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diff --git a/old/53214.txt b/old/53214.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 19cc9c2..0000000 --- a/old/53214.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8780 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Mystery of the Fifteen Sounds, by Van Powell - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Mystery of the Fifteen Sounds - -Author: Van Powell - -Release Date: October 5, 2016 [EBook #53214] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MYSTERY OF THE FIFTEEN SOUNDS *** - - - - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Dave Morgan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - THE MYSTERY - OF THE - FIFTEEN SOUNDS - - - By Van Powell - - [Illustration: Title page graphic] - - The Goldsmith Publishing Company - CHICAGO - - Copyright 1937 by - The Goldsmith Publishing Company - MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - - - - - FOREWORD - - -"_No wonder I'm blue," Roger told his father, "You're packing to head a -museum expedition into the heart of Borneo._ You'll _have thrills_." - -"_Probably I will get my sort of excitement in plenty, Roger. It won't -be what you are always dreaming about--the 'good old days' of Pirates -and Cowboys and Stage-Coach Bandits._" - -_"No," Roger agreed, "the real thrills are all gone. But you can go on -an expedition, instead of having school and_----" - -"_There will be vacation time--baseball_----" - -"_But I want real excitement. I'd like to be a Modern Pioneer. You are -one, going off to Borneo for the museum just the way Columbus set out -for Queen Isabella._" - -_His father looked up._ - -"_You can be a Modern Pioneer. I will show you a House of Mystery, and -once you step into its door you are in a land where there are more -exciting activities packed into one day than you could get being a -combination cow-hand, bad man, pirate and pony express rider. You may -not be able to convoy an ox-team across a prairie, carry a squirrel gun -and stand off scalping Sioux; but you will help battle against Pirate -Fire, and Bad Man Erosion, and Bandit Microbe._" - -"_You mean--work in cousin Grover's research lab?_" - -_That was it, he found. And under the brilliant training of his older -cousin, as he came to be the supply clerk and learned more about the -work of the active place, Roger saw how truly his father had spoken._ - -_There was fun, and mystery, and excitement, even in the work. Also, -there was the feeling of being a Modern Pioneer, one who belonged to the -band that had substituted electricity and wings for ox-wagon and -candles, who gave the world instead of the pony rider carrying news, the -radio and radio-telephone. Science was the Modern Pioneer._ - -_Where their forefathers sought new borderlands, these modern -way-showers explore the stratosphere. As their trail-blazing ancestors -fought Indians and hardship and poor crops, these men battle against -disease germs, and soil erosion, and eye-straining light and every other -detriment to safer, happier existence._ - -_As great as the feat of Columbus, Roger found the announcement that a -cure had been found for a terrible disease._ - -_On a par with Daniel Boone's fame was the renown of the research worker -who extended the range of compact radio receivers._ - -_In such privately owned laboratories as that of his cousin, Grover -Brown, and in those associated with universities and colleges and other -institutions, the work of the Modern Pioneers went on._ - -_They loved it, found adventure in it, and joy of achievement._ - -_Not always was there the sort of mystery usually read about in -detective stories; but when such problems did come up, Roger realized -how the equipment of scientific research could be a useful aid to the -clever deductive brain in solving the puzzle._ - -_It is to show how much of adventure and thrill, excitement and romance -can hide behind electrical transformers and tubes of germs, bags of -sodium carbonate and humming motors that this experience of a boy in a -scientific research laboratory is offered. Perhaps some boy, who has -almost decided that the only "real" life involves guns and "rackets," -will be shown how the useful life of the fellow who fights for humanity -and not against it brings more thrill and joy and contentment than any -of the risky, falsely stimulating adventures that only lead to -discredit, sorrow and punishment._ - - Van Powell - - - NOTE - -Names used in this story are purely fictitious and if any name is like -that of a real person it is coincidence and no libel or aspersion on -character is intended or implied. However, every scientific device, -process and theory herein is based on electrical, chemical and other -data of developed apparatus and procedure or on theories so far -perfected as to be acceptable to Science. - - - - - Contents - - - PAGE - Foreword 9 - CHAPTERS - 1. "Them Mouses Is Extraverted!" 17 - 2. A Creeping Thing! 23 - 3. A "Sound" Clue 29 - 4. An Electrical Trap 38 - 5. What Electricity Could Not Catch 44 - 6. A Weird Story 52 - 7. Science to the Rescue 60 - 8. Basketball and Brains 66 - 9. The Voice in the Silence 72 - 10. A Defeat for Science! 78 - 11. A Puzzling Thump 84 - 12. Detective Roger 90 - 13. Scientist Roger 97 - 14. Captive Roger 102 - 15. In the Lamasery 107 - 16. The Image Speaks 113 - 17. Black Silence 117 - 18. A Letter Roger Had Not Sent 121 - 19. Disquieting Deductions 127 - 20. Ghost Voices 131 - 21. Tragedy! 137 - 22. What Happened to the Eye of Om 143 - 23. The Acid Test 147 - 24. An Impossible Camera "Shot" 151 - 25. Score One for the Mystery Wizard 154 - 26. Roger Lists His Clues 159 - 27. A "Thermal" Trick 166 - 28. The Fuse 172 - 29. A Surprising Capture 176 - 30. The Voiceless Warning 184 - 31. The Hidden Menace 188 - 32. Science Fights Craft 191 - 33. A New Suspicion 195 - 34. Tragedy Strikes Again 201 - 35. The Stalking Terror 206 - 36. A Law of Nature 212 - 37. Revelation! 217 - 38. The Vigil 223 - 39. The Ape and the Kangaroo 227 - 40. The Mystery Wizard's Solution 235 - 41. Man and Beast 241 - 42. Closing Time 246 - - - - - Chapter 1 - "THEM MOUSES IS EXTRAVERTED!" - - -Something was wrong at the laboratory! Ringing bells, long before dawn, -awakened Roger Brown. - -Dazed at first, he became alert as a strange, cold foreboding made him -leap out of bed. - -"Just the telephone," his thirty year old cousin, head of the -laboratory, called from his room beyond the adjoining bath. Roger, who -was already on his way to the downstairs library of his cousin's home, -paused. - -"No!" Well built and athletic, sharp-eyed, keen minded, a worthy student -under his brilliant scientific cousin, Roger spoke earnestly, "It wasn't -just the protective beam system, or just the fire alarm, either. Grover, -it was _both_!" - -"Impossible! Why have they stopped ringing?" Tying his robe cord, the -older cousin followed Roger. He knew that "Ear Detective's" reputation -for reading sounds, even if his own incisive reasoning made him feel -that this time Roger had been too drowsy to live up to his nickname. - -Just the same, he followed. - -"As long as the beam was broken," he insisted, "The bells ought to -continue to ring. I think your fame as a sound interpreter is done." - -Roger did not try to defend himself. - -"It was probably a wrong number on the telephone." Grover was five steps -behind his younger relative, "If you are so sure it was our alarm -system, especially both bells, why aren't you dressing to rush to the -lab?" - -"I'm getting down to be ready when Tip calls." - -Potiphar Potts, nicknamed Tip, was handy man at the scientific research -plant. He slept there. In a moment Roger expected to have him call up to -report the reason for the alarm. - -"You will never hold your reputation now." Grover turned at the library -door as Roger, inside, stared, baffled, at the annunciator panel. - -The reputation his cousin spoke about had come when a chemist, sent to -them to help the laboratory develop a new series of dyes for a textile -mill, had begun to "hear things." Deaf, wearing an Amplivox, composed of -a chest microphone, batteries and an ear piece, the man had been nearly -crazed by a persecuting, accusing voice picked up, it seemed, by his -device. Roger, by identifying an odd click he got in a makeshift -imitation Amplivox set, gave Grover the clue through which a revengeful -enemy who had sought to terrify the man had been discovered. As The Ear -Detective, Roger, who was in charge of the laboratory stock-room, had -really been the means of solving the mystery. - -"I know I heard the laboratory bells," Roger insisted. - -"But the lights on our tell-tale are not lit." - -"I can't help it. Both the fire alarm bell and the system that warns us -if anybody enters----" - -"But Potts has not called up, either. Go back to bed." - -Grover turned to leave the room. Roger, who was staying with his cousin -while his own father headed an exploring expedition into Borneo for a -museum, knew that his ears had not betrayed him. - -His cousin, several years before, had secured capital with which to -start a scientific research laboratory for the use of small companies -unable to maintain equipment and an expensive staff. - -Every form of research, electrical, chemical, industrial, and in one -instance medical, had been successfully undertaken. - -The "lab" prospered, and enjoyed a reputation for scientific and human -thoroughness and dependability. - -Priceless secrets, formulae, data and results were always in the -laboratory, and its owner had devised seemingly perfect methods for -safeguarding the secrets which rivals, or competing firms, might covet. -A completed series of experiments to find a synthetic substitute for -camphor gum, an industrial formula almost beyond price, was reposing in -the safe on this early morning of Spring. - -The safeguards comprised two: - -There was a series of light-beams, interconnected with microphones and -tiny speed cameras, at every possible entrance. Any broken beam, telling -of wrongful entry, set off a laboratory bell in the room where Potts -slept; and it also was wired to ring a bell at the owner's home; and on -a panel, numbered lights would show, by the one that glowed, which -entrance had been used. - -To protect the laboratory from fire, and warn of its existence, a bell -of a higher tone with a thermostat connection in the laboratory, in each -section, would give warning; and if the blaze was in the cellar, a green -bulb would glow; if in the main floor, a red bulb, and for the upper -section a blue bulb would be lit. - -Naturally, Grover felt that his younger cousin had mistaken the sound -that had awakened both. - -Roger, still feeling his weird and unexplainable sense of hidden danger, -picked up the telephone. - -The laboratory, when he dialed repeatedly and waited long, did not -respond. Tip, trusted, loyal, paid extra salary because he was counted -on not to leave the mechanical devices to give the sole protection, -should have answered his extension telephone. - -"I tell you there is something wrong," insisted Roger. - -His cousin, partly convinced, taking on some of Roger's concern, began -to dress. - -Just as he came down Roger knotted his tie. - -In the car kept handy in the garage, they drove the several blocks to -the two-story building. - -Before they got near it, Grover put on speed. - -Fire sirens and the scream of the warning signal on a police car made -both cousins wonder what terrible situation they might face. - -Had some one, entering the laboratory, set off the first alarm as fire -broke out? Had Potts, fighting either fire or intruder, been rendered -incapable of responding to their telephone call? - -"Oh, I hope nothing has happened to Tip." - -Roger was very fond of the dull-witted, but dependable man, almost an -Albino with his sandy hair and light eyes, who loved to use big words -whether they fitted his idea or not, and who helped in the many -mechanical, photographic and other activities involved in their work. - -The car, racing forward, turned into the proper street and they saw fire -apparatus gathering in front of the building. Roger, as the car slowed, -leaped out, crouching and running to avoid being thrown down by the -momentum. - -"Don't break in!" he shouted to firemen, "Our protective gas will -prevent damage--and water would ruin our electrical things." - -The company captain paused as he saw, behind the youthful caller, the -taller laboratory owner striding forward. - -His men, with a battering ram, delayed. - -The helmeted men, some with axes, others with scaling ladders, hose, or -the rubber covers used by the emergency squad from the Fire -Underwriters, paused. - -"What-da-ya mean, nothing more won't burn?" growled a policeman from the -patrol car standing nearby. - -His finger pointed toward the glass panel of the main door. - -Roger, looking in, saw the curious orange glow and the weirdly -bluish-violet splaying out across the office from the inner spaces. - -"Who--what set off the flouroscope and the X-rays?" he gasped, while -Grover reassured the gathered people. - -Unobtrusively setting one foot well to the side on the top step, so that -his toe, pressed forward, found the small protecting pin, he unlocked -the door, careful to keep the knob turned toward the left, instead of in -the natural hand-turn to the right. - -That, Roger knew, cut out that particular light-beam system, so that -they could enter without altering the present status of the tell-tale -panel inside that would reveal where entry had been made, and by which -magnetized plate the marauder would be held in trying to escape. - -They rushed in. His first rush took Roger to the panel. - -Not a bulb glowed! He stared, unable to accept the story it -told--somebody had set off every light-beam-trip! That put out the -lights. - -Not one of the row connected-in with the magnetized plates was lit, -either, and yet no living person should have walked or crept or climbed -away through door, window, coal-chute or other exit without getting -caught. But Roger did not pause. He ran to Tip's room. - -Tip, tied tightly to a bedpost, his lips taped shut, his eyes rolling as -he sweated in his frantic effort to escape, saw him. - -Roger first took the tape off as gently as haste allowed. - -Just as soon as he was able to speak, Tip gasped: - -"Tell Grover them mouses ain't is." - -"Ain't _is?_----" - -He knew that Potts used queer phrases, trying to fit big words in, and -this might be his way of leading up to some puzzling declaration. - -"What happened? Stop being smart, and tell me!" ordered Roger. - -"If mouses is here, you say they _is_ here?" - -"Well?----" - -"They ain't is." - -"Gone?" Roger stared, "The white rats. Gone?" - -"They done extraverted." - -Roger had to study that out. He knew that the psychological word was -used by analysts of human minds to indicate people whose outlook on life -was normal, while introverts were shy, timid people who were afraid of -life. "Extraverted" must mean that the animals had turned outward toward -the world--run away, or escaped. - -"But those white rats--Doctor Ryder's--were in a cage with a trap door -on top, and they'd been inoculated with cultures of a spinal disease," -cried Roger. "How do you know?" - -"I was up lookin' at 'em, and somethin' with a hand like a ham hit me -back of the ears, and when I come to, tied, them rats was evacuated. I -was drug down here by a ape and tied. An' there was somethin' else I -didn't get a look at, behind the ape." - -Was the man crazed? It worried Roger. - -But a call from Grover, upstairs, quickly told him that Potts had not -been talking wildly. - -"Roger," called his cousin, "The white rats' cage is empty!" - - - - - Chapter 2 - A CREEPING THING! - - -It took Roger a moment only to realize the enormous danger that was -behind the loss of those inoculated rats. - -When Doctor Ryder had been allotted space in which to conduct his -experiments to see if he could perfect a cure for a horribly deadly -spinal affliction, he had decided to experiment, first, on animals. - -Such experiments had been gotten under way the night before. - -The rats, inoculated, were carriers of the deadly germs. If some -ignorant person had taken them, and the public was not warned to be -careful, anything might happen! - -One of Grover's constantly repeated axioms about laboratory work was: - -"Do the first thing first!" - -All life, the scientific student always had insisted, was like the -chemical compounds they handled. No matter what the problem might be, no -matter how it looked, it could be analyzed the way compounds would be -analyzed, the elements could be isolated, and the base--the guide to the -whole condition--could be known. Sodium, a metal, very unstable, -combined with chlorine, a gas, turned into sodium chloride, and that was -a salt--common table salt, in fact. Yet the restrainer used in -photography, a dissolved salt, was sodium bromide, another gas and the -metal, and to find out what a compound held, one had to separate all -parts by test and find the base or original element. - -But first, one must do the first thing--and in this situation Roger knew -that the first thing was to get busy on the telephone. - -White rats had been inoculated with dangerous germs. A bite from such an -animal was ten times more terrible than that of a plain rat, poisonous -though that would be. Therefore, if those inoculated animals were now -missing, Grover, up where their cage had been, would know it already; -but the public, exposed to possible contamination, must be warned. - -Roger plugged in the upstairs telephone so that the policeman could -reach his headquarters and start a widespread search of all cars on the -roads, all suspicious people carrying sacks or other possible packages -or cases that could hide the rats. The Health Department and news and -radio agencies must be asked to broadcast public warnings. And the owner -of the rats, Doctor Ryder, should be called. - -Therefore, when Roger went upstairs, his report made his cousin nod -approvingly. Roger had done all he could to avert danger if the rats had -been taken ignorantly by some idiot who might let one or more escape and -spread disease germs. - -With his story told, Potts was busy doing what Grover had ordered as one -way to secure clues: a motion picture camera using non-flam film, -flashbulbs of the latest type, tripod for time exposing, and both -wide-angle and micrometric lenses, to give large views of big spaces or -vastly magnified details of practically invisible things, formed the kit -that the handy man worked with. - -Because he had used his wit Grover had no orders for Roger as the -firemen, police and officers departed. - -Nothing could be done until Potts developed his "takes" so they could be -run in the laboratory screening-room. - -Grover, in his small, private "thinking den," would want to be left to -think out and separate all the mysteries, so that he could get to the -heart of the affair and thus decide what to do about it. - -Alone, wide-awake, with the dawn just beginning to lighten the skylight -in the roof over his stock-room, Roger stood thinking. - -He knew that if the small, partitioned space set aside for Doctor Ryder -had held clues, Grover would have told him. - -The germs supposed to have been injected into rats the night before -could not have produced much effect that past night. The doctor had not -felt that he had to observe, personally, as he would have done later. - -Instead, automatic "observers" had been set up. - -Inside the empty cage, a dictagraph microphone showed, fixed to the -glass inside the cage top. That, Roger knew, led to a device like the -seismograph which registers earthquake tremors. Its purpose was to show, -by the vibration of a pen across a moving tape, when the rats developed -any unusual excitement or stress, which was not expected but was -provided for in that way. - -A camera of the moving picture type, but set to snap one take at minute -intervals, would check also; and if the seismograph got to zig-zagging -sharply, it would make contact on one side with a relay, and throw on -the "continuous" mechanism of the marvelous camera. - -To discover by calculating how much of the tape had been unreeled when -something had stopped it, was easy; and in that way Roger knew the time -that the mechanism had stopped, although he did not dare fix that as the -time the rats had vanished, because the tape had started at five in the -afternoon, and had unreeled to the point to show that it had stopped at -four in the morning; but the alarm had not sounded until half an hour or -so later. - -The tape showed excited swerves of the recording stylus, but not -apparently enough to start the continuous takes, because Grover had left -the magazine as it was until Potts should be ready to develop all prints -at one time. - -With his snapshots and time exposures of wide-angles of windows, doors, -floors, air-conditioning intake, exhaust, cellar openings and floors, -and his micrometric detail close-ups of parts of all these, Potts went -to the dark-room adjoining Roger's stock-room. The film he had taken -would fill all tanks, so he left the other till later. - -The authorities had been warned; and nothing more could be done. - -Roger, as the sun rose, telephoned for light breakfast to be sent from a -nearby restaurant, taking Potts his share in the dark-room. - -As he ate, Roger tried to bring some sense into the baffling set of -conditions: - -The white rats, in their cage, with the observation apparatus and chart -with notations, should have been recognized by anybody who could see and -who could read, as dangerous to handle, much more to remove. - -With the protecting system set, it should have been impossible to enter, -at all, and more impossible to get out. - -Yet the rats had not by any magic been evaporated into thin