemorrhage" which the Clutching Hand had cleverly made over the wire, +he knew that a life was at stake. Quickly he dressed and went out to +his garage, back of the house to get his little runabout. + +It was only a matter of minutes before the doctor was speeding over the +now deserted suburban roads, apparently on his errand of mercy. + +At the address that had been given him, he drew up to the side of the +road, got out and ran up the steps to the door. A ring at the bell +brought a sleepy man to the door, in his trousers and nightshirt. + +"How's the patient?" asked Dr. Morton, eagerly. + +"Patient?" repeated the man, rubbing his eyes. "There's no one sick +here." + +"Then what did you telephone for?" asked the doctor peevishly, + +"Telephone? I didn't call up anyone, I was asleep." + +Slowly it dawned on the doctor that it was a false alarm and that he +must be the victim of some practical joke. + +"Well, that's a great note," he growled, as the man shut the door. + +He descended the steps, muttering harsh language at some unknown +trickster. As he climbed back into his machine and made ready to start, +two men seemed to rise before him, as if from nowhere. + +As a matter of fact, they had been sent there by the Clutching Hand and +were hiding in a nearby cellar way until their chance came. + +One man stood on the running board, on either side of him, and two guns +yawned menacingly at him. + +"Drive ahead--that way!" muttered one man, seating himself in the +runabout with his gun close to the doctor's ribs. + +The other kept his place on the running board, and on they drove in the +direction of the mysterious, dark house. Half a mile, perhaps, down the +road, they halted and left the car beside the walk. + +Dr. Morton was too surprised to marvel at anything now and he realized +that he was in the power of two desperate men. Quickly, they +blindfolded him. + +It seemed an interminable walk, as they led him about to confuse him, +but at last he could feel that they had taken him into a house and +along passageways, which they were making unnecessarily long in order +to destroy all recollection that they could. Finally he knew that he +was in a room in which others were present. He suppressed a shudder at +the low, menacing voices. + +A moment later he felt them remove the bandage from his eyes, and, +blinking at the light, he could see a hard-faced fellow, pale and weak, +on a blood-stained couch. Over him bent a masked man and another man +stood nearby, endeavoring by improvised bandages to stop the flow of +blood. + +"What can you do for this fellow?" asked the masked man. + +Dr. Morton, seeing nothing else to do, for he was more than outnumbered +now, bent down and examined him. + +As he rose, he said, "He will be dead from loss of blood by morning, no +matter if he is properly bandaged." + +"Is there nothing that can save him?" whispered the Clutching Hand +hoarsely. + +"Blood transfusion might save him," replied the Doctor. "But so much +blood would be needed that whoever gives it would be liable to die +himself." + +Clutching Hand stood silent a moment, thinking, as he gazed at the man +who had been one of his chief reliances. Then, with a menacing gesture, +he spoke in a low, bitter tone. + +"SHE WHO SHOT HIM SHALL SUPPLY THE BLOOD." + + . . . . . . . . + +A few quick directions followed to his subordinates, and as he made +ready to go, he muttered, "Keep the doctor here. Don't let him stir +from the room." + +Then, with the man who had aided him in the murder of Taylor Dodge, he +sallied out into the blackness that precedes dawn. + +It was just before early daybreak when the Clutching Hand and his +confederate reached the Dodge House in the city and came up to the back +door, over the fences. As they stood there, the Clutching Hand produced +a master key and started to open the door. But before he did so, he +took out his watch. + +"Let me see," he ruminated. "Twenty minutes past four. At exactly half +past, I want you to do as I told you--see?" + +The other crook nodded. + +"You may go," ordered the Clutching Hand. + +As the crook slunk away, Clutching Hand stealthily let himself into the +house. Noiselessly he prowled through the halls until he came to +Elaine's doorway. + +He gave a hasty look up and down the hall. There was no sound. Quickly +he took a syringe from his pocket and bent down by the door. Inserting +the end under it, he squirted some liquid through which vaporized +rapidly in a wide, fine stream of spray. Before he could give an alarm, +Rusty was overcome by the noxious fumes, rolled over on his back and +lay still. + +Outside, the other crook was waiting, looking at his watch. As the hand +slowly turned the half hour, he snapped the watch shut. With a quick +glance up and down the deserted street, he deftly started up the rain +pipe that passed near Elaine's window. + +This time there was no faithful Rusty to give warning and the second +intruder, after a glance at Elaine, still sleeping, went quickly to the +door, dragged the insensible dog out of the way, turned the key and +admitted the Clutching Hand. As he did so he closed the door. + +Evidently the fumes had not reached Elaine, or if they had, the inrush +of fresh air revived her, for she waked and quickly reached for the +gun. In an instant the other crook had leaped at her. Holding his hand +over her mouth to prevent her screaming he snatched the revolver away +before she could fire it. + +In the meantime the Clutching Hand had taken out some chloroform and, +rolling a towel in the form of a cone, placed it over her face. She +struggled, gasping and gagging, but the struggles grew weaker and +weaker and finally ceased altogether. + +When Elaine was completely under the influence of the drug, they lifted +her out of bed, the chloroform cone still over her face, and quietly +carried her to the door which they opened stealthily. + +Downstairs they carried her until they came to the library with its new +safe and there they placed her on a couch. + + . . . . . . . . + +At an early hour an express wagon stopped before the Dodge house and +Jennings, half dressed, answered the bell. + +"We've come for that broken suit of armor to be repaired," said a +workman. + +Jennings let the men in. The armor was still on the stand and the +repairers took armor, stand, and all, laying it on the couch where they +wrapped it in the covers they had brought for the purpose. They lifted +it up and started to carry it out. + +"Be careful," cautioned the thrifty Jennings. + +Rusty, now recovered, was barking and sniffing at the armor. + +"Kick the mutt off," growled one man. + +The other did so and Rusty snarled and snapped at him. Jennings took +him by the collar and held him as the repairers went out, loaded the +armor on the wagon, and drove off. + +Scarcely had they gone, while Jennings straightened out the disarranged +library, when Rusty began jumping about, barking furiously. Jennings +looked at him in amazement, as the dog ran to the window and leaped out. + +He had no time to look after the dog, though, for at that very instant +he heard a voice calling, "Jennings! Jennings!" + +It was Marie, almost speechless. He followed her as she led the way to +Miss Elaine's room. There Marie pointed mutely at the bed. + +Elaine was not there. + +There, too, were her clothes, neatly folded, as Marie had hung them for +her. + +"Something must have happened to her!" wailed Marie. + +Jennings was now thoroughly alarmed. + +Meanwhile the express wagon outside was driving off, with Rusty tearing +after it. + +"What's the matter?" cried Aunt Josephine coming in where the footman +and the maid were arguing what was to be done. + +She gave one look at the bed, the clothes, and the servants. + +"Call Mr. Kennedy!" she cried in alarm. + + . . . . . . . . + +"Elaine is gone--no one knows how or where," announced Craig as he +leaped out of bed that morning to answer the furious ringing of our +telephone bell. + +It was very early, but Craig dressed hurriedly and I followed as best I +could, for he had the start of me, tieless and collarless. + +When we arrived at the Dodge house, Aunt Josephine and Marie were fully +dressed. Jennings let us in. + +"What has happened?" demanded Kennedy breathlessly. + +While Aunt Josephine tried to tell him, Craig was busy examining the +room. + +"Let us see the library," he said at length. + +Accordingly down to the library we went. Kennedy looked about. He +seemed to miss something. + +"Where is the armor?" he demanded. + +"Why, the men came for it and took it away to repair," answered +Jennings. + +Kennedy's brow clouded in deep thought. + +Outside we had left our taxi, waiting. The door was open and a new +footman, James, was sweeping the rug, when past him flashed a +dishevelled hairy streak. + +We were all standing there still as Craig questioned Jennings about the +armor. With a yelp Rusty tore frantically into the room. A moment he +stopped and barked. We all looked at him in surprise. Then, as no one +moved, he seemed to single out Kennedy. He seized Craig's coat in his +teeth and tried to drag him out. + +"Here, Rusty--down, sir, down!" called Jennings. + +"No, Jennings, no," interposed Craig. "What's the matter, old fellow?" + +Craig patted Rusty whose big brown eyes seemed mutely appealing. Out of +the doorway he went, barking still. Craig and I followed while the rest +stood in the vestibule. + +Rusty was trying to lead Kennedy down the street! + +"Wait here," called Kennedy to Aunt Josephine, as he stepped with me on +the running board of the cab. "Go on, Rusty, good dog!" + +Rusty needed no urging. With an eager yelp he started off, still +barking, ahead of us, our car following. On we went, much to the +astonishment of those who were on the street at such an early hour. + +It seemed miles that we went, but at last we came to a peculiarly +deserted looking house. Here Rusty turned in and began scratching at +the door. We jumped off the cab and followed. + +The door was locked when we tried and from inside we could get no +answer. We put our shoulders to it and burst it in. Rusty gave a leap +forward with a joyous bark. + +We followed, more cautiously. There were pieces of armor strewn all +over the floor. Rusty sniffed at them and looked about, disappointed, +then howled. + +I looked from the armor to Kennedy, in blank amazement. + +"Elaine was kidnapped--in the armor," he cried. + + . . . . . . . . + +He was right. Meanwhile, the armor repairers had stopped at last at +this apparently deserted house, a strange sort of repair shop. Still +keeping it wrapped in blankets, they had taken the armor out of the +wagon and now laid it down on an old broken bed. Then they had +unwrapped it and taken off the helmet. + +There was Elaine! + +She had been stupefied, bound and gagged. Piece after piece of the +armor they removed, finding her still only half conscious. + +"Sh! What's that?" cautioned one of the men. They paused and listened. +Sure enough, there was a sound outside. They opened the window +cautiously. A dog was scratching on the door, endeavoring to get in. It +was Rusty. + +"I think it's her dog," said the man, turning. "We'd better let him in. +Someone might see him." + +The other nodded and a moment later the door opened and in ran Rusty. +Straight to Elaine he went, starting to lick her hand. + +"Right--her dog," exclaimed the other man, drawing a gun and hastily +levelling it at Rusty. + +"Don't!" cautioned the first. "It would make too much noise. You'd +better choke him!" + +The fellow grabbed for Rusty. Rusty was too quick. He jumped. Around +the room they ran. Rusty saw the wide open window--and his chance. Out +he went and disappeared, leaving the man cussing at him. + +A moment's argument followed, then they wrapped Elaine in the blankets +alone, still bound and gagged, and carried her out. + + . . . . . . . . + +In the secret den, the Clutching Hand was waiting, gazing now and then +at his watch, and then at the wounded man before him. In a chair his +first assistant sat, watching Dr. Morton. + +A knock at the door caused them to turn their heads. The crook opened +it and in walked the other crooks who had carried off Elaine in the +suit of armor. + +Elaine was now almost conscious, as they sat her down in a chair and +partly loosed her bonds and the gag. She gazed about, frightened. + +"Oh--help! help!" she screamed as she caught sight of the now familiar +mask of the Clutching Hand. + +"Call all you want--here, young lady," he laughed unnaturally. "No one +can hear. These walls are soundproof!" + +Elaine shrank back. + +"Now, doc.," he added harshly to Dr. Morton. "It was she who shot him. +Her blood must save him." + +Dr. Morton recoiled at the thought of torturing the beautiful young +girl before him. + +"Are--you willing--to have your blood transfused?" he parleyed. + +"No--no--no!" she cried in horror, + +Dr. Morton turned to the desperate criminal. "I cannot do it." + +"The deuce you can't!" A cold steel revolver pressed down on Dr. +Morton's stomach. In the other hand the master crook held his watch. + +"You have just one minute to make up your mind." + +Dr. Morton shrank back. The revolver followed. The pressure of a fly's +foot meant eternity for him. + +"I--I'll try!" + +The other crooks next carried Elaine, struggling, and threw her down +beside the wounded man. Together they arranged another couch beside him. + +Dr. Morton, still covered by the gun, bent over the two, the hardened +criminal and the delicate, beautiful girl. Clutching Hand glared +fiendishly, insanely. + +From his bag he took a little piece of something that shone like +silver. It was in the form of a minute, hollow cylinder, with two +grooves on it, a cylinder so tiny that it would scarcely have slipped +over the point of a pencil. + +"A cannulla," he explained, as he prepared to make an incision in +Elaine's arm and in the arm of the wounded rogue. + +He cuffed it over the severed end of the artery, so cleverly that the +inner linings of the vein and artery, the endothelium as it is called, +were in complete contact with each other. + +Clutching Hand watched eagerly, as though he had found some new, +scientific engine of death in the little hollow cylinder. + +A moment and the blood that was, perhaps, to save the life of the +wounded felon was coursing into his veins from Elaine. + +A moment later, Dr. Morton looked up at the Clutching Hand and nodded, +"Well, it's working!" + +At Elaine's head, Clutching Hand himself was administering just enough +ether to keep her under and prevent a struggle that would wreck all. +The wounded man had not been anesthetized and seemed feebly conscious +of what was being done to save him. + +All were now bending over the two. + +Dr. Morton bent closest over Elaine. He looked at her anxiously, felt +her pulse, watched her breathing, then pursed up his lips. + +"This is--dangerous," he ventured, gazing askance at the grim Clutching +Hand. + +"Can't help it," came back laconically and relentlessly. + +The doctor shuddered. + +The man was a veritable vampire! + + . . . . . . . . + +Outside the deserted house, Kennedy and I were looking helplessly about. + +Suddenly Kennedy dashed back and reappeared a minute later with a +couple of pieces of armor. He held them down to Rusty and the dog +sniffed at them. + +But Rusty stood still. + +Kennedy pointed to the ground. + +Nothing doing. In leading us where he had been before, Rusty had +reached the end of his canine ability. + +Everything we could do to make Rusty understand that we wanted him to +follow a trail was unavailing. He simply could not do it. Kennedy +coaxed and scolded. Rusty merely sat up on his hind legs and begged +with those irresistible brown eyes. + +"You can't make a bloodhound out of a collie," despaired Craig, looking +about again helplessly. + +Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a police whistle. He +blew three sharp blasts. + +Would it bring help? + + . . . . . . . . + +While we were thus despairing, the continued absence of Dr. Morton from +home had alarmed his family and had set in motion another train of +events. + +When he did not return, and could not be located at the place to which +he was supposed to have gone, several policemen had been summoned to +his house, and they had come, finally, with real bloodhounds from a +suburban station. + +There were the tracks of his car. That the police themselves could +follow, while two men came along holding in leash the pack, leaders of +which were "Searchlight" and "Bob." + +It had not been long before the party came across the deserted runabout +beside the road. There they had stopped, for a moment. + +It was just then that they heard Kennedy's call, and one of them had +been detailed to answer it. + +"Well, what do YOU want?" asked the officer, eyeing Kennedy +suspiciously as he stood there with the armor. "What's them pieces of +tin--hey?" + +Kennedy quickly flashed his own special badge. "I want to trail a +girl," he exclaimed hurriedly. "Can I find a bloodhound about here?" + +"A hound? Why, we have a pack--over there." + +"Bring them--quick!" ordered Craig. + +The policeman, who was an intelligent fellow, saw at once that, as +Kennedy said, the two trails probably crossed. He shouted and in a few +seconds the others, with the pack, came. + +A brief parley resulted in our joining forces. + +Kennedy held the armor down to the dogs. "Searchlight" gave a low +whine, then, followed by "Bob" and the others, was off, all with noses +close to the ground. We followed. + +The armor was, after all, the missing link. + +Through woods and fields the dogs led us. + +Would we be in time to rescue Elaine? + + . . . . . . . . + +In the mysterious haunt of the Clutching Hand, all were still standing +around Elaine and the wounded Pitts Slim. + +Just then a cry from one of the group startled the rest. One of them, +less hardened than the Clutching Hand, had turned away from the sight, +had gone to the window, and had been attracted by something outside. + +"Look!" he cried. + +From the absolute stillness of death, there was now wild excitement +among the crooks. + +"Police! Police!" they shouted to each other as they fled by a doorway +to a secret passage. + +Clutching Hand turned to his first assistant. + +"You--go--too," he ordered. + + . . . . . . . . + +The dogs had led us to a strange looking house, and were now baying and +leaping up against the door. We did not stop to knock, but began to +break through, for inside we could hear faintly sounds of excitement +and cries of "Police--police!" + +The door yielded and we rushed into a long hallway. Up the passage we +went until we came to another door. + +An instant and we were all against it. It was stout, but it shook +before us. The panels began to yield. + + . . . . . . . . + +On the other side of that door from us, the master crook stood for a +moment. Dr. Morton hesitated, not knowing quite what to do. + +Just then the wounded Pitts Slim lifted his hand feebly. He seemed +vaguely to understand that the game was up. He touched the Clutching +Hand. + +"You did your best, Chief," he murmured thickly. "Beat it, if you can. +I'm a goner, anyway." + +Clutching Hand hesitated by the wounded crook. This was the loyalty of +gangland, worthy a better cause. He could not bring himself to desert +his pal. He was undecided, still. + +But there was the door, bulging, and a panel bursting. + +He moved over to a panel in the wall and pushed a spring. It slid open +and he stepped through. Then it closed--not a second too soon. + +Back in his private room, he quickly stepped to a curtained iron door. +Pushing back the curtains, he went through it and disappeared, the +curtains falling back. + +At the end of the passageway, he stopped, in a sort of grotto or cave. +As he came out, he looked back. All was still. No one was about. He was +safe here, at least! + +Off came the mask and he turned down the road a few rods distant beyond +some bushes, as little concerned about the wild happenings as any other +passer-by might have been. + + . . . . . . . . + +At the very moment when we burst in, Dr. Morton, seeing his chance, +stopped the blood transfusion, working frantically to stop the flow of +blood. + +Kennedy sprang to Elaine's side, horrified by the blood that had +spattered over everything. + +With a mighty effort he checked a blow that he had aimed at Dr. Morton, +as it flashed over him that the surgeon, now free again, was doing his +best to save the terribly imperilled life of Elaine. + +Just then the police burst through the secret panel and rushed on, +leaving us alone, with the unconscious, scarcely breathing Elaine. From +the sounds we could tell that they had come to the private room of the +Clutching Hand. It was empty and they were non-plussed. + +"Not a window!" called one. + +"What are those curtains?" + +They pulled them back, disclosing an iron door. They tried it but it +was bolted on the other side. Blows had no effect. They had to give it +up for the instant. + +A policeman now stood beside Elaine and the wounded burglar who was +muttering deliriously to himself. + +He was pretty far gone, as the policeman knelt down and tried to get a +statement out of him. + +"Who was that man who left you--last--the Clutching Hand?" + +Not a word came from the crook. + +The policeman repeated his question. + +With his last strength, he looked disdainfully at the officer's pad and +pencil. "The gangster never squeals," he snarled, as he fell back. + +Dr. Morton had paid no attention whatever to him, but was working +desperately now over Elaine, trying to bring her back to life. + +"Is she--going to--die?" gasped Craig, frantically. + +Every eye was riveted on Dr. Morton. + +"She is all right," he muttered. "But the man is going to die." + +At the sound of Craig's voice Elaine had feebly opened her eyes. + +"Thank heaven," breathed Craig, with a sigh of relief, as his hand +gently stroked Elaine's unnaturally cold forehead. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE DOUBLE TRAP + + +Mindful of the sage advice that a time of peace is best employed in +preparing for war, I was busily engaged in cleaning my automatic gun +one morning as Kennedy and I were seated in our living room. + +Our door buzzer sounded and Kennedy, always alert, jumped up, pushing +aside a great pile of papers which had accumulated in the Dodge case. + +Two steps took him to the wall where the day before he had installed a +peculiar box about four by six inches long connected in some way with a +lens-like box of similar size above our bell and speaking tube in the +hallway below. He opened it, disclosing an oblong plate of ground glass. + +"I thought the seismograph arrangement was not quite enough after that +spring-gun affair," he remarked, "so I have put in a sort of teleview +of my own invention--so that I can see down into the vestibule +downstairs. Well--just look who's here!" + +"Some new fandangled periscope arrangement, I suppose?" I queried +moving slowly over toward it. + +However, one look was enough to interest me. I can express it only in +slang. There, framed in the little thing, was a vision of as swell a +"chicken" as I have ever seen. + +I whistled under my breath. + +"Um!" I exclaimed shamelessly, "A peach! Who's your friend?" + +I had never said a truer word than in my description of her, though I +did not know it at the time. She was indeed known as "Gertie the Peach" +in the select circle to which she belonged. + +Gertie was very attractive, though frightfully over-dressed. But, then, +no one thinks anything of that now, in New York. + +Kennedy had opened the lower door and our fair visitor was coming +upstairs. Meanwhile he was deeply in thought before the "teleview." He +made up his mind quickly, however. + +"Go in there, Walter," he said, seizing me quickly and pushing me into +my room. "I want you to wait there and watch her carefully." + +I slipped the gun into my pocket and went, just as a knock at the door +told me she was outside. + +Kennedy opened the door, disclosing a very excited young woman. + +"Oh, Professor Kennedy," she cried, all in one breath, with much +emotion, "I'm so glad I found you in. I can't tell you. Oh--my jewels! +They have been stolen--and my husband must not know of it. Help me to +recover them--please!" + +She had not paused, but had gone on in a wild, voluble explanation. + +"Just a moment, my dear young lady," interrupted Craig, finding at last +a chance to get a word in edgewise. "Do you see that table--and all +those papers? Really, I can't take your case. I am too busy as it is +even to take the cases of many of my own clients." + +"But, please, Professor Kennedy--please!" she begged. "Help me. It +means--oh, I can't tell you how much it means to me!" + +She had come close to him and had laid her warm, little soft hand on +his, in ardent entreaty. + +From my hiding place in my room, I could not help seeing that she was +using every charm of her sex and personality to lure him on, as she +clung confidingly to him. Craig was very much embarrassed, and I could +not help a smile at his discomfiture. Seriously, I should have hated to +have been in his position. + +Gertie had thrown her arms about Kennedy, as if in wildest devotion. I +wondered what Elaine would have thought, if she had a picture of that! + +"Oh," she begged him, "please--please, help me!" + +Still Kennedy seemed utterly unaffected by her passionate embrace. +Carefully he loosened her fingers from about his neck and removed the +plump, enticing arms. + +Gertie sank into a chair, weeping, while Kennedy stood before her a +moment in deep abstraction. + +Finally he seemed to make up his mind to something. His manner toward +her changed. He took a step to her side. + +"I WILL help you," he said, laying his hand on her shoulder. "If it is +possible I will recover your jewels. Where do you live?" + +"At Hazlehurst," she replied, gratefully. "Oh, Mr. Kennedy, how can I +ever thank you?" + +She seemed overcome with gratitude and took his hand, pressed it, even +kissed it. + +"Just a minute," he added, carefully extricating his hand. "I'll be +ready in just a minute." + +Kennedy entered the room where I was listening. + +"What's it all about, Craig?" I whispered, mystified. + +For a moment he stood thinking, apparently reconsidering what he had +just done. Then his second thought seemed to approve it. + +"This is a trap of the Clutching Hand, Walter," he whispered, adding +tensely, "and we're going to walk right into it." + +I looked at him in amazement. + +"But, Craig," I demurred, "that's foolhardy. Have her +trailed--anything--but---" + +He shook his head and with a mere motion of his hand brushed aside my +objections as he went to a cabinet across the room. + +From one shelf he took out a small metal box and from another a test +tube, placing the test tube in his waistcoat pocket, and the small box +in his coatpocket, with excessive care. + +Then he turned and motioned to me to follow him out into the other +room. I did so, stuffing my "gatt" into my pocket. + +"Let me introduce my friend, Mr. Jameson," said Craig, presenting me to +the pretty crook. + +The introduction quickly over, we three went out to get Craig's car +which he kept at a nearby garage. + + . . . . . . . . + +That forenoon, Perry Bennett was reading up a case. In the outer office +Milton Schofield, his office boy, was industriously chewing gum and +admiring his feet cocked up on the desk before him. + +The door to the waiting room opened and an attractive woman of perhaps +thirty, dressed in extreme mourning, entered with a boy. + +Milton cast a glance of scorn at the "little dude." He was in reality +about fourteen years old but was dressed to look much younger. + +Milton took his feet down in deference to the lady, but snickered +openly at the boy. A fight seemed imminent. + +"Did you wish to see Mr. Bennett?" asked the precocious Milton politely +on one hand while on the other he made a wry grimace. + +"Yes--here is my card," replied the woman. + +It was deeply bordered in black. Even Milton was startled at reading +it: "Mrs. Taylor Dodge." + +He looked at the woman in open-mouthed astonishment. Even he knew that +Elaine's mother had been dead for years. + +The woman, however, true to her name in the artistic coterie in which +she was leader, had sunk into a chair and was sobbing convulsively, as +only "Weepy Mary" could. + +It was so effective that even Milton was visibly moved. He took the +card in, excitedly, to Bennett. + +"There's a woman outside--says she is Mrs. Dodge!" he cried. + +If Milton had had an X-ray eye he could have seen her take a cigarette +from her handbag and light it nonchalantly the moment he was gone. + +As for Bennett, Milton, who was watching him closely, thought he was +about to discharge him on the spot for bothering him. He took the card, +and his face expressed the most extreme surprise, then anger. He +thought a moment. + +"Tell that woman to state her business in writing," he thundered curtly +at Milton. + +As the boy turned to go back to the waiting room, Weepy Mary, hearing +him coming, hastily shoved the cigarette into her "son's" hand. + +"Mr. Bennett says for you to write out what it is you want to see him +about," reported Milton, indicating the table before which she was +sitting. + +Mary had automatically taken up sobbing, with the release of the +cigarette. She looked at the table on which were letter paper, pens and +ink. + +"I may write here?" she asked. + +"Surely, ma'am," replied Milton, still very much overwhelmed by her +sorrow. + +Weepy Mary sat there, writing and sobbing. + +In the midst of his sympathy, however, Milton sniffed. There was an +unmistakable odor of tobacco smoke about the room. He looked sharply at +the "son" and discovered the still smoking cigarette. + +It was too much for Milton's outraged dignity. Bennett did not allow +him that coveted privilege. This upstart could not usurp it. + +He reached over and seized the boy by the arm and swung him around till +he faced a sign in the corner on the wall. + +"See?" he demanded. + +The sign read courteously: + + "No Smoking in This Office--Please. "PERRY BENNETT." + +"Leggo my arm," snarled the "son," putting the offending cigarette +defiantly into his mouth. + +Milton coolly and deliberately reached over and, with an exaggerated +politeness swiftly and effectively removed it, dropping it on the floor +and stamping defiantly on it. + +"Son" raised his fists pugnaciously, for he didn't care much for the +role he was playing, anyhow. + +Milton did the same. + +There was every element of a gaudy mix-up, when the outer door of the +office suddenly swung open and Elaine Dodge entered. + +Gallantry was Milton's middle name and he sprang forward to hold the +door, and then opened Bennett's door, as he ushered in Elaine. + +As she passed "Weepy Mary," who was still writing at the table and +crying bitterly, Elaine hesitated and looked at her curiously. Even +after Milton had opened Bennett's door, she could not resist another +glance. Instinctively Elaine seemed to scent trouble. + +Bennett was still studying the black-bordered card, when she greeted +him. + +"Who is that woman?" she asked, still wondering about the identity of +the Niobe outside. + +At first he said nothing. But finally, seeing that she had noticed it, +he handed Elaine the card, reluctantly. + +Elaine read it with a gasp. The look of surprise that crossed her face +was terrible. + +Before she could say anything, however, Milton had returned with the +sheet of paper on which "Weepy Mary" had written and handed it to +Bennett. + +Bennett read it with uncontrolled astonishment. + +"What is it?" demanded Elaine. + +He handed it to her and she read: + +"As the lawful wife and widow of Taylor Dodge, I demand my son's rights +and my own. + +"MRS. TAYLOR DODGE." + +Elaine gasped at it. + +"She--my father's wife!" she exclaimed, "What effrontery! What does she +mean?" + +Bennett hesitated. + +"Tell me," Elaine cried, "Is there--can there be anything in it? +No--no--there isn't!" + +Bennett spoke in a low tone. "I have heard a whisper of some scandal or +other connected with your father--but--" He paused. + +Elaine was first shocked, then indignant. + +"Why--such a thing is absurd. Show the woman in!" + +"No--please--Miss Dodge. Let me deal with her." + +By this time Elaine was furious. + +"Yes--I WILL see her." + +She pressed the button on Bennett's desk and Milton responded. + +"Milton, show the--the woman in," she ordered, "and that boy, too." + +As Milton turned to crook his finger at "Weepy Mary," she nodded +surreptitiously and dug her fingers sharply into "son's" ribs. + +"Yell--you little fool,--yell," she whispered. + +Obedient to his "mother's" commands, and much to Milton's disgust, the +boy started to cry in close imitation of his elder. + +Elaine was still holding the paper in her hands when they entered. + +"What does all this mean?" she demanded. + +"Weepy Mary," between sobs, managed to blurt out, "You are Miss Elaine +Dodge, aren't you? Well, it means that your father married me when I +was only seventeen and this boy is his son--your half brother." + +"No--never," cried Elaine vehemently, unable to restrain her disgust. +"He never married again. He was too devoted to the memory of my mother." + +"Weepy Mary" smiled cynically. "Come with me and I will show you the +church records and the minister who married us." + +"You will?" repeated Elaine defiantly. "Well, I'll just do as you ask. +Mr. Bennett shall go with me." + +"No, no, Miss Dodge--don't go. Leave the matter to me," urged Bennett. +"I will take care of HER. Besides, I must be in court in twenty +minutes." + +Elaine paused, but she was thoroughly aroused. + +"Then I will go with her myself," she cried defiantly. + +In spite of every objection that Bennett made, "Weepy Mary," her son, +and Elaine went out to call a taxicab to take them to the railroad +station where they could catch a train to the little town where the +woman asserted she had been married. + + . . . . . . . . + +Meanwhile, before a little country