air. - -Furthermore, Roger mused, why had the fluoroscope and X-ray machinery -been put into operation? - -The entire situation seemed to be too bizarre to be true: more than all -the rest, the mad story of Potts that he had felt a hand as "big as a -ham," hit him before he had lost his senses! - -Nothing fitted anything else. - -Doctor Ryder, arriving, was as much a contrast to cold, unexcited Grover -as could be imagined. He sputtered his fears for the public, his dismay -that this should have brought discredit on the laboratory that had been -known to safeguard its precious data. - -Roger, watching the pudgy, stout little germ experimenter who excitedly -mixed wild theories with wilder plans of procedure, thought to himself -that if anybody or anything would upset his cousin, the man's emotional -excitement would be the thing. - -Grover was not stirred out of his quiet manner. - -The staff began to arrive. They had all seen in newspapers or had heard -by radio the warnings and the brief story of the lost rats. - -Mr. Millman, the electrical engineer, asked immediately of Dr. Ryder: -"Have you any enemies?" - -The experimenter thought that he might have antagonists among the -scientists who disagreed with his theories; but they would not be men -who would endanger the public for so small a revenge as could come from -criticism of his laxness in not watching his experiment more closely. - -Mr. Ellison, the laboratory's electrical research specialist who worked -with Mr. Millman, agreed; and so did the bio-chemist, Mr. Zendt; the -analytical chemist, Mr. Hope, and Grover. - -They were discussing the many contradictory and unexplainable points -when Potts called, from the darkroom: - -"Hi, Rog'--come quick!" - -As soon as his eyes were accustomed to the dull rosy glow after he -passed the light-trap, Roger saw Tip clipping non-flam film positives to -drying drums. - -"What have you got, Tip?" - -"Look!" - -Potts snapped a strip in place in a vision tunnel: Roger applied his eye -to the lens, and saw, enlarged on the viewing-plate, what appeared to be -the edge of a cellar step. With side-lighting, magnified ridges and -depressions in dust looked like a range of hills and vales. - -"It was a snake!" - -"A--did you say 'snake'?" Roger gasped, "How do you get that?" - -Potts changed films under Roger's gaze; an enlarged wide-angle of -several steps was before his eyes, and the snake-slide of some body that -had dragged across just the step-edges, and had made no track of hand or -foot on the level of the steps showed! - -"It certainly looks like something that creeps, Tip." - -"Well, a snake creeps. A snake! What else?" - - - - - Chapter 3 - A "SOUND" CLUE - - -Without waiting for the gelatin to harden, Roger summoned the staff and -his cousin to the screening room. As soon as they had set their wrist -watches with the observatory time signals, a routine part of the staff's -accuracy, they joined him. - -He had the tender emulsion-covered celluloid threaded from the top -magazine through film gate and take-up sprockets down to the lower -magazine of the projector. In the small, compact theatre, with its -platform for lecture and demonstration procedure, its large screen, easy -chairs, loud speakers and apparatus, he showed Grover and the men what -caused him to agree with Tip. - -"It almost has to be a snake," Roger declared. - -No other than a creeping thing could drag over a step edge. Four footed -creatures, he explained, did not disturb dust at the point indicated in -close-up and wide-angle pictures, greatly enlarged by the projector. - -The chief electrical specialist, Mr. Ellison, agreed. "It ends the -mystery. A snake ate the rats." - -"Then there won't be any disease epidemic," Doctor Ryder was much -relieved, "It will crawl somewhere and the germs may destroy the -reptile." To this Mr. Millman, electrical engineer; Mr. Zendt, -bio-chemist; Mr. Hope, their analyst, and others, agreed. - -Roger saw that his cousin reserved opinion. But routine had to go -forward, and the staff men separated. Zendt went to resume experiments -in the search for a dye of a certain desired shade and quality: the two -electrical men were busy developing means to find a better way to -insulate high-tension cable for carrying electricity from generators to -distributing stations in small communities; the others had equally -absorbing work in progress. - -Grover, busy examining each picture projected and held on the screen -without danger of the "cold" light igniting the protected film, gave -Roger a dozen cellar views around the coal-chute to enlarge. - -"Make ten-by-twelve bromide enlargement prints," he ordered. - -Roger, although it seemed impossible that anyone could have moved the -stiff rusted bolt inside the trapdoor of the coal chute, a trap that -lifted up and out onto the street, said no word of objection. - -He felt that Grover would find nothing in the enlargements. - -Expertly he adjusted paper on the camera-stand, extended the bellows to -secure most perfect focus, made his exposures, developed, and fixed the -large prints, and took them to his cousin's own den. - -"As I expected--nothing!" he reported. - -"No abrasions of the bolt, or edge of the trap?" - -"You mean, where someone inserted a 'jimmy' to shove back the bolt?" - -Grover nodded. - -"Not a thing shows." Roger asserted. His cousin did not accept his -statement; but his disappointed eyes told Roger that the examination he -had made during developing work had been accurate, thorough, and had led -to a correct decision. - -They were at a standstill. Calls to the zoo, brought from its curator -the declaration that no snake was absent from its cage, that no one of -his keepers had tried to "train" snakes--as the laboratory head had -half-laughingly suggested. - -As he left the screening room, Roger met Potts. - -"Tip," he hailed, "Did you get anything on the 'sound' film in the -one-snap-a-minute camera?" - -"The one that took pictures of them mouses?" - -"The one by the rats' cage--yes." - -"You know about sound, Rog'. It ain't just a lot of single pictures." -Potts wanted to air his knowledge. "Sound is a maintained concession of -peaks an' valleys on the sound track." - -"You always will use a .44 caliber word when a BB. size would hit what -you aim at and not blow your idea to bits, Tip. You mean that sound is a -'sustained succession'--I know that. And single frames, if they showed -any sound impression at all, would give little pops." - -"So I didn't bother." - -"But, Tip! There was a lot of wild zig-zag marking on the tape in the -seismograph-like recorder; and it seemed as though the 'continuous' -taking lever had been shifted before he--it--whatever was there, stopped -the whole business by breaking off the wiring." - -"We can try." - -When they had developed the negative, made a print and fixed and washed -it, Roger threaded the fifteen frames of continuous shots in place and -projected with the speakers cut in. - -Then he rushed to get Grover. The staff too! - -He had a clue. - -As nearly as he could have described the brief sound made and amplified -with transformer-coupled, matched metal audio tubes of the most perfect -type giving the speakers power, they had picked up a sound of hot grease -sputtering, hissing and clicking, as it does if sausage is fried -rapidly. - -"Come on, Ear Detective," chaffed Mr. Millman, "Who was frizzling -sausages on the cage full of inoculated rats, so that the mike inside -picked it up and took it on to the sound film?" - -"That's not sausage frying," exclaimed the biochemist, "Someone had -steam up and the mike picked up the sound the radiator valve made as air -was expelled and steam arrived to close it spasmodically." - -"A microphone, inside of a glass cage top?" mocked Mr. Ellison. "How -could a valve on a radiator across the room make all that noise?" - -"Let the Ear Detective explain it," urged Mr. Hope. - -They all turned to Roger. He shook his head. - -"It does sound most like the snick-snap, and sizzle, of sausage," he -admitted, "But----" - -"It's a snake, I say," Potts defended his theory; "a snake, with hissing -and his scales rattling on the glass when he was crawling up to dig his -head in and grab breakfast." - -"What's your idea, Grover?" asked Mr. Hope. - -"Sounds as much like a snake as anything I can imagine, Sam." - -"So say I," agreed Mr. Ellison. - -"Are we right, interpreter?" Potts got the correct word, for once. - -Roger hesitated. Not that he cared if he lost his reputation as a young -person able to read correctly what his sensitive ears caught; Roger was -not vain or self-satisfied. He was not the sort to make a statement just -to hold up his reputation. - -In some ways the sound might be such as a snake, with its hide striking -or rubbing, as it hissed, could make; but, again, a lizard might make -that sound--or a dog, scratching on a window. - -He stood up, excited for the moment. - -"_Claws on glass!_" - -His sharp cry died into silence. They all considered it. - -"A snake ain't got pedicular exuberances," objected Potts. - -"Pedal protuberances, eh, Tip?" chuckled Mr. Hope, "What do you say, -Grover?" - -As Roger looked toward his cousin he saw what surprised him most of all -that had so far happened. - -Never in his stay at home or laboratory, intimately close to the -scientifically brilliant, but poised, cousin, had Roger seen him lose -his calm. - -Now, Grover stood up, and in his eyes was the same sort of light of -satisfaction and triumph that a boy would show when he had successfully -smuggled in and hidden mother's birthday present. - -"Roger is absolutely right!" - -"Claws on glass? A big dog?" asked Mr. Zendt. - -"Remember the cellar step clue." - -"A lizard?" Mr. Ellison suggested. - -"Remember Tip's statement about how he was knocked senseless." - -"Oh--a man with a--a what?" Mr. Millman was not so confident of his -deductive ability. He paused. - -"I will leave you to work it out," Grover beckoned to Roger; "I must run -out to the zoo." He was as eager and elated as a boy with a new -football. - -He beckoned to Roger who followed as his cousin got his hat. - -"I want you to go to all the newspaper offices. Take a taxi. Get back -issues for the past two weeks, maybe you'd better get them for three -weeks back." - -"You know?----" - -"I have two theories. I want to make sure which is right." - -"Do you really think I got the right meaning out of the hisses?" - -"Precisely the correct meaning." - -"But it doesn't tell _me_ anything, cousin Grover." - -"Use my formula. Dig past appearances that can be falsified, to the -truth. Marshal your facts, test each one, eliminate the impossible and -what you have left is the truth." - -Telephoning to summon a taxi for Roger, the laboratory head was busy for -a moment. Roger tried to employ the method just named. - -Youth, inexperience in doing such consecutive and eliminative thinking, -he knew, hampered him. With a mind trained, through solving chemical, -electrical and other industrial experimental difficulties, Grover's -clever mind had skipped many of the links that Roger, slowly, had to -take up and examine. - -He was in the taxi, with bundles of back issues of the city papers, on -his way back, and still his mind was a maze of unfitted details. - -In the office, combing the papers for notes about snakes, or any other -escaped reptile--he had to keep in mind that trail on the edge of the -steps alone!--he got nowhere. - -No news showed up about lost, stolen or escaped animals or any form of -brute or reptile. - -Grover, he saw, had returned, and was not joyful. - -"One theory went to smash," he said, "I verified your sound--claws on -glass was the right deduction. But--that doesn't bring what I want." - -"What do you want?" asked Roger, eagerly. - -"To capture the culprit." - -"Won't the police?----" - -"We have no justification for calling them in. Nothing has been stolen. -Nothing has been harmed." - -"The rats----the menace to the public!" - -"Roger, you haven't _studied_ those films Potts took." - -Roger got them at once, projected, one at a time, examining the screen -images carefully. The cellar views, only proving that some object left -no other trace of progress than scraped dust on step-edges, he -considered and discarded. - -Those taken by windows, doors, intakes and outlets of the -air-conditioning, and gas-exhausting roof, cellar and wall orifices gave -no revealing clues. - -When he got to the wide-angles of the lower floor and stairway, and -found no reward for his long scrutiny, Roger was baffled. - -Only the micrometric enlarged snaps and one time-exposure near the X-ray -devices remained. He considered them ruefully. They gave no foreground -evidence to help him. - -Roger, with defeat creeping over his feelings, was about to give up. - -He was fair, he told himself, when it came to interpreting sounds, but -at the more important quality of being able to connect the clue with -everything else, he was "stumped." - -What could those enlarged views hide from him? - -The walls, with racks of test-tubes, some containing chemical solutions, -others holding cultures of various forms of growth that Mr. Zendt had -accumulated or was studying, told him---- - -He stared, bent closer, climbed up on a chair close to the screen! - -After two minutes of close scrutiny, he jumped to the floor, and raced -to find Grover. - -"Just by chance, in taking the micro-lens pictures," he gasped out, "Tip -got in some of the test-tubes. Is that what you saw?" - -Grover, smiling, agreed. "What did it tell you?" - -"I arranged those racks yesterday. I have got a good memory." - -"I knew both those facts," Grover admitted, "and I, too, helped in -revising our arrangement of the racks. Go on!" - -"The tubes that held the culture of the spinal disease germs--so -dangerous that they had been delivered, personally, by the medical -center bacteriologist, had _blue_ labels!" - -"You are 'warm' as the hide-and-seek game puts it." - -"I saw Doctor Ryder take them up, in his surgeon's clothes to prevent -infection." - -"So did I." Grover acknowledged the fact. - -"He actually took two tubes that must have had the right labels because -he would have seen what they were marked." - -"Labels can be soaked off and transposed from one tube to another, -Roger." - -"I think that happened. He took them, went up, and we both saw him use -the hypodermic needle." - -"But--" Roger could hardly restrain his thrill at having made as clever -a discovery as the coming one: - -"Those two tubes--full!--are in back of others, right now. Not the two -empty ones he incinerated to be sure the germs were all destroyed." - -"They are? How did you discover it?" - -Roger told him: "Our chemical labels that are a green, photograph a -darkish gray; and our culture labels, that are a buff, photograph -lighter, but still grayer than white paper. The poisons are labeled red -and come out in a picture almost black. - -"_But blue except very dark shades, will photograph nearly white!_ And -those two labels, hidden in a dark corner, show up in the picture where -they might not be noticed in the rack." - -"Can you go further and say why no culture was allowed to be given, -although the inoculator evidently thought his serum was genuine?" - -"Whoever was going to take the rats, did not want them to be dangerous -to him." - -"Very nicely argued out, Roger," his cousin complimented him. "Now, we -must find a way to draw that criminal who trains animals to do his work, -into the open where police can get him." - - - - - Chapter 4 - AN ELECTRICAL TRAP - - -Startling though Grover's statement that a man trained animals to be -criminals was, it gave Roger the one link to build what he knew into a -chain. - -Trained animals! That fitted in with claws on glass and made the rest of -the puzzle fall into place. - -To Roger, it seemed clear that a clever animal trainer could teach his -beasts to obey criminally intended orders just as well as make them do -the ordinary tricks. - -What animal, he mused, would fit the conditions? - -A monkey came to mind as the logical sort. - -First of all, it was the one animal able to climb down a rope from the -skylight on the roof, which it could have reached by being taken up the -fire-escape on a candy factory next door, one story higher than Grover's -research laboratory. - -Coming down in that fashion, it could have been made to do a trick -taught for the purpose--take the white rats, put them in a sack, and fix -it to the rope--or the sack could already be at the end of the rope. -Then, unaware that it had set off an alarm, it could have wandered -about, doing such tricks as getting into the light beams, pulling the -switch to "on" for the X-ray and the other electrical devices. - -Such an ape, too, with its master joining it during the time it wandered -about, could have invaded Tip's room, striking him with a huge paw, -because it would be an ape; no smaller monkey could have reached down -into the rats' cage. - -"How will you trap him?" Roger asked. - -When his cousin outlined his plan, Roger was animated. - -"It might work," he exclaimed, "He will turn out to be the one who -brought the white rats. They were trained, too, maybe." - -"I wondered that you did not see why I bought back issues of the -newspapers," Grover told him, "I had one idea that the thing might have -been done by some zoo keeper; but the more possible notion was that some -vaudeville act had trained animals. Now we do not need to comb through -the advertisements of the theatre section. We know, by logical -deduction, that we would find it." - -Roger, and Potts, carrying out instructions about which they said -nothing to any member of the staff, assembled a mass of materials, -apparatus and paraphernalia. - -There were microphones; and they employed the laboratory's device for -producing infra-red rays, as well as a number of small cameras for -taking motion pictures which Potts secured; to each one they applied a -shutter-trip suggested by Grover, that would operate when a light-beam -of the infra-red variety might be unknowingly broken by an intruder. - -Other parts, and wiring by the yard, they connected up. - -"But I don't understand it," Potts argued as they worked. "It's all -right to say a monkey climbed in through the skylight way; but how does -that fit the snake-trail up the stairway?" - -"I asked about that," Roger told him, "Cousin Grover was more in a -joking humor than I ever saw him, and he said I'd done so well, he would -leave that for me to work out, too." - -"Did you?" - -"I think so, Tip. How's this? Monkey comes in. No alarm on the skylight, -because the magnetic plate under it would be 'on' all night and would -have caught anybody--anything but a monkey able to jump at a command -while it swung clear--or the man above swung it." - -"So far, so good." Potts waited expectantly. - -"The ape wandered around, until it heard a call it recognized from -outside, on the street. It was trained to open bolts, and the only other -bolt that wouldn't have a camera equipment and electric plate was our -coal chute, that had the Chief stumped how to fix it." - -"And why would he have to go down there?" - -"To let in his mate--another beast." - -"And what was it?" - -"Well, what could leave a snake trail?" - -"A boa-constrictor, or one of them bushmasters out of Australia?" - -"What else--out of Australia?" - -Potiphar stared, thinking hard. - -"I don't know." - -"Something that hops, and balances with its tail." - -"A--you mean a--kangaroo?" - -Roger chuckled, nodding. - -"But why did they go to all that trouble, when a man could of swarmed -down a rope, and got the rats?" - -"If he'd got caught--not knowing everything about the inside of our lab, -maybe," Roger responded, "He'd go to jail. But if we got a kangaroo, or -an ape, the animal trainer could know it and have an ad. in next day's -papers, get back his animal that couldn't tell what it was there for, -and----" - -"Well, what _was_ it here for? What made all that compulsatory?" - -"The motive made it compulsory, Tip." - -"You didn't tell me about any motive. Or how all this wire and stuff -will catch anything when we don't know anything will come tonight, like -you hint at." - -"The motive, Cousin Grover thinks, is to get into our safe, for our data -and formula for synthetic camphor." - -"Well, come to think--one nation practically controls the camphor gum -output, and if they want to raise the price----" - -"Or forbid export to any other country, in war----" - -"I can see how much it would be worth to have what we developed for one -client. Maybe some foreign nation wants the secret." Tip was alert. His -pale blue eyes and almost albino-white hair made him seem, usually, -washed-out and not very bright. But with this thrilling possibility of -intrigue and excitement brewing, he was as alert and intelligent as -anyone could be. - -"We don't know. But Cousin Grover thinks he will draw them on, and he -publishes in the evening papers quite a write-up about the completion of -the data. A friend, a newspaper fellow, will help us get it into good -space." - -"And so the Chief thinks this fellow with the ape and the mouses and the -kangaroo is a criminal and made them criminals?" - -Roger nodded. - -They waited until the staff checked up with Grover all results from the -day's experiments, and departed. Doctor Ryder, assured that his rats -were not a menace, left with the rest. - -Then, carrying from the doors, windows, coal-chute, skylight and all -other available openings, wires from microphones set there, Roger and -Potts led them all to a three-stage amplifier, having a delicately -diaphragmed headset in circuit. - -With that headset on, if a heart beat within a foot of any mike, a -drum-beat could be heard in the headset. - -Light-beams criss-crossed the entrances so that they must be interrupted -by anybody or any thing that came along. Each was in circuit with one -lamp of a number in a shadow-box, and the one that would stop glowing -would show which beam had been broken. - -Thus prepared to be warned well in advance of any intrusion, Roger sat -wearing the headset as he monitored the volume controls. - -Police hid inside and outside of the laboratory. - -The safe, bathed in invisible rays, was provided with a new form of -"capacity" protection so that anybody or anything touching the metal and -standing with feet on the floor, would form a circuit and overload a -sensitive and delicately balanced radio tube, that would operate a -relay, putting into the circuit a criss-crossed series of small -water-hoses, two playing along each side of a square around the safe, -not easily observed when inactive. - -And in that water would be an electric current strong enough to paralyze -and chain, without permanently harming the invader! - -He could not avoid it, because the water must fall and no one, even -aware what would happen, could dodge or avoid the spray and the stream. - -The precious, priceless synthetic camphor secret was protected. - -As he sat, knowing that in the dark around him were Doctor Ryder, Potts, -and his cousin, Roger felt a little thrill of expectancy and uneasiness. - -Had he foreseen the outcome of the ruse, it is a question whether he -would have danced for joy or shuddered in terror. - -The trap caught something unexpected. - - - - - Chapter 5 - WHAT ELECTRICITY COULD NOT CATCH - - -To Roger, the presence of Doctor Ryder showed that Grover suspected him. -Of the whole staff only he had been told, included in this vigil. - -The headset was shifted slightly away from his ears; Roger listened, as -midnight approached, to his cousin's chat with the experimenting medical -man. - -"Of course I know that I am under suspicion," Dr. Ryder said. "The -culture was hidden in my section. Other things look bad----" - -"Of the whole staff you are the only man I need _not_ suspect," Grover -saw deeper into things than had Roger. "It is an old trick, to turn -suspicion toward an innocent man by 'planting' something." - -That, Roger decided, was sounder sense than he had used. He had -forgotten to dig past appearances to the heart of truth! - -"What do you expect will happen here?" asked the doctor. - -"The miscreant will come, with his menagerie, for the priceless camphor -secret." - -"Pretty smart stuff," broke in Potts, "coagulating camphor with -kangaroos." - -Coagulating was the wrong word, Roger knew; and the others saw through -the meaning. - -"Claws on glass implied something tall enough to reach up that high on -top of the cage," Grover explained. "The 'snake' trail and an animal -with a dragging tail 'coagulated.'" - -"But why did the man take the white rats?" Potts was beaming, in the -faint glow from the bulbs in the shadow box; tickled that his word had -been so good; not dreaming that Grover was inwardly amused. - -"With the same motive that makes a magician do meaningless movements -with his left hand while he really palms cards in his other hand," Dr. -Ryder explained, "to make you look away from the real motive." - -"And he brought the kangaroo and the ape to confusicate us," Potts was -being clever, he felt. - -"I'd say the ape came so he could be used to climb down a rope, and go -and open the cellar trap that had no beam-alarm," Roger spoke up. "I -looked up notices in the theatre columns and there is an act that has a -boxing kangaroo, and the critic called it 'she.' In the act, she 'brings -down the house' when a fire is supposed to trap the trained rats on the -roof of a little house, and 'she' makes everybody laugh by taking the -rats and putting them in the pouch they have to carry their young in." - -"Oh, yes, that coagulates," Potts agreed. - -Although all the others realized that the word meant to clot or curdle, -and wanted to smile when it was used to mean "connects up," Potts, had -they known it, was precisely correct--for they were to find that many -deductions certainly coagulated, in a broad way of speaking, the real -truth, instead of solving the mystery. - -If clotting and curdling means to thicken and make lumpy, then as Potts -said, Roger's explanation did exactly that to their deductive -cleverness. - -Roger, as the slow minutes dragged along, picked up with his headset -whispers of the policemen outside a window, exchanging ideas about their -tedious watch; and even the slip and rattle of shifting coal in the -cellar bin. - -No invading menagerie, though, brought news to his intent ears. - -A tiny, but sharp click broke a long silence. The oil-burner relays of -heating plants in adjoining buildings made such "static" on his home -radio, he knew, but the heat would not be used in the hour after -midnight. - -None of the apparatus or light was on the laboratory. - -The interpretation Roger gave was that in moving he had jarred some poor -connection that made loose contact in his circuits; and he began testing -his wires at soldered points, seating tubes, and shaking headset binding -posts. - -He did not succeed in locating the source of the single sound, because -things began to happen. - -From the darkness, and apparently from the upper floor, in a hollow, -grave-yard sort of tone, an unexpected voice spoke. - -Roger, with power full-on, got a roar, and dashed aside the set to save -his ear-drums, for a microphone had caught and had brought him what the -others heard naturally. - -The voice spoke in English, low, deep, mournful and yet, somehow, -menacing, as it said: - -"_Hear me. I am the Voice of Doom!_" - -Roger felt his blood "coagulate" in very truth. Grover, never more calm, -although the unforeseen and uncanny call galvanized and terrified Potts -and made the Doctor's face look absolutely horrified, leaped up, and -vanished out of the small pool of dull light from the shadow-boxed -panel. With the ease of familiarity, he got past their great -transformers, and the storage batteries from which direct current was -drawn for certain types of experimentation. He avoided, in the gloom, -the new high-intensity-spark mechanism, and took the stairs two at a -bound. - -Roger, impulsively starting to follow, remembered his duty, and in spite -of his shuddering nerves and the cold fear always coming from any -uncanny and unexplained happening, he stuck to his post. - -Doctor Ryder, attempting to follow, ran into the recording equipment and -stopped, hesitating, as Grover, from above, threw on the lights. Roger -got the switch-snap, but it differed from his other "click." - -"Nothing here," Grover called down. "Strange!" - -"Potts," Doctor Ryder turned his head, half accusingly, "are you a -ventriloquist?" - -"A----" - -"Ventriloquist! Able to throw your voice so that it sounds as if it came -from somewhere else than where you are." - -"Are you?" asked Roger suddenly. - -The other laughed. - -Grover, leaving the lights going, came down, switching on illumination -all over the building; while several policemen came from concealment, -blinking and staring around uncertainly, the experimenter in the bright -light walked over and sat beside Roger. - -"Watch me closely," he half-smiled, but kept his eyes glancing around -half fearfully. "I did not dream--it would happen--again--and here!" - -He spoke as if to himself. - -"No, that is not ventriloquism," he muttered. "It is some art of the Far -East, known to the Lamas of Tibet----" - -Again, and in the same hoarse, menacing, hollow way, the sound was -repeated: - -"Hear me! I am the Voice of Doom." - -Potts was shaking with fright. Uncanny and weird, the sound woke in the -rather poorly educated man all the primitive fears and superstitions of -his ancestors. - -Grover, listening with his head on one side, his eyes on the Doctor, -spoke: - -"He isn't a ventriloquist, Roger. The changes in muscular and other -throat parts developed by constant ventriloquial practice, do not show. -We took a film, remember, of just such throat development in connection -with our research for the clue to our case when the deaf man 'heard -things.'" - -Roger, recalling that in that case a tiny click had also come, when he -had listened on a headset, jumped to the conclusion that he had before -found correct. - -"Somebody is using Mr. Ellison's little radio test-sender," he declared, -confidently. - -Grover nodded. "Possibly. Go and see." - -"His private locker needs a key that is in the safe." - -"Never mind, then. I think you have the explanation, Roger." - -Grover sat down again, relieved, as was Potts. - -Dr. Ryder, though, seemed unconvinced. - -"Sorry, but I must dispute your deduction," he asserted. "I have heard -that voice before, and it is sent by some Asiatic, wise in use of the -hidden forces of Nature. It is a manifestation that is directly intended -for me." - -Roger stared at him. - -"'Manifestation'? You mean--like thought transference or the 'ghosts' -that spirit-mediums pretend to call on?" - -"Only this is more sinister and terrible, because it is the way that the -Far East makes known to some intended victim the fact that he is to be -punished." - -He rose, and began to pace. - -Roger, suddenly intent, caught at a passing "hunch." - -"Appearances" could be falsified. It appeared to be fact that something -uncanny was happening. Might it not be the same sort of misleading use -of one hand to distract attention while the other did some trick, as -with the white rats that "appeared" to have been inoculated, were -apparently "stolen" and so on? - -Quickly the headset was put on. He cut the output strength to avoid -having his ears blasted if the microphone upstairs picked up that -booming, hollow voice again. - -Grover, intently considering the Doctor's last words, spoke: - -"What do you mean by saying that you are being warned by some occult -means that you are marked to be a victim?" - -The man addressed held up a hand. - -"It will tell you!" His face was set; he was listening. - -Again Roger heard the inexplicable sound. - -This time, no voice! Beginning in a low moan, faint and very much like -the whine of a puppy that is hungry, it grew in volume, and its tone -changed from a high falsetto, running down the scale and then up again, -in cycles, constantly growing louder, while Grover, again rushing to the -upper floor, stood looking around as, with a great grinding and rumble, -following the last piercing roar of the sound, there fell silence. - -Doctor Ryder, rising, walked around the recording machinery and Mr. -Ellison's newest camera, that worked with a stroboscopic lamp and ran -its film so fast that no shutter was needed, as daylight did not act on -it long enough in any spot to fog it. - -"That," he called upward, "was the real Voice of Doom." - -Grover, bidding Roger turn over the monitoring work to Potts, summoned -his younger cousin. - -"Roger," as the hurrying figure came into the room with the vacant glass -experiment-cage, "are you afraid to stay up here?" - -"Not much--but if I am, I will stay, just the same." - -"Then set up that sound camera, with film, so you can take in every foot -of this partitioned room. Be ready, and if the voice comes again, switch -on, for continuous takes." - -"You think--anybody is hiding?" - -"No. But a voice means something vibrating. I could not locate anything. -The camera might do so." - -He went down, to give Potts some instructions and took over the -monitor's post while the handy man executed his order, which was to mix -fresh developers and fixing baths, and to be ready for whatever Roger -caught. - -Doctor Ryder, helpful and desiring, as he made plain, to take away -Roger's sense of fear by explaining how the Far East made so uncanny a -manifestation by mental powers, handed him the can of non-flam negative -so that Roger lost no time in "threading up" and getting all ready for -his duty. - -Alert and steady, in spite of his chill of nervous uncertainty as to -what might come next, Roger heard, seemingly from a corner of the small -room, a thump. - -"Start it!" gasped the man beside him. - -But when two minutes of time had run out the film in his magazine and -nothing more had come, Roger disappointedly took the film into the dark -room and changed the magazines, hurrying back. - -Half an hour later, with nothing to break the tedium, the next amazing -development came. Potts, in the dark-room, shouted, and tore out into -the light, waving a damp strip of film. He had developed the film on the -chance that the thump had caused some change. - -Instead, developing that film, he had brought, to wave before Roger's -startled eyes, an impossible thing. - -On that film, in a different position on each Frame, or individual -picture, a spectral monkey and an equally indistinct kangaroo hopped, -bounced, and skipped, finally vanishing into thin air! - - - - - Chapter 6 - A WEIRD STORY - - -When that uncanny film was projected before him Grover seemed unwilling -to believe the testimony of his eyes. - -"It simply could not be," he declared. "That film was taken from a brand -new shipment, wasn't it?" - -"Yes," Roger asserted. - -"And there were no animals in the laboratory." - -"Not animals we could see," said Doctor Ryder meaningly. - -Grover, rather sharply, demanded his exact reason for saying that. - -"I have heard the voices that seem to come out of nowhere," the -experimenter explained. "I have traveled in the Oriental countries. I -have heard strange things; and I have _seen_ things even more odd. In -India, in China, and all the more in Tibet, there is what they call the -sect of the Bon--Black Magicians." - -"Nonsense!" exclaimed Grover. - -"To a scientific mind--yes. To an ignorant native of a country without -educational facilities or communication such as our radio, telephone and -so on--not so nonsensical. Besides, I have heard and I have seen curious -things." - -"Like what?" Tip demanded. - -"In India, a seed planted and an orange bush growing before my eyes. Or -a rope flung into the air, staying aloft as if hooked to some invisible -support, while a boy clambers up and seems to vanish. - -"In Tibet, as well as in India, men who can apparently walk on water. Of -course, our science explains it as hypnotism--the man who performs the -feats is able to secure control over some part of the onlooker's mind, -impress _his_ thoughts on the other mind, and make one believe the trick -is a real occurrence." - -"I have read about men who can walk on pits of live coals," Roger added. - -"Those tricks or those marvels do not explain this film," Grover was not -satisfied, Roger knew by his tone. - -"How about telepathy? Thought transference?" - -"I believe," Grover answered, "there is some ground for accepting that -as possible. It might be reasonable to admit that if a man, by years of -practice, can train himself and also treat his feet so that he can walk -on fiery coals, a man might become able to impress a powerful idea on -another without words. But--on a film!" - -"In the sect of the Bon, or manipulators of the darker forces of Nature -and of man's superstition which is half of black magic," the -experimenter declared, "strange powers exist. I have read of a French -scientist who has succeeded in developing a film so sensitive that a -powerful thought, held by his trained mind, seemed to cause some changes -in the film. This is a similar situation produced by some Oriental -master mind, probably." - -"Or it could be that things like ghosts are true," Potts volunteered. -"What do we know about the unseen things? Even science is finding things -like bacterions----" - -"Bacteria," Grover corrected, smiling. - -"--In the air and water and blood. Well--I went to a spirit-meeting -once. The woman threw a fit and talked awful funny about my 'deceased -aunt on the other side' and told me things--now, if we brought in one of -them there test mediators----" - -"Test mediums," Roger knew the right word. "They pretend to be able to -communicate with spirits of people, but has it been verified?" - -Potts was too eager to argue that. He stuck to his suggestion: - -"All right. If we call in a trance medium, she'd tell us them spooks is -around us, right now." - -"Just because the appearance seems to be that," Grover stated, "is no -basis for accepting the explanation of telepathy. In that case, Doctor, -_we_ would have seen the objects, the animals. We did not. You and Roger -are sure you saw nothing. There are only two possible ways the -phenomenon could happen." - -"How?" Potts was anxious, eager. - -"First: the film had been exposed, previously. Second: some one hiding -in the dark-room, while Potiphar was not closely observing the -developing tank, changed for the original film in its rubber wrapping, -this one." - -"I used a deep tray, full of pyro," Potts stated, "wound the negative -around in the rubber, but didn't use a tank, on account of them bein' -stained, and you was so positive about fresh stuff, I got a deep tray, -never used before, and watched every step of developin'. The second way -of it happening is 'out.'" - -"Then we will test the possibility of the first," Grover beckoned to -Roger. - -"Telephone downstairs for a taxi, and meanwhile, plug in the telephone -in the screening room for me." - -When Roger had summoned a night-hawk car, his cousin reported his own -activity. - -"I got the night-watchman at the Bizarre Theatre, where the animal act -finishes its engagement tonight," he said. "The white rats and dogs, and -several monkeys are quartered at a pet shop near the theatre. There is a -kangaroo, and it stays in a stable. Here is the address, Roger. I want -you to talk to the keeper, or some stable attendant who can say when the -animal was taken out and when returned." - -Roger, when the taxi arrived, sped to his task. - -He found a sleepy attendant, surprised at the time, so near dawn, for a -visit from a young fellow who wanted details about the kangaroo. - -"She ain't been out this night," the youth assured Roger. - -"How about last night? Or the night before?" - -"Neither time." - -"Oh, but she must have been." - -"Well, she wasn't." - -"Well, then, was the ape?" - -"What ape?" - -"Doesn't the man who has the trained animals use an ape?" - -"Never saw nor heard of no ape." - -Roger was puzzled. - -"Well--" He recalled a flash of inspiration that had been all his own. -He pulled from his pocket the tiny, compact camera, small -magnesium-flash gun, and tripod folding like a pocket ruler, very -slender, but sturdy when unfurled. - -"Can I snap her picture? Our laboratory wants it to study." - -"Cost you--how much you want to pay?" - -"A quarter." - -"Go to it, buddy." - -Roger, with the hand of the youth clutching the coin, got a good snap -just as the flash startled and almost stampeded the kangaroo and several -horses and a few mules quartered there. - -He returned by taxi as the East streaked rosily to the rising of the -sun. - -"There was the kangaroo, but she had not been out--at least, the -attendant vowed she hadn't," he said. "But I've got her picture to -compare with the ghost-one." - -"Clever head," commended his older cousin. He went away, pleased, to -develop, print and fix his prize. - -While negative and contact print were being fixed and washed, he sat at -the table in the adjoining room where the mysterious voice and roaring -cry had been located, thinking hard. - -"I wonder," he mused, "if it _could_ be that the film I used had some -sort of emulsion that would be sensitive to rays we don't see. You can -take a picture through a quartz lens in a room that seems to be pitchy -black. I've done it, with our special equipment. Maybe a film coating -that has some light-sensitive ingredient sensitive to high-frequency -vibrations of light, could catch what we don't see, and--who can dispute -this?