church in the town, a closed +automobile had drawn up. + +As the door opened, a figure, humped up and masked, alighted. + +It was the Clutching Hand. + +The car had scarcely pulled away, when he gave a long rap, followed by +two short taps, at the door of the vestry, a secret code, evidently. + +Inside the vestry room a well-dressed man but with a very sinister face +heard the knock and a second later opened the door. + +"What--not ready yet?" growled the Clutching Hand. "Quick--now--get on +those clothes. I heard the train whistle as I came in the car. In which +closet does the minister keep them?" + +The crook, without a word, went to a closet and took out a suit of +clothes of ministerial cut. Then he hastily put them on, adding some +side-whiskers, which he had brought with him. + +At about the same time, Elaine, accompanied by "Weepy Mary" and her +"son," had arrived at the little tumble-down station and had taken the +only vehicle in sight, a very ancient carriage. + +It ambled along until, at last, it pulled up before the vestry room +door of the church, just as the bogus minister was finishing his +transformation from a frank crook. Clutching Hand was giving him final +instructions. + +Elaine and the others alighted and approached the church, while the +ancient vehicle rattled away. + +"They're coming," whispered the crook, peering cautiously out of the +window. + +Clutching Hand moved silently and snake-like into the closet and shut +the door. + +"How do you do, Dr. Carton?" greeted "Weepy Mary." "I guess you don't +remember me." + +The clerical gentleman looked at her fixedly a moment. + +"Remember you?" he repeated. "Of course, my dear. I remember everyone I +marry." + +"And you remember to whom you married me?" + +"Perfectly. To an older man--a Taylor Dodge." + +Elaine was overcome. + +"Won't you step in?" he asked suavely. "Your friend here doesn't seem +well." + +They all entered. + +"And you--you say--you married this--this woman to Taylor Dodge?" +queried Elaine, tensely. + +The bogus minister seemed to be very fatherly. "Yes," he assented, "I +certainly did so." + +"Have you the record?" asked Elaine, fighting to the last. + +"Why, yes. I can show you the record." + +He moved over to the closet. "Come over here," he asked. + +He opened the door. Elaine screamed and drew back. There stood her arch +enemy, the Clutching Hand himself. + +As he stepped forth, she turned, wildly, to run--anywhere. But strong +arms seized her and forced her into a chair. + +She looked at the woman and the minister. It was a plot! + +A moment Clutching Hand looked Elaine over. "Put the others out," he +ordered the other crook. + +Quickly the man obeyed, leading "Weepy Mary" and her "son" to the door, +and waving them away as he locked it. They left, quite as much in the +dark about the master criminal's identity as Elaine. + +"Now, my pretty dear," began the Clutching Hand as the lock turned in +the vestry door, "we shall be joined shortly by your friend, Craig +Kennedy, and," he added with a leer, "I think your rather insistent +search for a certain person will cease." + +Elaine drew back in the chair, horrified, at the implied threat. + +Clutching Hand laughed, diabolically. + + . . . . . . . . + +While these astounding events were transpiring in the little church, +Kennedy and I had been tearing across the country in his big car, +following the directions of our fair friend. + +We stopped at last before a prosperous, attractive-looking house and +entered a very prettily furnished but small parlor. Heavy portieres +hung over the doorway into the hall, over another into a back room and +over the bay windows. + +"Won't you sit down a moment?" coaxed Gertie. "I'm quite blown to +pieces after that ride. My, how you drive!" + +As she pulled aside the hall portieres, three men with guns thrust +their hands out. I turned. Two others had stepped from the back room +and two more from the bay window. We were surrounded. Seven guns were +aimed at us with deadly precision. + +"No--no--Walter--it's no use," shouted Kennedy calmly restraining my +hand which I had clapped on my own gun. + +At the same time, with his other hand, he took from his pocket the +small can which I had seen him place there, and held it aloft. + +"Gentlemen," he said quietly. "I suspected some such thing. I have here +a small box of fulminate of mercury. If I drop it, this building and +the entire vicinity will be blown to atoms. Go ahead--shoot!" he added, +nonchalantly. + +The seven of them drew back, rather hurriedly. + +Kennedy was a dangerous prisoner. + +He calmly sat down in an arm chair, leaning back as he carefully +balanced the deadly little box of fulminate of mercury on his knee. He +placed his finger tips together and smiled at the seven crooks, who had +gathered together, staring breathlessly at this man who toyed with +death. + +Gertie ran from the room. + +For a moment they looked at each other, undecided, then one by one, +they stepped away from Kennedy toward the door. + +The leader was the last to go. He had scarcely taken a step. + +"Stop!" ordered Kennedy. + +The crook did so. As Craig moved toward him, he waited, cold sweat +breaking out on his face. + +"Say," he whined, "you let me be!" + +It was ineffectual. Kennedy, still smiling confidently, came closer, +still holding the deadly little box, balanced between two fingers. + +He took the crook's gun and dropped it into his pocket. + +"Sit down!" ordered Craig. + +Outside, the other six parleyed in hoarse whispers. One raised a gun, +but the woman and the others restrained him and fled. + +"Take me to your master!" demanded Kennedy. + +The crook remained silent. + +"Where is he?" repeated Craig. "Tell me!" + +Still the man remained silent. Craig looked the fellow over again. +Then, still with that confident smile, he reached into his inside +pocket and drew forth the tube I had seen him place there. + +"No matter how much YOU accuse me," added Craig casually, "no one will +ever take the word of a crook that a reputable scientist like me would +do what I am about to do." + +He had taken out his penknife and opened it. Then he beckoned to me. + +"Bare his arm and hold his wrist, Walter," he said. + +Craig bent down with the knife and the tube, then paused a moment and +turned the tube so that we could see it. + +On the label were the ominous words: + +Germ culture 6248A Bacillus Leprae (Leprosy) + +Calmly he took the knife and proceeded to make an incision in the man's +arm. The crook's feelings underwent a terrific struggle. + +"No--no--no--don't," he implored. "I will take you to the Clutching +Hand--even if it kills me!" + +Kennedy stepped back, replacing the tube in his pocket. + +"Very well, go ahead!" he agreed. + +We followed the crook, Craig still holding the deadly box of fulminate +of mercury carefully balanced so that if anyone shot him from a hiding +place it would drop. + + . . . . . . . . + +No sooner had we gone than Gertie hurried to the nearest telephone to +inform the Clutching Hand of our escape. + +Elaine had sunk back into the chair, as the telephone rang. Clutching +Hand answered it. + +A moment later, in uncontrollable fury he hurled the instrument to the +floor. + +"Here--we've got to act quickly--that devil has escaped again," he +hissed. "We must get her away. You keep her here. I'll be back--right +away--with a car." + +He dashed madly from the church, pulling off his mask as he gained the +street. + + . . . . . . . . + +Kennedy had forced the crook ahead of us into the car which was waiting +and I followed, taking the wheel this time. + +"Which way, now--quick!" demanded Craig, "And if you get me in +wrong--I've got that tube yet--you remember." + +Our crook started off with a whole burst of directions that rivalled +the motor guide--"through the town, following trolley tracks, jog +right, jog left under the R. R. bridge, leaving trolley tracks; at +cemetery turn left, stopping at the old stone church." + +"Is this it?" asked Craig incredulously. + +"Yes--as I live," swore the crook in a cowed voice. + +He had gone to pieces. Kennedy jumped from the machine. + +"Here, take this gun, Walter," he said to me. "Don't take your eyes off +the fellow--keep him covered." + +Craig walked around the church, out of sight, until he came to a small +vestry window and looked in. + +There was Elaine, sitting in a chair, and near her stood an elderly +looking man in clerical garb, which to Craig's trained eye was quite +evidently a disguise. + +Elaine happened just then to glance at the window and her eyes grew +wide with astonishment at the sight of Craig. + +He made a hasty motion to her to make a dash for the door. She nodded +quietly. + +With a glance at her guardian, she suddenly made a rush. + +He was at her in a moment, pouncing on her, cat-like. + +Kennedy had seized an iron bar that lay beside the window where some +workmen had been repairing the stone pavement, and, with a blow +shattered the glass and the sash. + +At the sound of the smashing glass the crook turned and with a mighty +effort threw Elaine aside, drawing his revolver. As he raised it, +Elaine sprang at him and frantically seized his wrist. + +Utterly merciless, the man brought the butt of the gun down with full +force on Elaine's head. Only her hat and hair saved her, but she sank +unconscious. + +Then he turned at Craig and fired twice. + +One shot grazed Craig's hat, but the other struck him in the shoulder +and Kennedy reeled. + +With a desperate effort he pulled himself together and leaped forward +again, closing with the fellow and wrenching the gun from him before he +could fire again. + +It fell to the floor with a clang. + +Just then the man broke away and made a dash for the door leading back +into the church itself, with Kennedy after him. At the foot of a flight +of stairs, he turned long enough to pick up a chair. As Kennedy came +on, he deliberately smashed it over Craig's head. + +Kennedy warded off the blow as best he could, then, still undaunted, +started up the stairs after the fellow. + +Up they went, into the choir loft and then into the belfry itself. +There they came to sheer hand to hand struggle. Kennedy tripped on a +loose board and would have fallen backwards, if he had not been able to +recover himself just in time. The crook, desperate, leaped for the +ladder leading further up into the steeple. Kennedy followed. + +Elaine had recovered consciousness almost immediately and, hearing the +commotion, stirred and started to rise and look about. + +From the church she could hear sounds of the struggle. She paused just +long enough to seize the crook's revolver lying on the floor. + +She hurried into the church and up into the belfry, thence up the +ladder, whence the sounds came. + +The crook by this time had gained the outside of the steeple through an +opening. Kennedy was in close pursuit. + +On the top of the steeple was a great gilded cross, considerably larger +than a man. As the crook clambered outside, he scaled the steeple, +using a lightning rod and some projecting points to pull himself up, +desperately. + +Kennedy followed unhesitatingly. + +There they were, struggling in deadly combat, clinging to the gilded +cross. + +The first I knew of it was a horrified gasp from my own crook. I looked +up carefully, fearing it was a stall to get me off my guard. There were +Kennedy and the other crook, struggling, swaying back and forth, +between life and death. + +I looked at my man. What should I do? Should I leave him and go to +Craig? If I did, might he not pick us both off, from a safe vantage +point, by some sharp-shooting skill? + +There was nothing I could do. + +Kennedy was clinging to a lightning rod on the cross. + +It broke. + +I gasped as Craig reeled back. But he managed to catch hold of the rod +further down and cling to it. + +The crook seemed to exult diabolically. Holding with both hands to the +cross, he let himself out to his full length and stamped on Kennedy's +fingers, trying every way to dislodge him. It was all Kennedy could do +to keep his hold. + +I cried out in agony at the sight, for he had dislodged one of Craig's +hands. The other could not hold on much longer. He was about to fall. + +Just then I saw a face at the little window opening out from the ladder +to the outside of the steeple--a woman's face, tense with horror. + +It was Elaine! + +Quickly a hand followed and in it was a revolver. + +Just as the crook was about to dislodge Kennedy's other hand, I saw a +flash and a puff of smoke and a second later, heard a report--and +another--and another. + +Horrors! + +The crook who had taken refuge seemed to stagger back, wildly, taking a +couple of steps in the thin air. + +Kennedy regained his hold. + +With a sickening thud, the body of the crook landed on the ground +around the corner of the church from me. + +"Come--you!" I ground out, covering my own crook with the pistol, "and +if you attempt a getaway, I'll kill you, too!" + +He followed, trembling, unnerved. + +We bent over the man. It seemed that every bone in his body must be +broken. He groaned, and before I could even attempt anything for him, +he was dead. + + . . . . . . . . + +As Kennedy let himself slowly and painfully down the lightning rod, +Elaine seized him and, with all her strength, pulled him in through the +window. + +He was quite weak now from loss of blood. + +"Are you--all right?" she gasped, as they reached the foot of the +ladder in the belfry. + +Craig looked down at his torn and soiled clothes. Then, in spite of the +smarting pain of his wounds, he smiled, "Yes--all right!" + +"Thank heaven!" she murmured fervently, trying to staunch the flow of +blood. + +Craig gazed at her eagerly. The great look of relief in her face seemed +to take away all the pain from his own face. In its place came a look +of wonder--and hope. + +He could not resist. + +"This time--it was you--saved me!" he cried, "Elaine!" + +Involuntarily his arms sought hers--and he held her a moment, looking +deep into her wonderful eyes. + +Then their faces came slowly together in their first kiss. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE HIDDEN VOICE + + +"Jameson--wake up!" + +The strain of the Dodge case was beginning to tell on me, for it was +keeping us at work at all kinds of hours to circumvent the Clutching +Hand, by far the cleverest criminal with whom Kennedy had ever had +anything to do. + +I had slept later than usual that morning and, in a half doze, I heard +a voice calling me, strangely like Kennedy's and yet unlike it. + +I leaped out of bed, still in my pajamas, and stood for a moment +staring about. Then I ran into the living room. I looked about, rubbing +my eyes, startled. No one was there. + +"Hey--Jameson--wake up!" + +It was spooky. + +I ran back into Craig's room. He was gone. There was no one in any of +our rooms. The surprise had now thoroughly awakened me. + +"Where--the deuce--are you?" I demanded. + +Suddenly I heard the voice again--no doubt about it, either. + +"Here I am--over on the couch!" + +I scratched my head, puzzled. There was certainly no one on that couch. + +A laugh greeted me. Plainly, though, it came from the couch. I went +over to it and, ridiculous as it seemed, began to throw aside the +pillows. + +There lay nothing but a little oblong oaken box, perhaps eight or ten +inches long and three or four inches square at the ends. In the face +were two peculiar square holes and from the top projected a black disc, +about the size of a watch, fastened on a swinging metal arm. In the +face of the disc were several perforated holes. + +I picked up the strange looking thing in wonder and from that magic oak +box actually came a burst of laughter. + +"Come over to the laboratory, right away," pealed forth a merry voice. +"I've something to show you." + +"Well," I gasped, "what do you know about that?" + +Very early that morning Craig had got up, leaving me snoring. Cases +never wearied him. He thrived on excitement. + +He had gone over to the laboratory and set to work in a corner over +another of those peculiar boxes, exactly like that which he had already +left in our rooms. + +In the face of each of these boxes, as I have said, were two square +holes. The sides of these holes converged inward into the box, in the +manner of a four sided pyramid, ending at the apex in a little circle +of black, perhaps half an inch across. + +Satisfied at last with his work, Craig had stood back from the weird +apparatus and shouted my name. He had enjoyed my surprise to the +fullest extent, then had asked me to join him. + +Half an hour afterward I walked into the laboratory, feeling a little +sheepish over the practical joke, but none the less curious to find out +all about it. + +"What is it?" I asked indicating the apparatus. + +"A vocaphone," he replied, still laughing, "the loud speaking +telephone, the little box that hears and talks. It talks right out in +meeting, too--no transmitter to hold to the mouth, no receiver to hold +to the ear. You see, this transmitter is so sensitive that it picks up +even a whisper, and the receiver is placed back of those two +megaphone-like pyramids." + +He was standing at a table, carefully packing up one of the vocaphones +and a lot of wire. + +"I believe the Clutching Hand has been shadowing the Dodge house," he +continued thoughtfully. "As long as we watch the place, too, he will do +nothing. But if we should seem, ostentatiously, not to be watching, +perhaps he may try something, and we may be able to get a clue to his +identity over this vocaphone. See?" + +I nodded. "We've got to run him down somehow," I agreed. + +"Yes," he said, taking his coat and hat. "I am going to connect up one +of these things in Miss Dodge's library and arrange with the telephone +company for a clear wire so that we can listen in here, where that +fellow will never suspect." + + . . . . . . . . + +At about the same time that Craig and I sallied forth on this new +mission, Elaine was arranging some flowers on a stand near the corner +of the Dodge library where the secret panel was in which her father had +hidden the papers for the possession of which the Clutching Hand had +murdered him. They did not disclose his identity, we knew, but they did +give directions to at least one of his hang-outs and were therefore +very important. + +She had moved away from the table, but, as she did so, her dress caught +in something in the woodwork. She tried to loosen it and in so doing +touched the little metallic spring on which her dress had caught. + +Instantly, to her utter surprise, the panel moved. It slid open, +disclosing a strong box. + +Elaine took it amazed, looked at it a moment, then carried it to a +table and started to pry it open. + +It was one of those tin dispatch boxes which, as far as I have ever +been able to determine, are chiefly valuable for allowing one to place +a lot of stuff in a receptacle which is very convenient for a criminal. +She had no trouble in opening it. + +Inside were some papers, sealed in an envelope and marked "Limpy Red +Correspondence." + +"They must be the Clutching Hand papers!" she exclaimed to herself, +hesitating a moment in doubt what to do. The fatal documents seemed +almost uncanny. Their very presence frightened her. What should she do? + +She seized the telephone and eagerly called Kennedy's number. + +"Hello," answered a voice. + +"Is that you, Craig?" she asked excitedly. + +"No, this is Mr. Jameson." + +"Oh, Mr. Jameson, I've discovered the Clutching Hand papers," she +began, more and more excited. + +"Have you read them?" came back the voice quickly. + +"No--shall I?" + +"Then don't unseal them," cautioned the voice. "Put them back exactly +as you found them and I'll tell Mr. Kennedy the moment I can get hold +of him." + +"All right," nodded Elaine. "I'll do that. And please get him--as soon +as you possibly can." + +"I will." + +"I'm going out shopping now," she returned, suddenly. "But, tell him +I'll be back--right away." + +"Very well." + +Hanging up the receiver, Elaine dutifully replaced the papers in the +box and returned the box to its secret hiding place, pressing the +spring and sliding the panel shut. + +A few minutes later she left the house in the Dodge car. + + . . . . . . . . + +Outside our laboratory, leaning up against a railing, Dan the Dude, an +emissary of the Clutching Hand, whose dress now greatly belied his +underworld "monniker," had been shadowing us, watching to see when we +left. + +The moment we disappeared, he raised his hand carefully above his head +and made the sign of the Clutching Hand. Far down the street, in a +closed car, the Clutching Hand himself, his face masked, gave an +answering sign. + +A moment later he left the car, gazing about stealthily. Not a soul was +in sight and he managed to make his way to the door of our laboratory +without being observed. Then he opened it with a pass key which he must +have obtained in some way by working the janitor or the university +officials. + +Probably he thought that the papers might be at the laboratory, for he +had repeatedly failed to locate them at the Dodge house. At any rate he +was busily engaged in ransacking drawers and cabinets in the +laboratory, when the telephone suddenly rang. He did not want to answer +it, but if it kept on ringing someone outside might come in. + +An instant he hesitated. Then, disguising his voice as much as he could +to imitate mine, he took off the receiver. + +"Hello!" he answered. + +His face was a study in all that was dark as he realized that it was +Elaine calling. He clenched his crooked hand even more viciously. + +"Have you read them?" he asked, curbing his impatience as she +unsuspectingly poured forth her story, supposedly to me. + +"Then don't unseal them," he hastened to reply. "Put them back. Then +there can be no question about them. You can open them before +witnesses." + +For a moment he paused, then added, "Put them back and tell no one of +their discovery. I will tell Mr. Kennedy the moment I can get him." + +A smile spread over his sinister face as Elaine confided in him her +intention to go shopping. + +"A rather expensive expedition for you, young lady," he muttered to +himself as he returned the receiver to the hook. + +Clutching Hand lost no further time at the laboratory. He had thus, +luckily for him, found out what he wanted. The papers were not there +after all, but at the Dodge house. + +Suppose she should really be gone on only a short shopping trip and +should return to find that she had been fooled over the wire? Quickly, +he went to the telephone again. + +"Hello, Dan," he called when he got his number. + +"Miss Dodge is going shopping. I want you and the other Falsers to +follow her--delay her all you can. Use your own judgment." + +It was what had come to be known in his organization as the +"Brotherhood of Falsers." There, in the back room of a low dive, were +Dan the Dude, the emissary who had been loitering about the laboratory, +a gunman, Dago Mike, a couple of women, slatterns, one known as Kitty +the Hawk, and a boy of eight or ten, whom they called Billy. Before +them stood large schooners of beer, while the precocious youngster +grumbled over milk. + +"All right, Chief," shouted back Dan, their leader as he hung up the +telephone after noting carefully the hasty instructions. "We'll do +it--trust us." + +The others, knowing that a job was to lighten the monotony of +existence, gathered about him. + +They listened intently as he detailed to them the orders of the +Clutching Hand, hastily planning out the campaign like a division +commander disposing his forces in battle and assigning each his part. + +With alacrity the Brotherhood went their separate ways. + + . . . . . . . . + +Elaine had not been gone long from the house when Craig and I arrived +there. She had followed the telephone instructions of the Clutching +Hand and had told no one. + +"Too bad," greeted Jennings, "but Miss Elaine has just gone shopping +and I don't know when she'll be back." + +Shopping being an uncertain element as far as time was concerned, +Kennedy asked if anyone else was at home. + +"Mrs. Dodge is in the library reading, sir," replied Jennings, taking +it for granted that we would see her. + +Aunt Josephine greeted us cordially and Craig set down the vocaphone +package he was carrying. + +She nodded to Jennings to leave us and he withdrew. + +"I'm not going to let anything happen here to Miss Elaine again if I +can help it," remarked Craig in a low tone, a moment later, gazing +about the library. + +"What are you thinking of doing?" asked Aunt Josephine keenly. + +"I'm going to put in a vocaphone," he returned unwrapping it. + +"What's that?" she asked. + +"A loud speaking telephone--connected with my laboratory," he +explained, repeating what he had already told me, while she listened +almost awe-struck at the latest scientific wonder. + +He was looking about, trying to figure out just where it could be +placed to best advantage, when he approached the suit of armor. + +"I see you have brought it back and had it repaired," he remarked to +Aunt Josephine. Suddenly his face lighted up. "Ah--an idea!" he +exclaimed. "No one will ever think to look INSIDE that." + +It was indeed an inspiration. Kennedy worked quickly now, placing the +little box inside the breast plate of the ancient armourer with the top +of the instrument projecting right up into the helmet. It was a strange +combination--the medieval and the ultra-modern. + +"Now, Mrs. Dodge," he said finally, as he had completed installing the +thing and hiding the wire under carpets and rugs until it ran out to +the connection which he made with the telephone, "don't breathe a word +of it--to anyone. We don't know who to trust or suspect." + +"I shall not," she answered, by this time thoroughly educated in the +value of silence. + +Kennedy looked at his watch. + +"I've got an engagement with the telephone company, now," he said +rather briskly, although I knew that if Elaine had been there the +company and everything could have gone hang for the present. "Sorry not +to have seen Miss Elaine," he added as we bowed ourselves out, "but I +think we've got her protected now." + +"I hope so," sighed her aunt. + + . . . . . . . . + +Elaine's car had stopped finally at a shop on Fifth Avenue. She stepped +out and entered, leaving her chauffeur to wait. + +As she did so, Dan and Billy sidled along the crowded sidewalk. + +"There she is, Billy," pointed out Dan as Elaine disappeared through +the swinging doors of the shop. "Now, you wait right here," he +instructed stealthily, "and when she comes out--you know what to do. +Only, be careful." + +Dan the Dude left Billy, and Billy surreptitiously drew from under his +coat a dirty half loaf of bread. With a glance about, he dropped it +into the gutter close to the entrance to Elaine's car. Then he withdrew +a little distance. + +When Elaine came out and approached her car, Billy, looking as cold and +forlorn as could be, shot forward. Pretending to spy the dirty piece of +bread in the gutter, he made a dive for it, just as Elaine was about to +step into the car. + +Elaine, surprised, drew back. Billy picked up the piece of bread and, +with all the actions of having discovered a treasure, began to gnaw at +it voraciously. + +Shocked at the disgusting sight, she tried to take the bread away from +him. + +"I know it's dirty, Miss," whimpered Billy, "but it's the first food +I've seen for four days." + +Instantly Elaine was full of sympathy. She had taken the food away. +That would not suffice. + +"What's your name, little boy?" she asked. + +"Billy," he replied, blubbering. + +"Where do you live?" + +"With me mother and father--they're sick--nothing to eat--" + +He was whimpering an address far over on the East Side. + +"Get into the car," Elaine directed. + +"Gee--but this is swell," he cried, with no fake, this time. + +On they went, through the tenement canyons, dodging children and +pushcarts, stopping first at a grocer's, then at a butcher's and a +delicatessen. Finally the car stopped where Billy directed. Billy +hobbled out, followed by Elaine and her chauffeur, his arms piled high +with provisions. She was indeed a lovely Lady Bountiful as a crowd of +kids quickly surrounded the car. + +In the meantime Dago Mike and Kitty the Hawk had gone to a wretched +flat, before which Billy stopped. Kitty sat on the bed, putting dark +circles under her eyes with a blackened cork. She was very thin and +emaciated, but it was dissipation that had done it. Dago Mike was +correspondingly poorly dressed. + +He had paused beside the window to look out. "She's coming," he +announced finally. + +Kitty hastily jumped into the rickety bed, while Mike took up a crutch +that was standing idly in a corner. She coughed resignedly and he +limped about, forlorn. They had assumed their parts which were almost +to the burlesque of poverty, when the door was pushed open and Billy +burst in followed by Elaine and the chauffeur. + +"Oh, ma--oh, pa," he cried running forward and kissing his +pseudo-parents, as Elaine, overcome with sympathy, directed the +chauffeur to lay the things on a shaky table. + +"God bless you, lady, for a benevolent angel!" muttered the pair, to +which Elaine responded by moving over to the wretched bed and bending +down to stroke the forehead of the sick woman. + +Billy and Mike exchanged a sly wink. + +Just then the door opened again. All were genuinely surprised this +time, for a prim, spick and span, middle-aged woman entered. + +"I am Miss Statistix, of the organized charities," she announced, +looking around sharply. "I saw your car standing outside, Miss, and the +children below told me you were up here. I came up to see whether you +were aiding really DESERVING poor." + +She laid a marked emphasis on the word, pursing up her lips. There was +no mistaking the apprehension that these fine birds of prey had of her, +either. + +Miss Statistix took a step forward, looking in a very superior manner +from Elaine to the packages of food and then at these prize members of +the Brotherhood. She snorted contemptuously. + +"Why--wh-what's the matter?" asked Elaine, fidgeting uncomfortably, as +if she were herself guilty, in the icy atmosphere that now seemed to +envelope all things. + +"This man is a gunman, that woman is a bad woman, the boy is Billy the +Bread-Snatcher," she answered precisely, drawing out a card on which to +record something, "and you, Miss, are a fool!" + +"Ya!" snarled the two precious falsers, "get out o' here!" + +There was no combating Miss Statistix. She overwhelmed all arguments by +the very exactness of her personality. + +"YOU get out!" she countered. + +Kitty and Mike, accompanied by Billy, sneaked out. Elaine, now very +much embarrassed, looked about, wondering at the rapid-fire change. +Miss Statistix smiled pityingly. + +"Such innocence!" she murmured sadly shaking her head as she lead +Elaine to the door. "Don't you know better than to try to help anybody +without INVESTIGATING?" + +Elaine departed, speechless, properly squelched, followed by her +chauffeur. + + . . . . . . . . + +Meanwhile, a closed car, such as had stood across from the laboratory, +had drawn up not far from the Dodge house. Near it was a man in rather +shabby clothes and a visored cap on which were the words in dull gold +lettering, "Metropolitan Window Cleaning Co." He carried a bucket and a +small extension ladder. + +In the darkened recesses of the car was the Clutching Hand himself, +masked as usual. He had his watch in his hand and was giving most +minute instructions to the window cleaner about something. As the +latter turned to go, a sharp observer would have noted that it was Dan +the Dude, still further disguised. + +A few moments later, Dan appeared at the servants' entrance of the +Dodge house and rang the bell. Jennings, who happened to be down there, +came to the door. + +"Man to clean the windows," saluted the bogus cleaner, touching his hat +in a way quietly to call attention to the words on it and drawing from +his pocket a faked written order. + +"All right," nodded Jennings examining the order and finding it +apparently all right. + +Dan followed him in, taking the ladder and bucket upstairs, where Aunt +Josephine was still reading. + +"The man to clean the windows, ma'am," apologized Jennings. + +"Oh, very well," she nodded, taking up her book, to go. Then, recalling +the frequent injunctions of Kennedy, she paused long enough to speak +quietly to Jennings. + +"Stay here and watch him," she whispered as she went out. + +Jennings nodded, while Dan opened a window and set to work. + + . . . . . . . . + +Elaine had scarcely started again in her car down the crowded narrow +street. From her position she could not possibly have seen Johnnie, +another of the Brotherhood, watching her eagerly up the street. + +But as her car approached, Johnnie, with great determination, pulled +himself together and ran forward across the street. She saw that. + +"Oh!" she screamed, her heart almost stopping. + +He had fallen directly in front of the wheels of the car, apparently, +and although the chauffeur stopped with a jolt, it seemed that the boy +had been run over. + +They jumped out. There he was, sure enough, under the very wheels. +People came running now in all directions and lifted him up, groaning +piteously. He seemed literally twisted into a knot which looked as if +every bone in his body was broken or dislocated. + +Elaine was overcome. For, following their natural instincts the crowd +began pushing in with cries of "Lynch the driver!" It would have gone +hard with him, too, if she had not interfered. + +"Here!" cried Elaine, stepping in. "It wasn't his fault. The boy ran +across the street right in front of the car. Now--we're just going to +rush this boy to the hospital--right away!" + +She lifted Johnnie gently into the car herself and they drove off, to a +very vigorous blowing of the horn. + +A few moments later they pulled up before the ambulance entrance to the +hospital. + +"Quick!" beckoned Elaine to the attendants, who ran out and carried +Johnnie, still a complicated knot of broken bones, inside. + +In the reception room were a couple of nurses and a young medical +student, when Johnnie was carried in and laid on the bed. The student, +more interested in Elaine than the boy, examined him. His face wore a +puzzled look and there was every reason to believe that Johnnie was +seriously injured. + +At that moment the door opened and an elderly, gray-bearded house +physician entered. The others stepped back from the bed respectfully. +He advanced and examined Johnnie. + +The doctor looked at the boy a moment, then at Elaine. + +"I will now effect a miraculous cure by the laying on of hands," he +announced, adding quickly, "--and of feet!" + +To the utter surprise of all he seized the boy by the coat collar, +lifting him up and actually bouncing him on the floor. Then he picked +him up, shook him and ran him out of the room, delivering one last kick +as he went through the door. By the way Johnnie went, it was quite +evident that he was no more injured than the chauffeur. Elaine did not +know whether to be angry or to laugh, but finally joined in the general +laugh. + +"That was Double-Jointed Johnnie," puffed the doctor, as he returned to +them, "one of the greatest accident fakers in the city." + +Elaine, having had two unfortunate experiences during the day, now +decided to go home and the doctor politely escorted her to her car. + + . . . . . . . . + +From his closed car, the Clutching Hand gazed intently at the Dodge +house. He could see Dan on the ladder, now washing the library window, +his back toward him. + +Dan turned slowly and made the sign of the hand. Turning to his +chauffeur, the master criminal spoke a few words in a low tone and the +driver hurried off. + +A few minutes later the driver might have been seen entering a near-by +drug store and going into the telephone booth. Without a moment's +hesitation he called up the Dodge house and Marie, Elaine's maid, +answered. + +"Is Jennings there?" he asked. "Tell him a friend wants to speak to +him." + +"Wait a minute," she answered. "I'll get him." + +Marie went toward the library, leaving the telephone off the hook. Dan +was washing the windows, half inside, half outside the house, while +Jennings was trying to be very busy, although it was apparent that he +was watching Dan closely. + +"A friend of yours wants to speak to you over the telephone, Jennings," +said Marie, as she came into the library. + +The butler responded slowly, with a covert glance at Dan. + +No sooner had they gone, however, than Dan climbed all the way into the +room, ran to the door and looked after them. Then he ran to the window. +Across and down the street, the Clutching Hand was gazing at the house. +He had seen Dan disappear and suspected that the time had come. + +Sure enough, there was the sign of the hand. He hastily got out of the +car and hurried up the street. All this time the chauffeur was keeping +Jennings busy over the telephone with some trumped-up story. + +As the master criminal came in by the ladder through the open window, +Dan was on guard, listening down the hallway. A signal from Dan, and +Clutching Hand slid back of the portieres. Jennings was returning. + +"I've finished these windows," announced Dan as the butler reappeared. +"Now, I'll clean the hall windows." + +Jennings followed like a shadow, taking the bucket. + +No sooner had they gone than Clutching Hand stealthily came from behind +the portieres. + +One of the maids was sweeping in the hall as Dan went toward the +window, about to wash it. + +"I wonder whether I locked these windows?" muttered Jennings, pausing +in the hallway. "I guess I'd better make sure." + +He had taken only a step toward the library again, when Dan watchfully +caught sight of him. It would never do to have Jennings snooping around +there now. Quick action was necessary. Dan knocked over a costly Sevres +vase. + +"There--clumsy--see what you've done!" berated Jennings, starting to +pick up the pieces. + +Dan had acted his part well and promptly. In the library, Clutching +Hand was busily engaged at that moment beside the secret panel +searching for the spring that released it. He ran his finger along the +woodwork, pausing here and there without succeeding. + +"Confound it!" he muttered, searching feverishly. + + . . . . . . . . + +Kennedy, having made the arrangements with the telephone company by +which he had a clear wire from the Dodge house to his laboratory, had +rejoined me there and was putting on the finishing touches to his +installation of the vocaphone. + +Every now and then he would switch it on, and we would listen in as he +demonstrated the wonderful little instrument to me. He had heard the +window cleaner and Jennings, but thought nothing of it at the time. + +Once, however, Craig paused and I saw him listening more intently than +usual. + +"They've gone out," he muttered, "but surely there is someone in the +Dodge library." + +I listened; too. The thing was so sensitive that even a whisper could +be magnified and I certainly did hear something. + +Kennedy frowned. What was that scratching noise? Could it be Jennings? +Perhaps it was Rusty. + +Just then we could distinguish a sound as though someone had moved +about. + +"No--that's not Jennings," cried Craig. "He went out." + +He looked at me a moment. The same stealthy noise was repeated. + +"It's the Clutching Hand!" he exclaimed excitedly. + + . . . . . . . . + +A moment later, Dan hurried into the Dodge library. + +"For heaven's sake, Chief, hurry!" he whispered hoarsely. "The falsers +must have fallen down. The girl herself is coming!" + +Dan himself had no time to waste. He retreated into the hallway just as +Jennings was opening the door for Elaine. + +Marie took her wraps and left her, while Elaine handed her numerous +packages to Jennings. Dan watched every motion. + +"Put them away, Jennings," she said softly. + +Jennings had obeyed and gone upstairs. Elaine moved toward the library. +Dan took a quiet step or two behind her, in the same direction. + +In the library, Clutching Hand was now frantically searching for the +spring. He heard Elaine coming and dodged behind the curtains again +just as she entered. + +With a hasty look about, she saw no one. Then she went quickly to the +panel, found the spring, and pressed it. So many queer things had +happened to her since she went out that she had begun to worry over the +safety of the papers. + +The panel opened. They were there, all right. She opened the box and +took them out, hesitating to break the seal before Kennedy arrived. + +Stealthy and tiger-like the Clutching Hand crept up behind her. As he +did so, Dan gazed in through the portieres from the hall. + +With a spring, Clutching Hand leaped at Elaine, snatching at the +papers. Elaine clung to them tenaciously in spite of the surprise, and +they struggled for them, Clutching Hand holding one hand over her mouth +to prevent her screaming. Instantly Dan was there, aiding his chief. + +"Choke her! Strangle her! Don't let her scream!" he ground out. + +They fought viciously. Would they succeed? It was two desperate, +unscrupulous men against one frail girl. + +Suddenly, from the man in armor in the corner, as if by a miracle came +a deep, loud voice. + +"Help! Help! Murder! Police! They are strangling me!" + +The effect was terrific. + +Clutching Hand and Dan, hardened in crime as they were, fell back, +dazed, overcome for the moment at the startling effect. + +They looked about. Not a soul. + +Then to their utter consternation, from the vizor of the helmet again +came the deep, vibrating warning. + +"Help! Murder! Police!" + + . . . . . . . . + +Kennedy and I had been listening over the vocaphone, for the moment +non-plussed at the fellow's daring. + +Then we heard from the uncanny instrument, "For Heaven's sake, Chief, +hurry! The falsers have fallen down. The girl herself is coming!" + +What it meant we did not know. But Craig was almost beside himself, as +he ordered me to try to get the police by telephone, if there was any +way to block them. Only instant action would count, however. What to do? + +He could hear the master criminal plainly fumbling, now. + +"Yes, that's the Clutching Hand," he repeated. + +"Wait," I cautioned, "someone else is coming!" + +By a sort of instinct he seemed to recognize the sounds. + +"Elaine!" he exclaimed, paling. + +Instantly followed, in less time than I can tell it, the sounds of a +suppressed scuffle. + +"He has seized her--gagged her," I cried in an agony of suspense. + +We could now hear everything that was going on in the library. Craig +was wildly excited. As for me, I was speechless. Here was the vocaphone +we had installed. It had warned us. But what could we do? + +I looked blankly at Kennedy. He was equal to the emergency. + +He calmly turned a switch. + +Then, at the top of his lungs, he shouted, "Help! Help! Police! They +are strangling me!" + +I looked at him in amazement. What did he think he could do--blocks +away? + +"It works both ways," he muttered. "Help! Murder! Police!" + +We could hear the astounded cursing of the two men. Also, down the +hall, now, we could hear footsteps approaching in answer to his call +for help--Aunt Josephine, Jennings, Marie, and others, all shouting out +that there were cries in the library. + +"The deuce! What is it?" muttered a gruff voice. + +"The man in armor!" hissed Clutching Hand. + +"Here they come, too, Chief!" + +There was a parting scuffle. + +"There--take that!" + +A loud metallic ringing came from the vocaphone. + +Then, silence! + +What had happened + + . . . . . . . . + +In the library, recovered from their first shock of surprise, Dan cried +out to the Clutching Hand, "The deuce. What is it?" + +Then, looking about, Clutching Hand quickly took in the situation. + +"The man in armor!" he pointed out. + +Dan was almost dead with fright at the weird thing. + +"Here they come, too, Chief," he gasped, as, down the hall he could +hear the family shouting out that someone was in the library. + +With a parting thrust, Clutching Hand sent Elaine reeling. + +She held on to only a corner of the papers. He had the greater part of +them. They were torn and destroyed, anyway. + +Finally, with all the venomousness of which he was capable, Clutching +Hand rushed at the armor suit, drew back his gloved fist, and let it +shoot out squarely in a vicious solar plexus blow. + +"There--take that!" he roared. + +The suit rattled, furiously. Out of it spilled the vocaphone with a +bang on the floor. + +An instant later those in the hall rushed in. But the Clutching Hand +and Dan were gone out of the window, the criminal carrying the greater +part of the precious papers. + +Some ran to Elaine, others to the window. The ladder had been kicked +away and the criminals were gone. Leaping into the waiting car, they +had been whisked away. + +"Hello! Hello! Hello!" called a voice, apparently from nowhere. + +"What is that?" cried Elaine, still blankly wondering. + +She had risen by this time and was gazing about, wondering at the +strange voice. Suddenly her eye fell on the armor scattered all over +the floor. She spied the little oak box. + +"Elaine!" + +Apparently the voice came from that. Besides, it had a familiar ring to +her ears. + +"Yes--Craig!" she cried. + +"This is my vocaphone--the little box that hears and talks," came back +to her. "Are you all right?" + +"Yes--all right,--thanks to the vocaphone." + +She had understood in an instant. She seized the helmet and breastplate +to which the vocaphone still was attached and was holding them close to +herself. + + . . . . . . . . + +Kennedy had been calling and listening intently over the machine, +wondering whether it had been put out of business in some way. + +"It works--yet!" he cried excitedly to me. "Elaine!" + +"Yes, Craig," came back over the faithful little instrument. + +"Are you all right?" + +"Yes--all right." + +"Thank heaven!" breathed Craig, pushing me aside. + +Literally he kissed that vocaphone as if it had been human! + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE DEATH RAY + + +Kennedy was reading a scientific treatise one morning, while I was +banging on the typewriter, when a knock at the laboratory door +disturbed us. + +By some intuition, Craig seemed to know who it was. He sprang to open +the door, and there stood Elaine Dodge and her lawyer, Perry Bennett. + +Instantly, Craig read from the startled look on Elaine's face that +something dreadful had happened. + +"Why--what's the matter?" he asked, solicitously. + +"A--another letter--from the Clutching Hand!" she exclaimed +breathlessly. "Mr. Bennett was calling on me, when this note was +brought in. We both thought we'd better see you at once about it and he +was kind enough to drive me here right away in his car." + +Craig took the letter and we both read, with amazement: + +"Are you an enemy of society? If not, order Craig Kennedy to leave the +country by nine o'clock to-morrow morning. Otherwise, a pedestrian will +drop dead outside his laboratory every hour until he leaves." + +The note was signed by the now familiar sinister hand, and had, added, +a postscript, which read: + +"As a token of his leaving, have him place a vase of flowers on his +laboratory window to-day." + +"What shall we do?" queried Bennett, evidently very much alarmed at the +threat. + +"Do?" replied Kennedy, laughing contemptuously at the apparently futile +threat, "why, nothing. Just wait." + + . . . . . . . . + +The day proved uneventful and I paid no further attention to the +warning letter. It seemed too preposterous to amount to anything. + +Kennedy, however, with his characteristic foresight, as I learned +afterwards, had not been entirely unprepared, though he had affected to +treat the thing with contempt. + +His laboratory, I may say, was at the very edge of the University +buildings, with the campus back of it, but opening on the other side on +a street that was ordinarily not overcrowded. + +We got up as usual the next day and, quite early, went over to the +laboratory. Kennedy, as was his custom, plunged straightway into his +work and appeared absorbed by it, while I wrote. + +"There IS something queer going on, Walter," he remarked. "This thing +registers some kind of wireless rays--infra-red, I think,--something +like those that they say that Italian scientist, Ulivi, claims he has +discovered and called the 'F-rays.'" + +"How do you know?" I asked, looking up from my work. "What's that +instrument you are using?" + +"A bolometer, invented by the late Professor Langley," he replied, his +attention riveted on it. + +Some time previously, Kennedy had had installed on the window ledge one +of those mirror-like arrangements, known as a "busybody," which show +those in a room what is going on on the street. + +As I moved over to look at the bolometer, I happened to glance into the +busybody and saw that a crowd was rapidly collecting on the sidewalk. + +"Look, Craig!" I called hastily. + +He hurried over to me and looked. We could both see in the busybody +mirror a group of excited passersby bending over a man lying prostrate +on the sidewalk. + +He had evidently been standing on the curbstone outside the laboratory +and had suddenly put his hand to his forehead. Then he had literally +crumpled up into a heap, as he sank to the ground. + +The excited crowd lifted him up and bore him away, and I turned in +surprise to Craig. He was looking at his watch. + +It was now only a few moments past nine o'clock! + +Not quarter of an hour later, our door was excitedly flung open and +Elaine and Perry Bennett arrived. + +"I've just heard of the accident," she cried, fearfully. "Isn't it +terrible. What had we better do?" + +For a few moments no one said a word. Then Kennedy began carefully +examining the bolometer and some other recording instruments he had, +while the rest of us watched, fascinated. + +Somehow that "busybody" seemed to attract me. I could not resist +looking into it from time to time as Kennedy worked. + +I was scarcely able to control my excitement when, again, I saw the +same scene enacted on the sidewalk before the laboratory. Hurriedly I +looked at my watch. It was ten o'clock! + +"Craig!" I cried. "Another!" + +Instantly he was at my side, gazing eagerly. There was a second +innocent pedestrian lying on the sidewalk while a crowd, almost +panic-stricken, gathered about him. + +We watched, almost stunned by the suddenness of the thing, until +finally, without a word, Kennedy turned away, his face set in tense +lines. + +"It's no use," he muttered, as we gathered about him. "We're beaten. I +can't stand this sort of thing. I will leave to-morrow for South +America." + +I thought Elaine Dodge would faint at the shock of his words coming so +soon after the terrible occurrence outside. She looked at him, +speechless. + +It happened that Kennedy had some artificial flowers on a stand, which +he had been using long before in the study of synthetic coloring +materials. Before Elaine could recover her tongue, he seized them and +stuck them into a tall beaker, like a vase. Then he deliberately walked +to the window and placed the beaker on the ledge in a most prominent +position. + +Elaine and Bennett, to say nothing of myself, gazed at him, awe-struck. + +"Is--is there no other way but to surrender?" she asked. + +Kennedy mournfully shook his head. + +"I'm afraid not," he answered slowly. "There's no telling how far a +fellow who has this marvellous power might go. I think I'd better leave +to save you. He may not content himself with innocent outsiders always." + +Nothing that any of us could say, not even the pleadings of Elaine +herself could move him. The thought that at eleven o'clock a third +innocent passerby might lie stricken on the street seemed to move him +powerfully. + +When, at eleven, nothing happened as it had at the other two hours, he +was even more confirmed in his purpose. Entreaties had no effect, and +late in the morning, he succeeded in convincing us all that his purpose +was irrevocable. + +As we stood at the door, mournfully bidding our visitors farewell until +the morrow, when he had decided to sail, I could see that he was eager +to be alone. He had been looking now and then at the peculiar +instrument which he had been studying earlier in the day and I could +see on his face a sort of subtle intentness. + +"I'm so sorry--Craig," murmured Elaine, choking back her emotion, and +finding it impossible to go on. + +"So am I, Elaine," he answered, tensely. "But--perhaps--when this +trouble blows over--" + +He paused, unable to speak, turned, and shook his head. Then with a +forced gaiety he bade Elaine and Perry Bennett adieu, saying that +perhaps a trip might do him good. + +They had scarcely gone out and Kennedy closed the door carefully, when +he turned and went directly to the instrument which I had seen him +observing so interestedly. + +Plainly, I could see that it was registering something. + +"What's the matter?" I asked, non-plussed. + +"Just a moment, Walter," he replied evasively, as if not quite sure of +himself. + +He walked fairly close to the window this time, keeping well out of the +direct line of it, however, and there stood gazing out into the street. + +A glint, as if of the sun shining on a pair of opera glasses could be +seen from a window across the way. + +"We are being watched," he said slowly, turning and looking at me +fixedly, "but I don't dare investigate lest it cost the lives of more +unfortunates." + +He stood for a moment in deep thought. Then he pulled out a suitcase +and began silently to pack it. + + . . . . . . . . + +Although we had not dared to investigate, we knew that from a building, +across the street, emissaries of the Clutching Hand were watching for +our signal of surrender. + +The fact was, as we found out later, that in a poorly furnished room, +much after the fashion of that which, with the help of the authorities, +we had once raided in the suburbs, there were at that moment two crooks. + +One of them was the famous, or rather the infamous, Professor LeCroix, +with whom in a disguise as a doctor we had already had some experience +when he stole from the Hillside Sanitarium the twilight sleep drugs. +The other was the young secretary of the Clutching Hand who had given +the warning at the suburban headquarters at the time when they were +endeavoring to transfuse Elaine Dodge's blood to save the life of the +crook whom she had shot. + +This was the new headquarters of the master criminal, very carefully +guarded. + +"Look!" cried LeCroix, very much elated at the effect that had been +produced by his infra-red rays, "There is the sign--the vase of +flowers. We have got him this time!" + +LeCroix gleefully patted a peculiar instrument beside him. Apparently +it was a combination of powerful electric arcs, the rays of which were +shot through a funnel-like arrangement into a converter or, rather, a +sort of concentration apparatus from which the dread power could be +released through a tube-like affair at one end. It was his infra-red +heat wave, F-ray, engine. + +"I told you--it would work!" cried LeCroix. + + . . . . . . . . + +I did not argue any further with Craig about his sudden resolution to +go away. But it is a very solemn proceeding to pack up and admit defeat +after such a brilliant succession of cases as had been his until we met +this master criminal. + +He was unshakeable, however, and the next morning we closed the +laboratory and loaded our baggage, which was considerable, on a taxicab. + +Neither of us said much, but I saw a quick look of appreciation on +Craig's face as we pulled up at the wharf and saw that the Dodge car +was already there. He seemed deeply moved that Elaine should come at +such an early hour to have a last word. + +Our cab stopped and Kennedy moved over toward her car, directing two +porters, whom I noticed that he chose with care, to wait at one side. +One of them was an old Irishman with a slight limp; the other a wiry +Frenchman with a pointed beard. + +In spite of her pleadings, however, Kennedy held to his purpose and, as +we shook hands for the last time, I thought that Elaine would almost +break down. + +"Here, you fellows, now," directed Craig, turning brusquely to the +porters, "hustle that baggage right aboard." + +"Can't we go on the ship, too?" asked Elaine, appealingly. + +"I'm sorry--I'm afraid there isn't time," apologized Craig. + +We finally tore ourselves away, followed by the porters carrying as +much as they could. + +"Bon voyage!" cried Elaine, bravely keeping back a choke in her voice. + +Near the gangplank, in the crowd, I noticed a couple of sinister faces +watching the ship's officers and the passengers going aboard. Kennedy's +quick eye spotted them, too, but he did not show in any way that he +noticed anything as, followed by our two porters, we quickly climbed +the gangplank. + +A moment Craig paused by the rail and waved to Elaine and Bennett who +returned the salute feelingly. I paused at the rail, too, speculating +how we were to get the rest of our baggage aboard in time, for we had +taken several minutes saying good-bye. + +"In there," pointed Kennedy quickly to the porters, indicating our +stateroom which was an outside room. "Come, Walter." + +I followed him in with a heavy heart. + + . . . . . . . . + +Outside could be seen the two sinister faces in the crowd watching +intently, with eyes fixed on the stateroom. Finally one of the crooks +boarded the ship hastily, while the other watched the two porters come +out of the stateroom and pause at the window, speaking back into the +room as though answering commands. + +Then the porters quickly ran along the deck and down the plank, to get +the rest of the luggage. As they approached the Dodge car, Elaine, Aunt +Josephine and Perry Bennett were straining their eyes to catch a last +glimpse of us. + +The porters took a small but very heavy box and, lugging and tugging, +hastened toward the boat with it. But they were too late. The gang +plank was being hauled in. + +They shouted, but the ship's officers waved them back. + +"Too late!" one of the deckhands shouted, a little pleased to see that +someone would be inconvenienced for tardiness. + +The porters argued. But it was no use. All they could do was to carry +the box back to the Dodge car. + +Miss Dodge was just getting in as they returned. + +"What shall we do with this and the other stuff?" asked the Irish +porter. + +She looked at the rest of the tagged luggage and the box which was +marked: + +Scientific Instruments Valuable Handle with care. + +"Here--pile them in here," she said indicating the taxicab. "I'll take +charge of them." + +Meanwhile one of our sinister faced friends had just had time to regain +the shore after following us aboard ship and strolling past the window +of our stateroom. He paused long enough to observe one of the occupants +studying a map, while the other was opening a bag. + +"They're gone!" he said to the other as he rejoined him on the dock, +giving a nod of his head and a jerk of his thumb at the ship. + +"Yes," added the other crook, "and lost most of their baggage, too." + + . . . . . . . . + +Slowly the Dodge car proceeded through the streets up from the river +front, followed by the taxicab, until at last the Dodge mansion, was +reached. + +There Elaine and Aunt Josephine got out and Bennett stood talking with +them a moment. Finally he excused himself reluctantly for it was now +late, even for a lawyer, to get to his office. + +As he hurried over to the subway, Elaine nodded to the porters in the +taxicab, "Take that stuff in the house. We'll have to send it by the +next boat." + +Then she followed Aunt Josephine while the porters unloaded the boxes +and bags. + +Elaine sighed moodily as she walked slowly in. + +"Here, Marie," she cried petulantly to her maid, "take these wraps of +mine." + +Marie ventured no remark, but, like a good servant, took them. + +A moment later Aunt Josephine left her and Elaine went into the library +and over to a table. She stood there an instant, then sank down into a +chair, taking up Kennedy's picture and gazing at it with eyes filled by +tears. + +Just then Jennings came into the room, ushering the two porters laden +with the boxes and bags. + +"Where shall I have them put these things, Miss Elaine?" he inquired. + +"Oh--anywhere," she answered hurriedly, replacing the picture. + +Jennings paused. As he did so, one of the porters limped forward. "I've +a message for you, Miss," he said in a rich Irish brogue, with a look +at Jennings, "to be delivered in private." + +Elaine glanced at him surprised. Then she nodded to Jennings who +disappeared. As he did so, the Irishman limped to the door and drew +together the portieres. + +Then he came back closer to Elaine. + +A moment she looked at him, not quite knowing from his strange actions +whether to call for help or not. + + . . . . . . . . + +At a motion from Kennedy, as he pulled off his wig, I pulled off the +little false beard. + +Elaine looked at us, transformed, startled. + +"Wh--what--" she stammered. "Oh--I'm--so--glad. How--" + +Kennedy said nothing. He was thoroughly enjoying her face. + +"Don't you understand?" I explained, laughing merrily. "I admit that I +didn't until that last minute in the stateroom on the boat when we +didn't come back to wave a last good-bye. But all the care that Craig +took in selecting the porters was the result of work he did yesterday, +and the insistence with which he chose our travelling clothes had a +deep-laid purpose." + +She said nothing, and I continued. + +"The change was made quickly in the stateroom. Kennedy's man threw on +the coat and hat he wore, while Craig donned the rough clothes of the +porter and added a limp and a wig. The same sort of exchange of clothes +was made by me and Craig clapped a Van Dyck beard on my chin." + +"I--I'm so glad," she repeated. "I didn't think you'd--" + +She cut the sentence short, remembering her eyes and the photograph as +we entered, and a deep blush crimsoned her face. + +"Mum's the word," cautioned Kennedy, "You must smuggle us out of the +house, some way." + + . . . . . . . . + +Kennedy lost no time in confirming the suspicions of his bolometer as +to the cause of the death of the two innocent victims of the +machinations of the Clutching Hand. + +Both of them, he had learned, had been removed to a nearby undertaking +shop, awaiting the verdict of the coroner. We sought out the shop and +prevailed on the undertaker to let us see the bodies. + +As Kennedy pulled down the shroud from the face of the first victim, he +disclosed on his forehead a round dark spot about the size of a small +coin. Quickly, he moved to the next coffin and, uncovering the face, +disclosed a similar mark. + +"What is it?" I asked, awestruck. + +"Why," he said, "I've heard of a certain Viennese, one LeCroix I +believe, who has discovered or perfected an infra-red ray instrument +which shoots its power a great distance with extreme accuracy and +leaves a mark like these." + +"Is he in New York?" I inquired anxiously. + +"Yes, I believe he is." + +Kennedy seemed indisposed to answer more until he knew more, and I saw +that he would prefer not being questioned for the present. + +We thanked the undertaker for his courtesy and went out. + + . . . . . . . . + +Meanwhile Elaine had called up Perry Bennett. + +"Mr. Bennett," she exclaimed over the wire, "just guess who called on +me?" + +"Who?" he answered, "I give it up." + +"Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Jameson," she called back. + +"Is that so?" he returned. "Isn't that fine? I didn't think he was the +kind to run away like that. How did it happen?" + +Elaine quickly told the story as I had told her. + +Had she known it, however, Bennett's valet, Thomas, was at that very +moment listening at the door, intensely interested. + +As Bennett hung up the receiver, Thomas entered the room. + +"If anyone calls me," ordered Bennett, "take the message, particularly +if it is from Miss Dodge. I must get downtown--and tell her after I +finish my court work for the day I shall be right up." + +"Yes sir," nodded the valet with a covert glance at his master. + +Then, as Bennett left, he followed him to the door, paused, thought a +moment, then, as though coming to a sudden decision, went out by an +opposite door. + +It was not long afterward that a knock sounded at the door of the new +headquarters of the Clutching Hand. LeCroix and the secretary were +there, as well as a couple of others. + +"The Chief!" exclaimed one. + +The secretary opened the door, and, sure enough, the Clutching Hand +entered. + +"Well, how did your infra-red rays work?" he asked LeCroix. + +"Fine." + +"And they're gone?" + +"Yes. The flowers were in the window yesterday. Two of our men saw them +on the boat." + +There came another knock. This time, as the door opened, it was Thomas, +Bennett's faithless valet, who entered. + +"Say," blurted out the informer, "do you know Kennedy and Jameson are +back?" + +"Back?" cried the crooks. + +"Yes,--they didn't go. Changed clothes with the porters. I just heard +Miss Dodge telling Mr. Bennett." + +Clutching Hand eyed him keenly, then seemed to burst into an +ungovernable fury. + +Quickly he began volleying orders at the valet and the others. Then, +with the secretary and two of the other crooks he left by another door +from that by which he had sent the valet forth. + + . . . . . . . . + +Leaving the undertaker's, Kennedy and I made our way, keeping off +thoroughfares, to police headquarters, where, after making ourselves +known, Craig made arrangements for a raid on the house across the +street from the laboratory where we had seen the opera glass reflection. + +Then, as secretly as we had come, we went out again, letting ourselves +into the laboratory, stealthily looking up and down the street. We +entered by a basement door, which Kennedy carefully locked again. + +No sooner had we disappeared than one of the Clutching Hand's spies who +had been watching behind a barrel of rubbish gave the signal of the +hand down the street to a confederate and, going to the door, entered +by means of a skeleton key. + +We entered our laboratory which Kennedy had closed the day before. With +shades drawn, it now looked deserted enough. + +I dropped into a chair and lighted a cigarette with a sigh of relief, +for really I had thought, until the boat sailed, that Kennedy actually +contemplated going away. + +Kennedy went over to a cabinet and, from it, took out a notebook and a +small box. Opening the notebook on the laboratory table, he rapidly +turned the pages. + +"Here, Walter," he remarked. "This will answer your questions about the +mysterious deadly ray." + +I moved over to the table, eager to satisfy my curiosity and read the +notes which he indicated with his finger. + +INFRA-RED RAY NOTES + +The infra-red ray which has been developed by LeCroix from the +experiments of the Italian scientist Ulivi causes, when concentrated by +an apparatus perfected by LeCroix, an instantaneous combustion of +nonreflecting surfaces. It is particularly deadly in its effect on the +brain centers. + +It can be diverted, it is said however, by a shield composed of +platinum backed by asbestos. + +Next Kennedy opened the case which he had taken out of the cabinet and +from it he took out the platinum-asbestos mirror, which was something +of his own invention. He held it up and in pantomime showed me just how +it would cut off the deadly rays. + +He had not finished even that, when a peculiar noise in the laboratory +itself disturbed him and he hastily thrust the asbestos platinum shield +into his pocket. + +Though we had not realized it, our return had been anticipated. + +Suddenly, from a closet projected a magazine gun and before we could +move, the Clutching Hand himself slowly appeared, behind us. + +"Ah!" he exclaimed with mock politeness, "so, you thought you'd fool +me, did you? Well!" + +Just then, two other crooks, who had let themselves in by the skeleton +key through the basement jumped into the