--there may be in the air, all around us, forms of things that we -can't see." - -Science, he reflected, had managed to develop instruments so delicately -adjusted that they caught earth tremors and recorded them, when the -disturbance might be hundreds, thousands of miles away from the -seismograph. - -Their own Mr. Ellison, the cleverest and best informed man in the city, -on electrical matters, was preparing a camera that ran its film at high -speed past an aperture: a light more actinic than sunshine alternately -lit and was out, but so rapidly that its flashes impressed pictures lit -by it on the film, as many as a half million or more a minute, he -believed. The papers had written it up as that many. - -And scientific instruments pictured, in graphs, of course, such -invisible things as electrical waves; yes, and radio made audible the -inaudible electrical frequencies sent by an aerial, caught by another, -transformed into sounds by other invisible agencies. - -Grover, when appealed to, nodded. - -"Anyone who has operated a modern laboratory knows better than to make -fun of any theory," he admitted. "What our Pilgrim ancestors would have -called a witch talking to Satan, we see as an old crone listening to her -radio." - -"They had their witches-on-broomsticks," Roger chuckled. "We see -airplanes. That's so." - -"It doesn't pay to scoff at your theory. It may be a scientific -possibility to prove it correct, some day. But, just yet, let's not take -it as the only explanation of our ghosts. I realize that the film can -was one of our last shipment, that you had to break the label, proving -it had not been tampered with, apparently. Still, some test made at the -film plant could have been inadvertently packed. We got it." - -"My snap of the kangaroo will prove or disprove that." Roger went to get -the force-dried bromide enlargement and the camera film taken in the -haunted room. Comparison showed, apparently, the same animal, in one -case sharply defined, a solid object; and in the other, just a shadowy -specter. They looked to have the same proportions, though. - -"My theory is that someone hired the animal trainer to send his rats -here, so they could be removed. He could have read notes of the Doctor's -planned experiment in a science column of the papers." - -"Then where did the ape come from? The attendant was sure the act did -not have any ape in it." Roger was still unconvinced. - -"That may have been the trainer, an agile man, in a masquerade costume -of Tarzan-type." - -"It might." - -"I will admit that Doctor Ryder tells a story that makes wilder theories -possible," Grover added. "The policemen are gone, now. He gave me an -outline that made me discard the theory about danger to our camphor -substitute. Suppose you listen with me to the full recital." - -The narrative the man spun was amazing. - -"Shortly after I left college," Doctor Ryder began, "I became interested -in study of medicinal herbs, because an old Indian in up-state New York, -who had earned a reputation as an occult doctor, had made some -astonishing cures of seemingly incurable cases. A friend and I got into -an argument. I supported the Indian's claims; and my chum argued it was -impossible, that it was pure medication and not at all due to magical -powers as the people claimed. - -"I went to the Indian to study," he went on. "He took a liking to me, -and after a long time, teaching me secrets of wayside weeds and the -properties of common plants in medication, he confided that in the Far -East there were schools in which full knowledge of herbal medication -could be learned by those qualified to share the secret--a dangerous -one, because knowledge of it might enable some evil-doer to procure -enough deadly poison among common wayside flowers and herbs to destroy a -city's populace." - -Skipping his explanations of how he finally secured the Indian's help in -reaching some one who knew more, and of how he finally found himself an -accepted student journeying toward a Lamasery in far-away Tibet, Roger's -next intense interest came with the declaration: - -"I learned something about what Ponce de Leon spent his time seeking, -the secret of eternal youth. I learned much about marvelous properties -of common plants--and then, through a desire to view with my own eyes -the greatly revered Eye of Om--a precious jewel set in the forehead of a -sacred statue of Buddha--I became a hunted man, suspected of a theft I -never dreamed of committing, then. The Eye disappeared. I was suspected. -My perils were many. I finally escaped from the land. But twice, since I -began my private researches, I have been reached by that strange -warning, the Voice of Doom--just as you, who have been my friends, heard -it tonight." - -He bent forward in his chair, earnest, eager. - -"I know who took the Eye of Om. If only you would help me to restore -it--if only you _could_." - - - - - Chapter 7 - SCIENCE TO THE RESCUE - - -When he heard Doctor Ryder's startling plea, Roger's clear, gray eyes -lighted with a fire of hope and excitement. - -To be involved in a mystery in the laboratory was thrilling; but to have -a share in restoring the Eye of Om, evidently a priceless gem, would be -more so. - -His quick mind flashed over the fascinating prospect; but with equal -quickness he saw the reason why Grover sat so silent and unimpressed. - -A man accused, anxious to return a jewel, would merit help. A man who -knew the real taker of the gem and wanted it restored meant possible -trouble. He might want them to help him get the gem away from its -possessor. - -That was not their duty. It was police work. - -"Please be more definite," Grover said. - -"I don't want you to help me 'steal' the gem from anybody," the medical -experimenter declared. "I need financial help to buy it." - -"To buy it," Roger exclaimed. "That would take a lot of money. Would the -people in Tibet pay you?" - -"They would pay a handsome profit, Roger. But it would not cost such a -vast sum as you may think. You see, the one who has it is not aware of -its value." - -"That is curious," remarked Grover. - -"What happened was this: I went to the temple with a native priest to -see the marvel I had heard of. While we were entering, a figure slipped -away out of another door to the sacred crypt. As we approached the great -figure of Buddha, I saw a vacant hole in it and realized that the -priceless jewel was gone. Terrified at the thought of being caught, -suspected or in some way associated with the crime against their holiest -treasure and venerated religious symbol, the priest and I hurried away -just as other temple attendants discovered the situation." - -Without being certain, the rest of the gem's history was assumed to be -that the thief, terrified, had thrown away his loot. One of his camp -staff, an ignorant, though strong pack-carrying youth from an American -city, whose way the doctor had paid for his ability to obey orders -without trying to improve on them, had found the gem, in a fissure of -the great mountain pass they traversed in escaping. - -He had evidently taken it to be only a beautiful native art object and -had put it in his pack, apparently, without mentioning it, meaning to -bring it back to America to "give to his sweetheart," as the medical -experimenter supposed. - -"At any rate," Doctor Ryder summed up, "he is living here in the city, -his sweetheart had forgotten him, he has that treasure, put away, and I -dare not go and talk to him about it. I know he has it because he has -shown it, as a souvenir, to people who have recognized its worth without -knowing just what it is. He would probably sell it for a fairly good -sum, if approached by someone from a museum; but if he was told its -history, and knew its real value, he might sell it to some gem dealer -who would put it beyond my reach in some private collection. And my life -would be forfeit, because I cannot prove, in the circumstances, my -innocence to the Tibetan Dalai Lama and his vindictive, fanatical -subordinates." - -Grover, as Roger watched him eagerly, anxiously, considered the -situation thoughtfully. - -"I suppose that there are complications," he said, finally. "Some -international jewel thieves must know the affair." - -"Exactly." The other man nodded. "That accounts for the entry, here, -night before last. From the use of a kangaroo I would assume that an -Australian is interested----" - -"An ape would mean somebody from Africa," Roger argued. - -"While the strange projection of the Voice of Doom implies that the -Tibetans are preparing to strike at me," Doctor Ryder added. - -Grover sat considering the matter. - -"With that all granted," he said, finally, "it is easy to see what -caused the queer ghost-figures in our film. I assume that the purpose of -using the trained boxing kangaroo with a pouch to carry its young, also -trained to 'rescue' from fire, was to furnish a novel way of hiding and -removing the gem which evidently the thieves think, as do the Tibetans, -that you have." - -"Certainly. In your safe." - -"And whoever came," Roger was able to fill it all in, now, "with the -kangaroo, meant to get into the safe, get the gem, put it in the -animal's pouch, and then, to make it go away safely, he had to turn on -the fire alarm that rang a bell, the way it must ring in the act, for -the kangaroo's signal to rescue the rats. It rescued them, and hopped -away, to its attendant, just the way it would in the theatre." - -"And what about the film?" asked Doctor Ryder. - -"Some was probably in the 'sound camera' by the cage. Either in trying -to shut it off or in an accidental knock against it by the animal, the -'continuous' lever was thrown. Focused with a diaphragm opening to catch -the white rats' movements under a vivid light, the lens got only an -under-exposure in the light from the ceiling!" - -"Logically," Grover finished up for his younger cousin, "the man knew -the camera had been running. He took out that magazine, took the blank -film from the new can to replace it, making as many snaps as had been -made of the rats, jarred the continuous-take lever on by accident, -giving us the clue of claws-on-glass as his animal came to the cage, -with the ringing of the alarm bell." - -"Science to the rescue!" Roger exclaimed. "Now we know it must be the -animal trainer who is the key-man. If he did it for his own greed, we -can protect ourselves from him in the future." - -"If he was a hired accomplice of others, as I assume to be most likely," -Grover added, "he can be compelled to tell us the facts." - -Declaring that he would interview the man in person, bidding Roger to -add to the few hours of sleep secured before their midnight watch, the -laboratory head, as the staff began to arrive, urged Doctor Ryder to say -little, and to wait until consideration could be given to his plea that -they help him get the Eye of Om. - -On the emergency couch, in a small combination of rest-and-first-aid -room, Roger stretched out without feeling the least bit drowsy. - -The excitement was still keeping him alert. - -"Science to the rescue," he mused. "Modern apparatus is wonderful and -understanding how it works and what can be done with it ought to help -people solve many mysteries. They have developed instruments to measure -nerve responses and other things. There is the lie-detector for one -device to help fight crime. - -"And if scientific appliances, and scientific understanding, both can be -coupled with Cousin Grover's axiom about ignoring appearances and -digging to the heart of truth, analyzing down to the basic element of a -complex combination, it will be even better." - -He thought back along the course of the many happenings, and of all the -clues that scientific apparatus and wisdom had opened up. - -He sat up suddenly. - -"Science to the rescue!" he repeated to himself. "We don't need to wait -to see if the animal trainer will tell the truth. We can find out right -away." - -In the files he found the enlargements made the day before, from the -"routine" wide-angle and close-up views Potts had taken. - -The folder full of pictures, and the rolls of film from the cabinet he -studied carefully. - -Roger's study was concentrated on the close-up and magnified detail of -door locks, window catches and all openings. - -If any catch had been moved the picture should show to the -screen-observing youth, some abrasion, or some disturbance of rust, or -at least a displacement of the accumulated dust. - -Nothing. Nothing in any picture, on any film! - -"That tells me that the entry was made through the skylight, as we had -thought," he decided, but added: - -"Or--does it tell more?" - -An ape, he felt sure, could not have been trained, or have sense, to -swing so as not to touch a magnetized and super-charged metal plate -concealed by being painted the same color as the wooden floor under the -skylight. - -A man, dressed as an ape, might. But it seemed like a long way to go -around to get through, when a more simple possibility was open. - -Roger assumed that it might be possible that one of the people -interested in securing that priceless treasure which could be supposed -to be in their safe, could work there! - -The fact that no pressure from outside had given its clue in the -pictures, showed him that some "insider" might have opened the only -possible place to get the kangaroo in--the coal chute. - -His examination, with a high-powered, beam-focusing light and a -magnifying lens, revealed that rust under the bolt had been scraped. - -But the pictures had shown no sign of the use of "jimmy" or other -implement for prying back bolts! - -An "insider" was responsible for opening that chute trap. - -It would be simple to associate kangaroos with Australians, apes with -Africa, possibly India. It would be just as easy to narrow it down to -whether any of the staff connected-in with either place. - -A man from Australia would naturally think of a kangaroo and its -peculiar qualities and usefulness for his plan. A man familiar with a -country wherein apes were found might see the usefulness of that animal, -or would resort to a costume for disguise that a man from the coal -counties of Pennsylvania, for instance, would not have thought of. - -To the office files Roger hurried. All the data concerning each employe, -such as age, experience and so on, was there. - -When he had looked, Roger put away the sheets of data carefully, and -waited eagerly for Grover to return from interviewing the trainer. - -Two sheets had told him much. One had given its maker's experience on an -expedition to India for a power-plant construction job. There was India, -ape country. Roger knew that in many sections of India, apes were -sacred. - -The other sheet had told him that its maker had worked in Australia -under Government chemists, studying the inroads of a destructive insect. - -He had two names to give Grover. - -Science, with brains, _had_ come to the rescue. - - - - - Chapter 8 - BASKETBALL AND BRAINS - - -"Admitting your cleverness," Grover, informed by Roger, was more than -surprised, "I still find it hard to accept your deductions." - -"I don't deduce anything," Roger argued, "I only got the facts. I think -I would almost as soon suspect you as to suspect Mr. Zendt, or Mr. -Ellison. But----" - -"The appearances certainly look bad," Grover agreed. - -Zendt, quiet, calm, thorough, had been in Australia, his own record -attested. Mr. Ellison, than whom no one was more clever in electrical -matters, had built power plants for a big utility company, some of his -work having been in Calcutta and Karachi, both Indian cities. - -"I will watch them unobtrusively," Grover stated, "while you do an -errand for me." - -Roger waited for instructions. - -"I went to the address given by Doctor Ryder, just to check up and see -if his fantastic story had any basis of fact," Grover told his cousin. -"Sure enough, there was dull-witted Toby Smith, and when I represented -myself as an attache of a museum--I am, you remember, one of the -sub-committee on Egyptian Embalming research--the young fellow, about -twenty-two, promptly enough produced and let me study the memento of his -adventurous trip into Tibet. He certainly does not realize its value, -and to me, inexperienced as I am, it appears to be a marvel of Nature's -crystallizing stresses, as well as a credit to the Tibetan jeweler's -craftsmanship." - -Roger was all ears. - -"To him it was a souvenir, with little other value--a bit of art-glass, -he told me he supposed it was. - -"I bought it. You are to go and get it." - -"Why wouldn't he let you bring it?" - -"I thought of the possibility of being watched----" - -Oh, boy! was Roger's mental comment. - -"I satisfied myself that I had not been; however, I had arranged to have -you take him, in return, a small moving-picture hand-camera that he had -confided to be his heart's desire. In exchange, he will surrender to you -a large envelope which will contain, disguised in heavy -documentary-looking papers, the art-glass." Grover smiled amusedly. - -"And if you have any matches or duplicates in your stamp collection, you -might get intimate enough to trade for some of his foreign over-stock of -stamps." - -"I'll take a batch of duplicates," agreed Roger. - -His taxi, depositing him at the address given by Dr. Ryder, waited. - -The Smith chap, he found, was intensely interested in collecting, and -had a fine collection of stamps; in fact, he spent most of his small -earnings as a dishwasher, on philatelic prizes. - -He and Roger grew intimate and compared notes, exchanged stamps, and -chatted about the Tibetan expedition Smith had joined as a young man, -several years ago, he claimed. - -He told about a Devil Dance, a religious rite, he had seen, wherein all -the devils and evil spirits were represented by disguised and -horrible-looking men, who chased a wildly terrified human soul, as a boy -represented himself to be in the pantomimic dance. Exhausted, unable to -escape, at last, he was supposed to be destroyed. - -"It is supposed to show how we are chased by temptations and all," Toby -Smith explained; and he told of the Tibetan huts and other nomadic -possessions of the ever-moving grazers, and other interesting sights. -Then he gave Roger the heavy, sealed packet--Roger felt the lump -supposed to be the gem. Putting it in his coat with his stamp envelope, -Roger took his leave a little regretfully. Smith had been an interesting -person to talk with. - -However, he concluded, he would, as he had promised, help with the new -and mystifying hobby of taking "movies." - -The taxi--he had forgotten about it--was gone. - -That did not much surprise Roger. The man had no doubt gone back to the -laboratory or had gone on elsewhere. In the first case they would have -told him they had a charge account with his company; in the other, -knowing it, he would have picked up other fares and forgotten the young -man he had brought there. - -Roger, rather closely confined indoors by his laboratory work of giving -out hypo, sodium bisulphite, or, perhaps, electrical requisites, decided -that the air would be beneficial. He walked. - -It came to him after a few squares that Cousin Grover had thought of -being watched. Roger glanced around hastily. - -He wondered if that slouching fellow with the low-brimmed hat, could be -following him. He whirled in his tracks, to retrace his way past the -other, but the youth turned in at a cigar store, and Roger, with -reassurance making him whistle gaily, walked on. - -Almost at the laboratory street he looked back again--and was puzzled. - -The youth was on the trail, possibly, once more. But he had not kept -close; instead he was leaning against another smoking goods shop -window-frame. Roger, thinking to himself that such espionage could do no -harm, changed his course, and instead of going directly down to the -laboratory street, he turned into the one behind the laboratory, so that -if the youth had gone into the store to telephone his progress, he would -prevent being met by anyone at the logical corner he had been heading -for. He would approach from the far end of the block. - -To his dismay, this seemed to have been anticipated. There were about a -dozen boisterous, rowdyish young men and boys racing to and fro in a -rough, noisy game of tag. They might be innocent of any interest in him -and his tight-buttoned coat; but he was taking no chances. He turned, -retracing his way. To his dismay, one, being chased by the pack, came -with long legs down the street. Roger stopped at a drug store intending -to go in and telephone for Tip; but a woman with a baby carriage -obstructed the entranceway. - -He changed his plan quickly. Dodging around her, he walked rapidly -toward the candy factory adjoining the laboratory. The roughs were -passing him. Suddenly they were all thronging around, pushing, not -caring whether he got into the mixup of thrusting, hoarse-yelling -gamesters or not. Roger felt a little bit dismayed. - -One of the tougher and taller youths caught hold of his tightly buttoned -coat. - -"What you buttin' in our game fer, huh?" - -Roger spoke quietly. - -"I wasn't." - -The hold on his coat was too tight to break; they were behind him as -well, and escape was impossible. - -"What you got in your coat--candy?" - -"Nothing much but a packet of lyddite--the explosive. Be careful!" - -His ruse was not successful. One caught his shoulder. - -"What's that, now lyddite?" - -The grip of the other held, and Roger felt the buttons rip out. - -As quick as a flash he had his hands on the packets: feeling told him -which was which. He snatched one out, and with his eyes fixed over the -heads of those he faced, he shouted: - -"Catch it, Tip. Here she comes!" and he made a move to back out when -they would turn to see who he spoke to. But that ruse also failed and in -sudden desperation Roger realized that he must keep them from noticing -that his coat pocket still held something. - -His basket-ball skill, that had enabled him to make goals by the tosses -that seemed impossible with antagonists all around him, he summoned to -help in his crisis. - -He had noticed in the second floor office window, the work basket some -woman had put aside, full of samples she had brought in from the -wrapping machines. - -With a deft flexing of muscles and a quick eye-glance to make sure of -distance, wind and other factors, as hands stretched to snatch his -packet, Roger gave it the well-rehearsed basket-ward toss. He saw it, as -baffled, disconcerted youths looked up, fly in a clean trajectory to -lose momentum just above the basket. It seemed to hover in the air. It -dropped into the basket. It stayed therein. - -As if trying to recover a loss caused by such quick thinking, the -ringleader wheeled and raced into the building, evidently to ask for the -envelope thrown up by a boy at play. - -Roger, as the rest hesitated, pushed through, and hurried for the lab. -The others broke and fled. - -"Tip," Roger greeted the handy man as he entered, "I'm going to phone -the people next door to hold an envelope full of stamps I threw into one -of their baskets to save it from a gang of rowdies. Will you go and -recover it, please? I have to deliver a more precious pack to my -cousin." - -Tip brought back the stamps, quite safe. - -And, also quite safe, their strong-box held a scintillating, vivid, -thousand-faceted emerald, flashing its sun-fires of refracted light; as -it had done when in the forehead of the Buddha it had symbolized, the -all-seeing, all-ways-looking Eye of Om! - - - - - Chapter 9 - THE VOICE IN THE SILENCE - - -"Had your sleep out?" Grover shook his cousin. "It's almost eight and -Aunt Ella has the bacon on." - -Roger rubbed his eyes, snapped awake. - -"Is it all right at the lab.?" - -"I knew it would be. We left Tip to take turns watching with the men -from the Falcon Patrol Agency. Two at a time, one on each floor. But I -never count on human watchmen alone. They can be careless," Grover -talked as Roger dressed. - -"I know. Capacity-overloading plates all around, so that anybody or -anything that got near any apparatus would overload an aerial field and -upset a delicate tube and open a relay, stamping the time, and starting -cameras with sound-films in them." - -"Exactly. Just talked to Potts. Nothing at all happened." - -Arriving at the laboratory, earlier than the staff, Roger and the Chief -verified the static condition. - -"What do you think of this?" Grover took his cousin to the -sound-recording mechanism, the type that uses a large phonograph record -for the sound that synchronizes with a film in certain motion picture -studios. - -He explained that as a double-check on any possible development, he had -hooked up the recorder to a separate microphone system, all concealed -flat-disk, super-sensitive diaphragm models, that were set in operation -by any interruption of infra-red beams. - -"That's something!" commended Roger, examining the arrangements, "of -course, with the reports in, I may as well put away the record to keep -dust off it during the day." - -Grover agreed. - -Roger moved aside the recorder which had rested on the outer edge of the -disk, just past the polished edge of the wax. - -"Here!" he cried out in surprise, "this isn't right. There is a -sound-track cut!" - -"There can't be!" - -"Well, look, Grover." - -The older cousin stared at the abraded surface, the cuts in the surface -of the composition. - -"But that is impossible," he stared, unbelievingly. - -"Let's give it a playback," urged Roger. He hurried to give the surface -a good brushing with a soft brush, exchanged the diamond-pointed -recorder for the type that hooked up with the electrical amplifiers and -speaker in the screening room. - -He adjusted the mechanism to run a minute before lowering the pickup -onto the disk, to give him and his cousin and Tip time to get into their -tiny theatre. - -The low rasp of the needle as it ran over ungrooved parts was all they -heard, for several breaths. - -Then: - -Out of the speakers, amazing, booming like the hollow groans that had -followed the voices--as they now did!--came the ghostly salutation and -warning: - -"Hear me! I am the Voice of Doom." - -Again, while they stared at each other with dilated eyes, the needle ran -with no pickup. Then, again: - -"Hear me! I am the Voice of Doom." - -There rose that whining, shrieking moan of the demented and tortured -puppy, lowering in pitch until it became a hoarse and strident howl, -slowly falling away in volume but dropping in pitch until it sounded -like the moan of wind through stretched silk, ending, as had ended the -original, spooky manifestation upstairs, in a grinding, abrupt rumble -and silence. - -Before the staff got there Roger had developed the sound-films of all -the small cameras, but not one had been impressed with picture or -audible sound record. - -It was uncanny and inexplicable. - -The Falcon men and Potts declared solemnly, and with sincerity, that -they had seen nothing, had heard nothing. - -This supernatural appearance startled even Grover. Though he did not -depart from his usual calm or drop his cold poise, he looked more than -ever solemn, and even mistrusted human watchers and his -electricity-and-water protective device so far as to search the safe. - -The jewel, as well as the camphor data and other precious things, to -his, and Roger's, relief, were intact. - -Doctor Ryder, who was given a demonstration of the spectral recording, -looked dismayed. - -"If I do not return that stone," he gasped, "my life is not worth -insuring. This is the third warning, and conveyed in a way that makes me -very certain that we are dealing with a sinister and very occult body of -priests." - -"How do you propose to return the jewel?" Grover was practical. - -"I dare not let it be known that I have it," the medical experimenter -declared. "I have thought of going to Tibet--but how shall I get into -that temple, and how give back the gem? White people will be all the -more forbidden access to the place; and I am already suspected of having -taken the Eye." - -Grover considered it seriously. - -Roger, too, gave his best thought to the puzzling complications. - -"I don't suppose they'd have radios in temples in Tibet," Roger said, -half-hopefully. - -"In the Dalai Lama's palace there is a radio, yes." - -"Short-wave?" - -"Probably of the best. We cannot resort to broadcasting, Roger," his -cousin objected, "the international gem thieves might pick it up." - -"That's so----" - -"Besides, to ask them to come and take it, as I suppose you had in mind, -would bring every gem hunter, in disguise or otherwise. And it might -lead to worse consequences than theft. They are fairly desperate, cold -blooded people," was the doctor's objection. - -Tip, listening, put in a suggestion. - -"Let one o' them that's been fetchin' kangaroos and apes take it. _Then_ -radio who's in the possessive case. Let _them_ get the Voice of Doom -after them." - -Grover smiled, shaking his head. - -"Tip and I could take it in an airplane," Roger hinted eagerly. - -"There is only one logical course open," Grover gave final decision, -"hold everything static. Make no move. Safeguard Doctor Ryder, with the -same type of protection we have given the safe, in a modified form. -Then, when the promised Doom arrives, its emissaries can be informed -that if they furnish proper credentials they may have their Eye of Om." - -Tip looked as disappointed as did Roger. - -No Tibet? No adventure? No thrills? - -"I suppose," Doctor Ryder shrugged, "it is the sure way, though not too -safe for me, no matter what devices you arrange. If you knew the hidden -forces of Nature that those Lamas can call into play, modern scientific -protection would be as useful as a child's toys to combat unseen dangers -that strike through the air." - -"I will pit my laboratory equipment against any force you can tell me -about," Grover spoke confidently. - -"Well--as one example--how would you guard against mental suggestions -sent by a powerful will, in my sleep, perhaps causing me to leap out of -a window?" - -"I have heard of such powers," Grover admitted. "I have never seen them -verified. However, for any occult science I am sure that we can find a -material device to counteract at least the effect on your safety." - -Although Doctor Ryder was skeptical, he shrugged and submitted. - -"I will arrange your room so that nothing can get in, you cannot creep, -crawl, run, jump, push or otherwise escape," smiled the scientist. "I -shan't say what will be set up, and then there can not be any way for -you to frustrate my plan to keep you safe." - -Potiphar, with Roger, heard some quiet instructions. The sketch and -specifications they got made both of them chuckle. - -Any secret schemer, thief, priest of Tibet, or what, must "go some" to -cheat the mass of light-beams, selenium cells, the recording phonograph, -a camera, and electrified door and window seals that as long as current -held them tight, could open only to Grover's own secret key, filed to -touch only certain contacts in a tiny slot on the circuit-cable just -outside the rooms of the doctor. - -Tired and full of content after saying good-night to their protege, -Roger saw the switch set "on" and went home with Grover to sleep -soundly. Nothing could enter or leave that sealed place! - -And to show the fallibility of human wisdom, Roger waked again in the -hour before dawn to hear Grover answering a wild summons from a Falcon -Patrol Agency guard at the Ryder home. - -"Better come," he was telephoning, "I can't rouse him or get him to -answer; and from the observation port I can't even see him in that -room!" - - - - - Chapter 10 - A DEFEAT FOR SCIENCE! - - -Shudders of superstitious fear shook Roger's nerves as he flung on his -clothes. - -Rooms that were locked and barred he had read about in detective -stories; they had been entered. A room not only so sealed but, far -better, sealed by locks that not even Potts or Roger could have -unsealed, was as impenetrable as a solid block of metal. - -Yet some uncanny, mysterious thing, force or creature had penetrated! - -Unless, and he caught at the idea, unless Doctor Ryder had been -worked-up and nervous, and had dreamed some nightmare that had made him -hide. - -No matter what had happened, no matter what force had beaten the -scientific measures employed, they would know the facts, because the -registering devices could not have been stopped by the doctor himself, -let alone any outside person or power. While that current flowed in the -circuits, the devices must operate; and even if any wires were cut, -still the automatic mechanical springs would run the recorder and the -camera. - -Driving on speeding wheels, Roger and Grover got there in quick time. -The Falcon man rushed up as they leaped out of the car. - -"Every fifteen minutes," he reported, "the way you said, I put my copper -key in the slot on the plate over the observation port you had cut in -his room door, so the plate would move aside as long as I needed to look -to see him in bed. Last time he wasn't there. Up to then he'd looked to -be sleeping sound." - -They hurried to the room door, on the second floor, down a hall. - -Swiftly, while Roger watched, helping as he could, Grover took an -observation, let Roger see the empty bed and vacant room. The next move -was to test, with ammeter and test-circuit, every electrical wire that -had been necessarily exposed outside the room. - -Not a circuit was broken. Not a wire had been cut. - -"Very strange," even Grover was baffled, "the current is on, full -strength, in each circuit. Try to get in." - -Roger, at a signal from the Falcon man, worked on the door locks with -the keys that rightfully opened them; while the man, on a ladder outside -a window, tried to pry open catches or shift the burglar stopper built -into the casing. No success. - -"The man may be dying," the Falcon agent grumbled, "and we stay out -here, testing." - -Roger, too, wondered at such callous but methodically exact procedure. - -Grover, paying no attention to their tell-tale faces, calmly inserted -his key in the secret cable-slot, and cut out the circuits. - -At once Roger was able to turn his door key. - -They hurried in. - -As he looked around, at the crumpled bed sheets, at the hollow on the -pillow, Roger knew that a man had slept there. How had he been spirited -away? The closet was wide open, and although clothing had been flung -down, although bureau and chifforobe drawers had been upset as if in a -search for something, no signs of violence showed. - -"Get the record from the phonograph," Grover had made swift inspection, -"and the camera film. They operated, of course. You can see the grooved -track on the record. We cannot waste time looking for clues here. They -will come from our spies, the film and record, at the studio." - -Rapidly they assembled the things needed and drove to the lab. - -With Tip, ready, eager, and quick to help, Roger got the film into the -tank waiting on their arrival, and set the screening room turntable for -the playback. In no time after their arrival they listened to the -revealing details--and were again baffled. - -The record, after running along for a few seconds, suddenly spoke that -weird warning, "The Voice of Doom!" - -As before, it was repeated and was followed by the uncanny and shrill -screech that ran down the scale to a groan that died in a sudden sharp -grinding stop. - -"Let it run!" begged Roger as Grover was about to stop the motor, "maybe -he gave us a clue after that waked him up." - -There was a scraping of the recording needle running without vibration -over the disk for a few seconds, and then they heard, very faintly -recorded: - -"_You_--Clark!----" - -"Who's Clark, Cousin Gro----" - -"Sh-h-h!" - -The recording was again audible: - -"How did you get in? What do you want?" - -A few instants of silence. How could the answer fail to be recorded? -Roger thought swiftly that a whisper should have left a faint report of -its existence. - -"It isn't here.... Look, then.... What do _you_ know about any -laboratory?... I don't know the combination to any safe!... Yes, let's -go there. I will be very glad to go with you, Clark! The great Joseph Z. -Clark----" - -Only Doctor Ryder's very easily identified voice gave the responses and -although Roger cut in more output power and added a stage of -transformer-coupled audio, the speakers gave no intermediate words. - -They were easily guessed at, of course. - -Potts, bringing the film, still sopping, groaned. - -"Not a thing on it. Wasn't even exposed." - -Grover and Roger looked. - -When light acts on a silver-bromide emulsion, it develops dark grains of -silver where light has fallen, leaving the shadows unaffected within the -degree that they lack light, thus giving the shadings that become a -picture in the positive print. - -All over, and for its whole length, the film that had run fully three -minutes showed as clear of developed silver as if it had not run through -the machine as evidence proved that it had done. - -"A card over the lens," Grover grunted. "Of course! This Joseph Z. Clark -is a clever man." - -"And so is Doctor Ryder, for he must have guessed that the recording was -going ahead, and he told us all he could." - -"Yes, Roger. And they haven't been here yet." - -"So they will walk into a trap," finished Tip. - -They made hurried preparations, hiding the Falcon guards and finding -concealment for themselves. - -Doctor Ryder had said he would "gladly" bring the man. How wise! He -would know that they would get him, there. - -They did not have a long vigil. - -In the tell-tale shadow-box panel of lights wired for all entrances, the -one to the cellar coal chute died out. - -Roger felt his nerves quiver, his muscles grow taut. - -All they had to do was to wait. - -When the pair got in, came up the stairs, walked over to the safe, the -infra-red beam would break, tripping relays that set off small -water-streams that would go all ways around the safe, charged with a -current that could chain a marauder in his tracks. Doctor Ryder, knowing -about it, would stay out of range, sending his captor, the miscreant -they wanted, to his defeat. - -They crouched, Roger behind the recording device, Grover in the office, -Tip near the stairs to the upper floor, the Falcon guards at three -strategic points near ground-floor windows. - -There was the silence of a deserted building as they waited. - -Minutes passed. The intruding thief was careful, Roger decided. - -Still more time passed draggily. - -Roger began to grow cramped, and also very uneasy in his mind. - -What was going on? Was it so wise to wait? Why not throw on some light. -Better sidle over and ask Grover? No. Better wait. - -He strained his ears. - -He heard only what seemed to be the drip of a faucet in the chemical -washing-sinks. Tick! Tick-et-y--tick. Silence. Tick! Tic-tic--tick-y. A -wait. Tick-tick. - -He tried to focus his hearing on any other possible sound. The drip-drip -effect seemed to cease. He wondered about it, but decided that it had -not been a faucet but had been a few drops of collected water running -down the drain and striking in the trap. - -But as he wondered about it, he began to feel that it had been a -metallic sound, not so much a soft drip. - -Risking censure, in his growing uneasiness, he leaped to his feet and -threw into circuit his small pocket flash. Its beam stabbed the -darkness, here, there. - -He shouted in dismay and horror. - -The safe door, caught in a flick of the beam, stood wide open! - -Tip threw a wall switch. No light came. - -Then, suddenly, the lights leaped on, water flowed from the hose. - -Too late! - -Science had been cheated of its guarded treasure! - - - - - Chapter 11 - A PUZZLING THUMP - - -While Tip was rushed out to the street, to drive Grover's car to and -fro, and all around, in pursuit of the elusive, uncanny pair--or had the -man left Doctor Ryder elsewhere?--Roger made the routine photographic -study of every place that could give a clue to that almost spectral -arrival, manipulation of a safe, and retreat. - -If only, Roger thought, as he made wide-angle and micro-lens exposures, -if only Tip, excited, had not fumbled that switch! - -Had he gotten the lights on a few seconds sooner, they might have seen -what was going on, or could have seen the departing figure. If someone -had been set to watch down cellar! If----! - -No use bewailing the past. No use wishing the past could be altered. -Doctor Ryder was evidently a prisoner. His gem--the Tibetan jewel, was -gone. The Voice of Doom had spoken, but it had apparently turned out to -be some person known to the doctor, whom he had recognized, and had -identified for them. - -Tip came dashing back. The car had been taken. Later a policeman -returned the abandoned vehicle, and Tip had more photographs to make of -its wheel, door-grips, seats, pedals. - -Tracks in the soft smeared stuff with which Grover had made such clues -possible, they found in plenty from coal pile upstairs and straight to -the safe, and, less defined, returning cellarward. - -Only one set! Great, over-size tracks. Defeat again, as Roger realized. -Someone had worn huge boots! The shoe-size was unguessable from those -elephantine clues. - -Gloves, as well as boots, left them no usable evidences. - -Roger, turning over to Tip the final stages of his work, went to Grover, -who sat in the screening room, as dawn broke, and brooded. It seemed to -Roger that his clever cousin, so often hoodwinked and made cheap by some -seemingly more astute operator, was discouraged and certainly baffled. - -"Don't lose heart," Roger urged, "we'll get everything to come out -right. All you need is one tiny hint of the truth." - -"I must have a dozen," groaned his cousin. "What good are they? My wits -seem to be fogged." He looked disheartened. "I can't get my old sense of -proportion. Everything seems crazy and impossible. You can't enter an -electrically sealed room! You can't open a safe protected by water-jets -and high voltage streams. You can't take camera pictures of animals -jumping around where no animals are visible to the eye!" - -"_I_ can't," Roger tried to be jolly and pretend to make a joke. "But -_you_ will see how somebody else did. When we had that mystery about the -revengeful man who nearly sent a chemist crazy, all you needed was one -hint. I happened to be lucky enough----" - -"Smart enough!" - -"Well--I caught the sound that got me named the Ear Detective. I'm going -to live up to my reputation." - -He crossed and stood in front of the downcast cousin. - -"_You_ solved the puzzle. You were called, in magazine articles in -true-mystery write-ups--and by the newspaper men--the Mystery Wizard, -who solved scientifically from one tiny sound-clue that -haunted-laboratory thing. You'll do the same with this." - -Grover failed to snap out of his dejection. - -"You run up and get out your requisitions for needed supplies," Grover -suggested. "I will check up that Clark man, and try to work out a course -of action." - -Roger obeyed. - -His work was light, and after laying out dark-room supplies, a set of -new distributor points and a replacement insulator on their high-voltage -transformer line, and a few other needs, he sat down to try to think out -some way to help Grover. - -With pencil and paper he carried out a decision made during their chat. - -In a list, on the order they had come, he put down the sounds he thought -might be important, and even those that did not seem to have any bearing -on the mystery. Opposite them, he set down as many interpretations as he -could figure out. - -His list, finished, he scanned thoughtfully. It ran: - - _Sound_ _Meanings_ - - Clicks and hisses on Claws on glass cage. Rats clawing at the - film. glass inside to get out. Might be a clue to - something. - A faint click in A distant relay switching in on a heating - headset. oil-burner. Some electrical device - somewhere. Does not seem much because it - didn't have any effects after it. - A thump in the corner Some trash in the corner shifted. A film in - of the upstairs room its can shifted. The wall contracting. - before I started the Plaster fell. It started me taking pictures - camera. that turned out to have animals, when none - were there, but I do not see any bearing on - our case. - The Voice of Doom. A hoarse voice coming from a room with nobody - there. Ventriloquism. Important, but how? - The Voice of Doom's cry. Either somebody screaming and being tortured, - or somebody pretending it. Or some natural - sound like a fog-siren. Must be important. - Might be a clue to some place or person. - The last two on a Both sounds just like before and clear. Same - record. meanings I think. Must be clues. But how? - The record of same in Like the others, only rougher as if it had - Dr. Ryder's room. been made with the needle out of exact - adjustment, but strong sounds. - The Doctor's voice Had waits between sentences. Was his voice, - after the Voice of though. Other one answering not audible - Doom. with 3 stages audio. - Ticks or drip-drip. Must have been safe combination being - operated. How would it be known? Not to a - stranger. Doctor Ryder couldn't get it. - Grover leaves no memoranda on it. - Both alarms at home at Can't mean anything, know what it was, but it - start. was a sound-clue in a way. No fire. Why did - fire alarm go off? How start? Monkey? - Kangaroo hitting it with paw? - -He seemed not to remember any more. He studied his list, trying to find -others to add, new interpretations; but to no avail. - -He thought that if he tried increasing and adding radio-frequency tuning -and amplification to his speaker-circuit--make it a regular radio, in -fact, he might get any possible radio sending if that could account for -the silent spaces on the last record. - -He made his circuits up, set the electric pick-up over the start of the -record; but with the new hookup he got no new slant. - -Only one small addition to his list of sounds, bringing his total up to -eleven sound-clues--possibly--was the little thump, or thud that the -needle transmitted before starting in on the voice with no speaker -answering in its silent waits. Roger could get no further. - -He took his series of eleven sounds, including the alarm bell and the -thump that could have been a tiny flaw of the record just on the sound -track, and went to Grover. - -"Here are the sounds," he declared. "Maybe one will clear up all your -tangles." - -At least, studying the list, Grover was more alert, less depressed, -Roger saw with relief. - -He examined the last-made record for the fault that made the odd jarring -of its recording. No flaw showed, even under magnification. - -"It's actually part of the record," he got Grover to add to his list of -notes; and then he said to his cousin, "it may mean that the locks went -off, somehow, just there." - -"But it doesn't record the re-locking, so that doesn't fit." - -"If only we could see any cause for that thumping sound," Roger -reflected out loud. "We might have one more real clue." - -If only he had been able to decode the key hidden there! - - - - - Chapter 12 - DETECTIVE ROGER - - -After further consideration of the sound clues, and discussion of the -uncanny appearance of animals on a film, and other points, and without -seeing any light, Grover rose. - -"The staff will be arriving any time, now," said he. "Let's look up that -fellow, Joseph Z. Clark, because I want you to do a little -Sherlock-Hawkshaw work if we locate his address." - -They took first the telephone book. He was listed, and his address was -in a section of the suburbs given over to large private estates. His -business also was listed. He was a jeweler, and the reason he could own -an estate was shown by his business address in fashionable Fifth Avenue. - -"A man would seem to be a suspicious character loitering around a -private estate," Grover looked up, "but a boy----" - -"I could wear my old sweater and cap, and ride my bicycle, and it would -be natural for me to rest anywhere along the road, or even go anywhere -to ask my way." Roger caught the spirit of the idea. - -"I merely want you to 'look over the land,' and see how things look," -Grover insisted. "Then after the staff goes, come back and report. That -gives you time for rest between riding out and back." - -"After the staff goes--Do you still think?