room through that door +covering us. + +We started to our feet, but in an instant found ourselves both +sprawling on the floor. + +In the cabinet, beneath the laboratory table, another crook had been +hidden and he tackled us with all the skill of an old football player +against whom we had no defence. + +Four of them were upon us instantly. + + . . . . . . . . + +At the same time, Thomas, the faithless valet of Bennett, had been +dispatched by the Clutching Hand to commandeer his master's roadster in +his absence, and, carrying out the instructions, he had driven up +before Elaine's house at the very moment when she was going out for a +walk. + +Thomas jumped out of the car and touched his hat deferentially. + +"A message from Mr. Bennett, ma'am," he explained. "Mr. Kennedy and Mr. +Bennett have sent me to ask you to come over to the laboratory." + +Unsuspecting, Elaine stepped into the car and drove off. + +Instead, however, of turning and pulling up on the laboratory side of +the street, Thomas stopped opposite it. He got out and Elaine, thinking +that perhaps it was to save time that he had not turned the car around, +followed. + +But when the valet, instead of crossing the street, went up to a door +of a house and rang the bell, she began to suspect that all was not as +it should be. + +"What are you going here for, Thomas?" she asked. "There's the +laboratory--over there." + +"But, Miss Dodge," he apologized, "Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Bennett are +here. They told me they'd be here." + +The door was opened quickly by a lookout of the Clutching Hand and the +valet asked if Craig and Elaine's lawyer were in. Of course the lookout +replied that they were and, before Elaine knew it, she was jostled into +the dark hallway and the door was banged shut. + +Resistance was useless now and she was hurried along until another door +was opened. + +There she saw LeCroix and the other crooks. + +And, as the door slammed, she caught sight of the fearsome Clutching +Hand himself. + +She drew back, but was too frightened even to scream. + +With a harsh, cruel laugh, the super-criminal beckoned to her to follow +him and look down through a small trap door. + +Unable now to resist, she looked. + +There she saw us. To that extent the valet had told the truth. Kennedy +was standing in deep thought, while I sat on an old box, smoking a +cigarette--very miserable. + + . . . . . . . . + +Was this to be the sole outcome of Kennedy's clever ruse, I was +wondering. Were we only to be shipwrecked in sight of port? + +Watching his chance, when the street was deserted, the Clutching Hand +and his followers had hustled us over to the new hangout across from +the laboratory. There they had met more crooks and had thrust us into +this vile hole. As the various ineffectual schemes for escape surged +through my head, I happened to look up and caught a glance of horror on +Craig's face. I followed his eyes. There, above us, was Elaine! + +I saw her look from us to the Clutching Hand in terror. But none of us +uttered a word. + +"I will now show you, my dear young lady," almost hissed the Clutching +Hand at length, "as pretty a game of hide and seek as you have ever +seen." + +As he said it, another trap door near the infra-red ray machine was +opened and a beam of light burst through. I knew it was not that which +we had to fear, but the invisible rays that accompanied it, the rays +that had affected the bolometer. + +Just then a spot of light showed near my foot, moving about the cement +floor until it fell on my shoe. Instantly, the leather charred, even +before I could move. + +Kennedy and I leaped to our feet and drew back. The beam followed us. +We retreated further. Still it followed, inexorably. + +Clutching Hand was now holding Elaine near the door where she could not +help seeing, laughing diabolically while he directed LeCroix and the +rest to work the infra-red ray apparatus through the trap. + +As we dodged from corner to corner, endeavoring to keep the red ray +from touching us, the crooks seemed in no hurry, but rather to enjoy +prolonging the torture as does a cat with a mouse. + +"Please--oh, please--stop!" begged Elaine. + +Clutching Hand only laughed with fiendish delight and urged his men on. + +The thing was getting closer and closer. + +Suddenly we heard a strange voice ring out above us. + +"Police!" + +"Where?" growled the Clutching Hand in fury. + +"Outside--a raid! Run! He's told them!" + +Already we could hear the hammers and axes of the police whom Kennedy +had called upon before, as they battered at the outside door. + +At that door a moment before, the lookout suddenly had given a startled +stare and a suppressed cry. Glancing down the street he had seen a +police patrol in which were a score or more of the strongarm squad. +They had jumped out, some carrying sledgehammers, others axes. + +Almost before he could cry out and retreat to give a warning, they had +reached the door and the first resounding blows had been struck. + +The lookout quickly had fled and drawn the bolts of a strong inner +door, and the police began battering that impediment. + +Instantly, Clutching Hand turned to LeCroix at the F-ray machine. + +"Finish them!" he shouted. + +We were now backed up against a small ell in the wall of the cellar. It +was barely large enough to hold us, but by crowding we were able to +keep out of the reach of the ray. The ray shot past the ell and struck +a wall a couple of inches from us. + +I looked. The cement began to crumble under the intense heat. + +Meanwhile, the police were having great difficulty with the +steelbolt-studded door into the room. Still, it was yielding a bit. + +"Hurry!" shouted Clutching Hand to LeCroix. + +Kennedy had voluntarily placed himself in front of me in the ell. +Carefully, to avoid the ray, he took the asbestos-platinum shield from +his pocket and slid it forward as best he could over the wall to the +spot where the ray struck. + +It deflected the ray. + +But so powerful was it that even that part of the ray which was +deflected could be seen to strike the ceiling in the corner which was +of wood. Instantly, before Kennedy could even move the shield, the wood +burst into flames. + +Above us now smoke was pouring into the room where the deflected ray +struck the floor and flames broke out. + +"Confound him!" ground out Clutching Hand, as they saw it. + +The other crooks backed away and stood, hesitating, not knowing quite +what to do. + +The police had by this time finished battering in the door and had +rushed into the outer passage. + +While the flames leaped up, the crooks closed the last door into the +room. + +"Run!" shouted Clutching Hand, as they opened a secret gate disclosing +a spiral flight of iron steps. + +A moment later all had disappeared except Clutching Hand himself. The +last door would hold only a few seconds, but Clutching Hand was waiting +to take advantage of even that. With a last frantic effort he sought to +direct the terrific ray at us. Elaine acted instantly. With all her +strength she rushed forward, overturning the machine. + +Clutching Hand uttered a growl and slowly raised his gun, taking aim +with the butt for a well-directed blow at her head. + +Just then the door yielded and a policeman stuck his head and shoulders +through. His revolver rang out and Clutching Hand's automatic flew out +of his grasp, giving him just enough time to dodge through and slam the +secret door in the faces of the squad as they rushed in. + +Back of the house, Clutching Hand and the other crooks were now passing +through a bricked passage. The fire had got so far beyond control by +this time that it drove the police back from their efforts to open the +secret door. Thus the Clutching Hand had made good his escape through +the passage which led out, as we later discovered, to the railroad +tracks along the river. + +"Down there--Mr. Kennedy--and Mr. Jameson," cried Elaine, pointing at +the trap which was hidden in the stifle. + +The fire had gained terrific headway, but the police seized a ladder +and stuck it down into the basement. + +Choking and sputtering, half suffocated, we staggered up. + +"Are you hurt?" asked Elaine anxiously, taking Craig's arm. + +"Not a bit--thanks to you!" he replied, forgetting all in meeting the +eager questioning of her wonderful eyes. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE LIFE CURRENT + + +Assignments were being given out on the Star one afternoon, and I was +standing talking with several other reporter in the busy hum of +typewriters and clicking telegraphs. + +"What do you think of that?" asked one of the fellows. "You're +something of a scientific detective, aren't you?" + +Without laying claim to such a distinction, I took the paper and read: + +THE POISONED KISS AGAIN + +Three More New York Women Report Being Kissed by Mysterious +Stranger--Later Fell into Deep Unconsciousness. What Is It? + +I had scarcely finished, when one of the copy boys, dashing past me, +called, "You're wanted on the wire, Mr. Jameson." + +I hurried over to the telephone and answered. + +A musical voice responded to my hurried hello, and I hastened to adopt +my most polite tone. + +"Is this Mr. Jameson?" asked the voice. + +"Yes," I replied, not recognizing it. + +"Well, Mr. Jameson, I've heard of you on the Star and I've just had a +very strange experience. I've had the poisoned kiss." + +The woman did not pause to catch my exclamation of astonishment, but +went on, "It was like this. A man ran up to me on the street and kissed +me--and--I don't know how it was--but I became unconscious--and I +didn't come to for an hour--in a hospital--fortunately. I don't know +what would have happened if it hadn't been that someone came to my +assistance and the man fled. I thought the Star would be interested." + +"We are," I hastened to reply. "Will you give me your name?" + +"Why, I am Mrs. Florence Leigh of number 20 Prospect Avenue," returned +the voice. "Really, Mr. Jameson, something ought to be done about these +cases." + +"It surely had," I assented, with much interest, writing her name +eagerly down on a card. "I'll be out to interview you, directly." + +The woman thanked me and I hung up the receiver. + +"Say," I exclaimed, hurrying over to the editor's desk, "here's another +woman on the wire who says she has received the poisoned kiss. + +"Suppose you take that assignment," the editor answered, sensing a +possible story. + +I took it with alacrity, figuring out the quickest way by elevated and +surface car to reach the address. + +The conductor of the trolley indicated Prospect Avenue and I hurried up +the street until I came to the house, a neat, unpretentious place. +Looking at the address on the card first to make sure, I rang the bell. + +I must say that I could scarcely criticize the poisoned kisser's taste, +for the woman who had opened the door certainly was extraordinarily +attractive. + +"And you really were--put out by a kiss?" I queried, as she led me into +a neat sitting room. + +"Absolutely--as much as if it had been by one of these poisoned needles +you read about," she replied confidently, hastening on to describe the +affair volubly. + +It was beyond me. + +"May I use your telephone?" I asked. + +"Surely," she answered. + +I called the laboratory. "Is that you, Craig?" I inquired. + +"Yes, Walter," he answered, recognizing my voice. + +"Say, Craig," I asked breathlessly, "what sort of kiss would suffocate +a person." + +My only answer was an uproarious laugh from him at the idea. + +"I know," I persisted, "but I've got the assignment from the Star--and +I'm out here interviewing a woman about it. It's all right to +laugh--but here I am. I've found a case--names, dates and places. I +wish you'd explain the thing, then." + +"Oh, all right, Walter," he replied indulgently. "I'll meet you as soon +as I can and help you out." + +I hung up the receiver with an air of satisfaction. At least now I +would get an explanation of the woman's queer story. + +"I'll clear this thing up," I said confidently. "My friend, Craig +Kennedy, the scientific detective is coming out here." + +"Good! That fellow who attacked me ought to be shown up. All women may +not be as fortunate as I." + +We waited patiently. Her story certainly was remarkable. She remembered +every detail up to a certain point--and then, as she said, all was +blankness. + +The bell rang and the woman hastened to the door admitting Kennedy. + +"Hello, Walter," he greeted. + +"This is certainly a most remarkable case, Craig," I said, introducing +him, and telling briefly what I had learned. + +"And you actually mean to say that a kiss had the effect--" Just then +the telephone interrupted. + +"Yes," she reasserted quickly. "Excuse me a second." + +She answered the call. "Oh--why--yes, he's here. Do you want to speak +to him? Mr. Jameson, it's the Star." + +"Confound it!" I exclaimed, "isn't that like the old man--dragging me +off this story before it's half finished in order to get another. I'll +have to go. I'll get this story from you, Craig." + + . . . . . . . . + +The day before, in the suburban house, the Clutching Hand had been +talking to two of his emissaries, an attractive young woman and a man. + +They were Flirty Florrie and Dan the Dude. + +"Now, I want you to get Kennedy," he said. "The way to do it is to +separate Kennedy and Elaine--see?" + +"All right, Chief, we'll do it," they replied. + +"I've rigged it so that you'll reach him through Jameson, understand?" + +They nodded eagerly as he told them the subtle plan. + +Clutching Hand had scarcely left when Flirty Florrie began by getting +published in the papers the story which I had seen. + +The next day she called me up from the suburban house. Having got me to +promise to see her, she had scarcely turned from the telephone when Dan +the Dude walked in from the next room. + +"He's coming," she said. + +Dan was carrying a huge stag head with a beautifully branched pair of +antlers. Under his arm was a coil of wire which he had connected to the +inside of the head. + +"Fine!" he exclaimed. Then, pointing to the head, he added, "It's all +ready. See how I fixed it? That ought to please the Chief." + +Dan moved quickly to the mantle and mounted a stepladder there by which +he had taken down the head, and started to replace the head above the +mantle. + +He hooked the head on a nail. + +"There," he said, unscrewing one of the beautiful brown glass eyes of +the stag. + +Back of it could be seen a camera shutter. Dan worked the shutter +several times to see whether it was all right. + +"One of those new quick shutter cameras," he explained. + +Then he ran a couple of wires along the moulding, around the room and +into a closet, where he made the connection with a sort of switchboard +on which a button was marked, "SHUTTER" and the switch, "WIND FILM." + +"Now, Flirty," he said, coming out of the closet and pulling up the +shade which let a flood of sunlight into the room, "you see, I want you +to stand here--then, do your little trick. Get me?" + +"I get you Steve," she laughed. + +Just then the bell rang. + +"That must be Jameson," she cried. "Now--get to your corner." + +With a last look Dan went into the closet and shut the door. + +Perhaps half an hour later, Clutching Hand himself called me up on the +telephone. It was he--not the Star--as I learned only too late. + + . . . . . . . . + +I had scarcely got out of the house, as Craig told me afterwards, when +Flirty Florrie told all over again the embroidered tale that had caught +my ear. + +Kennedy said nothing, but listened intently, perhaps betraying in his +face the scepticism he felt. + +"You see," she said, still voluble and eager to convince him, "I was +only walking on the street. Here,--let me show you. It was just like +this." + +She took his arm and before he knew it, led him to the spot on the +floor near the window which Dan had indicated. Meanwhile Dan was +listening attentively in his closet. + +"Now--stand there. You are just as I was--only I didn't expect +anything." + +She was pantomiming someone approaching stealthily while Kennedy +watched her with interest, tinged with doubt. Behind Craig, in his +closet, Dan was reaching for the switchboard button. + +"You see," she said advancing quickly and acting her words, "he placed +his hands on my shoulders--so--then threw his arms about my neck--so." + +She said no more, but imprinted a deep, passionate kiss on Kennedy's +mouth, clinging closely to him. Before Kennedy could draw away, Dan, in +the closet, had pressed the button and the switch several times in +rapid succession. + +"Th-that's very realistic," gasped Craig, a good deal taken aback by +the sudden osculatory assault. + +He frowned. + +"I--I'll look into the case," he said, backing away. "There may be some +scientific explanation--but--er--" + +He was plainly embarrassed and hastened to make his adieux. + +Kennedy had no more than shut the door before Dan, with a gleeful +laugh, burst out of the closet and flung his own arms about Florrie in +an embrace that might have been poisoned, it is true, but was none the +less real for that. + + . . . . . . . . + +How little impression the thing made on Kennedy can be easily seen from +the fact that on the way downtown that afternoon he stopped at +Martin's, on Fifth Avenue, and bought a ring--a very handsome +solitaire, the finest Martin had in the shop. + +It must have been about the time that he decided to stop at Martin's +that the Dodge butler, Jennings, admitted a young lady who presented a +card on which was engraved the name + +Miss FLORENCE LEIGH 20 Prospect Avenue. + +As he handed Elaine the card, she looked up from the book she was +reading and took it. + +"I don't know her," she said puckering her pretty brow. "Do you? What +does she look like?" + +"I never saw her before, Miss Elaine," Jennings shrugged. "But she is +very well dressed." + +"All right, show her in, Jennings. I'll see her." + +Elaine moved into the drawing room, Jennings springing forward to part +the portieres for her and passing through the room quickly where Flirty +Florrie sat waiting. Flirty Florrie rose and stood gazing at Elaine, +apparently very much embarrassed, even after Jennings had gone. + +There was a short pause. The woman was the first to speak. + +"It IS embarrassing," she said finally, "but, Miss Dodge, I have come +to you to beg for my love." + +Elaine looked at her non-plussed. + +"Yes," she continued, "you do not know it, but Craig Kennedy is +infatuated with you." She paused again, then added, "But he is engaged +to me." + +Elaine stared at the woman. She was dazed. She could not believe it. + +"There is the ring," Flirty Florrie added indicating a very impressive +paste diamond. + +Elaine frowned but said nothing. Her head was in a whirl. She could not +believe. Although Florrie was very much embarrassed, she was quite as +evidently very much wrought up. Quickly she reached into her bag and +drew out two photographs, without a word, handing them to Elaine. +Elaine took them reluctantly. + +"There's the proof," Florrie said simply, choking a sob. + +Elaine looked with a start. Sure enough, there was the neat living room +in the house on Prospect Avenue. In one picture Florrie had her arms +over Kennedy's shoulders. In the other, apparently, they were +passionately kissing. + +Elaine slowly laid the photographs on the table. + +"Please--please, Miss Dodge--give me back my lost love. You are rich +and beautiful--I am poor. I have only my good looks. But--I--I love +him--and he--loves me--and has promised to marry me." + +Filled with wonder, and misgivings now, and quite as much embarrassed +at the woman's pleadings as the woman herself had acted a moment +before, Elaine tried to wave her off. + +"Really--I--I don't know anything about all this. It--it doesn't +concern me. Please--go." + +Florrie had broken down completely and was weeping softly into a lace +handkerchief. + +She moved toward the door. Elaine followed her. + +"Jennings--please see the lady to the door." + +Back in the drawing room, Elaine almost seized the photographs and +hurried into the library where she could be alone. There she stood +gazing at them--doubt, wonder, and fear battling on her plastic +features. + +Just then she heard the bell and Jennings in the hall. + +She shoved the photographs away from her on the table. + +It was Kennedy himself, close upon the announcement of the butler. He +was in a particularly joyous and happy mood, for he had stopped at +Martin's. + +"How are you this afternoon?" he greeted Elaine gaily. + +Elaine had been too overcome by what had just happened to throw it off +so easily, and received him with a quickly studied coolness. + +Still, Craig, man-like, did not notice it at once. In fact he was too +busy gazing about to see that neither Jennings, Marie, nor the duenna +Aunt Josephine were visible. They were not and he quickly took the ring +from his pocket. Without waiting, he showed it to Elaine. In fact, so +sure had he been that everything was plain sailing, that he seemed to +take it almost for granted. Under other circumstances, he would have +been right. But not tonight. + +Elaine very coolly admired the ring, as Craig might have eyed a +specimen on a microscope slide. Still, he did not notice. + +He took the ring, about to put it on her finger. Elaine drew away. +Concealment was not in her frank nature. + +She picked up the two photographs. + +"What have you to say about those?" she asked cuttingly. + +Kennedy, quite surprised, took them and looked at them. Then he let +them fall carelessly on the table and dropped into a chair, his head +back in a burst of laughter. + +"Why--that was what they put over on Walter," he said. "He called me up +early this afternoon--told me he had discovered one of these poisoned +kiss cases you have read about in the papers. Think of it--all that to +pull a concealed camera! Such an elaborate business--just to get me +where they could fake this thing. I suppose they've put some one up to +saying she's engaged?" + +Elaine was not so lightly affected. "But," she said severely, +repressing her emotion, "I don't understand, MR. Kennedy, how +scientific inquiry into 'the poisoned kiss' could necessitate this sort +of thing." + +She pointed at the photographs accusingly. + +"But," he began, trying to explain. + +"No buts," she interrupted. + +"Then you believe that I--" + +"How can you, as a scientist, ask me to doubt the camera," she +insinuated, very coldly turning away. + +Kennedy rapidly began to see that it was far more serious than he had +at first thought. + +"Very well," he said with a touch of impatience, "if my word is not to +be taken--I--I'll--" + +He had seized his hat and stick. + +Elaine did not deign to answer. + +Then, without a word he stalked out of the door. + +As he did so, Elaine hastily turned and took a few steps after him, as +if to recall her words, then stopped, and her pride got the better of +her. + +She walked slowly back to the chair by the table--the chair he had been +sitting in--sank down into it and cried. + + . . . . . . . . + +Kennedy was moping in the laboratory the next day when I came in. + +Just what the trouble was, I did not know, but I had decided that it +was up to me to try to cheer him up. + +"Say, Craig," I began, trying to overcome his fit of blues. + +Kennedy, filled with his own thoughts, paid no attention to me. Still, +I kept on. + +Finally he got up and, before I knew it, he took me by the ear and +marched me into the next room. + +I saw that what he needed chiefly was to be let alone, and he went back +to his chair, dropping down into it and banging his fists on the table. +Under his breath he loosed a small volley of bitter expletives. Then he +jumped up. + +"By George--I WILL," he muttered. + +I poked my head out of the door in time to see him grab up his hat and +coat and dash from the room, putting his coat on as he went. + +"He's a nut today," I exclaimed to myself. + +Though I did not know, yet, of the quarrel, Kennedy had really +struggled with himself until he was willing to put his pride in his +pocket and had made up his mind to call on Elaine again. + +As he entered, he saw that it was really of no use, for only Aunt +Josephine was in the library. + +"Oh, Mr. Kennedy," she said innocently enough, "I'm so sorry she isn't +here. There's been something troubling her and she won't tell me what +it is. But she's gone to call on a young woman, a Florence Leigh, I +think." + +"Florence Leigh!" exclaimed Craig with a start and a frown. "Let me use +your telephone." + +I had turned my attention in the laboratory to a story I was writing, +when I heard the telephone ring. It was Craig. Without a word of +apology for his rudeness, which I knew had been purely absent-minded, I +heard him saying, "Walter--meet me in half an hour outside that +Florence Leigh's house." + +He was gone in a minute, giving me scarcely time to call back that I +would. + +Then, with a hasty apology for his abruptness, he excused himself, +leaving Aunt Josephine wondering at his strange actions. + +At about the same time that Craig had left the laboratory, at the Dodge +house Elaine and Aunt Josephine had been in the hall near the library. +Elaine was in her street dress. + +"I'm going out, Auntie," she said with an attempted gaiety. "And," she +added, "if anyone should ask for me, I'll be there." + +She had showed her a card on which was engraved, the name and address +of Florence Leigh. + +"All right, dear," answered Aunt Josephine, not quite clear in her mind +what subtle change there was in Elaine. + + . . . . . . . . + +Half an hour later I was waiting near the house in the suburbs to which +I had been directed by the strange telephone call the day before. I +noticed that it was apparently deserted. The blinds were closed and a +"To Let" sign was on the side of the house. + +"Hello, Walter," cried Craig at last, bustling along. He stopped a +moment to look at the house. Then, together, we went up the steps and +we rang the bell, gazing about. + +"Strange," muttered Craig. "The house looks deserted." + +He pointed out the sign and the generally unoccupied look of the place. +Nor was there any answer to our ring. Kennedy paused only a second, in +thought. + +"Come on, Walter," he said with a sudden decision. "We've got to get in +here somehow." + +He led the way around the side of the house to a window, and with a +powerful grasp, wrenched open the closed shutters. He had just smashed +the window viciously with his foot when a policeman appeared. + +"Hey, you fellows--what are you doing there?" he shouted. + +Craig paused a second, then pulled his card from his pocket. + +"Just the man I want," he parried, much to the policeman's surprise, +"There's something crooked going on here. Follow us in." + +We climbed into the window. There was the same living room we had seen +the day before. But it was now bare and deserted. Everything was gone +except an old broken chair. Craig and I were frankly amazed at the +complete and sudden change and I think the policeman was a little +surprised, for he had thought the place occupied. + +"Come on," cried Kennedy, beckoning us on. + +Quickly he rushed through the house. There was not a thing in it to +change the deserted appearance of the first floor. At last it occurred +to Craig to grope his way down cellar. There was nothing there, either, +except a bin, as innocent of coal as Mother Hubbard's cupboard was of +food. For several minutes we hunted about without discovering a thing. + +Kennedy had been carefully going over the place and was at the other +side of the cellar from ourselves when I saw him stop and gaze at the +floor. He was not looking, apparently, so much as listening. I strained +my ears, but could make out nothing. Before I could say anything, he +raised his hand for silence. Apparently he had heard something. + +"Hide," he whispered suddenly to us. + +Without another word, though for the life of me I could make nothing +out of it, I pulled the policeman into a little angle of the wall +nearby, while Craig slipped into a similar angle. + +We waited a moment. Nothing happened. Had he been seeing things or +hearing things, I wondered? + +From our hidden vantage we could now see a square piece in the floor, +perhaps five feet in diameter, slowly open up as though on a pivot. +Beneath it we could make out a tube-like hole, perhaps three feet +across, with a covered top. It slowly opened. + +A weird and sinister figure of a man appeared. Over his head he wore a +peculiar helmet with hideous glass pieces over the eyes, and tubes that +connected with a tank which he carried buckled to his back. As he +slowly dragged himself out, I could wonder only at the outlandish +headgear. + +Quickly he closed down the cover of the tube, but not before a vile +effluvium seemed to escape, and penetrate even to us in our hiding +places. As he moved forward, Kennedy gave a flying leap at him, and we +followed with a regular football interference. + +It was the work of only a moment for us to subdue and hold him, while +Craig ripped off the helmet. + +It was Dan the Dude. + +"What's that thing?" I puffed, as I helped Craig with the headgear. + +"An oxygen helmet," he replied. "There must be air down the tube that +cannot be breathed." + +He went over to the tube. Carefully he opened the top and gazed down, +starting back a second later, with his face puckered up at the noxious +odor. + +"Sewer gas," he ejaculated, as he slammed the cover down. Then he added +to the policeman, "Where do you suppose it comes from?" + +"Why," replied the officer, "the St. James Drain--an old sewer--is +somewhere about these parts." + +Kennedy puckered his face as he gazed at our prisoner. He reached down +quickly and lifted something off the man's coat. + +"Golden hair," he muttered. "Elaine's!" + +A moment later he seized the man and shook him roughly. + +"Where is she--tell me?" he demanded. + +The man snarled some kind of reply, refusing to say a word about her. + +"Tell me," repeated Kennedy. + +"Humph!" snorted the prisoner, more close-mouthed than ever. + +Kennedy was furious. As he sent the man reeling away from him, he +seized the oxygen helmet and began putting it on. There was only one +thing to do--to follow the clue of the golden strands of hair. + +Down into the pest hole he went, his head protected by the oxygen +helmet. As he cautiously took one step after another down a series of +iron rungs inside the hole, he found that the water was up to his +chest. At the bottom of the perpendicular pit was a narrow low passage +way, leading off. It was just about big enough to get through, but he +managed to grope along it. He came at last to the main drain, an old +stone-walled sewer, as murky a place as could well be imagined, filled +with the foulest sewer gas. He was hardly able to keep his feet in the +swirling, bubbling water that swept past, almost up to his neck. + +The minutes passed as the policeman and I watched our prisoner in the +cellar, by the tube. I looked anxiously at my watch. + +"Craig!" I shouted at last, unable to control my fears for him. + +No answer. To go down after him seemed out of the question. + +By this time, Craig had come to a small open chamber into which the +sewer widened. On the wall he found another series of iron rungs up +which he climbed. The gas was terrible. + +As he neared the top of the ladder, he came to a shelf-like aperture in +the sewer chamber, and gazed about. It was horribly dark. He reached +out and felt a piece of cloth. Anxiously he pulled on it. Then he +reached further into the darkness. + +There was Elaine, unconscious, apparently dead. + +He shook her, endeavoring to wake her up. But it was no use. + +In desperation Craig carried her down the ladder. + +With our prisoner, we could only look helplessly around. Again and +again I looked at my watch as the minutes lengthened. Suppose the +oxygen gave out? + +"By George, I'm going down after him," I cried in desperation. + +"Don't do it," advised the policeman. "You'll never get out." + +One whiff of the horrible gas told me that he was right. I should not +have been able to go fifty feet in it. I looked at him in despair. It +was impossible. + +"Listen," said the policeman, straining his ears. + +There was indeed a faint noise from the black depths below us. A rope +alongside the rough ladder began to move, as though someone was pulling +it taut. We gazed down. + +"Craig! Craig!" I called. "Is that you?" + +No answer. But the rope still moved. Perhaps the helmet made it +impossible for him to hear. + +He had struggled back in the swirling current almost exhausted by his +helpless burden. Holding Elaine's head above the surface of the water +and pulling on the rope to attract my attention, for he could neither +hear nor shout, he had taken a turn of the rope about Elaine. I tried +pulling on it. There was something heavy on the other end and I kept on +pulling. + +At last I could make out Kennedy dimly mounting the ladder. The weight +was the unconscious body of Elaine which he steadied as he mounted. I +tugged harder and he slowly came up. + +Together, at last, the policeman and I reached down and pulled them out. + +We placed Elaine on the cellar floor, as comfortably as was possible, +and the policeman began his first-aid motions for resuscitation. + +"No--no," cried Kennedy, "Not here--take her up where the air is +fresher." + +With his revolver still drawn to overawe the prisoner, the policeman +forced him to aid us in carrying her up the rickety flight of cellar +steps. Kennedy followed quickly, unscrewing the oxygen helmet as he +went. + +In the deserted living room we deposited our senseless burden, while +Kennedy, the helmet off now, bent over her. + +"Quick--quick!" he cried to the officer, "An ambulance!" + +"But the prisoner," the policeman indicated. + +"Hurry--hurry--I'll take care of him," urged Craig, seizing the +policeman's pistol and thrusting it into his pocket. "Walter--help me." + +He was trying the ordinary methods of resuscitation. Meanwhile the +officer had hurried out, seeking the nearest telephone, while we worked +madly to bring Elaine back. + +Again and again Kennedy bent and outstretched her arms, trying to +induce respiration. So busy was I that for the moment I forgot our +prisoner. + +But Dan had seen his chance. Noiselessly he picked up the old chair in +the room and with it raised was approaching Kennedy to knock him out. + +Before I knew it myself, Kennedy had heard him. With a half instinctive +motion, he drew the revolver from his pocket and, almost before I could +see it, had shot the man. Without a word he returned the gun to his +pocket and again bent over Elaine, without so much as a look at the +crook who sank to the floor, dropping the chair from his nerveless +hands. + +Already the policeman had got an ambulance which was now tearing along +to us. + +Frantically Kennedy was working. + +A moment he paused and looked at me--hopeless. + +Just then, outside, we could hear the ambulance, and a doctor and two +attendants hurried up to the door. Without a word the doctor seemed to +appreciate the gravity of the case. + +He finished his examination and shook his head. + +"There is no hope--no hope," he said slowly. + +Kennedy merely stared at him. But the rest of us instinctively removed +our hats. + +Kennedy gazed at Elaine, overcome. Was this the end? + +It was not many minutes later that Kennedy had Elaine in the little +sitting room off the laboratory, having taken her there in the +ambulance, with the doctor and two attendants. + +Elaine's body had been placed on a couch, covered by a blanket, and the +shades were drawn. The light fell on her pale face. + +There was something incongruous about death and the vast collection of +scientific apparatus, a ghastly mocking of humanity. How futile was it +all in the presence of the great destroyer? + +Aunt Josephine had arrived, stunned, and a moment later, Perry Bennett. +As I looked at the sorrowful party, Aunt Josephine rose slowly from her +position on her knees where she had been weeping silently beside +Elaine, and pressed her hands over her eyes, with every indication of +faintness. + +Before any of us could do anything, she had staggered into the +laboratory itself, Bennett and I following quickly. There I was busy +for some time getting restoratives. + +Meanwhile Kennedy, beside the couch, with an air of desperate +determination, turned away and opened a cabinet. From it he took a +large coil and attached it to a storage battery, dragging the peculiar +apparatus near Elaine's couch. + +To an electric light socket, Craig attached wires. The doctor watched +him in silent wonder. + +"Doctor," he asked slowly as he worked, "do you know of Professor Leduc +of the Nantes Ecole de Medicin?" + +"Why--yes," answered the doctor, "but what of him?" + +"Then you know of his method of electrical resuscitation." + +"Yes--but--" He paused, looking apprehensively at Kennedy. + +Craig paid no attention to his fears, but approaching the couch on +which Elaine lay, applied the electrodes. "You see," he explained, with +forced calmness, "I apply the anode here--the cathode there." + +The ambulance surgeon looked on excitedly, as Craig turned on the +current, applying it to the back of the neck and to the spine. + +For some minutes the machine worked. + +Then the young doctor's eyes began to bulge. + +"My heavens!" he cried under his breath. "Look!" + +Elaine's chest had slowly risen and fallen. Kennedy, his attention +riveted on his work, applied himself with redoubled efforts. The young +doctor looked on with increased wonder. + +"Look! The color in her face! See her lips!" he cried. + +At last her eyes slowly fluttered open--then closed. + +Would the machine succeed? Or was it just the galvanic effect of the +current? The doctor noticed it and quickly placed his ear to her heart. +His face was a study in astonishment. The minutes sped fast. + +To us outside, who had no idea what was transpiring in the other room, +the minutes were leaden-feeted. Aunt Josephine, weak but now herself +again, was sitting nervously. + +Just then the door opened. + +I shall never forget the look on the young ambulance surgeon's face, as +he murmured under his breath, "Come here--the age of miracles is not +passed--look!" + +Raising his finger to indicate that we were to make no noise, he led us +into the other room. + +Kennedy was bending over the couch. + +Elaine, her eyes open, now, was gazing up at him, and a wan smile +flitted over her beautiful face. + +Kennedy had taken her hand, and as he heard us enter, turned half way +to us, while we stared in blank wonder from Elaine to the weird and +complicated electrical apparatus. + +"It is the life-current," he said simply, patting the Leduc apparatus +with his other hand. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE HOUR OF THREE + + +With the ominous forefinger of his Clutching Hand extended, the master +criminal emphasized his instructions to his minions. + +"Perry Bennett, her lawyer, is in favor again with Elaine Dodge," he +was saying. "She and Kennedy are on the outs even yet. But they may +become reconciled. Then she'll have that fellow on our trail again. +Before that happens, we must 'get' her--see?" + +It was in the latest headquarters to which Craig had chased the +criminal, in one of the toughest parts of the old Greenwich village, on +the west side of New York, not far from the river front. + +They were all seated in a fairly large but dingy old room, in which +were several chairs, a rickety table and, against the wall, a roll-top +desk on the top of which was a telephone. + +Several crooks of the gang were sitting about, smoking. + +"Now," went on Clutching Hand, "I want you, Spike, to follow them. See +what they do--where they go. It's her birthday. Something's bound to +occur that will give you a lead. All you've got to do is to use your +head. Get me?" + +Spike rose, nodded, picked up his hat and coat and squirmed out on his +mission, like the snake that he was. + + . . . . . . . . + +It was, as Clutching Hand had said, Elaine's birthday. She had received +many callers and congratulations, innumerable costly and beautiful +tokens of remembrance from her countless friends and admirers. In the +conservatory of the Dodge house Elaine, Aunt Josephine, and Susie +Martin were sitting discussing not only the happy occasion, but, more, +the many strange events of the past few weeks. + +"Well," cried a familiar voice behind them. "What would a certain +blonde young lady accept as a birthday present from her family lawyer?" + +All three turned in surprise. + +"Oh, Mr. Bennett," cried Elaine. "How you startled us!" + +He laughed and repeated his question, adopting the tone that he had +once used in the days when he had been more in favor with the pretty +heiress, before the advent of Kennedy. + +Elaine hesitated. She was thinking not so much of his words as of +Kennedy. To them all, however, it seemed that she was unable to make up +her mind what, in the wealth of her luxury, she would like. + +Susie Martin had been wondering whether, now that Bennett was here, she +were not de trop, and she looked at her wrist watch mechanically. As +she did so, an idea occurred to her. + +"Why not one of these?" she cried impulsively, indicating the watch. +"Father has some beauties at the shop." + +"Oh, good," exclaimed Elaine, "how sweet!" + +She welcomed the suggestion, for she had been thinking that perhaps +Bennett might be hinting too seriously at a solitaire. + +"So that strikes your fancy?" he asked. "Then let's all go to the shop. +Miss Martin will personally conduct the tour, and we shall have our +pick of the finest stock." + +A moment later the three young people went out and were quickly whirled +off down the Avenue in the Dodge town car. + +It was too gay a party to notice a sinister figure following them in a +cab. But as they entered the fashionable jewelry shop, Spike, who had +alighted, walked slowly down the street. + +Chatting with animation, the three moved over to the watch counter, +while the crook, with a determination not to risk missing anything, +entered the shop door, too. + +"Mr. Thomas," asked Susie as her father's clerk bowed to them, "please +show Miss Dodge the wrist watches father was telling about." + +With another deferential bow, the clerk hastened to display a case of +watches and they bent over them. As each new watch was pointed out, +Elaine was delighted. + +Unobserved, the crook walked over near enough to hear what was going on. + +At last, with much banter and yet care, Elaine selected one that was +indeed a beauty and was about to snap it on her dainty wrist, when the +clerk interrupted. + +"I beg pardon," he suggested, "but I'd advise you to leave it to be +regulated, if you please." + +"Yes, indeed," chimed in Susie. "Father always advises that." + +Reluctantly, Elaine handed it over to the clerk. + +"Oh, thank you, ever so much, Mr. Bennett," she said as he +unobtrusively paid for the watch and gave the address to which it was +to be sent when ready. + +A moment later they went out and entered the car again. + +As they did so, Spike, who had been looking various things in the next +case over as if undecided, came up to the watch counter. + +"I'm making a present," he remarked confidentially to the clerk. "How +about those bracelet watches?" + +The clerk pulled out some of the cheaper ones. + +"No," he said thoughtfully, pointing out a tray in the show case, +"something like those." + +He ended by picking out one identically like that which Elaine had +selected, and started to pay for it. + +"Better have it regulated," repeated the clerk. + +"No," he objected hastily, shaking his head and paying the money +quickly. "It's a present--and I want it tonight." + +He took the watch and left the store hurriedly. + + . . . . . . . . + +In the laboratory, Kennedy was working over an oblong oak box, perhaps +eighteen inches in length and half as high. In the box I could see, +besides other apparatus, two good sized spools of fine wire. + +"What's all that?" I asked inquisitively. + +"Another of the new instruments that scientific detectives use," he +responded, scarcely looking up, "a little magnetic wizard, the +telegraphone." + +"Which is?" I prompted. + +"Something we detectives might use to take down and 'can' telephone and +other conversations. When it is attached properly to a telephone, it +records everything that is said over the wire." + +"How does it work?" I asked, much mystified. + +"Well, it is based on an entirely new principle, in every way different +from the phonograph," he explained. "As you can see there are no discs +or cylinders, but these spools of extremely fine steel wire. The record +is not made mechanically on a cylinder, but electromagnetically on this +wire." + +"How?" I asked, almost incredulously. + +"To put it briefly," he went on, "small portions of magnetism, as it +were, are imparted to fractions of the steel wire as it passes between +two carbon electric magnets. Each impression represents a sound wave. +There is no apparent difference in the wire, yet each particle of steel +undergoes an electromagnetic transformation by which the sound is +indelibly imprinted on it." + +"Then you scrape the wire, just as you shave records to use it over +again?" I suggested. + +"No," he replied. "You pass a magnet over it and the magnet +automatically erases the record. Rust has no effect. The record lasts +as long as steel lasts." + +Craig continued to tinker tantalizingly with the machine which had been +invented by a Dane, Valdemar Poulsen. + +He had scarcely finished testing out the telegraphone, when the +laboratory door opened and a clean-cut young man entered. + +Kennedy, I knew, had found that the routine work of the Clutching Hand +case was beyond his limited time and had retained this young man, +Raymond Chase, to attend to that. + +Chase was a young detective whom Craig had employed on shadowing jobs +and as a stool pigeon on other cases, and we had all the confidence in +the world in him. + +Just now what worried Craig was the situation with Elaine, and I +fancied that he had given Chase some commission in connection with that. + +"I've got it, Mr. Kennedy," greeted Chase with quiet modesty. + +"Good," responded Craig heartily. "I knew you would." + +"Got what?" I asked a moment later. + +Kennedy nodded for Chase to answer. + +"I've located the new residence of Flirty Florrie," he replied. + +I saw what Kennedy was after at once. Flirty Florrie and Dan the Dude +had caused the quarrel between himself and Elaine. Dan the Dude was +dead. But Flirty Florrie might be forced to explain it. + +"That's fine," he added, exultingly. "Now, I'll clear that thing up." + +He took a hasty step to the telephone, put his hand on the receiver and +was about to take it off the hook. Then he paused, and I saw his face +working. The wound Elaine had given his feelings was deep. It had not +yet quite healed. + +Finally, his pride, for Kennedy's was a highly sensitive nature, got +the better of him. + +"No," he said, half to himself, "not--yet." + +Elaine had returned home. + +Alone, her thoughts naturally went back to what had happened recently +to interrupt a friendship which had been the sweetest in her life. + +"There MUST be some mistake," she murmured pensively to herself, +thinking of the photograph Flirty had given her. "Oh, why did I send +him away? Why didn't I believe him?" + +Then she thought of what had happened, of how she had been seized by +Dan the Dude in the deserted house, of how the noxious gas had overcome +her. + +They had told her of how Craig had risked his life to save her, how she +had been brought home, still only half alive, after his almost +miraculous work with the new electric machine. + +There was his picture. She had not taken that away. As she looked at +it, a wave of feeling came over her. Mechanically, she put out her hand +to the telephone. + +She was about to take off the receiver, when something seemed to stay +her hand. She wanted him to come to her. + +And, if either of them had called the other just then, they would have +probably crossed wires. + +Of such stuff are the quarrels of lovers. + +Craig's eye fell on the telegraphone, and an idea seemed to occur to +him. + +"Walter, you and Chase bring that thing along," he said a moment later. + +He paused long enough to take a badge from the drawer of a cabinet, and +went out. We followed him, lugging the telegraphone. + +At last we came to the apartment house at which Chase had located the +woman. + +"There it is," he pointed out, as I gave a groan of relief, for the +telegraphone was getting like lead. + +Kennedy nodded and drew from his pocket the badge I had seen him take +from the cabinet. + +"Now, Chase," he directed, "you needn't go in with us. Walter and I can +manage this, now. But don't get out of touch with me. I shall need you +any moment--certainly tomorrow." + +I saw that the badge read, Telephone Inspector. + +"Walter," he smiled, "you're elected my helper." + +We entered the apartment house hall and found a Negro boy in charge of +the switchboard. It took Craig only a moment to convince the boy that +he was from the company and that complaints had been made by some +anonymous tenant. + +"You look over that switchboard, Kelly," he winked at me, "while I test +out the connections back here. There must be something wrong with the +wires or there wouldn't be so many complaints." + +He had gone back of the switchboard and the Negro, still unsuspicious, +watched without understanding what it was all about. + +"I don't know," Craig muttered finally for the benefit of the boy, "but +I think I'll have to leave that tester after all. Say, if I put it +here, you'll have to be careful not to let anyone meddle with it. If +you do, there'll be the deuce to pay. See?" + +Kennedy had already started to fasten the telegraphone to the wires he +had selected from the tangle. + +At last he finished and stood up. + +"Don't disturb it and don't let anyone else touch it," he ordered. +"Better not tell anyone--that's the best way. I'll be back for it +tomorrow probably." + +"Yas sah," nodded the boy, with a bow, as we went out. + +We returned to the laboratory, where there seemed to be nothing we +could do now except wait for something to happen. + +Kennedy, however, employed the time by plunging into work, most of the +time experimenting with a peculiar little coil to which ran the wires +of an ordinary electric bell. + +Back in the new hang-out, the Clutching Hand was laying down the law to +his lieutenants and heelers, when Spike at last entered. + +"Huh!" growled the master criminal, covering the fact that he was +considerably relieved to see him at last, "where have YOU been? I've +been off on a little job myself and got back." + +Spike apologized profusely. He had succeeded so easily that he had +thought to take a little time to meet up with an old pal whom he ran +across, just out of prison. + +"Yes sir," he replied hastily, "well, I went over to the Dodge house, +and I saw them finally. Followed them into a jewelry shop. That lawyer +bought her a wrist watch. So I bought one just like it. I thought +perhaps we could--" + +"Give it to me," growled Clutching Hand, seizing it the moment Slim +displayed it. "And don't butt in--see?" + +From the capacious desk, the master criminal pulled a set of small +drills, vices, and other jeweler's tools and placed them on the table. + +"All right," he relented. "Now, do you see what I have just thought +of--no? This is just the chance. Look at me." + +The heelers gathered around him, peering curiously at their master as +he worked at the bracelet watch. + +Carefully he plied his hands to the job, regardless of time. + +"There," he exclaimed at last, holding the watch up where they could +all see it. "See!" + +He pulled out the stem to set the hands and slowly twisted it between +his thumb and finger. He turned the hands until they were almost at the +point of three o'clock. + +Then he held the watch out where all could see it. + +They bent closer and strained their eyes at the little second hand +ticking away merrily. + +As the minute hand touched three, from the back of the case, as if from +the casing itself, a little needle, perhaps a quarter of an inch, +jumped out. It seemed to come from what looked like merely a small +inset in the decorations. + +"You see what will happen at the hour of three?" he asked. + +No one said a word, as he held up a vial which he had drawn from his +pocket. On it they could read the label, "Ricinus." + +"One of the most powerful poisons in the world!" he exclaimed. "Enough +here to kill a regiment!" + +They fairly gasped and looked at it with horror, exchanging glances. +Then they looked at him in awe. There was no wonder that Clutching Hand +kept them in line, once he had a crook in his power. + +Opening the vial carefully, he dipped in a thin piece of glass and +placed a tiny drop in a receptacle back of the needle and on the needle +itself. + +Altogether it savored of the ancient days of the Borgias with their +weird poisoned rings. + +Then he dropped the vial back into his pocket, pressed a spring, and +the needle went back into its unsuspected hiding place. + +"I've set my invention to go off at three o'clock," he concluded. +"Tomorrow forenoon, it will have to be delivered early--and I don't +believe we shall be troubled any longer by Miss Elaine Dodge," he added +venomously. + +Even the crooks, hardened as they were, could only gasp. + +Calmly he wrapped up the apparently innocent engine of destruction and +handed it to Spike. + +"See that she gets it in time," he said merely. + +"I will, sir," answered Spike, taking it gingerly. + +Flirty Florrie had returned that afternoon, late, from some expedition +on which she had been sent. + +Rankling in her heart yet was the death of her lover, Dan the Dude. +For, although in her sphere of crookdom they are neither married nor +given in marriage, still there is a brand of loyalty that higher +circles might well copy. Sacred to the memory of the dead, however, she +had one desire--revenge. + +Thus when she arrived home, she went to the telephone to report and +called a number, 4494 Greenwich. + +"Hello, Chief," she repeated. "This is Flirty. Have you done anything +yet in the little matter we talked about?" + +"Say--be careful of names--over the wire," came a growl. + +"You know--what I mean." + +"Yes. The trick will be pulled off at three o'clock." + +"Good!" she exclaimed. "Good-bye and thank you." + +With his well-known caution Clutching Hand did not even betray names +over the telephone if he could help it. + +Flirty hung up the receiver with satisfaction. The manes of the +departed Dan might soon rest in peace! + +The next day, early in the forenoon, a young man with a small package +carefully done up came to the Dodge house. + +"From Martin's, the jeweler's, for Miss Dodge," he said to Jennings at +the door. + +Elaine and Aunt Josephine were sitting in the library when Jennings +announced him. + +"Oh, it's my watch," cried Elaine. "Show him in." + +Jennings bowed and did so. Spike entered, and handed the package to +Elaine, who signed her name excitedly and opened it. + +"Just look, Auntie," she exclaimed. "Isn't it stunning?" + +"Very pretty," commented Aunt Josephine. + +Elaine put the watch on her wrist and admired it. + +"Is it all right?" asked Spike. + +"Yes, yes," answered Elaine. "You may go." + +He went out, while Elaine gazed rapturously at the new trinket while it +ticked off the minutes--this devilish instrument. + +Early the same morning Kennedy went around again to the apartment house +and, cautious not to be seen by Flirty, recovered the telegraphone. +Together we carried it to the laboratory. + +There he set up a little instrument that looked like a wedge sitting up +on end, in the face of which was a dial. Through it he began to run the +wire from the spools, and, taking an earpiece, put another on my head +over my ears. + +"You see," he explained, "the principle on which this is based is that +a mass of tempered steel may be impressed with and will retain magnetic +fluxes varying in density and in sign in adjacent portions of +itself--little deposits of magnetic impulse. + +"When the telegraphone is attached to the telephone wire, the currents +that affect the receiver also affect the coils of the telegraphone and +the disturbance set up causes a deposit of magnetic impulse on the +steel wire. + +"When the wire is again run past these coils with a receiver such as I +have here in circuit with the coils, a light vibration is set up in the +receiver diaphragm which reproduces the sound of speech." He turned a +switch and we listened eagerly. There was no grating and thumping, as +he controlled the running off of the wire. We were listening to +everything that had been said over the telephone during the time since +we left the machine. + +First came several calls from people with bills and she put them off +most adroitly. + +Then we heard a call that caused Kennedy to look at me quickly, stop +the machine and start at that point over again. + +"That's what I wanted," he said as we listened in: + +"Give me 4494 Greenwich." + +"Hello." + +"Hello, Chief. This is Flirty. Have you done anything yet in the little +matter we talked about? + +"Say--be careful of names--over the wire." + +"You know--what I mean." + +"Yes, the trick will be pulled off at three o'clock. + +"Good! Good-bye and thank you!" + +"Good-bye." + +Kennedy stopped the machine and I looked at him blankly. + +"She called Greenwich 4494 and was told that the trick would be pulled +off at three o'clock today," he ruminated. + +"What trick?" I asked. + +He shook his head. "I don't know. That is what we must find out. I +hadn't expected a tip like that. What I wanted was to find out how to +get at the Clutching Hand." + +He paused and considered a minute, then moved to the telephone. + +"There's only one thing to do and that's to follow out my original +scheme," he said energetically. "Information, please." + +"Where is Greenwich 4494?" he asked a moment later. + +The minutes passed. "Thank you," he cried, writing down on a pad an +address over on the west side near the river front. Then turning to me +he explained, "Walter, we've got him at last!" + +Craig rose and put on his hat and coat, thrusting a pair of opera +glasses into his pocket, in case we should want to observe the place at +a distance. I followed him excitedly. The trail was hot. + +Kennedy and I came at last to the place on the West Side where the +crooked streets curved off. + +Instead of keeping on until he came to the place we sought, he turned +and quickly slipped behind the shelter of a fence. There was a broken +board in the fence and he bent down, gazing through with the opera +glasses. + +Across the lot was the new headquarters, a somewhat dilapidated +old-fashioned brick house of several generations back. Through the +glass we could see an evil-countenanced crook slinking along. He +mounted the steps and rang the bell, turning as he waited. + +From a small aperture in the doorway looked out another face, equally +evil. Under cover, the crook made the sign of the clutching hand twice +and was admitted. + +"That's the place, all right," whispered Kennedy with satisfaction. + +He hurried to a telephone booth where he called several numbers. Then +we returned to the laboratory, while Kennedy quickly figured out a plan +of action. I knew Chase was expected there soon. + +From the table he picked up the small coil over which I had seen him +working, and attached it to the bell and some batteries. He replaced it +on the table, while I watched curiously. + +"A selenium cell," he explained. "Only when light falls on it does it +become a good conductor of electricity. Then the bell will ring." + +Just before making the connection he placed his hat over the cell. Then +he lifted the hat. The light fell on it and the bell rang. He replaced +the hat and the bell stopped. It was evidently a very peculiar property +of the substance, selenium. + +Just then there came a knock at the door. I opened it. + +"Hello, Chase," greeted Kennedy. "Well, I've found the new headquarters +all right,--over on the west side." + +Kennedy picked up the selenium cell and a long coil of fine wire which +he placed in a bag. Then he took another bag already packed and, +shifting them between us, we hurried down town. + +Near the vacant lot, back of the new headquarters, was an old broken +down house. Through the rear of it we entered. + +I started back in astonishment as we found eight or ten policemen +already there. Kennedy had ordered them to be ready for a raid and they +had dropped in one at a time without attracting attention. + +"Well, men," he greeted them, "I see you found the place all right. +Now, in a little while Jameson will return with two wires. Attach them +to the bell which I will leave here. When it rings, raid the house. +Jameson will lead you to it. Come, Walter," he added, picking up the +bags. + +Ten minutes later, outside the new headquarters, a crouched up figure, +carrying a small package, his face hidden under his soft hat and +up-turned collar, could have been seen slinking along until he came to +the steps. + +He went up and peered through the aperture of the doorway. Then he rang +the bell. Twice he raised his hand and clenched it in the now familiar +clutch. + +A crook inside saw it through the aperture and opened the door. The +figure entered and almost before the door was shut tied the masking +handkerchief over his face, which hid his identity from even the most +trusted lieutenants. The crook bowed to the chief, who, with a growl as +though of recognition, moved down the hall. + +As he came to the room from which Spike had been sent on his mission, +the same group was seated in the thick tobacco smoke. + +"You fellows clear out," he growled. "I want to be alone." + +"The old man is peeved," muttered one, outside, as they left. + +The weird figure gazed about the room to be sure that he was alone. + +When Craig and I left the police he had given me most minute +instructions which I was now following out to the letter. + +"I want you to hide there," he said, indicating a barrel back of the +house next to the hang-out. "When you see a wire come down from the +headquarters, take it and carry it across the lot to the old house. +Attach it to the bell; then wait. When it rings, raid the Clutching +Hand joint." + +I waited what seemed to be an interminable time back of the barrel and +it is no joke hiding back of a barrel. + +Finally, however, I saw a coil of fine wire drop rapidly to the ground +from a window somewhere above. I made a dash for it, as though I were +trying to rush the trenches, seized my prize and without looking back +to see where it came from, beat a hasty retreat. + +Around the lot I skirted, until at last I reached the place where the +police were waiting. Quickly we fastened the wire to the bell. + +We waited. + +Not a sound from the bell. + +Up in the room in the joint, the hunched up figure stood by the table. +He had taken his hat off and placed it carefully on the table, and was +now waiting. + +Suddenly a noise at the door startled him. He listened. Then he backed +away from the door and drew a revolver. + +As the door slowly opened there entered another figure, hat over his +eyes, collar up, a handkerchief over his face, the exact counterpart of +the first! + +For a moment each glared at the other. + +"Hands up!" shouted the first figure, hoarsely, moving the gun and +closing the door, with his foot. + +The newcomer slowly raised his crooked hand over his head, as the blue +steel revolver gaped menacingly. + +With a quick movement of the other hand, the first sinister figure +removed the handkerchief from his face and straightened up. + +It was Kennedy! + +"Come over to the center of the room," ordered Kennedy. + +Clutching Hand obeyed, eyeing his captor closely. + +"Now lay your weapons on the table." + +He tossed down a revolver. + +The two still faced each other. + +"Take off that handkerchief!" + +It was a tense moment. Slowly Clutching Hand started to obey. Then he +stopped. Kennedy was just about to thunder, "Go on," when the criminal +calmly remarked, "You've got ME all right, Kennedy, but in twenty +minutes Elaine Dodge will be dead!" + +He said it with a nonchalance that might have deceived anyone less +astute than Kennedy. Suddenly there flashed over Craig the words: "THE +TRICK WILL BE PULLED OFF AT THREE O'CLOCK!" + +There was no fake about that. Kennedy frowned. If he killed Clutching +Hand, Elaine would die. If he fought, he must either kill or be killed. +If he handed Clutching Hand over, all he had to do was to keep quiet. +He looked at his watch. It was twenty-five minutes of three. + +What a situation! + +He had caught a prisoner he dared not molest--yet. + +"What do you mean--tell me?" demanded Kennedy with forced calm. + +"Yesterday Mr. Bennett bought a wrist watch for Elaine," the Clutching +Hand said quietly. "They left it to be regulated. One of my men bought +one just like it. Mine was delivered to her today." + +"A likely story!" doubted Kennedy. + +For answer, the Clutching Hand pointed to the telephone. + +Kennedy reached for it. + +"One thing," interrupted the Clutching Hand. "You are a man of honor." + +"Yes--yes. Go on." + +"If I tell you what to do, you must promise to give me a fighting +chance." + +"Yes, yes." + +"Call up Aunt Josephine, then. Do just as I say." + +Covering Clutching Hand, Kennedy called a number. "This is Mr. Kennedy, +Mrs. Dodge. Did Elaine receive a present of a wrist watch from Mr. +Bennett?" + +"Yes," she replied, "for her birthday. It came this forenoon." + +Kennedy hung up the receiver and faced Clutching Hand puzzled as the +latter said, "Call up Martin, the jeweler." + +Again Kennedy obeyed. + +"Has the watch purchased for Miss Elaine Dodge been delivered?" he +asked the clerk. + +"No," came back the reply, "the watch Mr. Bennett bought is still here +being regulated." + +Kennedy hung up the receiver. He was stunned. + +"The watch will cause her death at three o'clock," said the Clutching +Hand. "Swear to leave here without discovering my identity and I will +tell you how. You can save her!" + +A moment Kennedy thought. Here was a quandary. + +"No," he shouted, seizing the telephone. + +Before Kennedy could move, Clutching Hand had pulled the telephone +wires with almost superhuman strength from the junction box. + +"In that watch," he hissed, "I have set a poisoned needle in a spring +that will be released and will plunge it into her arm at exactly three +o'clock. On the needle is ricinus!" + +Craig advanced, furious. As he did so, Clutching Hand pointed calmly to +the clock. It was twenty minutes of three! + +With a mental struggle, Kennedy controlled his loathing of the creature +before him. + +"All right--but you'll hear from me--sooner than you suspect," he +shouted, starting for the door. + +Then he came back and lifted his hat, hiding as much as possible the +selenium cell, letting the light fall on it. + +"Only Elaine's life has saved you." + +With a last threat he dashed out. He hailed a cab, returning from some +steamship wharves not far away. + +"Quick!" he ordered, giving the Dodge address on Fifth Avenue. + +Minute after minute the police and I waited. Was anything wrong? Where +was Craig? + +Just then a tremor grew into a tinkle, then came the strong burr of the +bell. Kennedy needed us. + +With a shout of encouragement to the men I dashed out and over to the +old house. + +Meanwhile Clutching Hand himself had approached the table to recover +his weapon and had noticed the queer little selenium cell. He picked it +up and for the first time saw the wire leading out. + +"The deuce!" he cried. "He's planned to get me anyhow!" + +Clutching Hand rushed to the door--then stopped short. Outside he could +hear the police and myself. We had shot the lock on the outside and +were already inside. + +Clutching Hand slammed shut his door and pulled down over it a heavy +wooden bar. A few steps took him to the window. There were police in +the back yard, too. He was surrounded. + +But he did not hurry. He knew what to do with every second. + +At the desk he paused and took out a piece of cardboard. Then with a +heavy black marking pencil, he calmly printed on it, while we battered +at the barricaded door, a few short feet away. + +He laid the sign on the desk, then on another piece of cardboard, drew +crudely a hand with the index finger, pointing. This he placed on a +chair, indicating the desk. + +Just as the swaying and bulging door gave way, Clutching Hand gave the +desk a pull. It opened up--his getaway. + +He closed it with a sardonic smile in our direction, just before the +door crashed in. + +We looked about. There was not a soul in the room, nothing but the +selenium cell, the chairs, the desk. + +"Look!" I cried catching sight of the index finger, and going over to +the desk. + +We rolled back the top. There on the flat top was a sign: + +Dear Blockheads: + +Kennedy and I couldn't wait. + +Yours as ever, + +Then came that mysterious sign of the Clutching Hand. + +We hunted over the rooms, but could find nothing that showed a clue. +Where was Clutching Hand? Where was Kennedy? + +In the next house Clutching Hand had literally come out of an upright +piano into the room corresponding to that he had left. Hastily he threw +off his handkerchief, slouch hat, old coat and trousers. A neat striped +pair of trousers replaced the old, frayed and baggy pair. A new shirt, +then a sporty vest and a frock coat followed. As he put the finishing +touches on, he looked for all the world like a bewhiskered foreigner. + +With a silk hat and stick, he surveyed himself, straightening his tie. +At the door of the new headquarters, a few seconds later, I stood with +the police. + +"Not a sign of him anywhere," growled one of the officers. + +Nor was there. Down the street we could see only a straight +well-dressed, distinguished looking man who had evidently walked down +to the docks to see a friend off, perhaps. + +Elaine was sitting in the library reading when Aunt Josephine turned to +her. + +"What time is it, dear?" she asked. + +Elaine glanced at her pretty new trinket. + +"Nearly three, Auntie--a couple of minutes," she said. + +Just then there came the sound of feet running madly down the hall way. +They jumped up, startled. + +Kennedy, his coat flying, and hat jammed over his eyes, had almost +bowled over poor Jennings in his mad race down the hall. + +"Well," demanded Elaine haughtily, "what's--" + +Before she knew what was going on, Craig hurried up to her and +literally ripped the watch off her wrist, breaking the beautiful +bracelet. + +He held it up, gingerly. Elaine was speechless. Was this Kennedy? Was +he possessed by such an inordinate jealousy of Bennett? + +As he held the watch up, the second hand ticked around and the minute +hand passed the meridian of the hour. + +A viciously sharp little needle gleamed out--then sprang back into the +filigree work again. + +"Well," she gasped again, "what's the occasion of THIS?" + +Craig gazed at Elaine in silence. + +Should he defend his rudeness, if she did not understand? She stamped +her foot, and repeated the question a third time. + +"What do you mean, sir, by such conduct?" + +Slowly he bowed. + +"I just don't like the kind of birthday presents you receive," he said, +turning on his heel. "Good afternoon." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE BLOOD CRYSTALS + + +"On your right is the residence of Miss Elaine Dodge, the heiress, who +is pursuing the famous master criminal known as the Clutching Hand." + +The barker had been grandiloquently pointing out the residences of +noted New Yorkers as the big sightseeing car lumbered along through the +streets. The car was filled with people and he plied his megaphone as +though he were on intimate terms with all the city's notables. + +No one paid any attention to the unobtrusive Chinaman who sat +inconspicuously in the middle of the car. He was Mr. Long Sin, but no +one saw anything particularly mysterious about an oriental visitor more +or less viewing New York City. + +Long was of the mandarin type, with drooping mustache, well dressed in +American clothes, and conforming to the new customs of an +occidentalized China. + +Anyone, however, who had been watching Long Sin would have seen that he +showed much interest whenever any of the wealthy residents of the city +were mentioned. The name of Elaine Dodge seemed particularly to strike +him. He listened with subtle interest to what the barker said and +looked keenly at the Dodge house. + +The sight-seeing car had passed the house, when he rose slowly and +motioned that he wanted to be let off. The car stopped, he alighted and +slowly rambled away, evidently marvelling greatly at the strange +customs of these uncouth westerners. + +Elaine was going out, when she met Perry Bennett almost on the steps of +the house. + +"I've brought you the watch," remarked Bennett; "thought I'd like to +give it to you myself." + +He displayed the watch which he himself had bought a couple of days +before for her birthday. He had called for it himself at the jeweller's +where it had now been regulated. + +"Oh, thank you," exclaimed Elaine. "Won't you come in?" + +They had scarcely greeted each other, when Long Sin strolled along. +Neither of them, however, had time to notice the quiet Chinaman who +passed the house, looking at Elaine sharply out of the corner of his +eye. They entered and Long disappeared down the street. + +"Isn't it a beauty?" cried Elaine, holding it out from her, as they +entered the library and examining it with great appreciation. "And, oh, +do you know, the strangest thing happened yesterday? Sometimes Mr. +Kennedy acts too queerly for anything." + +She related how Craig had burst in on her and Aunt Josephine and had +almost torn the other watch off her wrist. + +"Another watch?" repeated Bennett, amazed. "It must have been a +mistake. Kennedy is crazy." + +"I don't understand it, myself," murmured Elaine. + +Long Sin had continued his placid way, revolving some dark and devious +plan beneath his impassive Oriental countenance. He was no ordinary +personage. In fact he was astute enough to have no record. He left that +to his tools. + +This remarkable criminal had established himself in a hired apartment +downtown. It was furnished in rather elegant American style, but he had +added to it some most valuable Oriental curios which gave it a +fascinating appearance. + +Long Sin, now in rich Oriental costume, was reclining on a divan +smoking a strange looking pipe and playing with two pet white rats. +Each white rat had a gold band around his leg, to which was connected a +gold chain about a foot in length, and the chains ended in rings which +were slipped over Long's little fingers. Ordinarily, he carried the +pets up the capacious sleeve of each arm. + +A servant, also in native costume, entered and bowed deferentially. + +"A Miss Mary Carson," she lisped in soft English. + +"Let the lady enter," waved Long Sin, with a smile of subtle +satisfaction. + +The girl bowed again and silently left the room, returning with a +handsome, very well dressed white woman. + +It would be difficult to analyze just what the fascination was that +Long Sin exercised over Mary Carson. But as the servant left the room, +Mary bowed almost as deferentially as the little Chinese girl. Long +merely nodded in reply. + +After a moment, he slowly rose and took from a drawer a newspaper +clipping. Without a word, he handed it to Mary. She looked at it with +interest, as one woman always does at the picture of another pretty +woman. It was a newspaper cut of Elaine, under which was: + +ELAINE DODGE, THE HEIRESS, WHOSE BATTLE WITH THE CLUTCHING HAND IS +CREATING WORLD WIDE INTEREST. + +"Now," he began, at last, breaking the silence, "I'll show you just +what I want you to do." + +He went over to the wall and took down a curious long Chinese knife +from a scabbard which hung there conspicuously. + +"See that?" he added, holding it up. + +Before she could say a word, he had plunged the knife, apparently, into +his own breast. + +"Oh!" cried Mary, startled. + +She expected to see him fall. But nothing happened. Long Sin laughed. +It was an Oriental trick knife in which the blade telescoped into the +handle. + +"Look at it," he added, handing it to her. + +Long Sin took a bladder of water from a table nearby and concealed it +under his coat. "Now, you stab me," he directed. + +Mary hesitated. But he repeated the command and she plunged the knife +gingerly at him. It telescoped. He made her try it over and she stabbed +more resolutely. The water from the bladder poured out. + +"Good!" cried Long Sin, much pleased. "Now," he added, seating himself +beside her, "I want you to lure Elaine here." + +Mary looked at him inquiringly as he returned the knife to its scabbard +on the wall. "Remember where it is," he continued. "Now, if you will +come into the other room I will show you how to get her." + +I had been amusing myself by rigging up a contrivance by which I could +make it possible to see through or rather over, a door. The idea had +been suggested to me by the cystoscope which physicians use in order to +look down one's throat, and I had calculated that by using three +mirrors placed at proper angles, I could easily reflect rays down to +the level of my eye. + +Kennedy, who had been busy in the other end of the laboratory, happened +to look over in my direction. "What's the big idea, Walter?" he asked. + +It was, I admit, a rather cumbersome and clumsy affair. + +"Well, you see, Craig," I explained, "you put the top mirror through +the transom of a door and--" + +Kennedy interrupted with a hearty burst of laughter. "But suppose the +door has no transom?" he asked, pointing to our own door. + +I scratched my head, thoughtfully. I had assumed that the door would +have a transom. A moment later, Craig went to the cabinet and drew out +a tube about as big around as a putty blower and as long. + +"Now, here's what I call my detectascope," he remarked. "None of your +mirrors for me." + +"I know," I said somewhat nettled, "but what can you see through that +putty blower? A key hole is just as good." + +"Do you realize how little you can really see through a key hole?" he +replied confidently. "Try it over there." + +I did and to tell the truth I could see merely a little part of the +hall. Then Kennedy inserted the detectascope. + +"Look through that," he directed. + +I put my eye to the eye-piece and gazed through the bulging lens of the +other end. I could see almost the whole hall. + +"That," he explained, "is what is known as a fish-eye lens--a lens that +looks through an angle of some 180 degrees, almost twice that of the +widest angle lens I know of." + +I said nothing, but tossed my own crude invention into the corner, +while Craig went back to work. + +Elaine was playing with "Rusty" when Jennings brought in a card on +which was engraved the name, "Miss Mary Carson," and underneath, in +pencil, was written "Belgian Relief Committee." + +"How interesting," commented Elaine, rising and accompanying Jennings +back into the drawing room. "I wonder what she wants. Very pleased to +meet you, Miss Carson," she greeted her visitor. + +"You see, Miss Dodge," began Mary, "we're getting up this movement to +help the Belgians and we have splendid backing. Just let me show you +some of the names on our committee." + +She handed Elaine a list which read: + +BELGIAN RELIEF COMMITTEE + + Mrs. Warburton Fish + Mrs. Hamilton Beekman + Mrs. C. August Iselm + Mrs. Belmont Rivington + Mrs. Rupert Solvay. + +"I've just been sent to see if I cannot persuade you to join the +committee and attend a meeting at Mrs. Rivington's," she went on. + +"Why, er," considered Elaine thoughtfully, "er--yes. It must be all +right with such people in it." + +"Can you go with me now?" + +"Just as well as later," agreed Elaine. + +They went out together, and, as they were leaving the house a man who +had been loitering outside looked at Elaine, then fixedly at her +companion. + +No sooner had they gone than he sped off to a car waiting around the +corner. In the dark depths was a sinister figure, the master criminal +himself. The watcher had been an emissary of the Clutching Hand. + +"Chief," he whispered eagerly, "You know Adventuress Mary? Well, she's +got Elaine Dodge in tow!" + +"The deuce!" cried Clutching Hand. "Then we must teach Mary Carson, or +whoever she is working for, a lesson. No one shall interfere with our +affairs. Follow them!" + +Elaine and Mary had gone downtown, talking animatedly, and walked down +the avenue toward Mrs. Rivington's apartment. + +Meanwhile, Long Sin, still in his Chinese costume, was explaining to +the servant just what he wished done, pointing out the dagger on the +wall and replacing the bladder under his jacket. A box of opium was on +the table, and he was giving most explicit directions. It was into such +a web that Elaine was being unwittingly led by Mary. + +Entering the hallway of the apartment, Mary rang the bell. + +Long heard it. "Answer it," he directed the servant who hastened to do +so, while Long glided like a serpent into a back room. + +The servant opened the door and Elaine and Mary entered. He closed the +door and almost before they knew locked it and was gone into the back +room. + +Elaine gazed about in trepidation. But before she could say anything, +Mary, with a great show of surprise, exclaimed, "Why, I must have made +a mistake. This isn't Mrs. Rivington's apartment. How stupid of me." + +They looked at each other a moment. Then each laughed nervously, as +together they started to go out of the door. It was locked! + +Quickly they ran to another door. It was locked, also. + +Then they went to the windows. Behind the curtains they were barred and +looked out on a blank brick wall in a little court. + +"Oh," cried Mary wringing her hands, stricken in mock panic, "oh, I'm +so frightened. This may be the den of Chinese white slavers!" + +She had picked up some Chinese articles on a table, including the box +that Long had left there. It had a peculiar odor. + +"Opium!" she whispered, showing it to Elaine. + +The two looked at each other, Elaine genuinely worried now. + +Just then, the Chinaman entered and stood a moment gazing at them. They +turned and Elaine recoiled from him. Long bowed. + +"Oh sir," cried Mary, "We've made a mistake. Can't you tell us how to +get out?" + +Long's only answer was to spread out his hands in polite deprecation +and shrug his suave shoulders. + +"No speke Englis," he said, gliding out again from the room and closing +the door. + +Elaine and Mary looked about in despair. + +"What shall we do?" asked Elaine. + +Mary said nothing, but with a hasty glance discovered on the wall the +knife which Long had already told her about. She took it from its +scabbard. As she did so the Chinaman returned with a tray on which were +queer drinks and glasses. + +At the sight of Mary with the knife he scowled blackly, laid the tray +down, and took a few steps in her direction. She brandished the knife +threateningly, then, as if her nerve failed her, fainted letting the +knife fall carefully on the floor so that it struck on the handle and +not on the blade. + +Long quickly caught her as she fainted and carried her out of the room, +banging shut the door. Elaine followed in a moment, loyally, to protect +her supposed friend, but found that the door had a snap lock on the +other side. + +She looked about wildly and in a moment Long reappeared. As he advanced +slowly and insinuatingly, she drew back, pleading. But her words fell +on seemingly deaf ears. + +She had picked up the knife which Mary had dropped and when at last +Long maneuvred to get her cornered and was about to seize her, she +nerved herself up and stabbed him resolutely. + +Long staggered back--and fell. + +As he did so, he pressed the bladder which he had already placed under +his coat. A dark red fluid, like blood, oozed out all over him and ran +in a pool on the floor. + +Elaine, too horror-stricken at what had happened even to scream, +dropped the knife and bent over him. He did not move. She staggered +back and ran through the now open door. As she did so, Long seemed +suddenly to come to life. He raised himself and looked after her, then +with a subtle smile sank back into his former assumed posture on the +floor. + +When Elaine reached the other room, she found Mary there with the +Chinese servant who was giving her a glass of water. At the sight of +her, the servant paused, then withdrew into another room further back. +Mary, now apparently recovering from her faintness, smiled wanly at +Elaine. + +"It's all right," she murmured. "He is a Chinese prince who thought we +were callers." + +At the reassuring nod of Mary toward the front room, Elaine was +overcome. + +"I--I killed him!" she managed to gasp. + +"What?" cried Mary, starting up and trembling violently. "You killed +him?" + +"Yes," sobbed Elaine, "he came at me--I had the knife--I struck at +him--" + +The two girls ran into the other room. There Mary looked at the +motionless body on the floor and recoiled, horrified. + +Elaine noticing some spots on her hands and seeing that they were +stained by the blood of Long Sin, wiped the spots off on her +hankerchief, dropping it on the floor. + +"Ugh!" exclaimed a guttural voice behind them. + +It was the servant who had come in. Even his ordinarily impassive +Oriental face could not conceal the horror and fear at the sight of his +master lying on the floor in a pool of gore. Elaine was now more +frightened than ever, if that were possible. + +"You--kill him--with knife?" insinuated the Chinese. + +Elaine was dumb. The servant did not wait for an answer, but hastily +opened the hall door. + +To Elaine it seemed that something must be done quickly. A moment and +all the house would be in uproar. + +Instead, he placed his finger on his lips. "Quick--no word," he said, +leading the way to the hall door, "and--you must not leave that--it +will be a clue," he added, picking up the bloody handkerchief and +pressing it into Elaine's hand. + +They quickly ran out into the hall. + +"Go--quick!" he urged again, "and hide the handkerchief in the bag. Let +no one see it!" + +He shut the door. As they hurried away, Elaine breathed a sigh of +relief. + +"Why did he let us go, though?" she whispered, her head in a whirl. + +"I don't know," panted Mary, "but anyhow, thank heaven, we are out of +it. Come," she added, taking Elaine's arm, "not a soul has seen us +except the servant. Let us get away as quietly as we can." + +They had reached the street. Afraid to run, they hurried as fast as +they could until they turned the first corner. + +Elaine looked back. No one was pursuing. + +"We must separate," added Mary. "Let us go different ways. I will see +you later. Perhaps they will think some enemy has murdered him." + +They pressed each other's hands and parted. + +Meanwhile in the front room, Long Sin was on his feet again brushing +himself off and mopping up the blood. + +"It worked very well, Sam," he said to the servant. + +They were conversing eagerly and laughing and did not hear a noise in +the back room. + +A sinister figure had made its way by means of a fire-escape to a rear +window that was not barred, and silently he had stolen in on them. + +Cat-like, he advanced, but instead of striking at them, he quietly took +a seat in a chair close behind them, a magazine revolver in his hand. + +They turned at a slight noise and saw him. Genuine fright was now on +their faces as they looked at him, open mouthed. + +"What's all this?" he growled. "I am known as the Clutching Hand. I +allow no interferences with my affairs. Tell me what you are doing here +with Elaine Dodge." + +Their beady almond eyes flashed fear. Clutching Hand moved menacingly. +There was nothing for the astute Long Sin to do but to submit. Cowed by +the well-known power of the master criminal, he took Clutching Hand +into his confidence. + +With a low bow, Long Sin spread out his hands in surrender and +submission. + +"I will tell you, honorable sir," he said at length. + +"Go on!" growled the criminal. + +Quickly Long rehearsed what had happened, from the moment the idea of +blackmail had entered his head. + +"How about Mary Carson?" asked Clutching Hand. "I saw her here." + +Long gave a glance of almost superstitious dread at the man, as if he +had an evil eye. + +"She will be back--is here now," he added, opening the door at a knock +and admitting her. + +Adventuress Mary had hurried back to see that all was right. This time +Mary was genuinely scared at the forbidding figure of which she had +heard. + +"It is all right," pacified Long. "Henceforth we work with the +honorable Clutching Hand." + +Clutching Hand continued to emphasize his demands on them, punctuating +his sentences by flourishes of the gun as he gave them the signs and +passwords which would enable them to work with his own emissaries. + +It was a strange initiation. + +At home at last, Elaine sank down into a deep library chair and stared +straight ahead. She saw visions of arrest and trial, of the terrible +electric chair with herself in it, bound, and of the giving of the +fatal signal for turning on the current. + +Were such things as these going to happen to her, without Kennedy's +help? Why had they quarreled? She buried her face in her hands and wept. + +Then she could stand it no longer. She had not taken off her street +clothes. She rose and almost fled from the house. + +Kennedy and I were still in the laboratory when a knock sounded at the +door. I went to the door and opened it. There stood Elaine Dodge. + +It was a complete surprise to Craig. There was silence between them for +a moment and they merely looked at each other. Elaine was pale and +woebegone. + +At last Kennedy took a quick step toward her and led her to a chair. +Still he felt a sort of constraint. + +"What IS the matter?" he asked at length. + +She hesitated, then suddenly burst out, "Craig--I--I am--a murderess!" + +I have never seen such a look on Craig's face. I know he wanted to +laugh and say, "YOU--a murderess?" yet he would not have offended even +her self accusation for the world. He managed to do the right thing and +say nothing. + +Then she poured forth the story substantially as I have set it down, +but without the explanation which at that time was not known to any of +us. + +"Oh," expostulated Craig, "there must be some mistake. It's +impossible--impossible." + +"No," she asserted. "Look--here's my handkerchief all spotted with +blood." + +She opened the bag and displayed the blood-spotted handkerchief. He +took it and examined it carefully. + +"Elaine," he said earnestly, not at all displeased, I could see that +something had come up that might blot out the past unfortunate +misunderstanding, "there simply must be something wrong here. Leave +this handkerchief with me. I'll do my best." + +There was still a little restraint between them. She was almost ready +to beg his pardon, for all the coolness there had been between them, +yet still hesitated. + +"Thank you," she said simply as she left the laboratory. + +Craig went to work abruptly without a word. On the laboratory table he +placed his splendid microscope and several cases of slides as well as +innumerable micro-photographs. He had been working for some time when +he looked up. + +"Ever hear of Dr. Edward Reichert of the University of Pennsylvania and +his wonderful discoveries of how blood crystals vary in different +species?" he asked. + +I had not, but did not admit it. + +"Well," he went on, "there is a blood test so delicate that one might +almost say that he could identify a criminal by the finger prints, so +to speak, of his blood crystals. The hemoglobin or red coloring matter +forms crystals and the variations of these crystals both in form and +molecular construction are such that they set apart every species of +animal from every other, and even the races of men--perhaps may even +set apart individuals. Here, Walter, we have sample of human blood +crystals." + +I looked through the microscope as he directed. There I could see the +crystals sharply defined. + +"And here," he added, "are the crystals of the blood on Elaine's +handkerchief." + +I looked again as he changed the slides. There was a marked difference +and I looked up at him quickly. + +"It is dog's blood--not human blood," he said simply. + +I looked again at the two sets of slides. There could be no doubt that +there was a plain difference. + +"Wonderful!" I exclaimed. + +"Yes--wonderful," he agreed, "but what's the game back of all +this--that's the main question now." + +Long after Clutching Hand had left, Long Sin was giving instructions to +his servant and Adventuress Mary just how he had had to change his +plans as a result of the unexpected visit. + +"Very well," nodded Mary as she left him, "I will do as you say--trust +me." + +It was not much later, then, that Elaine received a second visit from +Mary. + +"Show her in, Jennings," she said to the butler nervously. + +Indeed, she felt that every eye must be upon her. Even Jennings would +know of her guilt soon. + +Anxiously, therefore, Elaine looked at her visitor. + +"Do you know why the servant allowed us to leave the apartment?" +whispered Mary with a glance about fearfully, as if the walls had ears. + +"No--why?" inquired Elaine anxiously. + +"He's a tong man who has been chosen to do away with the Prince. He +followed me, and says you have done his work for him. If you will give +him ten thousand dollars for expenses, he will attend to hiding the +body." + +Here at least was a way out. + +"But do you think that is all right? Can he do it?" asked Elaine +eagerly. + +"Do it? Why those tong men can do anything for money. Only one must be +careful not to offend them." + +Mary was very convincing. + +"Yes, I suppose you are right," agreed Elaine, finally. "I had better +do as you say. It is the safest way out of the trouble. Yes, I'll do +it. I'll stop at the bank now and get the money." + +They rose and Mary preceded her, eager to get away from the house. At +the door, however, Elaine asked her to wait while she ran back on some +pretext. In the library she took off the receiver of the telephone and +quickly called a number. + +Our telephone rang in the middle of our conversation on blood crystals +and Kennedy himself answered it. + +It was Elaine asking Craig's advice. + +"They have offered to hush the thing up for ten thousand dollars," she +said, in a muffled voice. + +She seemed bent on doing it and no amount of argument from him could +stop her. She simply refused to accept the evidence of the blood +crystals as better than what her own eyes told her she had seen and +done. + +"Then wait for half an hour," he answered, without arguing further. +"You can do that without exciting suspicion. Go with her to her hotel +and hand her over the money." + +"All right--I'll do it," she agreed. + +"What is the hotel?" + +Craig wrote on a slip of paper what she told him--"Room 509, Hotel La +Coste." + +"Good--I'm glad you called me. Count on me," he finished as he hung up +the receiver. + +Hastily he threw on his street coat. "Go into the back room and get me +that brace and bit, Walter," he asked. + +I did so. When I returned, I saw that he had placed the detectascope +and some other stuff in a bag. He shoved in the brace and bit also. + +"Come on--hurry!" he urged. + +We must have made record time in getting to the Coste. It was an ornate +place, where merely to breathe was expensive. We entered and by some +excuse Kennedy contrived to get past the vigilant bellhops. We passed +the telephone switchboard and entered the elevator, getting off at the +fifth floor. + +With a hasty glance up and down the corridor, to make sure no one was +about, Kennedy came to room 509, then passed to the next, 511, opening +the door with a skeleton key. We entered and Craig locked the door +behind us. It was an ordinary hotel room, but well-furnished. +Fortunately it was unoccupied. + +Quietly Craig went to the door which led to the next room. It was, of +course, locked also. He listened a moment carefully. Not a sound. +Quickly, with an exclamation of satisfaction, he opened that door also +and went into 509. + +This room was much like that in which we had already been. He opened +the hall door. + +"Watch here, Walter," he directed, "Let me know at the slightest alarm." + +Craig had already taken the brace and bit from the bag and started to +bore through the wall into room 511, selecting a spot behind a picture +of a Spanish dancer--a spot directly back of her snapping black eyes. +He finished quickly and inserted the detectascope so that the lens +fitted as an eye in the picture. The eye piece was in Room 511. Then he +started to brush up the pieces of plaster on the floor. + +"Craig," I whispered hastily as I heard an elevator door, "someone's +coming!" + +He hurried to the door and looked. "There they are," he said, as we saw +Elaine and Mary rounding the corner of the hall. + +Across the hall, although we did not know it at the time, in room 540, +already, Long Sin had taken up his station, just to be handy. There he +had been with his servant, playing with his two trained white rats. + +Long placed them up his capacious sleeves and carefully opened the door +to look out. Unfortunately he, was just in time to see the door of 509 +open and disclose us. + +His subtle glance detected our presence without our knowing it. + +Hastily picking up the brace and bit and the rest of the debris, and +with a last look at the detectascope, which was hardly noticeable, even +if one already knew it was there, we hurried into 511 and shut the door. + +Kennedy mounted a chair and applied his eye to the detectascope. Just +then Mary and Elaine entered the next room, Mary opening the door with +a regular key. + +"Won't you step in?" she asked. + +Elaine did so and Mary hesitated in the hall. Long Sin had slipped out +on noiseless feet and taken refuge behind some curtains. As he saw her +alone, he beckoned to Mary. + +"There's a stranger in the next room," he whispered. "I don't like him. +Take the money and as quickly as possible get out and go to my +apartment." + +At the news that there was a suspicious stranger about, Mary showed +great alarm. Everything was so rapid, now, that the slightest +hesitation meant disaster. Perhaps, by quickness, even a suspicious +stranger could be fooled, she reasoned. At any rate, Long Sin was +resourceful. She had better trust him. + +Mary followed Elaine into the room, where she had seated herself +already, and locked the door. + +"Have you the money there?" she asked. + +"Yes," nodded Elaine, taking out the package of bills which she had got +from the bank during the half hour delay. + +All this we could see by gazing alternately through the detectascope. + +Elaine handed Mary the money. Mary counted it slowly. At last she +looked up. + +"It's all right," she said. "Now, I'll take this to that tong +leader--he's in a room only just across the hall." + +She went out. + +Kennedy at the detectascope was very excited as this went on. He now +jumped off the chair on which he had been standing and rushed to the +door to head her off. + +To our surprise, in spite of the fact that we could turn the key in the +lock, it was impossible to open it! + +It was only a moment that Craig paused at the door. The next moment he +burst into 509, followed closely by me. + +With a scream, Elaine was on her feet in an instant. + +There was no time for explanations, however. + +He rushed to the door to go out, but it was locked--somehow, on the +outside. The skeleton key would not work, at any rate. + +He shot the lock, and dashed out, calling back, "Walter, stay +there--with Elaine." + +Mary had just succeeded in getting on the elevator as Kennedy hurried +down the hall. The door was closed and the car descended. He rang the +push bell furiously, but there was no answer. + +Had he got so far in the chase, only to be outwitted? + +He dashed back to the room, with us, and jerked down the telephone +receiver. + +"Hello--hello--hello!" he called. + +No answer. + +There seemed to be no way to get a connection. What was the matter? + +He hurried down the hall again. + +No sooner had Elaine and Mary actually gone into the room, than Long +and his servant stole out of 540, across the hall. Somewhere they had +obtained a strong but thin rope. + +Quickly and silently Long tied the handle of the door 511 in which we +were to the handle of 540 which he was vacating. As both doors opened +inward and were opposite, they were virtually locked. + +Then Long and his servant hurried down the hallway to the elevator. + +Down in the hotel lobby, with his followers, the Chinaman paused before +the telephone switchboard where two girls were at work. + +"You may go," ordered Long, and, as his man left, he moved over closer +to the switchboard. + +He was listening eagerly and also watching an indicator that told the +numbers of the rooms which called, as they flashed into view. + +Just as a call from "509" flashed up, Long slipped the rings off his +little fingers and loosened the white rats on the telephone switchboard +itself. + +With a shriek, the telephone system of the Coste went temporarily out +of business. + +The operators fled to the nearest chairs, drawing their skirts about +them. + +There was the greatest excitement among all the women in the corridor. +Such a display of hosiery was never contemplated by even the most +daring costumers. + +Shouts from the bellboys who sought to catch the rats who scampered +hither and thither in frightened abandon mingled with the shrieks of +the ladies. + +Kennedy had succeeded in finding the alcove of the floor clerk in +charge of the fifth floor. There on his desk was an instrument having a +stylus on the end of two arms, connected to a system of magnets. It was +a telautograph. + +Unceremoniously, Craig pushed the clerk out of his seat and sat down +himself. It was a last chance, now that the telephone was out of +commission. + +Downstairs, in the hotel office, where the excitement had not spread to +everyone, was the other end of the electric long distance writer. + +It started to write, as Kennedy wrote, upstairs: + +"HOUSE DETECTIVE--QUICK--HOLD WOMAN WITH BLUE CHATELAINE BAG, GETTING +OUT OF ELEVATOR." + +The clerks downstairs saw it and shouted above the din of the +rat-baiting. + +"McCann--McCann!" + +The clerk had torn off the message from the telautograph register, and +handed it to the house man who pushed his way to the desk. + +Quickly the detective called to the bell-hops. Together they hurried +after the well-dressed woman who had just swept out of the elevator. +Mary had already passed through the excited lobby and out, and was +about to cross the street--safe. + +McCann and the bell-hops were now in full cry after her. Flight was +useless. She took refuge in indignation and threats. + +But McCann was obdurate. She passed quickly to tears and pleadings. It +had no effect. They insisted on leading her back. The game was up. + +Even an offer of money failed to move their adamantine hearts. Nothing +would do but that she must face her accusers. + +In the meantime Long Sin had recovered his precious and useful pets. +Life in the Coste had assumed something of its normal aspect, and Craig +had succeeded in getting an elevator. + +It was just as Mary was led in threatening and pleading by turns that +he stepped off in the lobby. + +There was, however, still just enough excitement to cover a little +pantomime. Long Sin had been about to slip out of a side door, thinking +all was well, when he caught sight of Mary being led back. She had also +seen him, and began to struggle again. + +Quickly he shook his head, indicating for her to stop. Then slowly he +secretly made the sign of the Clutching Hand at her. It meant that she +must not snitch. + +She obeyed instantly, and he quietly disappeared. + +"Here," cried Kennedy, "take her up in the elevator. I'll prove the +case." + +With the house detective and Kennedy, Mary was hustled into the +elevator and whisked back as she had escaped. + +In the meantime I had gathered up what stuff we had in the room we had +entered and had returned with Kennedy's bag. + +"Wh--what's it all about?" inquired Elaine excitedly. + +I tried to explain. + +Just then, out in the hall we could hear loud voices, and that of Mary +above the rest. Kennedy, a man who looked like a detective, and some +bell-boys were leading her toward us. + +"Now--not a word of who she is in the papers, McCann," Kennedy was +saying, evidently about Elaine. "You know it wouldn't sound well for La +Coste. As for that woman--well, I've got the money back. You can take +her off--make the charge." + +As the house man left with Mary, I handed Craig his bag. We moved +toward the door, and as we stood there a moment with Elaine, he quietly +handed over to her the big roll of bills. + +She took it, with surprise still written in her big blue eyes. +"Oh--thank you--I might have known it was only a blackmail scheme," she +cried eagerly. + +Craig held out his hand and she took it quickly, gazing into his eyes. +Craig bowed politely, not quite knowing what to do under the +circumstances. + +If he had been less of a scientist, he might have understood the look +on her face, but, with a nod to me, he turned, and went. + +As she looked first at him, then at the paltry ten thousand in her +hand, Elaine stamped her little foot in vexation. + +"I'm glad I DIDN'T say anything more," she cried. "No--no--he shall beg +my pardon first--there!