----" - -"I have to think everything and nothing until I get a lead." - -Roger took his time riding the dozen miles to the easily located point -of espionage. To get there by mid-morning was best. - -The estate itself, walled in with ivy-covered stone, quite an extensive -acreage, he reached as the sun approached the zenith. - -Near what seemed to be a servants' gateway he sat down by his reclining -bicycle. - -From the grass beside the gateway he could see, along the driveway, the -beautifully rolled tennis court, the sweep of lovely lawn, from the main -gateway, winding up to a grand, white mansion, people moving about on -wide verandas or swimming in a distant pool. - -"Pretty swell," Roger told himself musingly. "Not the sort of a place to -look for kidnapers or jewel thieves. Unless--as Grover is always so fond -of saying: 'I dig past appearances that can be falsified, to the heart -of truth that can't be changed.'" - -He turned it over in his mind. Of course, it would not be past reason -that a prosperous man, with a millionaire's residence, might smuggle -gems, even make a man his prisoner to secure a gem with the world-wide -reputation Doctor Ryder had ascribed to the Eye of Om. - -Om--Roger had looked it up--was the reverent name by which the Tibetans -referred to the All Highest, to Our Eternal Father. - -It was sometimes spelled A-u-m, also, he had found out. - -From his view of the rich, scintillating gem, the unbelievably many, -tiny, flat, facet surfaces, turned in every direction, well symbolised -the name, the Eye of Aum or Om, the All-seeing Gaze of the Supreme God. - -Well, for that jewel, what would not some characters do? - -He wondered, gazing idly, behind which window Doctor Ryder might be a -prisoner; and he thought how he might discover it. - -If the man could look out, he thought, Doctor Ryder might give him some -signal. - -He stood up, pretending to stretch, facing the house. He got up on the -wall, and knew that he was noticed, for a footman moved out toward him. -He jumped down, watching the upper windows. - -No response. No signal. If only he could be seen from all four sides of -the house, he reflected, it might be different! - -"Private property, son," said the footman, arriving at the gate. - -Some remembrance of detectives who had "taken the bull by the horns" and -had "bluffed" people into telling the truth, who had tricked suspected -people into revealing things they tried to hide, made Roger act without -fully canvassing what the possible outcome might be. - -"Private, yes," he said, grinning mysteriously, "but you'd better ask -Doctor Ryder whether I'd be called a trespasser or not." - -His bold stroke brought him a revealing response. - -"Huh? Doctor Ryder? Do you know him?" - -"I know him," Roger said loftily, "better than he knows the Eye of Om." - -"The what of who?" - -"Oh, of course--I ought not to have mentioned----" Roger pretended to be -disconcerted, "I--uh--well, never mind." - -"How comes it you're out here? Why'n't you ride right on in if you want -the Doctor?" - -"I just stopped to rest." - -If Roger's words were carelessly intoned, his heart was doing -speed-pulsations. Doctor Ryder was there! - -"Well, all right. They didn't know who you were, climbing on our wall." -(_Our_ wall--Roger hid a grin.) - -"Guess I'll walk up. Want to bring my machine?" - -Might as well enjoy some of the luxury of having servants to wait on -him, Roger chuckled merrily to himself. - -"Certainly, sir. You will find Doctor Ryder with Mister Clark, over -beyond the pool, at the first tee of the golf links. Or, would you -rather be announced?" - -"'Station O.B.Y's,'" Roger pretended to be a radio announcer, playing on -the phrase, "Oh, be wise," as he shook his head. - -"No, thank you. I'll go see the doctor without being heralded." - -He walked ahead of the servant, across the lawn. - -Before he had passed the girls with gay frocks, joking with their -escorts, and the quartet of laughing, splashing swimmers, he saw the man -he had supposed to be a prisoner. - -Doctor Ryder, his bald head and plump frame easily discernible, was -certainly as free as the tall, sallow, thin-cheeked, hatless man in -white flannels who was swinging a golf club over a ball. - -"Why--Roger!" The doctor, turning, recognized him as he approached, -"How'd you locate me so soon?" - -Roger, coming up, on guard, hiding his surprise at the unexpected -freedom of the man, took on a careless air of wisdom. - -"Science!" - -"Oh, you laboratory people!" Doctor Ryder smiled. "So my voice _did_ -make a record." He turned to the other man, "I told you that -disconnecting the selenium cell wire wouldn't stop the sound from -getting onto the film, any more than you could stop the motor, even if -you did keep it from taking your picture by holding the card by a rubber -band snapped over the lens barrel." - -The other man laughed. - -"They may have your voice, and welcome," he chuckled, giving the rather -flabbergasted young detective a cheerful grin of welcome, "but they -didn't get my picture, and they won't have my voice, because--well, -young man, how do you imagine I beat that?" - -"Wrote your answers," said Roger after an instant of thought. - -The man nodded. - -"I told you he was clever--who wouldn't be under the Mystery Wizard, as -his older relative is sometimes referred to." Doctor Ryder slapped -Roger's left shoulder. - -Roger, cautious, eyes alert, saw no signs of duplicity. - -The situation puzzled him. - -After all of the mysterious, baffling, weird and unexplained -circumstances, after the strain and excitement, here was the victim of -capture and jewel robbery, about to play golf, laughing, free. - -Were "appearances" cheating his common sense? He decided to pretend to -accept conditions, but he watched alertly for clues. - -"But I expect you are surprised to see this situation," the man who -owned these acres of wealth declared. - -Roger could not dissemble well enough. - -"No fair keeping him in the dark," Doctor Ryder prompted. "I was going -to telephone, but we had some details to work out over a few holes of -Scotch Croquet," he laughed at his own allusion to golf. "So you -sleuthed me anyhow. Well, let's put our cards on the table." - -"All right," Mr. Clark--the footman's identification--said. - -"I was getting the Voice of Doom manifestation again when--how, only he -can reveal--this old traveling chum, who has gone further in making -money than I have in curing spinal disease," Doctor Ryder was speaking, -"stalked into my room." - -"Well, I knew you were in danger," the other remarked. "So I just went -in through a cellar window and up the stairs, and just as the Tibetans -were getting the hang of the slotted cable trick to shut off the current -so they could walk in, I knocked down the ring-leader." - -Could that have been the thump on the record, Roger asked himself. - -"They had a copperized gadget, and so I chased the other two, and used -the gadget, walked in, and brought my old chum out here." - -"You might have saved us a lot of worry," Roger spoke abruptly. "We -thought all sorts of terrible things about you, doctor." - -"But I said, at the end of the record, that we would go to the safe, and -if all was well there we would come here and communicate." - -"The record ran out before it was spoken," said Roger, and he added: - -"Well--did you find the jewel safe?" - -"Just as Clark drove us up near the laboratory," Doctor Ryder informed -him, "we saw the Tibetans emerge. How they had worked it is beyond me. -But we let them start in a car, trailed it, and when they got out we -jumped them, and after a tussle, sure enough!--they had this, so we took -charge." - -There, in his palm, lay the great, flashing emerald! - -"Matter of fact," Clark spoke up, "as long as your laboratory Chief -won't help my friend to restore this to Tibet and escape all the -danger--and worse--that those Tibetans can stage, I am going to finance -his trip back to Tibet, and may even go along." - -"All right," said Roger, swinging on the soft turf, "I'd better tell -Grover to stop worrying himself about your protection and all." - -"You can call from the house--a servant will show you where," the estate -owner suggested, and Roger saw no trickery or exchange of glances to -tell him anything was deceptive in their manner. "While you are telling -him, if you like the idea, you might ask if he can give a good young -radio operator a leave-of-absence to go along. We have had a Roger, the -Ear Detective, so far. We'd be willing to pay expenses and salary to a -Roger, the Scientist, on our trip to restore a priceless religious -symbol." - -Roger's jaw dropped, sagging with his astonishment. - -"Straight goods," added Doctor Ryder. "The Tibetan priests are bugs -about scientific cleverness. You'd be a help." - -"Name your own salary, too," added Mr. Clark. - -Roger may have set his feet on greensward; but to him it was as if he -walked on clouds. - -But he did not ask Grover over the telephone. - -_He_ was not so sure about that frank offer. - - - - - Chapter 13 - SCIENTIST ROGER - - -Brought back to the laboratory in Mr. Clark's car, with one of the -servants delegated to drive the estate carry-all in with his bicycle, -Roger got a new surprise. - -Mr. Clark greeted their bio-chemist and their electrical specialist, -respectively Mr. Zendt and Mr. Ellison, as long-missed brothers. - -"We attended the same technical college," he told Grover. - -"And did we have experiences in India?" chuckled Ellison. - -To himself Roger thought that here was some likely link with the -kangaroo and, perhaps, with the ape of the first startling night's -alarm. - -He kept his thoughts behind his lips. - -"But why must you restore the Eye, at so much risk?" Grover, put in -possession of facts already known to Roger, asked, "Turn it over to -those mysterious Tibetans who open safes and enter sealed rooms." - -"That's the rub," Clark declared. "Are they genuine priests? Or -thieves?" - -"The Voice of Doom is a genuine manifestation, apparently," Doctor Ryder -added, "at least, in the mountain temple, I heard something similar to -the screaming doom. In some way they produce that noise, on a much -greater scale of volume. It is said to be the Voice of Doom, and is -supposed to come through the lips of their image of Buddha, as an omen, -only when a criminal is being judged by the image, which is to say by -the temple priests--or before some calamity such as an earthquake or -famine year." - -"But maybe these fellows are using that, and pretending to be priests -from the Forbidden Land, to scare us into giving up the gem," Mr. Clark -argued. - -Real priests, bent on revenge, he insisted, struck first, spoke -afterward, if at all. Or, these might be of some other sect or lamasery, -as they called their mountain retreats. - -"I can see that," Ellison agreed. - -"It is not from them so much comes the danger to Ryder," Zendt was also -a champion, "More from the hidden menace of the real Doom comes it." - -"If I could get away," said Ellison, "I'd take back the thing for -Ryder." - -"It is my risk. I got into this thing." - -"But why do you suggest taking Roger, Doctor?" Grover asked. - -"Several reasons. First: he has proved that he is accurate in discerning -the correct interpretation of sounds, which leads to the next: he is -clever at photography and other scientific means of getting accurate -data. To explain that, let me say that with so much danger if it were -known that I meant to get into the temple, a secret way to restore the -Eye would be safer. - -"There is a hidden way to enter the temple. I do not know it, but I feel -that in some way it may be connected with that Voice of Doom, and Roger -could photograph, enlarge his takes, study them, and with his sharp eye -and keen wit, could no doubt find the secret." - -"A last reason," Mr. Clark added, "is that he can operate a -radio-telephone, as well as send wireless code. We might want the -former, if two parties, separated, needed to keep in constant touch. The -latter, short-wave sending and receiving, could keep us in touch with -the outside world--even with you, Mr. Mystery Wizard Brown." - -Put that way, there seemed less to make Roger uncertain. - -What an adventure! - -"If you could spare that husky, loyal general assistant, Potts," -suggested the doctor, "we could ask no better guardian for your cousin." - -There was much to be considered; there was much apparatus to be designed -and assembled, including compact, tiny cameras, hand-operated generator -to supply current where electricity never had been used, light, but -powerful step-up transformers: there had to be clothing and other -traveling needs in sparsely settled Tibet to be planned. - -Time, though, coupled with a spirit of eagerness, helps in such plans, -and it was soon time to say good-bye, to wave from the moving train, to -hear Tip shout, "At last we got everything coagulated. We're off!" and -to settle back in a parlor car seat until time to go into the diner. - -Across America, and on the ship bearing the party toward the -International Date Line in the Pacific where one day changed to another -by the simple process of crossing the imaginary line--the way that the -astronomers had worked out to adjust Time to the sun's progress--and -even when they landed in China, only slight evidence had been noticed -that the effort to secure the gem was still alive in some one's mind. - -Doctor Ryder felt that it indicated that the Tibetans had really been -the ones after the Eye; and the ransacking of a despatch box, in their -hotel room in San Francisco, he thought, had been the work of an -international jewel thief. - -Roger, while they crossed the Republic of China from Shanghai, had -plenty to interest him, and so did Potts. - -That loyal if uneducated guardian voiced his astonishment at the unusual -sights and experiences. - -"No wonder they say these people are backward," he told Roger. "They do -everything hind-side-first. Men wear skirts and women wear pajamas. They -build a station where there ain't any railroad at all, and have roads -where there ain't any traffic to use 'em." - -"Well, to them that is their way. They think our way is back-ways." - -"It is all in the point of view," Mr. Clark took part in the chat. -"Everything depends on how you look at it. The moon looks far off if you -reverse your telescope, yet a star looks closer from the right end of -the same instrument." - -"I don't care," Tip was stubborn about his idea, "They _are_ a backward -race. Look at that!" - -"That" was a rickshaw boy, drawing his two wheeled carriage with two -American tourist women in it. The boy deliberately swerved and ran -across the street just in front of the automobile, the traveling -companions and Roger were using. The driver had to stand on his brakes. - -"They think devils chase them, and if they turn right-angles and run in -front of something, _it_ runs over the devils that can't turn corners." -Potts was disgusted. - -Other strange customs--strange because different from American -habit--kept them alert and amused as they progressed toward the place -where arrangements had been made for the party to join a caravan that -was on its way across Tibet bearing tea and other Chinese goods. It -seemed safest to go into the restricted territory as if bent on passing -through it. Camels, with great fuss and grumbling, swift ponies with -many whickers of eagerness to gallop rather than walk or trot, got under -way and Roger, swaying on his Ship of the Desert, bound, seemingly, for -the Kybur Pass and India, smiled as Potts found his curious steed -inducing a seasickness that made him prefer to walk a good part of the -time, unless the pace was too swift, when Tip rode and suffered. - -As arranged, at one of the halting places, during the night, the -quartet, met by guides and bearers as arranged for by the caravan -leader, quietly forsook the caravan, and rode, on wiry ponies, into -darkness and a land over which brooded the mysterious, terrible -Himalayas. - -Far away, in a city laboratory, with Roger's chum, Billy Summers, an -expert radio "op," Grover tuned a set, amplified, increasing output -strength; and then, as Roger, in the Tibetan night, increased his own -signal power as Tip ground at the generator, each knew that with the -other all was well. Yes. Just then! - - - - - Chapter 14 - CAPTIVE ROGER - - -Across the Tibetan plain, with its sparse vegetation and occasional -small and always distant group of rude huts surrounded by the grazing -herd of the tiny community, the party made its way uneventfully. - -Steadily the ground grew higher. Constantly the Backbone of the World, -the great, forbidding, brooding Himalayan range, was a larger part of -the landscape ahead. - -The guides, through an interpreter whose English was almost minus, but -who could understand Doctor Ryder's pantomime and few recalled Tibetan -phrases, had agreed reluctantly that they would avoid settled parts and -keep away from villages. His hesitation was due, as was explained, to -the greater danger of being set upon by bandits, or rough peasants who -amounted to the same thing. Yet that experience came. - -At dusk, as they ate tinned food and the natives laid aside packs, cared -for the wiry ponies and made camp, the chief guide discerned the -approach of a dozen riders, galloping their sturdy mounts in a cluster -toward them. - -Tip, with a grunt, snatched at his revolver. Mr. Clark, almost in a -snarl, ordered him not to show it. - -"We must be diplomatic," the man added; and Doctor Ryder agreed. - -"Roger," he said to the excited, trembling young scientific -representative, "can't you get something ready that might startle them -or look like magic?" - -Roger, in spite of his misgivings, thought hard. - -"Come here, Tip." Together, conferring, they unpacked equipment. - -As the silent, but menacing horsemen deployed and surrounded the camp, -the youth drew on, hastily, heavy rubber gloves. - -Tip, not too sure that he ought to be so far from his charge, obeyed -stern orders to carry out Roger's instructions, and in the tent, sat by -the handle of the generator. The small electricity-producing unit, much -more powerful, though no heavier than an automobile battery-generator, -had its handle and flywheel geared at a high ratio, so that moderate -turning rate gave the armature its correct impetus for best results. - -From it, unseen in the darkness that came on, a wire ran to a spot where -Roger crouched, apparently busy with cooking utensils. - -The bandits dismounted, and the group advanced, completely surrounding -the white men, who wore the native coats of rough texture but who did -not attempt to disguise their race. - -The natives of the camp were evidently expecting the raid, and Roger was -sure that either the chief guide or an aide had betrayed them. - -It was too late to avoid the encounter and recriminations were not wise. - -"You give all money," the interpreter told Doctor Ryder as the leader of -their adversaries spoke in guttural phrases. - -"Tell him we are scientists, going to study the great rocks. Tell him -that we have no money, and bid him go, before we ask our young magician, -who is close in the councils of the Gods, to smite them." - -The interpreter apparently gave the interpretation faithfully, from his -gestures toward Roger; but the man he addressed gave a harsh laugh. - -He spoke to his men and they roared and shouted in mockery. - -"Bid him go, then, and try his strength to capture that small youth who -cooks the broth that gives him the strength of the Mountain Gods." - -As Clark gave the phrases, he glanced at Roger. - -Probably, Roger thought, the man was afraid that he would fail at this -critical moment. Be afraid. Or show nervousness. - -The bandit leader guffawed, and strode rapidly, and menacingly, in -Roger's direction. - -"It's your move, son," Roger mentally admonished himself. "Steady." - -To Tip he called, very low, "Get set." - -Tip called back, "Say when." - -The bandit strode close. - -"Om, man-u, pad-mi, om," muttered Roger, using the prayer so familiar to -all Buddhists in Tibet. - -The man paused, looking a trifle surprised at the sound. - -Roger, upsetting a pan of water on the earth, rose, standing near the -wet space. - -In words taught him by the interpreter, he spoke. - -"What do you seek?" his phrase demanded, and his voice he kept very -steady, even stern. - -"You!" - -The man, depending on surprise, made a quick grab, as Roger laid aside a -fork and with apparent aimlessness, paying no heed--outwardly--took in -his right hand a big iron ladle to stir the boiling soup. - -As if unaware of the plan to attack, he went on, "Om man-u pad-mi om," -knowing that the first utterance had started Tip to whirling his -generator armature. - -The man made a grab. As though turning, Roger maneuvered so that his -ladle was just where the man made the grab--but Roger was beyond the wet -spot on which the man stepped. - -Stepped up to stronger voltage, carried along the wire fixed to the -ladle handle held in his rubber-gloved hand, Roger was immune to the -current that had better conductivity through the man standing on wet -earth. - -As his hand closed on the metal, with a startled, frightened howl, the -bandit writhed and was convulsed, more by surprise than by any vast -voltage. It was enough to jar, not enough to harm. - -But he could not let go. - -"Cease firing," Roger called, amused as the man was contorted by the -tingling, nerve-throbbing current that he could not understand. - -The others, standing with mouths agape, saw their leader fall back, in -awe, rubbing his arms. He spoke abruptly, staring at Roger -unbelievingly. Then he drew back, and discussed his experience in -guttural grunts and abrupt gestures. - -Roger, knowing that the generator was still, stirred the soup -nonchalantly while the interpreter, on whispered instructions, put a -brave front on the situation and demanded that the group go away before -all should feel the stronger wrath of their super-man. - -They did draw aside, conferring. But they would not go. They took their -mounts, but sat on guard. - -Roger, eating with his companions, suggested that if they could -demonstrate some visual marvel, such as a picture projected onto a -light-colored tent side, it might frighten away the men. - -The guides did not think they would be bothered, the interpreter said. -The men would not go. They would stay on guard, and by keeping the party -surrounded, not molesting for fear of more harmful acts, but still -preventing them from moving, the bandits would wait for instructions -from some one in higher authority. A messenger had ridden away. - -Shortly afterward, while they sat around their fire of native fuel, they -saw, approaching, the messenger and another tall Tibetan who dismounted -and approached. He wore the recognizable garb of a Lama. - -"Show me your magician," he commanded. - -Roger, assuming a brave air, arose. - -"Come," the man beckoned, "you will show me your wonders. I will show -you mine." - -"Better go," whispered Clark. "He will take you just where we want to -get. Take Tip, and a radio, the battery set. And keep in touch." - - - - - Chapter 15 - IN THE LAMASERY - - -If the urging of the jeweler and of Doctor Ryder seemed like sacrificing -Roger, they assured him that it was not so. - -The lama, they declared, was interested in anything seeming to be occult -or mystifying or a use of hidden forces. His attitude was not menacing. -Rather, it seemed friendly. - -And he was a lama from the very temple they sought! - -"What a break!" Tip, whose companionship the man readily agreed to, as -Tip carried the portable battery, compact five-tube set, telephone -instrument and spare B. battery, spoke under his breath. - -"This will coagulate everything, make it easy," he added. - -Roger, somewhat excited at the prospect of going into strange -adventures, being "on his own," nodded. - -The man's attitude was respectful and friendly. The bandits stayed -around the camp, but the interpreter said that if the youth satisfied -his companion of his abilities, it might free them, might even help them -to reach their objective. - -The lama had evidently been at a village not very far away: they had -only to walk to that, and then, with much show of veneration for the -lama, their holy man or priest, the villagers furnished ponies. - -Roger, mounted and riding beside his friendly captor, with Tip and his -apparatus on another pony and on a led carrier-animal, noted the tiny -prayer-wheels by the ascending roadside, saw the other lamas they met -with their prayer-wheels and prayer-papers, observed the reverent -attitude of the peasants herding cattle or grazing sheep, and felt a -renewed confidence in the outcome. - -The lama could not converse with him, but the universal language of look -and gesture served very well between them. - -In due course, after riding up steeper and steeper paths, into the -craggy, ravine-and-cliff torn mountains, they came to a great, dreary, -uninviting stone monastery wherein the lamas stayed, studying, praying -and conducting the strange rites of their religion. - -"If you ask me," muttered Tip, scanning the looming pile of stone, "We -are a long way from the lab. What's all them little windmills for?" - -"Prayer-wheels," Roger told him. "They say their prayers with them." - -"Well if you think I'm going to end up by spinning one of them -whirligigs, you're wrong. Tell this bird I'm incontrovertible." - -"You're what?" - -"Incontrovertible. I won't change my religion." - -"Not convert-ible. I see. Still the same old Tip, far though you are, as -you say, from Grover's dark-room. But they seem to look up to this man -who brought us. He's sort of bossy, too, and they mind." - -They were made as comfortable as the rude conditions of the cold, harsh -life the lamas led would allow. - -Roger was glad that Tip was not separated from him. They were both given -one cell, a gloomy, but not prison-like cell that looked out through its -narrow window over a vast, tumbled, fissure-creased series of crags and -ravines, cliffs and snow-covered peaks. - -It was as though the Creator of the world had flung this wild mass of -rock helter-skelter, in a long backbone, to hold the world together. - -Simple, not too palatable food was ungrudgingly served, and their -conductor visited them several times to see that they needed nothing he -could offer. - -The radio-telephone, answered by Doctor Ryder, reassured them. The -bandits had been sent away by abrupt orders from another lama. Not a can -of food or a bit of apparatus had been disturbed or taken. - -The communicating sets worked well, and things were not so bad. - -The gaunt, silent, stern-faced lamas served them without comment or -objection; and Tip and Roger were allowed to roam at will through most -of the corridors, rooms, cells and even were permitted to attend the -chanting devotions of the men in a huge chapel-like place. But that, -they were certain, was not the "temple" because there was no Buddha of -the stature they expected, or with a spare Eye either missing or -replaced by an imitation. - -But nothing advanced. Nothing happened. Days dragged by. - -The explanation came when their captor, or host, brought them into a -sort of general community room, where he presented them before a very -sedate and reserved and cold-visaged old man. Roger, however, did not -feel any fear, because the man's eyes seemed to hold some deep, -broad-minded tolerance. He looked kindly. - -To their amazement he addressed Roger in halting, but clear English. - -"You come far." - -"Yes, sir," Tip spoke first. - -"You come for what?" - -Tip hesitated. - -Roger came forward. - -"This man and I are with a scientific expedition." - -"Have you secured permission to enter our land?" - -"I suppose so," Roger, himself, was not too certain about the details of -that official permit that Doctor Ryder said he had gotten. - -"You understand something of science?" - -Roger admitted it, not boastfully. - -Their things were all brought in. - -"Show me, and tell me." - -Roger, trying to use short words and simple explanations, demonstrated -the radio-telephone, and its purpose of distant communication. - -He did not want to explain the tiny camera, and put it into the case -with the spare battery, pretending that it was part of the apparatus -therein. The watching chief lama and the venerable visitor gave no -special attention to it and Roger was glad. He had it in case they got -near the temple and he could try to discover, from its pictures, later -enlarged, how the secret way into the edifice, if one existed, was -manipulated. - -Contriving to "raise" his other friends, by the set, Roger allowed the -lama and the other to hear the reply to his guarded declaration that -they were being well nourished, made much of, and so on. - -When the men seemed satisfied and the paraphernalia of radio was -removed, the gentleman at the head of the lamas considered Roger and Tip -thoughtfully. - -"Indeed great progress has been made in your America," he said, to -Roger, while the lama sat silent. "Even you, not more than thirteen, -surely, accomplish what would be wizardry to our own peasants--and yet -this Forbidden Land holds locked in her bosom the destinies of -tomorrow's science, and knowledge of forces that your America does not -dream of. It is a strange old world." - -"Yes, sir," Roger agreed, not knowing how else to respond, then: - -"How do you come to know our language, sir?" - -"Your own sacred Book tells of the--is it not the Tower of Babel?" - -"Yes, sir." - -"And is there not the word that prophets, as fire descended upon their -heads, spoke 'with many tongues'?" - -"Yes, sir----" - -"We, in Tibet, have methods for reproducing many miracles--as they would -seem to you, for all of your scientific wisdom. Let me show you." - -As though understanding what was to come, the lama approached, and under -the steady gaze of the other, seemed to assume a trance-like fixedness -of expression. Standing, his body was still rigid, but he did not sway -or totter or fall. - -Presently, as Roger and Tip watched, knowing it might be hypnotism, but -still marveling at the produced result, they heard: - -"I am in a great laboratory." And the man used perfect English, not even -slightly inflected as had been that of the other, "There is an office -with a pair of desks. At one, a woman typewrites. At the other, Grover -Brown interviews his staff, and tells what Roger has sent him by the -Morse code and which he 'picked up' on four stages of radio-frequency -and three audio." - -It was almost weird, uncanny. Of course, there might be such a thing as -mind-reading--but---- - -"In the chemical division, a man, Zendt, experiments with tissue, and a -new--to him--process for causing a medicinal reaction by the application -of Ellison's sun-lamp. - -"But here--Roger fails to tell completely of his mechanism. He forgets -to explain the tiny camera with which he hopes to discover a secret way -into our temple----" - -If Roger's face was controlled in time, perhaps Tip's was not. - -The older man smiled, a little wryly. - -"That will do." He clapped his hands sharply. The lama, with a somewhat -dazed look, flexed his muscles and stumbling to a seat, collapsed on it. -Magic? Trickery? Roger had no time to decide. - -"If you are so anxious to learn our secrets of the temple," remarked the -old man, "you shall have them. Indeed, you shall even hear----" - -Roger grew tense as he paused and then finished: - -"The Voice of Doom! Come!" - - - - - Chapter 16 - THE IMAGE SPEAKS - - -With an abrupt change the atmosphere seemed to be charged with -electricity. Of course, thought Roger, trying to remain cool, it was -merely his fear of the outcome that made his nerves tingle. - -There was no time for any choice of action. - -Rising, the old man moved toward an arched opening at one side of the -stone chamber. Tip, fierce-eyed, loyal, beside Roger, realized as he -tugged at his empty holster that in some clever way he had been -disarmed. A glance behind him showed the mocking lama, holding his own -weapon. Tip gauged the chances of a leap, shrugged. It was useless. -Monastery attendants were at all the open doorways. - -"Buck up!" he whispered. - -"It may not be so bad," Roger tried to reassure them both. - -They followed, as follow they must, down a long, echoing, empty -corridor. Far away, low, weird, they could hear male voices, deep, -rather disturbing in tone, chanting some uncouth succession of notes. - -Their slow walk behind the aged conductor brought them constantly nearer -to the chant, for the voices grew louder. - -At a doorway, heavily shrouded in lustrous woven velvet or other -drapery, the guide swung, and an attendant, bowing, moved the cloth to -one side. The chanting swelled suddenly. - -Resistance was futile. As the guide moved aside, motioning, Roger, and -Tip after him, passed under the great stone door-lintel, into a large -square chamber full of the chanting lamas. - -And at the end, in a niche, on a sort of raised dais, sat the huge -carved wooden image or statue of the Meditating Buddha or prophet of -their religion, and in its forehead glowed, in the flickering -torchlight, the great, green duplicate--it appeared--of the Eye of Om. - -At first it flashed through Roger's mind that this was strange; but at -once he realized that, of course, they would have replaced the gem with -a substitute or an imitation, and would not tell many of the loss. - -Thrust forward by the lama who had brought them there, Roger and Potts -were ushered down the aisle between rows of kneeling, -low-and-mocking-voiced monks or lamas, to the space below the great -figure. - -Words in Tibetan, answered by hoarse responses from the crowd, seemed to -be some ceremony or invocation of judgment, in which, they sensed, the -two white people were the sacrifice or center of the rite. Standing -silently, Tip was watchful but helpless. Roger, too, kept an alert mind -but saw no means of escape. - -"You seek to hear the Voice. You wish to know the secret." - -The venerable man who appeared to be some sort of super-lama, to whom -even their former captor deferred, knelt and pronounced some low, weird -and long-winded invocation. - -At his gesture they both knelt, submissive if not willing, and he bowed -his head to the floor and stayed that way. - -All the rest were in similar positions. - -And then, blood-curdling in its startling suddenness, after an interval -of suspense, there came, but not softly or in small volume as in their -recordings it had been, a scream that was as weird as the howl of a soul -in torment; and after it followed, louder, but duplicating, the -decreasing pitch and growing volume of the howl, roar and groan, that -ceased abruptly on a hoarse note. - -Apparently, and they all seemed to believe it, the Image had spoken. - -Certainly, to Roger, still able to be alert enough to trace sound, it -issued from the head or face, possibly the small, slitted mouth of that -statue. - -"The Doom has judged," the old man told them in precise English, but in -a very formal and cold tone, "the judgment is pronounced. I am to show -you our secret and allow your science to prove its worth." - -A mocking twitch took the place of a smile as he added: - -"Or, from our viewpoint, its worthlessness." - -As he spoke, with no sound an orifice opened in the wall behind the -idol. In its cavernous depths, dark and forbidding, Roger guessed that -the stone had withdrawn up or sidewise, or had turned on a pivot. - -He and Tip, hesitating, were prodded gruffly forward. - -Into the decreasing light they moved--were forced to move. - -The darkness became abruptly intense. The noiseless door had closed! - -Echoing still to their last footstep, the silence slowly became -complete. - -"Science!" grunted Tip, "Without no scientific impediments." - -"Implements." Roger spoke from habit, still too dazed to feel, with -completeness, the horror that must soon come. - -And far away, the last exhalation of the "s" he had spoken was flung -mockingly back by echo, a hiss of multiplied duration, fainter as it -echoed to and fro. - -Trying to hold calm, Roger felt an impulse to scream, to beat on the -callous stone, to beg for mercy. - -Instead, feeling that Tip also must feel the dread he felt, he nerved -himself to be not only calm, but matter-of-fact. - -"Well," he remarked, "We've heard the Voice and found the secret way. -And that's that!" - - - - - Chapter 17 - BLACK SILENCE - - -Without looking up from the radio over which he was fussing, Doctor -Ryder spoke snappishly. His nerves were on edge. - -"We ought not to have brought him." - -"But he was so clever," protested Clark, "and surely if anybody ever -could interpret what that temple must hide in that queer sound, he'd be -the one. He interpreted claws on glass, you said--and----" - -"Be still. Let me listen." - -The doctor fidgeted, trying to tune, to amplify, to adjust knobs on the -unresponsive radio set. - -"We had no intention of getting him into hot water," Clark said, -morosely. "We did want to get into that temple. The bandits were -unforeseen complications; but when the Lama came, I thought that for -Roger it would all be simple, once he got into the lamasery." - -He watched a few minutes. - -"Can't you raise even a whisper?" - -"No! And it has been three nights. And besides we can't operate the -wireless, because you don't know code. Brown, in America, will be wild. -Our three days of uncertainty is nothing. He hasn't heard since Roger -left us, and that was a week before our last contact with him." - -"Let me try. You go and turn the dynamo." - -"I wish I knew more about it. I know precious little, come to find out, -whether it's burned out, or the brushes gone, or how to adjust these -things." The doctor relinquished his place, went into the tent. - -At the tuning dial and control knobs, as he whirled them and almost -frantically called into the telephone transmitter, Clark worked. - -In the tent his companion swung the flywheel over, and around, and then -stopped, groaning. - -"Guess we are licked," he came out. - -"You go back. We'll keep trying." - -Doctor Ryder nodded. - -Ten minutes of silence. - -"I'm--sh-h-h!" - -Clark tuned delicately, getting the "hang" of the controls. - -Out of the receiving diaphragm issued a low, male voice. - -"You will return to your America." - -Desperately Clark swung the switch to the sending side. - -"Who are you? Where is our boy? Roger? Is he there? Is he----" - -"He is gone. The Voice of Doom spoke his sentence. He has learned the -secret of the hidden darkness." - -"We'll have a hundred thousand American troops in your darn country if -that boy has been hurt----" - -The other end of the transmission mocked with a hoarse laugh. - -That was all. - -Doctor Ryder, informed, looked defeated. - -"And all for a tawdry jewel. And we still have----" - -Clark motioned for silence, trying desperately, vainly, to raise a -response from the dead ether waves. - -They retired, at last, because with the glowering clouds hanging low in -a star-obscured sky, with possible guards in sight, they dared not make -a move. - -Discussion had been fruitless. They had drawn only blanks in their -search for a course of action. - -Clark, lying on his cot, tossing, got up. - -"I can't sleep. I'm going to walk around--see if I can think up some way -to find out about Roger--and that man with him, too, of course, because -what happens to one will happen to the other." - -He went out into the somber blackness of midnight. - -Walking did not keep him from brooding, nor help his brain to do its -task. - -He sat on a large tussock of dry turf. - -"For a tawdry gem!" he muttered. - -A slight sound made him leap up, revolver drawn. - -Had it been the ever-blowing gale, stirring something? Or some fresh -menace, some creeping creature, some vindictive priest, who had made -that tiny sound of a scraping shoe? - -"Who's there? Speak or I'll fire!" - -He knew no direction to shoot in. But the light might disclose -something. He raised the weapon. - -"Mr. Clark, don't----" - -"_Roger!