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE DEVIL WORSHIPPERS + + +Elaine was seated in the drawing room with Aunt Josephine one +afternoon, when her lawyer, Perry Bennett, dropped in unexpectedly. + +He had hardly greeted them when the butler, Jennings, in his usual +impassive manner announced that Aunt Josephine was wanted on the +telephone. + +No sooner were Elaine and Bennett alone, than Elaine, turning to him, +exclaimed impulsively, "I'm so glad you have come. I have been longing +to see you and to tell you about a strange dream I have had." + +"What was it?" he asked, with instant interest. + +Leaning back in her chair and gazing before her tremulously, Elaine +continued, "Last night, I dreamed that father came to me and told me +that if I would give up Kennedy and put my trust in you, I would find +the Clutching Hand. I don't know what to think of it." + +Bennett, who had been listening intently, remained silent for a few +moments. Then, putting down his tea cup, he moved over nearer to Elaine +and bent over her. + +"Elaine," he said in a low tone, his remarkable eyes looking straight +into her own, "you must know that I love you. Then give me the right to +protect you. It was your father's dearest wish, I believe, that we +should marry. Let me share your dangers and I swear that sooner or +later there will be an end to the Clutching Hand. Give me your answer, +Elaine," he urged, "and make me the happiest man in all the world." + +Elaine listened, and not unsympathetically, as Bennett continued to +plead for her answer. + +"Wait a little while--until to-morrow," she replied finally, as if +overcome by the recollections of her weird dream and the unexpected +sequel of his proposal. + +"Let it be as you wish, then," agreed Bennett quietly. + +He took her hand and kissed it passionately. + +An instant later Aunt Josephine returned. Elaine, unstrung by what had +happened, excused herself and went into the library. + +She sank into one of the capacious arm chairs, and passing her hand +wearily over her throbbing forehead, closed her eyes in deep thought. +Involuntarily, her mind travelled back over the rapid succession of +events of the past few weeks and the part that she had thought, at +least, Kennedy had come to play in her life. + +Then she thought of their recent misunderstanding. Might there not be +some simple explanation of it, after all, which she had missed? What +should she do? + +She solved the problem by taking up the telephone and asking for +Kennedy's number. + +I was chatting with Craig in his laboratory, and, at the same time, was +watching him in his experimental work. Just as a call came on the +telephone, he was pouring some nitro-hydrochloric acid into a test tube +to complete a reaction. + +The telephone tinkled and he laid down the bottle of acid on his desk, +while he moved a few steps to answer the call. + +Whoever the speaker was, Craig seemed deeply interested, and, not +knowing who was talking on the wire, I was eager to learn whether it +was anyone connected with the case of the Clutching Hand. + +"Yes, this is Mr. Kennedy," I heard Craig say. + +I moved over toward him and whispered eagerly, "Is there anything new?" + +A little impatient at being interrupted, Kennedy waved me off. It +occurred to me that he might need a pad and pencil to make a note of +some information and I reached over the desk for them. + +As I did so my arm inadvertently struck the bottle of acid, knocking it +over on the top of the desk. Its contents streamed out saturating the +telephone wires before I could prevent it. In trying to right the +bottle my hand came in contact with the acid which burned like liquid +fire, and I cried out in pain. + +Craig hastily laid down the receiver, seized me and rushed me to the +back of the laboratory where he drenched my hand with a neutralizing +liquid. + +He bound up the wounds caused by the acid, which proved to be slight, +after all, and then returned to the telephone. + +To his evident annoyance, he discovered that the acid had burned +through the wires and cut off all connection. + +Though I did not know it, my hand was, in a sense at least, the hand of +fate. + +At the other end of the line, Elaine was listening impatiently for a +response to her first eager words of inquiry. She was astounded to +find, at last, that Kennedy had apparently left the telephone without +any explanation or apology. + +"Why--he rang off," she exclaimed angrily to herself, as she hung up +the receiver and left the room. + +She rejoined her Aunt Josephine and Bennett who had been chatting +together in the drawing room, still wondering at the queer rebuff she +had, seemingly, experienced. + +Bennett rose to go, and, as he parted from Elaine, found an opportunity +to whisper a few words reminding her of her promised reply on the +morrow. + +Piqued, at Kennedy, she flashed Bennett a meaning glance which gave him +to understand that his suit was not hopeless. + +In the center of a devious and winding way, quite unknown to all except +those who knew the innermost secrets of the Chinese quarter and even +unknown to the police, there was a dingy tenement house, apparently +inhabited by hardworking Chinamen, but in reality the headquarters of +the notorious devil worshippers, a sect of Satanists, banned even in +the Celestial Empire. + +The followers of the cult comprised some of the most dangerous Chinese +criminals, thugs, and assassins, besides a number of dangerous +characters who belonged to various Chinese secret societies. At the +head of this formidable organization was Long Sin, the high priest of +the Devil God, and Long Sin had, as we knew, already joined forces with +the notorious Clutching Hand. + +The room in which the uncanny rites of the devil worshippers were +conducted was a large apartment decorated in Chinese style, with highly +colored portraits of some of the devil deities and costly silken +hangings. Beside a large dais depended a huge Chinese gong. + +On the dais itself stood, or rather sat, an ugly looking figure covered +with some sort of metallic plating. It almost seemed to be the mummy of +a Chinaman covered with gold leaf. It was thin and shrunken, entirely +nude. + +Into this room came Long Sin attired in an elaborate silken robe. He +advanced and kowtowed before the dais with its strange figure, and laid +down an offering before it, consisting of punk sticks, little dishes of +Chinese cakes, rice, a jar of oil, and some cooked chicken and pork. +Then he bowed and kowtowed again. + +This performance was witnessed by twenty or thirty Chinamen who knelt +in the rear of the room. As Long Sin finished his devotions they filed +past the dais, bowing and scraping with every sign of abject reverence +both for the devil deity and his high priest. + +At the same time an aged Chinaman carrying a prayer wheel entered the +place and after prostrating himself devoutedly placed the machine on a +sort of low stool or tabourette and began turning it slowly, muttering. +Each revolution of this curious wheel was supposed to offer a prayer to +the god of the netherworld. + +A few moments later, Long Sin, who had been bowing before the metallic +figure in deepest reverence, suddenly sprang to his feet. His glazed +eye and excited manner indicated that he had received a message from +the lips of the strange idol. + +The worshippers who had prostrated themselves in awe at the sight of +their high priest in the unholy frenzy, all rose to their feet and +crowded forward. At the same time Long Sin advanced a step to meet +them, holding his arms outstretched as if to compel silence while he +delivered his message. + +Long Sin struck several blows on the resounding gong and then raised +his voice in solemn tones. + +"Ksing Chau, the Terrible, demands a consort. She is to be +foreign--fair of face and with golden hair." + +Amazed at this unexpected message, the Chinamen prostrated themselves +again and their unhallowed devotions terminated a few moments later +amid suppressed excitement as they filed out. + +At the same time, in a room of the adjoining house, the Clutching Hand +himself was busily engaged making the most elaborate preparations for +some nefarious scheme which his fertile mind had evolved. + +The room had been fitted up as a medium's seance parlor, with black +hangings on the walls, while at one side there was a square cabinet of +black cloth, with a guitar lying before it. + +Two of the Clutching Hand's most trusted confederates and a hard-faced +woman of middle age, dressed in plain black, were putting the finishing +touches to this apartment, when their Chief entered. + +Clutching Hand gazed about the room, now and then giving an order or +two to make more effective the setting for the purpose which he had in +mind. + +Finally he nodded in approval and stepped over to the fire place where +logs were burning brightly in a grate. + +Pressing a spring in the mantelpiece, the master criminal effected an +instant transformation. The logs in the fireplace, still burning, +disappeared immediately through the side of the brick tiling and a +metal sheet covered them. An aperture opened at the back, as if by +magic. + +Through this opening Clutching Hand made his way quickly and +disappeared. + +Emerging on the other side of the peculiar fireplace, Clutching Hand +pushed aside a curtain which barred the way and looked into the Chinese +temple, taking up a position behind the metallic figure on the dais. + +The Chinamen had by this time finished their devotions, if such they +might be called, and the last one was leaving, while Long Sin stood +alone on the dais. + +The noise of the departing Satanists had scarcely died away when +Clutching Hand stepped out. + +"Follow me," he ordered hoarsely seizing Long Sin by the arm and +leading him away. + +They passed through the passageway of the fireplace and, having entered +the seance room, Clutching Hand began briefly explaining the purpose of +the preparations that had been made. Long Sin wagged his head in +voluble approval. + +As Clutching Hand finished, the Chinaman turned to the hard-faced woman +who was to act the part of medium and added some directions to those +Clutching Hand had already given. + +The medium nodded acquiescence, and a moment later, left the room to +carry out some ingenious plot framed by the master mind of the criminal +world. + + . . . . . . . . + +Elaine was standing in the library gazing sadly at Kennedy's portrait, +thinking over recent events and above all the rebuff over the telephone +which she supposed she had received. + +It all seemed so unreal to her. Surely, she felt in her heart, she +could not have been so mistaken in the man. Yet the facts seemed to +speak for themselves. + +In spite of it all, she was almost about to kiss the portrait when +something seemed to stay her hands. Instead she laid the picture down, +with a sigh. + +A moment later, Jennings entered with a card on a salver. Elaine took +it and saw with surprise the name of her caller: + +MADAME SAVETSKY, MEDIUM + +Beneath the engraved name were the words written in ink, "I have a +message from the spirit of your father." + +"Yes, I will see her," cried Elaine eagerly, in response to the +butler's inquiry. + +She followed Jennings into the adjoining room and there found herself +face to face with the hard-featured woman who had only a few moments +before left the Clutching Hand. + +Elaine looked rather than spoke her inquiry. + +"Your father, my dear," purred the medium with a great pretence of +suppressed excitement, "appeared to me, the other night, from the +spirit world. I was in a trance and he asked me to deliver a message to +you." + +"What was the message?" asked Elaine breathlessly, now aroused to +intense interest. + +"I must go into a trance again to get it," replied the insinuating +Savetsky, "and if you like I can try it at once, provided we can be +left alone long enough." + +"Please--don't wait," urged Elaine, pulling the portieres of the doors +closer, as if that might insure privacy. + +Seated in her chair, the medium muttered wildly for a few moments, +rolled her eyes and with some convulsive movements pretended to go into +a trance. + +Savetsky seemed about to speak and Elaine, in the highest state of +nervous tension, listened, trying to make something of the gibberish +mutterings. + +Suddenly the curtains were pushed aside and Aunt Josephine and Bennett, +who had just come in, entered. + +"I can do nothing here," exclaimed Savetsky, starting up and looking +about severely. "You must come to my seance chamber where we shall not +be interrupted." + +"I will," cried Elaine, vexed at the intrusion at that moment. "I must +have that message--I must." + +"What's all this, Elaine?" demanded Aunt Josephine. + +Hurriedly, Elaine poured forth to her aunt and Bennett the story of the +medium's visit and the promised message from her father in the other +world. + +Aunt Josephine, who was not one easily to be imposed on, strongly +objected to Elaine's proposal to accompany Savetsky to the seance +chamber, but Elaine would not be denied. She pleaded with her aunt, +urging that she be allowed to go. + +"It might be safe for Elaine to go," Bennett finally suggested to Aunt +Josephine, "if you and I accompanied her." + +All this time the medium was listening closely to the conversation. +Elaine looked at her inquiringly. With a shrug, she indicated that she +had no objection to having Elaine escorted to the parlor by her friends. + +At last Aunt Josephine, influenced by Elaine's pleadings and Bennett's +suggestion, gave in and agreed to join in the visit. + +A few moments later, in the Dodge car, Elaine, the medium, and her two +escorts started for the Chinese quarter. + + . . . . . . . . + +At the house, the medium opened the door with her key and ushered in +her three visitors. + +Long Sin who had been watching for their arrival from the window now +hastily withdrew from the seance room and disappeared behind the black +curtains. + +Entering the room the medium at once prepared for the seance by pulling +down the window shades. Then she seated herself in a chair beside the +cabinet, and appeared to fall off slowly into a trance. + +Her strange proceedings were watched with the greatest curiosity by +Elaine as well as Aunt Josephine and Bennett, who had taken seats +placed at one side of the room. + +The room itself was dimly lighted, and the curtains of the cabinet +seemed, in the obscurity, to sway back and forth as if stirred by some +ghostly breeze. + +All of them were now quite on edge with excitement. + +Suddenly an indistinct face was seen to be peering through the black +curtains, as it were. + +The guitar, as if lifted by an invisible hand, left the cabinet, +floated about close to the ceiling, and returned again. It was eerie. + +At last a voice, deep, sepulchral, was heard in slow and solemn tones. + +"I am Eeko--the spirit of Taylor Dodge. I will give no message until +one named Josephine leaves the room." + +No sooner had the words been uttered than the medium came writhing out +of her trance. + +"What happened?" she asked, looking at Elaine. + +Elaine reported the spirit's words. + +"We can get nothing if your Aunt stays here," Savetsky added, insisting +that Aunt Josephine must go. "Your father cannot speak while she is +present." + +Aunt Josephine, annoyed by what she had heard, indignantly refused to +go and was deaf to all Elaine's pleadings. + +"I think it will be all right," finally acquiesced Bennett, seeing how +bent Elaine was on securing the message. "I'll stay and protect her." + +Aunt Josephine finally agreed. "Very well, then," she protested, +marching out of the room in a high state of indignation. + +She had scarcely left the house, however, when she began to suspect +that all was not as it ought to be. In fact, the idea had no sooner +occurred to her than she decided to call on Kennedy and she ordered the +chauffeur to take her as quickly as possible to the laboratory. + + . . . . . . . . + +Kennedy had not been in the laboratory all the day, after my experience +with the acid and I was impatiently awaiting his arrival. At last there +came a knock at the door and I opened it hurriedly. There was a +messenger boy who handed me a note. I tore it open. It was from Kennedy +and read, "I shall probably be away for two or three days. Call up +Elaine and tell her to beware of a certain Madame Savetsky." + +I was still puzzling over the note and was just about to call up Elaine +when the speaking tube was blown and to my surprise I found it was Aunt +Josephine who had called. + +"Where is Mr. Kennedy?" she asked, greatly agitated. + +"He has gone away for a few days," I replied blankly. "Is there +anything I can do?" + +She was very excited and hastily related what had happened at the +parlor of the medium. + +"What was her name?" I asked anxiously. + +"Madame Savetsky," she replied, to my surprise. + +Astounded, I picked up Craig's note from the desk and handed it to her +without a word. She read it with breathless eagerness. + +"Come back there with me, please," she begged, almost frantic with fear +now. "Something terrible may have happened." + + . . . . . . . . + +Aunt Josephine had hardly left Savetsky when the trance was resumed +and, in a few minutes, there came all sorts of supernatural +manifestations. The table beside Elaine began to turn and articles on +it dropped to the floor. Violent rappings followed in various parts of +the room. Both Elaine and Bennett who sat together in silence were much +impressed by the marvellous phenomena--not being able to see, in the +darkness, the concealed wires that made them possible. + +Suddenly, from the mysterious shadows of the cabinet, there appeared +the spirit of Long Sin, whose death Elaine still believed she had +caused when Adventuress Mary had lured her to the apartment. + +Elaine was trembling with fear at the apparition. + +As before, a strange voice sounded in the depths of the cabinet and +again a message was heard, in low, solemn tones. + +"I am Keka, and I have with me Long Sin. His blood cries for vengeance." + +Elaine was overcome with horror at the words. + +From the cabinet ran a thick stream of red, like blood, from which she +recoiled, shuddering. + +Then a dim, ghostly figure, apparently that of Long Sin, appeared. The +face was horribly distorted. It seemed to breathe the very odor of the +grave. + +With arms outstretched, the figure glided from the cabinet and +approached Elaine. She shrank back further in fright, too horrified +even to scream. + +At the same moment, the medium drew a vapor pistol from her dress, and, +as the ghost of Long Sin leaped at Elaine, Savetsky darted forward and +shot a stream of vapor full in Bennett's face. + +Bennett dropped unconscious, the lights in the darkened room flashed +up, and several of the men of the Clutching Hand rushed in. + +Quickly the fireplace was turned on its cleverly constructed hinges, +revealing the hidden passage. + +Before any effective resistance could be made, Elaine and Bennett were +hustled through the passage, securely bound, and placed on a divan in a +curtained chamber back of the altar of the devil worshippers. + +There they lay when Long Sin, now in his priestly robes, entered. He +looked at them a moment. Then he left the room with a sinister laugh. + + . . . . . . . . + +It was at that moment that I, little dreaming of what had been taking +place, arrived with Aunt Josephine at the house of the medium. + +She answered my ring and admitted us. To our surprise, the seance room +was empty. + +"Where is the young lady who was here?" I asked. + +"Miss Dodge and the gentleman just left a few minutes ago," the medium +explained, as we looked about. + +She seemed eager to satisfy us that Elaine was not there. Apparently +there was no excuse for disputing her word, but, as we turned to leave, +I happened to notice a torn handkerchief lying on the floor near the +fireplace. It flashed over me that perhaps it might afford a clue. + +As I passed it, I purposely dropped my soft hat over it and picked up +the hat, securing the handkerchief without attracting Savetsky's +attention. + +Aunt Josephine was keen now for returning home to find out whether +Elaine was there or not. No sooner had she entered the car and driven +off, than I examined the handkerchief. It was torn, as if it had been +crushed in the hand during a struggle and wrenched away. I looked +closer. In the corner was the initial, "E." + +That was enough. Without losing another precious moment I hurried +around to the nearest police station, where I happened to be known, +having had several assignments for the Star in that part of the city, +and gave an alarm. + +The sergeant detailed several roundsmen, and a man in plainclothes, and +together we returned to the house, laying a careful plan to surround it +secretly, while the plainclothesman and I obtained admittance. + + . . . . . . . . + +Meanwhile, the Chinese devil worshippers had again gathered in their +cursed temple and Long Sin, in his priestly robe, appeared on the dais. + +The worshippers kowtowed reverently to him, while at the back again +stood the aged Chinaman patiently turning his prayer wheel. + +Two braziers, or smoke pots, had been placed on the dais, one of which +Long Sin touched with a stick causing it to burst out into dense fumes. + +Standing before them, he chanted in nasal tones, "The white consort of +the great Ksing Chau has been found. It is his will that she now be +made his." + +As he finished intoning the message, Long Sin signaled to two young +Chinamen to go into the anteroom. A moment later they returned with +Elaine. + +Frightened though she was, Elaine made no attempt to struggle, even +when they had cut her bonds. She was busily engaged in seeking some +method of escape. Her eyes travelled ever the place quickly. +Apparently, there was no means of exit that was not guarded. Long Sin +saw her look, and smiled quietly. + +They had carried her up to the dais, and now Long Sin faced her and +sternly ordered her to kowtow to the gruesome metallic figure. + +She refused, but instantly the Chinamen seized her arm and twisted it, +until they had compelled her to fall to her knees. + +Having forced her to kowtow, Long Sin turned to the assembled devil +dancers. + +"With magic and rare drugs," he chanted, "she shall be made to pass +beyond and her body encased in precious gold shall be the consort of +Ksing Chau--forever and ever." + +He made another sign and several pots and braziers were brought out and +placed on the dais beside Elaine. She was, by this time, completely +overcome by the horror of the situation. There was apparently no escape. + +With callous deviltry, the oriental satanists had made every +arrangement for embalming and preserving the body of Elaine. Pots +filled with sticky black material were slowly heated, amid weird +incantations, while other Chinamen laid out innumerable sheets of gold +leaf. + +At last all seemed to be in readiness to proceed. + +"Hold her," ordered Long Sin in guttural Chinese to the two attendants, +as he approached her. + +Long Sin held in his hand a small, profusely decorated pot from which +smoke was escaping. As he approached he passed this receptacle under +her nose once, twice, three times. + +Gradually Elaine fell into unconsciousness. + + . . . . . . . . + +While Elaine was facing death in the power of the devil worshippers, I +had reached the house of Savetsky next door with the police, and the +place had been quietly surrounded. + +With the plainclothesman, a daring and intelligent fellow, I went to +the door and rang the bell. + +"What can I do for you?" asked the medium, admitting us. + +"My friend, here," I parleyed, "is in great business trouble. Can your +controlling spirit give him advice?" + +We had managed to gain the interior of the seance room, and I suppose +there was nothing else for her to say, under the circumstances, but, +"Why--yes,--if the conditions are good, the control can probably tell +us just what he wants to know." + +Savetsky set to work preparing the room for a seance. As she moved over +to the window to pull down the shades, she must have caught sight of +one or two of the policemen who had incautiously exposed themselves +from the hiding places in which I had disposed them before we entered. +At any rate, Savetsky did not lose a jot of her remarkable composure. + +"I'm sorry," she remarked merely, "but I'm afraid my control is weak +and cannot work today." + +She took a step toward the door, motioning us to leave. Neither of us +paid any attention to that hint, but remained seated as we had been +before. + +"Go!" she exclaimed at length, for the first time showing a trace of +nervousness. + +Evidently her suspicions had been fully confirmed by our actions. We +tried to argue with her to gain time. But it was of no use. + +Almost before I knew what she was doing, she made a dash for something +in the corner of the room. It was time for open action, and I seized +her quickly. + +My detective was on his feet in an instant. + +"I'll take care of her," he ground out, seizing her wrists in his +vice-like grasp. "You give the signal." + +I rushed to the window, threw up the shade and opened the sash, waving +our preconcerted sign, turning again toward the room. + +With a sudden accession of desperate strength, Savetsky broke away from +the plainclothesman and again attempted to get at something concealed +on the wall. I had turned just in time to fling myself between her and +whatever object she had in mind. + +As the detective took her again and twisted her arm until she cried out +in pain, I hastily investigated the wall. She had evidently been +attempting to press a button that rang a concealed bell. + +What did it all mean? + + . . . . . . . . + +Elaine, now completely unconscious, was being held by the Chinamen, +while her arm was smeared with sticky black material from the cauldron +by Long Sin. As the high priest of Satan worked, the devil worshippers +kowtowed obediently. + +Suddenly the aged Chinaman with the prayer wheel stopped his incessant, +impious turning, and rising, held up his hand as if to command +attention. + +Amid a general exclamation of wonder, he walked to the dais and mounted +it, turning and facing the worshippers. + +"This is nonsense," he cried in a loud tone. "Why should our great +Ksing Chau desire a white devil? I, a great grandfather, demand to +know." + +The effect on the worshippers was electric. They paused in their +obeisance and stared at the speaker, then at their high priest. + +Shaking with rage, Long Sin ordered the intruder off the dais. But the +aged devotee refused to go. + +"Throw him out," he ordered his attendants. + +For answer, as the two young Chinamen approached, the old Chinaman +threw them down to the floor with a quick jiu-jitsu movement. His +strength seemed miraculous for so aged a man. + +Furious now beyond expression, Long Sin stepped forward himself. He +seized the beard and queue of the intruder. To his utter amazement, +they came off! + +It was Kennedy! + +With his automatic drawn, before the astounded devil dancers could +recover themselves, Craig stood at bay. + +Long Sin leaped behind the big gong. As the Chinamen rushed forward to +seize him, Kennedy shot the leader of Long Sin's attendants and struck +down the other with a blow. The rush was checked for the moment. But +the odds were fearful. + +Kennedy seized Elaine's yielding body and, pushing back the curtains to +the anteroom, succeeded in gaining it, and locking the door into the +main temple. + +Bennett was still lying on the floor tightly bound. With a few deft +cuts by a Chinese knife which he had picked up, Kennedy released him. + +At the same time, Chinamen were trying to batter down the door, +Kennedy's last bulwark. It was swaying under their repeated blows. + +Kennedy rushed to the door and fired through it at random to check the +attack for a few moments. + + . . . . . . . . + +While Kennedy was thus besieged by the devil worshippers in the +anteroom, several policemen and detectives gathered in the seance room +with us, next door, where Savetsky was held a defiant and mute prisoner. + +I had discovered the bell, and, taking that as a guide, I started to +trace the course of a wire which ran alongside the wall, feeling +certain that it would give me a clue to some adjoining room to which +Elaine might possibly have been taken. + +To the fireplace I traced the bell, and, in pulling on the wire, I +luckily pressed a secret spring. To my amazement, the whole fireplace +swung out of sight and disclosed a secret passageway. + +I looked through it. + +It was almost at that precise instant that the door of the anteroom +burst open and the Chinamen swarmed in, urged on by the insane +exhortations of Long Sin. + +To my utter amazement, I recognized Kennedy's voice. + +In the first onslaught, Craig shot one Chinaman dead, then closed with +the others, slashing right and left with the Chinese knife he had +picked up. + +Bennett came to his aid, but was immediately overcome by two Chinamen, +who evidently had been detailed for that purpose. + +Meanwhile, Kennedy and the others were engaged in a terrible life and +death struggle. They fought all over the room, dismantling it, and even +tearing the hangings from the wall. + +It was just as the Chinese was about to overpower him that I led the +police and detectives through the passageway of the fireplace. + +It was a glorious fight that followed. Long Sin and his Chinamen were +no match for the police and were soon completely routed, the police +striking furiously in all directions and clearing the room. + +Instantly, Kennedy thought of the fair object of all this melee. He +rushed to the divan on which he had placed Elaine. + +She was slowly returning to consciousness. + +As she opened her eyes, for an instant, she gazed at Craig, then at +Bennett. Still not comprehending just what had happened, she gave her +hand to Bennett. Bennett lifted her to her feet and slowly assisted her +as she tried to walk away. + +Kennedy watched them, more stupefied than if he had been struck over +the head by Long Sin. + + . . . . . . . . + +Police and detectives were now taking the captured Chinamen away, as +Bennett, his arm about Elaine, led her gently out. + +A young detective had slipped the bracelets over Long Sin's wrist, and +I was standing beside him. + +Kennedy, in a daze at the sight of Elaine and Bennett, passed us, +scarcely noticing who we were. + +As Craig collected his scattered forces, Long Sin motioned to him, as +if he had a message to deliver. + +Kennedy frowned suspiciously. He was about to turn away, when the +Chinaman began pleading earnestly for a chance to say a few words. + +"Step aside for a moment, you fellows, won't you please," Craig asked. +"I will hear what you have to say, Long Sin." + +Long Sin looked about craftily. + +"What is it?" prompted Craig, seeing that at last they were all alone. + +Long Sin again looked around. + +"Swear that I will go free and not suffer," Long Sin whispered, "and I +will betray the great Clutching Hand." + +Kennedy studied the Chinaman keenly for a moment. Then, seemingly +satisfied with the scrutiny, he nodded slowly assent. + +As Craig did so, I saw Long Sin lean over and whisper into Kennedy's +ear. + +Craig started back in horror and surprise. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE RECKONING + + +Pacing up and down his den in the heart of Chinatown, Long Sin was +thinking over his bargain with Kennedy to betray the infamous Clutching +Hand. + +It was a small room in a small and unpretentious house, but it +adequately expressed the character of the subtle Oriental. The den was +lavishly furnished, while the guileful Long Sin himself wore a richly +figured lounging gown of the finest and costliest silk, chosen for the +express purpose of harmonizing with the luxurious Far Eastern hangings +and furniture so as to impress his followers and those whom he might +choose as visitors. + +At length he seated himself at a teakwood table, still deliberating +over the promise he had been forced to make to Kennedy. He sat for some +moments, deeply absorbed in thought. + +Suddenly an idea seemed to strike him. Lifting a little hammer, he +struck a Chinese gong on the table at his side. At the same time, he +leaned over and turned a knob at the side of a large roll-top desk. + +A few seconds later a sort of hatchway, covered by a rug on the floor, +in one corner of the room, was slowly lifted and Long Sin's secretary, +a sallow, cadaverous Chinaman, appeared from below. He stepped +noiselessly into the room and shuffled across to Long Sin. + +Long Sin scowled, as though something had interfered with his own +plans, but tore open the envelope without a word, spreading out on his +lap the sheet of paper it contained. + +The letter bore a typewritten message, all in capitals, which read: + +"BE AT HEADQUARTERS AT 12. DESTROY THIS IMMEDIATELY." + +At the bottom of the note appeared the sinister signature of the +Clutching Hand. + +As soon as he had finished reading the note, the Chinaman turned to his +obsequious secretary, who stood motionless, with folded arms and head +meekly bent. + +"Very well," he said with an imperious wave of his hand. "You may go." + +Bowing low again, the secretary shuffled across and down again through +the hatchway, closing the door as he descended. + +Long Sin read the note once more, while his inscrutable face assumed an +expression of malicious cunning. Then he glanced at his heavy gold +watch. + +With an air of deliberation, he reached for a match and struck it. He +had just placed the paper in the flame when suddenly he seemed to +change his mind. He hastily blew out the match which had destroyed only +a corner of the paper, then folded the note carefully and placed it in +his pocket. + +A few moments later, with a malignant chuckle, Long Sin rose slowly and +left the room. + + . . . . . . . . + +Meanwhile, the master criminal was busily engaged in putting the +finishing touches to a final scheme of fiendish ingenuity for the +absolute destruction of Craig Kennedy. + +He had been at work in a small room, fitted up as a sort of laboratory, +in the mysterious house which now served as his headquarters. + +On all sides were shelves filled with bottles of deadly liquids and +scientific apparatus for crime. Jars of picric acid, nitric acid, +carboys of other chemicals, packages labelled gunpowder, gun cotton and +nitroglycerine, as well as carefully stoppered bottles of prussic acid, +and the cyanides, arsenic and other poisons made the place bear the +look of a veritable devil's workshop. + +Clutching Hand, at a bench in one corner, had just completed an +infernal machine of diabolical cunning, and was wrapping it carefully +in paper to make an innocent package. + +He was interrupted by a knock at the door. Laying down the bomb he went +to answer the summons with a stealthy movement. There stood Long Sin, +who had disguised himself as a Chinese laundryman. + +"On time--good!" growled Clutching Hand surlily as he closed the door +with equal care. + +No time was wasted in useless formalities. + +"This is a bomb," he went on, pointing to the package. "Carry it +carefully. On no account let it slip, or you are a dead man. It must be +in Kennedy's laboratory before night. Understand? Can you arrange it?" + +Long Sin looked the dangerous package over, then with an impassive +look, replied, "Have no fear. I can do it. It will be in the laboratory +within an hour. Trust me." + +Long Sin nodded sagely, while Clutching Hand growled his approval as he +opened the door and let out the Chinaman. Long Sin departed as +stealthily as he had come, the frightful engine of destruction hugged +up carefully under his wide-sleeved coolie shirt. + +For a moment Clutching Hand gave himself up to the exquisite +contemplation of what he had just done, then turned to clean up his +workshop. + + . . . . . . . . + +In Kennedy's laboratory I was watching Craig make some experiments with +a new X-ray apparatus which had just arrived, occasionally looking +through the fluoroscope when he was examining some unusually +interesting object. + +We were oblivious to the passage of time, and only a call over our +speaking tube diverted our attention. + +I opened the door and a few seconds later Long Sin himself entered. + +Kennedy looked up inquiringly as the Chinaman approached, holding out a +package which he carried. + +"A bomb," he said, in the most matter of fact way. "I promised to have +it placed in your laboratory before night." + +The placid air with which the grotesque looking Chinaman imparted this +astounding information was in itself preposterous. His actions and +words as he laid the package down gingerly on the laboratory table +indicated that he was telling the truth. + +Kennedy and I stared at each other in blank amazement for a moment. +Then the humor of the thing struck us both and we laughed outright. + +Clutching Hand had told him to deliver it--and he had done so! + +Hastily I filled a pail with water and brought it to Kennedy. + +"If it is really a bomb," I remarked, "why not put the thing out of +commission?" + +"No, no, Walter," he cried quickly, shaking his head. "If it's a +chemical bomb, the water might be just the thing to make the chemicals +run together and set it off. No, let us see what the new X-ray machine +can tell us, first." + +He took the bomb and carefully placed it under the wonderful rays, then +with the fluoroscope over his eyes studied the shadow cast by the rays +on its sensitive screen. For several minutes he continued safely +studying it from every angle, until he thoroughly understood it. + +"It's a bomb, sure enough," Craig exclaimed, looking up from it at last +to me. "It's timed by an ingenious and noiseless little piece of +clockwork, in there, too. And it's powerful enough to blow us all, the +laboratory included, to kingdom come." + +As he spoke, and before I could remonstrate with him, he took the +infernal machine and placed it on a table where he set to work on the +most delicate and dangerous piece of dissection of which I have ever +heard. + +Carefully unwrapping the bomb and unscrewing one part while he held +another firm, he finally took out of it a bottle of liquid and some +powder. Then he placed a few grains of the powder on a dish and dropped +on it a drop or two of the liquid. There was a bright flash, as the +powder ignited instantly. + +"Just what I expected," commented Kennedy with a nod, as he examined +the clever workmanship of the bomb. + +One thing that interested him was that part of the contents had been +wrapped in paper to keep them in place. This paper he was now carefully +examining with a hand lens. + +As nearly as I could make it out, the paper contained part of a +typewritten chemical formula, which read: + +TINCTURE OF IODINE + +THREE PARTS OF--- + +He looked up from his study of the microscope to Long Sin. + +"Tell me just how it happened that you got this bomb," he asked. + +Without hesitation, the Chinaman recited the circumstances, beginning +with the note by which he had been summoned. + +"A note?" repeated Kennedy, eagerly. "Was it typewritten?" + +Long Sin reached into his pocket and produced the note itself, which he +had not burned. + +As Craig studied the typewritten message from the Clutching Hand I +could see that he was growing more and more excited. + +"At last he has given us something typewritten," he exclaimed. "To most +people, I suppose, it seems that typewriting is the best way to conceal +identity. But there are a thousand and one ways of identifying +typewriting. Clutching Hand knew that. That was why he was so careful +to order this note destroyed. As for the bomb, he figured that it would +destroy itself." + +He was placing one piece of typewriting after another under the lens, +scrutinizing each letter closely. + +"Look, Walter," he remarked at length, taking a fine tipped pencil and +pointing at the distinguishing marks as he talked, "You will notice +that all the 'T's' in this note are battered and faint as well as just +a trifle out of alignment. Now I will place the paper from the bomb +under the lens and you will also see that the 'T's' in the scrap of +formula have exactly the same appearance. That indicated, without the +possibility of a doubt, taken in connection with a score of other +peculiarities in the letters which I could pick out that both were +written on the same typewriter. I have selected the 'T' because it is +the most marked." + +I strained my eyes to look. Sure enough, Kennedy was right. There was +that unmistakable identity between the T's in the formula and the note. + +Kennedy had been gazing at the floor, his face puckered in thought as I +looked. Suddenly he slapped his hands together, as if he had made a +great discovery. + +"I've struck it!" he exclaimed, jumping up. "I was wondering where I +had seen typewriting that reminds me of this. Walter, get on your coat +and hat. We are on the right trail at last." + +With Long Sin we hurried out of the laboratory, leaving him at the +nearest taxicab stand, where we jumped into a waiting car. + +"It is the clue of the battered 'T's,'" Craig muttered. + + . . . . . . . . + +Aunt Josephine was in the library knitting when the butler, Jennings, +announced us. We were admitted at once, for Aunt Josephine had never +quite understood what was the trouble between Elaine and Craig, and had +a high regard for him. + +"Where is--Miss Dodge?" inquired Kennedy, with suppressed excitement as +we entered. + +"I think she's out shopping and I don't know just when she will be +back," answered Aunt Josephine, with some surprise. "Why? Is it +anything important--any news?" + +"Very important," returned Kennedy excitedly. "I think I have the best +clue yet. Only--it will be necessary to look through some of the +household correspondence immediately to see whether there are certain +letters. I wouldn't be surprised if she had some--perhaps not very +personal--but I MUST see them." + +Aunt Josephine seemed nonplussed at first. I thought she was going to +refuse to allow Craig to proceed. But finally she assented. + +Kennedy lost no time. He went to a desk where Elaine generally sat, and +quickly took out several typewritten letters. He examined them closely, +rejecting one after another, until finally he came to one that seemed +to interest him. + +He separated it from the rest and fell to studying it, comparing it +with the paper from the bomb and the note which Long Sin had received +from the Clutching Hand. Then he folded the letter so that both the +signature and the address could not be read by us. + +A portion of the letter, I recall, read something like this: + +"This is his contention: whereas TRUTH is the only goal and MATTER is +non-existent-- + +"Look at this, Walter," remarked Craig, with difficulty restraining +himself, "What do you make of it?" + +A glance at the typewriting was sufficient to show me that Kennedy had +indeed made an important discovery. The writing of the letter which he +had just found in Elaine's desk corresponded in every respect with that +in the Clutching Hand note and that on the bomb formula. In each +instance there were the same faintness, the same crooked alignment, the +same battered appearance of all the letter T's. + +We stared at each other almost too dazed to speak. + + . . . . . . . . + +At that moment we were startled by the sudden appearance of Elaine +herself, who had come in unexpectedly from her shopping expedition. + +She entered the room carrying in her arms a huge bunch of roses which +she had evidently just received. Her face was half buried in the +fragrant blossoms, but was fairer than even they in their selected +elegance. + +The moment she saw Craig, however, she stopped short with a look of +great surprise. Kennedy, on his part, who was seated at the desk still +tracing out the similarities of the letters, stood up, half hesitating +what to say. He bowed and she returned his salutation with a very cool +nod. + +Her keen eye had not missed the fact that several of her letters lay +scattered over the top of the desk. + +"What are you doing with my letters, Mr. Kennedy?" she asked, in an +astonished tone, evidently resenting the unceremoniousness with which +he had apparently been overhauling her correspondence. + +As guardedly as possible, Kennedy met her inquiry, which I could not +myself blame her for making. + +"I beg pardon, Miss Dodge," he said, "but a matter has just come up +which necessitated merely a cursory examination of some purely formal +letters which might have an important bearing on the discovery of the +Clutching Hand. Your Aunt had no idea where you were, nor of when you +might return, and the absolute necessity for haste in such an important +matter is my only excuse for examining a few minor letters without +first obtaining your permission." + +She said nothing. At another time, such an explanation would have been +instantly accepted. Now, however, it was different. + +Kennedy read the look on her face, and an instant later turned to Aunt +Josephine and myself. + +"I would very much appreciate a chance to say a few words to Miss Dodge +alone," he intimated. "I have had no such opportunity for some time. If +you would be so kind as to leave us in the library--for a few minutes--" + +He did not finish the sentence. Aunt Josephine had already begun to +withdraw and I followed. + + . . . . . . . . + +For a moment or two, Craig and Elaine looked at each other, neither +saying a word, each wondering just what was in the other's mind. +Kennedy was wondering if there was any X-ray that might read a woman's +heart, as he was accustomed to read others of nature's secrets. + +He cleared his throat, the obvious manner of covering up his emotion. + +"Elaine," he said at length, dropping the recent return to "Miss +Dodge," for the moment, "Elaine, is there any truth in this morning's +newspaper report of--of you?" + +She had dropped her eyes. But he persisted, taking a newspaper clipping +from his pocket and handing it to her. + +Her hand trembled as she glanced over the item: + +SOCIETY NOTES + +Dame Rumor is connecting the name of Miss Elaine Dodge, the heiress, +with that of Perry Bennett, the famous young lawyer. The announcement +of an engagement between them at any time would not surprise-- + +Elaine read no further. She handed back the clipping to Kennedy. As her +eyes met his, she noticed his expression of deep concern, and hesitated +with the reply she had evidently been just about to make. + +Still, as she lowered her head, it seemed to give silent confirmation +to the truth of the newspaper report. + +Kennedy said nothing. But his eyes continued to study her face, even +when it was averted. + +He suppressed his feelings with a great effort, then, without a word, +bowed and left the room. + +"Walter," he exclaimed as he rejoined us in the drawing room, where I +was chatting with Aunt Josephine, "we must be off again. The trail +follows still further." + +I rose and much to the increased mystification of Aunt Josephine, left +the house. + + An hour or so later, Elaine, whose mind was now in a whirl from +what had happened, decided to call on Perry Bennett. + +Two or three clerks were in the outer office when she arrived, but the +office boy, laying down a dime novel, rose to meet her and informed her +that Mr. Bennett was alone. + +As Elaine entered his private office, Bennett rose to greet her +effusively and they exchanged a few words. + +"I mustn't forget to thank you for those lovely roses you sent me," she +exclaimed at length. "They were beautiful and I appreciated them ever +so much." + +Bennett acknowledged her thanks with a smile, she sat down familiarly +on his desk, and they plunged into a vein of social gossip. + +A moment later, Bennett led the conversation around until he found an +opportunity to make a tactful allusion to the report of their +engagement in the morning papers. + +He had leaned over and now attempted to take her hand. She withdrew it, +however. There was something about his touch which, try as she might, +she could not like. Was it mere prejudice, or was it her keen woman's +intuition? + +Bennett looked at her a moment, suppressing a momentary flash of anger +that had reddened his face, and controlled himself as if by a +superhuman effort. + +"I believe you really love that man Kennedy," he exclaimed, in a tone +that was almost a hiss. "But I tell you, Elaine, he is all bluff. Why, +he has been after that Clutching Hand now for three months--and what +has he accomplished? Nothing!" + +He paused. Through Elaine's mind there flashed the contrast with +Kennedy's even temper and deferential manner. In spite of their quarrel +and the coolness, she found herself resenting the remark. Still she +said nothing, though her expressive face showed much. + +Bennett, by another effort, seemed to grip his temper again. He paced +up and down the room. Then he changed the subject abruptly, and the +conversation was resumed with some constraint. + + . . . . . . . . + +While Elaine and Bennett were talking, Kennedy and I had entered the +office. + +Craig stopped the boy who was about to announce us and asked for +Bennett's secretary instead, much to my astonishment. + +The boy merely indicated the door of one of the other private offices, +and we entered. + +We found the secretary, hard at work at the typewriter, copying a legal +document. Without a word, Kennedy at once locked the door. + +The secretary rose in surprise, but Craig paid no attention to him. +Instead he calmly walked over to the machine and began to examine it. + +"Might I ask--" began the secretary. + +"You keep quiet," ordered Kennedy, with a nod to me to watch the +fellow. "You are under arrest--and the less you say, the better for +you." + +I shall never forget the look that crossed the secretary's face. Was it +the surprise of an innocent man? + +Taking the man's place at the machine, Kennedy removed the legal paper +that was in it and put in a new sheet. Then he tapped out, as we +watched: + +BE AT HEADQUARTERS AT 12. DESTROY THIS IMMEDIATELY + +TINCTURE OF IODINE + +THREE PARTS OF---- + +This is his contention:--whereas TRUTH is the only goal and MATTER is +non-existent-- + +T T T T + +"Look, Walter," he exclaimed as he drew out the paper from the machine. + +I bent over and together we compared the T's with those in the +Clutching Hand letter, the paper from the bomb and the letter which +Craig had taken from Elaine's desk. + +As Craig pointed out the resemblances with a pencil, my amazement +gradually changed into comprehension and comprehension into conviction. +The meaning of it all began to dawn on me. + +The writing was identical. There were no differences! + + . . . . . . . . + +While we were locked in the secretary's office, Bennett and Elaine were +continuing their chat on various social topics. Suddenly, however, with +a glance at the clock, Bennett told Elaine that he had an important +letter to dictate, and that it must go off at once. + +She said that she would excuse him a few minutes and he pressed a +button to call his secretary. + +Of course the secretary did not appear. Bennett left his office, with +some annoyance, and went into the adjoining room the door to which +Kennedy had not locked. + +He hesitated a moment, then opened the door quietly. To his +astonishment, he saw Kennedy, the secretary, and myself apparently +making a close examination of the typewriter. + +Gliding rather than walking back into his own office, he closed the +door and locked it. Almost instantly, fear and fury at the presence of +his hated rival, Kennedy, turned Bennett, as it were, from the Jekyll +of a polished lawyer and lover of Elaine into an insanely jealous and +revengeful Mr. Hyde. The strain was more than his warped mind could +bear. + +With a look of intense horror and loathing, Elaine watched him slowly +change from the composed, calm, intellectual Bennett she knew and +respected into a repulsive, mad figure of a man. + +His stature even seemed to be altered. He seemed to shrivel up and +become deformed. His face was terribly distorted. + +And his long, sinewy hand slowly twisted and bent until he became the +personal embodiment of the Clutching Hand. + +As Elaine, transfixed with terror, watched Bennett's astounding +metamorphosis, he ran to the door leading to the outer office and +hastily locked that, also. + +Then, with his eyes gleaming with rage and his hands working in +murderous frenzy, he crouched, nearer and nearer, towards Elaine. + +She shrank back, screaming again and again in terror. + +He WAS the Clutching Hand! + + . . . . . . . . + +In spite of closed doors, we could now plainly hear Elaine's shrieks. +Craig, the secretary and myself made a rush for the door to Bennett's +private office. Finding it locked, we began to batter it. + +By this time, however, Bennett had hurled himself upon Elaine and was +slowly choking her. + +Kennedy quickly found that it was impossible to batter down the door in +time by any ordinary means. Quickly he seized the typewriter and hurled +it through the panels. Then he thrust his hand through the opening and +turned the catch. + +As we flung ourselves into the room, Bennett rushed into a closet in a +corner, slamming the door behind him. It was composed of sheet iron and +effectually prevented anyone from breaking through. Kennedy and I tried +vainly, however, to pry it open. + +While we were thus endeavoring to force an entrance, Bennett, in a sort +of closet, had put on the coat, hat and mask which he invariably wore +in the character of the Clutching Hand. Then he cautiously opened a +secret door in the back of the closet and slowly made an exit. + + . . . . . . . . + +Meanwhile, the secretary had been doing his best to revive Elaine, who +was lying in a chair, hysterical and half unconscious from the terrible +shock she had experienced. + +Intent on discovering Bennett's whereabouts, Kennedy and I examined the +wall of the office, thinking there might possibly be some button or +secret spring which would open the closet door. + +While we were doing so, the door of a large safe in the secretary's +office gradually opened and the Clutching Hand emerged from it, +stepping carefully towards the door leading to the outer office, intent +on escaping in that direction. + +At that moment, I caught sight of him, and leaping into the secretary's +office, I drew my revolver and ordered him to throw up his hands. He +obeyed. Holding up both hands, he slowly drew near the door to his +private office. + +Suddenly he dropped one hand and pressed a hidden spring in the wall. + +Instantly a heavy iron door shot out and closed over the wooden door. +Entrance to the private office was absolutely cut off. + +With an angry snarl, the Clutching Hand leaped at me. + +As he did so, I fired twice. + +He staggered back. + + . . . . . . . . + +The shots were heard by Kennedy and Elaine, as well as the secretary, +and at the same instant they discovered the iron door which barred the +entrance to the secretary's office. + +Rushing into the outer office, they found the clerks excitedly +attempting to open the door of the secretary's office which was locked. +Kennedy drew a revolver and shot through the lock, bursting open the +door. + +They rushed into the room. + +Clutching Hand was apparently seated in a chair at a desk, his face +buried in his arms, while I was apparently disappearing through the +door. + +Kennedy and the clerks pounced upon the figure in the chair and tore +off his mask. To their astonishment, they discovered that it was myself! + +My shots had missed and Clutching Hand had leaped on me with maddened +fury. + +Dressed in my coat and hat, which he had deftly removed after +overpowering me and substituting his own clothes, Clutching Hand had by +this time climbed through the window of the outer office and was making +his way down the fire escape to the street. He reached the foot of the +iron steps leaped off and ran quickly away. + +Shouting a few directions to the secretary, the clerks and Elaine, +Kennedy climbed through the window and darted down the fire escape in +swift pursuit. + +The Clutching Hand, however, managed to elude capture again. Turning +the street corner he leaped into a taxi which happened to be standing +there, and, hastily giving the driver directions, was driven rapidly +away. By the time Kennedy reached the street Clutching Hand had +disappeared. + + . . . . . . . . + +While these exciting events were occurring in Bennett's office some +queer doings were in progress in the heart of Chinatown. + +Deep underground, in one of the catacombs known only to the innermost +members of the Chinese secret societies, was Long Sin's servant, Tong +Wah, popularly known as "the hider," engaged in some mysterious work. + +A sinister-looking Chinaman, dressed in coolie costume, he was standing +at a table in a dim and musty, high-ceilinged chamber, faced with stone +and brick. Before him were several odd shaped Chinese vials, and from +these he was carefully measuring certain proportions, as if concocting +some powerful potion. + +He stepped back and looked around suspiciously as he suddenly heard +footsteps above. The next moment Long Sin, who had entered through a +trap door, climbed down a long ladder and walked into the room. + +Approaching Tong Wah, he asked: "When will the death-drink be ready?" + +"It is now prepared," was the reply. + +Long Sin took the bowl in which the liquor had been mixed, and, having +examined it, he gave a nod and a grunt of satisfaction. Then he mounted +the ladder again and disappeared. + +As soon as he had gone Tong Wah, picking up several of the vials, went +out through an iron door at the end of the room. + +A few minutes later the Clutching Hand drove up to Long Sin's house in +the taxicab and, after paying the chauffeur, went to the door and +knocked sharply. + +In response to his knocking Long Sin appeared on the threshold and +motioned to Bennett to come in, evidently astonished to see him. + +As he entered, Bennett made a secret sign and said: "I am the Clutching +Hand. Kennedy is close on my trail, and I have come to be hidden." + +In a tone which betrayed alarm and fear the Chinaman intimated that he +had no place in which Bennett could be concealed with any degree of +safety. + +For a moment Bennett glared savagely at Long Sin. + +"I possess hidden plunder worth seven million dollars," he pleaded +quickly, "and if by your aid I can make a getaway, a seventh is yours." + +The Chinaman's cupidity was clearly excited by Bennett's offer, while +the bare mention of the amount at stake was sufficient to overcome all +his scruples. + +After exchanging a few words he finally agreed to all the Clutching +Hand said. Opening a trap door in the floor of the room in which they +were standing, he led Bennett down a step-ladder into the subterranean +chamber in which Tong Wah had so recently been preparing his mysterious +potion. As Bennett sank into a chair and passed his hands over his brow +in utter weariness, Long Sin poured into a cup some of the liquor of +death which Tong Wah had mixed. He handed it to Bennett, who drank it +eagerly. + +"How do you propose to help me to escape?" asked Bennett huskily. + +Without a word Long Sin went to the wall, and, grasping one of the +stones, pressed it back, opening a large receptacle, in which there +were two glass coffins apparently containing two dead Chinamen. Pulling +out the coffins, he pushed them before Bennett, who rose to his feet +and gazed upon them with wonder. + +Long Sin broke the silence: "These men," he said, "are not dead; but +they have been in this condition for many months. It is what is called +in your language suspended animation." + +"Is that what you intend to do with me?" asked Bennett, shrinking back +in terror. + +The Chinaman nodded in affirmation as he pushed back the coffins. + +Overcome by the horror of the idea Bennett, with a groan, sank back +into the chair, shaking his head as if to indicate that the plan was +far too terrible to carry out. + +With a sinister smile and a shrug of his shoulders Long Sin pointed to +the cup from which Bennett had drunk. + +"But, dear master," he remarked suavely, "you have already drunk a full +dose of the potion which causes insensibility, and it is overcoming +you. Even now," he added, "you are too weak to rise." + +Bennett made frantic efforts to move from his seat, but the potion was +already taking effect, and through sheer weakness he found he was +unable to get on his feet in spite of all his struggles. + +With a malicious chuckle Long Sin moved closer to his victim and spoke +again. + +"Divulge where your seven million dollars are hidden," he suggested +craftily, "and I will give you an antidote." + +By this time Bennett, who was becoming more rigid each moment, was +unable to speak, but by a movement of his head and an expression in his +eyes he indicated that he was ready to agree to the Chinaman's proposal. + +"Where have you hidden the seven million dollars?" repeated Long Sin. + +Slowly, and after a desperate struggle, Bennett managed to raise one +hand and pointed to his breast pocket. The Chinaman instantly thrust in +his hand and drew out a map. + +For some moments Long Sin examined the map intently, and, with a grin +of satisfaction, he placed it in his own pocket. Then he mixed what he +declared was a sure antidote, and, pouring some of the liquor into a +cup, he held it to Bennett's lips. + +As Bennett opened his mouth to drink it, Long Sin with a laugh slowly +pulled the cup away and poured its contents on the floor. + +Bennett's body had now become still more rigid. Every sign of +intelligence had left his face, and although his eyes did not close, a +blank stare came over his countenance, indicating plainly that the drug +had destroyed all consciousness. + + . . . . . . . . + +By this time, I was slowly recovering my senses in the secretary's +office, where Bennett had left me in the disguise of the Clutching +Hand. Elaine, the secretary, and the clerks were gathered round me, +doing all they could to revive me. + +Meanwhile, Kennedy had enlisted the aid of two detectives and was +scouring the city for a trace of Bennett or the taxicab in which he had +fled. + +Somehow, Kennedy suspected, instinctively, that Long Sin might give a +clue to Bennett's whereabouts, and a few moments later, we were all on +our way in a car to Long Sin's house. + +Though we did not know it, Long Sin, at the moment when Kennedy knocked +at his door, was feeling in his inside pocket to see that the map he +had taken from Bennett was perfectly safe. Finding that he had it, he +smiled with his peculiar oriental guile. Then he opened the door, and +stood for a moment, silent. + +"Where is Bennett?" demanded Kennedy. + +Long Sin eyed us all, then with a placid smile, said, "Follow me. I +will show you." + +He opened a trap door, and we climbed down after Craig, entering a +subterranean chamber, led by Long Sin. + +There was Bennett seated rigidly in the chair beside the table from +which the vials and cups, about which we then knew nothing, had been +removed. + +"How did it happen?" asked Kennedy. + +"He came here," replied Long Sin, with a wave of his hand, "and before +I could stop him he did away with himself." + +In dumb show, the Chinaman indicated that Bennett had taken poison. + +"Well, we've got him," mused Kennedy, shaking his head sadly, adding, +after a pause, "but he is dead." + +Elaine, who had followed us down, covered her eyes with her hands, and +was sobbing convulsively. I thought she would faint, but Kennedy led +her gently away into an upper room. + +As he placed her in an easy chair, he bent over her, soothingly. + +"Did you--did you--really--love him?" he asked in a low tone, nodding +in the direction from which he had led her. + +Still shuddering, and with an eager look at Kennedy, Elaine shook her +beautiful head. + +Then, slowly rising to her feet, she looked at Craig appealingly. For a +moment he looked down into her two great lakes of eyes. + +"Forgive me," murmured Elaine, holding out her hand. Then she added in +a voice tense with emotion, "Thank you for saving me." + +Kennedy took her hand. For a moment he held it. Then he drew her +towards him, unresisting. + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Exploits of Elaine, by Arthur B. 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