_" - -"In person, and not a ghost." - -In a heavy sheeps-wool coat, shaggy and rough, the figure came to his -side. His grip of the young hand was sincerely strong. - -"Quick!" Roger gasped, "give me the Eye of Om--I can exchange it and get -back and we can go before they discover me." - -"Where have you been?" as they walked fast toward camp. "What happened?" - -"They tried us, and the Voice of Doom sentenced us, and they put us in -the chamber behind the image. But we can't stop to talk." - -"Are you all right? Is Potts safe?" - -"Yes. Yes. Hurry!" - -"Let me go with you." - -"Only hurry, and bring the Eye." - -Dashing into the tent, scattering explanations to befuddled Doctor Ryder -as he broke apart the small secret compartment in a bedroll and got the -gem, Clark met Roger and handed him the stone. - -Instantly Roger fled into the darkness. - -When Clark overtook him he saw Potts holding two ponies. Sending Tip to -camp, the pair mounted and galloped away. - -"It was easy to find the secret," Roger said as they made a quick ride -toward the distant cliffs, "Tip helped me keep my head. We figured out -that somebody worked the Voice, and it was louder than human sound. We -were in a tunnel. It sloped downwards. It seemed as though the Buddha -image had howled. That meant a way to get into the image or open a port -from the tunnel to it. Phonograph records wouldn't have been their way. - -"The wind always howled around the lamasery, up so high. From what we -knew about acoustics and how they shaped the old phonograph horns to -increase sound amplification, we worked it out that we were in a sort of -wind-tunnel or horn, and it didn't seem that they opened any rock at the -image or we would have heard it. If the far end of the tunnel opened, -and wind howled in and through the hollow image, it could make those -weird howls, high and low, moans and screeches. So we followed the -tunnel down, and by using Tip's pencil flashlight we located a lever, -and risked making the sound. But we got out." - -By reversing the method, he and Mr. Clark also got in, and with the -older traveler's wisdom they found the trick of getting into the image, -and saw that when the way was closed, the tunnel did not make it howl. -Also, from the eye-places, they made sure the temple was deserted, and -soon enough the change of gems was complete and later, blocking the -lower door lever with a wedge of stone, they prevented pursuit from that -direction and eventually reached camp safely. On the way Mr. Clark -discarded his now useless Eye taken from the prongs, and Roger, at last -safe, with a plane radioed for, slept and dreamed that he was being -awarded a medal "for 'sound' wisdom." - -"After all," he said in his dream, "my deduction was 'sound'." - - - - - Chapter 18 - A LETTER ROGER HAD NOT SENT - - -Reunion with Grover and the laboratory staff, was, as Tip put it, "the -best part of assimilating Tibet." He explained that he meant "taking in" -the country. - -Roger agreed with his spirit if not with his choice of words. - -It did give him a little twinge of dismay, a slight blow to his vanity, -to discover that during his absence Toby Smith had been put to work in -the stock and supply department. Toby Smith, who had sold them the -priceless emerald Eye of Om for a movie camera! - -At once Roger pushed away the feeling of disappointment and did not let -it become envy. This world and its work, he realized, had to keep -moving, no matter who dropped out. Instead of being hurt, he dismissed -his emotion by telling himself that it showed that any person, no matter -how able, could be replaced. The important idea to have, he told -himself, was that if one made one's self so capable as to be missed when -away, more than that could not be done. - -After a while he was glad he had not cherished mean feelings, for Toby -had not replaced him. He had merely done his best. Roger, as the staff -soon let him know, had been missed for his competent way of handling -needs, keeping everything neat and available, and being cheerful and -useful under any circumstances. - -"Am I glad you're back!" Toby hailed him. "This chemistry is too much -for me. One day Mr. Zendt asks for me to pack some frozen H--two--O -around a can of stuff. How'd I know the man wanted ice?" - -"It takes study to understand the chemical symbols," Roger said. - -"Yeh. And they have so many things that sound safe, and they're dynamite -in disguise. Like a guy wanted some citric acid, and I got picric acid, -and I spilled some and was swabbing it up with cotton, and I used it to -swab up something else--I forget what, but when I was going to chuck it -in the furnace, they almost had a fit. It had turned into lyddite or -some other sort of explosive. Looked like the same cotton to me." - -"I never could get them sodium calorides straight, neither," Potts took -up the complaint against chemistry's "cheating" symbols. "They say it's -made out of a gas in the ocean. And the ocean's _water_, and here comes -gas, and they put metal, mind you--sodium--on top of it, and it turns -out to be common table salt." - -"It's sodium chloride," Roger corrected him, "not caloride." - -"And they talk the craziest lingo, here," Toby insisted. "Mr. Ellison -asked for motor brushes, so I looked, and the only brush I could find -was what we sweep up dust with, so I took that. Was he mad!" - -Roger's return to his duties in charge of stock was acceptable! - -Grover, when the celebrations were concluded and routine had been -resumed, sat down in the private "thinking den" as Roger called his -office, and chatted. - -"We have quite a few new interests," he gave information. "Mr. Ellison -has perfected his speed camera with stroboscopic lamps so strong that -they beat sunshine. He can't use a shutter: nothing mechanical can be -made to work as fast as he wants it to. So he uses alternate flashes of -the lamp, and his film runs so fast past the aperture that not even -daylight fogs it. Of course you know he was busy with it, but you don't -know that he has succeeded in perfecting it, and is studying some -amazing chemical and other operations of Nature. - -"Mr. Zendt has brought in rather an unusual man for us. He was an -astrologer--a man who reads 'destiny' in the planets by making a chart -of the zodiac for the moment a person was born. He used to sell his -'fortunes' at so-much a 'destiny' on a Coney Island boardwalk. - -"Now, though, he has turned scientist." - -His interest, Grover explained, was in studying in a scientific way the -reactions of cells, tissues, plant and animal life to various rays of -light, heat and other frequencies of vibration. His theory was that as -the sun awakened life in the Spring, as the moon partly governed tides, -so other planetary vibrations, reflections and modifications of sun -rays, made changes in chemical constituents of cells; and if plants were -made up of cells, and if animals ate the plants and in their own bodies -modified and incorporated these cells, then the rays must act on animals -also; and from that, to saying they influenced the bodies of men in some -way was not a far step. - -With telescope, vibration-recorders, ray-filters, lamps and spectrum -devices he was carrying forward experiments in the room next to Roger's -supply department. - -"You will probably have to help Astrovox--he says he is 'the voice of -the stars!'--with his apparatus," Grover added. - -The most interesting point to Roger was the fact that nothing new had -occurred in their mysteries. - -"I guess everything is settled," Roger declared. "With the Eye in its -place, there isn't any more danger for Doctor Ryder, and I saw Mr. Clark -exchange the one he had for it, and even helped. - -"The big jewel was in a sort of depressed place, with prongs to hold -it," he reconstructed the event, "and we found a way to make the prongs -loosen, by working out that the gem had to be put in, and it was too -finely cut to enable them to hammer the prongs down, so we hunted for -some secret springs, and the Buddha image had a finger that could be -bent back, and it turned the prongs outwards, so we substituted the real -gem and then set the prongs, and all was well." - -"I am not satisfied about the business, though," Grover stated. "In the -first place, although we have explained a good deal, and what you say -about replacing the gem is true, some of the manifestations we -experienced are sticking in the back of my head. They seemed so--so 'out -of character' with what Tibetans, or gem thieves either, would have -done." - -"But if the gem is replaced and there isn't any more need for the -'manifestations,' we won't have any more, and we can forget the whole -thing." - -Grover smiled. - -"Suppose that a series of experiments were going forward to find a more -durable resistance wire for rheostats," he suggested, "and the firm that -commissioned us said to drop it, how would you want to do?" - -"The same as you always do in such a case, Grover. Go through with it. I -see your idea." - -The sound of the Voice of Doom, he asserted, was explained. There really -had been such a natural phenomenon, caused by wind let into a tunnel and -making the sounds through the shape like a whistle in the tunnel and in -the Buddha image. - -"But how did it get on the records?" - -Roger was equally unable to answer that. - -"Besides," Grover insisted, "those priests are curious folk. You saw the -gem replaced, and to white people that would end the need for stalking a -culprit; but they seem bent on punishing people." - -"'Seem'?" Roger caught the present tense. - -"Why, your own letter says so." - -"My--which letter?" - -"The last one you wrote. It came yesterday." - -Grover drew from the drawer an envelope postmarked, as Roger saw, from -Bombay. They had come on down the caravan trails, until they had met an -English airplane that had been arranged for. It had "set down" on the -plain. In that they had flown to India, leaving their stuff to be -brought along by the next caravan and shipped home. - -The address seemed very like his own handwriting--close enough to have -fooled Grover, evidently. - -And yet--he had been on a packet boat, bound for Europe, on the day -shown by the postmark. - -Quickly, startled, he opened the letter. In the same close imitation of -his exact, clear script, he read: - - Bombay, before sailing. - - Dear Grover, - - Well, we are homeward bound now. At the cost of a radio and camera - left in the Lamasery of the Holiest Ones, I abandoned them. So far, no - event has come from my visit there. But of course with the Eye of Om - stolen, the Guardians of the Eye may strike. In haste, to catch the - mail, I am, - - Affectionately, - Your cousin. - -Roger looked up. - -"But the Eye of Om was replaced! I helped." - -"Then why did you write?----" - -"I was on a boat when that letter was posted, Grover!" - -He bent forward, earnest and eager. - -"Who?--And the Eye was _not_ sto----" - -His lips closed. His face changed. - -He remembered something. - -It was unjust to let it mean anything. But---- - -Why had Potiphar Potts gone back to that secret tunnel? - - - - - Chapter 19 - DISQUIETING DEDUCTIONS - - -Of all his loyal staff, most dependable, sincere and trustworthy was the -handy man, Potiphar Potts. Roger knew that. - -Honesty compelled him, all the same, to connect the fact stated in that -mystifying letter with a fact that had not been important when it had -come to him. - -Potts, on that memorable night, holding the ponies while Roger had gone -to Clark, had, as they discovered on their safe return, gone on into the -camp. - -When they had gotten back, to report to Doctor Ryder the substitution -for the false Eye of the one they had brought, Potts had seemed uneasy, -though Roger had accepted the man's own explanation. - -"I'm worried about our idea of you leaving the wedge in the thing that -works the rock door," he had said, "it sounded good when we made the -plan. If we wedged the mechanical levers, we said, they couldn't get out -that way and chase us or anything." - -Roger said he still thought it a sound idea. - -"I don't, now," Tip had declared. "They may not go in at the temple to -see about us for days, and what difference would it make whether the -lower end is blocked if they did come down that way? They'd go back, mad -as hornets, and we _would_ be in for it!" - -If they had left everything as before, Potts had insisted, anyone using -the lower entrance would suspect nothing, and might not even know they -had come out that way. - -"I'm going back and fix it the way we found it," he had said. - -Loyal, honest, faithful Tip! Why, Roger wondered, did his mind persist -in telling him that Potts had stayed away from camp a long time and why -did he associate that with the present threat? - -Truly enough, he _had_ actually seen--helped replace--that gem. With -equal sureness, the note said that the gem was gone. It was no trick of -deduction to assume that the note had been prepared by the lamas, soon -after he had escaped. They had shown how clever they were at pretending -to be able to read his mind, telling about the lab. - -He recalled that he had kept a record in a booklet, of radio -conversations from his portable set in the lamasery to the camp set. - -They had specimens of his handwriting. A clever man, forging for the -purpose of conveying a threat, perhaps planning some harm to Roger on -the trip home, had certainly, to all appearances, made the note. - -Well, his mind ran on, if they had been so sure that the gem was gone, -and if they had supposed that in vanishing he and Potts had taken it, -the note would be their natural Tibetan way to account to Grover for -anything that might have happened to Roger later. - -Nothing had; but the note had been despatched, with the probable -knowledge that the letter, by mail, might get a faster trip, a more -direct route than the travelers might use. It had been so. - -Who besides Potts could have known that the genuine gem was in its -place? - -Not the camp people; and they did not know the secret of the tunnel. - -Neither Clark nor Doctor Ryder had left camp for any protracted period. - -"But," Roger remonstrated with his stubborn idea, "if Tip had been -tempted to take it, the Eye of Om was available all the way there." - -His prodding deduction shook that off. Potts would not have dared to try -for it on the way to the temple. But--after it was supposed to be in -place, so that his party would not know of its abstraction!----Roger -fought, but so did his insistent suspicion. - -He decided not to tell Grover. - -"I--I hesitated because--well, it came to me that somebody else _could_ -have taken it, later. We got away from that locality as fast as we -could, and met the 'plane the next day, after I had radioed our agreed -signal to a British aviation field in India to despatch it." - -"We can find out something by photographing the fingerprints on the -note, and so on, with routine procedure," Grover dismissed Roger's -poorly explained hesitation. "Suppose you let Tip do it." - -Roger agreed eagerly. - -A fine way that would be to see Tip's reaction. - -Roger took him the note with Grover's orders. - -"Gone? The Eye--gone?" - -Surprise seemed genuine. And Tip--Roger felt sure--was too slow of wit -to act so cleverly as to seem innocent under this surprise. - -"Glory-to-Grandma!" Potts gasped, "And--I--went back----" - -"But you wouldn't take it!" - -Potts made a wry face. - -"Maybe--maybe--" he seemed to find it hard to go on; but he forced his -lips to form the sounds sent up by his vocal chords. - -"I declare, Rog', if I took the Eye, I didn't mean to." - -"If you took it--how could you help meaning to?" - -"I picked up what I thought was the subterfuge----" - -"Substitute?" - -"Yes. Thrown away by Clark, I supposed. Like Toby done before." - -"Where is it?" - -"I--uh--why--tell truth, Rog', I--I thrown it away. Back in Bombay. I -figured it wasn't a safe idea to keep it, after all." - -So there it stood! - - - - - Chapter 20 - GHOST VOICES - - -Roger's mind was more at ease. He had seen Mr. Clark pocket the gem for -which they substituted their Eye of Aum. Outside the rock door as they -emerged from the fissure leading down from the temple, he had seen the -man's hand pull it from his pocket and fling it away. - -"That's no good," the jeweler helping Doctor Ryder had chuckled. - -Definitely, in Roger's mind, Potts had found that cast-away imitation. -He had not gone back through the tunnel! - -"Exonerated," he said, cheerfully, and they brushed a finely pulverized -compound over the note, seeking to bring into relief the possible -finger-prints thereon. Several faint smudges showed, and Potts made a -photographic exposure, also using chemicals, with other takes, to bring -up possible marks, erasures and so on. - -Roger left him at his work, at a call from Astrovox, the scientific -student of planetary vibration who had been a side-show astrologer. - -Joining the plump, bald-headed little man, close to sixty, whose -deep-set, shaggy-browed blue eyes twinkled with inward cheerfulness, -Roger helped him rig up his seemingly crazy idea of a -vibra-spectra-telegraph-o-scope. - -That was what Roger mentally named it. The man wanted to catch the -possible vibrations of higher and lower frequencies than light range. He -also wished the various colors showing in a star ray to tell whatever -spectrum bands it might contain. Besides, he had to hold this apparatus -trained on a desired planet or star, by use of a mechanical movement -that enabled him, through a transit's hairlike "sight" to follow a star -as the earth revolved. Furthermore, he wished photographs and a sort of -seismographic tape recording of vibration frequencies. - -The nine-power telescope he had to be satisfied with was set up to poke -its outer lens up through the skylight over the supply room. - -All around the smaller, adjoining, partitioned place formerly made -notable because of the vanishing rats and the strange voices, he had -cages of mice, squirrels and rabbits, under rays from electrical, and -other forms of vibration. In hot-house "frames" or small beds under -glass he kept living plants, with color-filters straining the light -playing on them, to test reaction to heat, light and color. - -One bed, under a brownish glass, Roger noticed, had thin, stringy, -sickly vegetation in it. In one under a short-wave irradiation -treatment, plants thrived. - -In tiny flat, glass-protected trays, specimens of cell-cultures in -tubes, and sections of living plant tissue were being exposed. - -"Guess we'll have to clean out the far corner," Astrovox suggested, "I -dumped all the wrappings there. Might start a fire." - -Approaching to help, he finished his sentence with a chuckle. - -Roger nodded, and gathered up the papers, making a fine rattle in the -process. - -A glow-bulb lighted in the interconnected tell-tale panel as a small -bell rang. Roger, glancing at the panel, saw that the summons was from -the electrical division downstairs. He went to the head of the steps. - -"Want me?" - -"Yes," answered the voice of Professor Millman, electrical engineer. -"We're going to make a flat-table recording. I don't just see where we -get power for the motor from." - -"Right down close under the recording machine table," Roger called down -his information. "You'll see an outlet set into the floor." - -"Oh--thanks, yes. I see." - -Roger went back to help Astrovox. - -"Can't risk it, with all the chemicals, and combustible stuff," he -answered the former phrases of the old astrologer. - -"Not with Neptune, the planet, in opposition to Saturn and with Mars -opposing Uranus," the old man chuckled. - -Roger looked as if he did not see the point. - -"In our belief that the planetary positions influence chemical -reactions--and all life is chemical, or, at least electro-chemical," he -was told, "we use the known planets as symbols for forces of nature. -Saturn, you might say, stands for cohesion--or, better, say for -crystallization, because Saturn makes gravity possible, makes density in -our earth by cohering its quintrillions of atoms. - -"Mars we could say is a symbol for the combustion engendered by fire, -the same as Uranus is, in a way, a symbol of explosiveness, and Neptune -seems to represent a sort of disintegration, diffusion and slow -separation of atoms, not by explosion but by attrition." - -To Roger it was all pretty much like Egyptian hieroglyphics but the man -seemed to be talking what he considered sensible phrases. - -"Let us say that we place a pellet of putty between two machines, one -engendering a force like repulsion; the other giving quick, and very -high-frequency stabs of current toward the other. The answer might be -that the pellet would explode or fly into its atoms. - -"But," the old man went on, "The force of cohesion would hold our earth -together in such an experiment, though the volume or size of the tiny -pellet would be too little for it to act on sufficiently to keep the -form together. That, in a way, is what so many people misunderstand when -they talk about astrology. Properly used, correctly interpreted, it -enables us to understand our reactions--emotions----" - -Roger was in the next room, loading the papers on the dumb-waiter to -send to the cellar. As he came back, gathering up more, Astrovox, as if -he had ranted along on his favorite topic without ceasing, said: - -"--fire." He stood up. "Where were you? I was telling about Mars and -Uranus exploding things and starting fires." - -"I have to work." - -"Yes, that's so. Well, this is your last load." - -Roger gathered the great heap of heavy wrapping paper, and left him -shifting one bed of plants from under a deep ruby glass so that they -would be exposed to a pale green color filtration. - -Going down to remove the papers from the dumb-waiter, Roger saw Mr. -Millman finish recording the multitude of gyrations of a sparking motor -shaft which Mr. Ellison was photographing with his camera. - -"We are going to count the sparks," he told Roger, "just to check up on -the speedometer attached to the flywheel, which Millman says is -off-count by hundreds of revolutions to the minute." - -"I'll take the record up and have it made ready for a slow playback. I'm -going up anyway." - -He turned it over to Potts as the note had been thoroughly revealed in -all his exposures, and had shown no identifying finger-marks. - -Roger went back to Astrovox, and became deeply interested in the -latter's plans for night study of the spectra of stars. - -"I wonder if your cousin would arrange for one of his men to stay part -of the night with me, to take down my data?" - -"We can set up a dictograph, and let you talk it onto a record." - -"That would do." - -"Or--we could mike down from here to one of our magazine-recorders that -puts a new record on the spindle of the turntable when the other has -been used up. That would run you for hours, if you'd stop it in between -dictating periods." - -The thing was arranged and Roger, before going home, demonstrated the -mechanism and was sure the old man understood its operation. - -Because of the threat implied in the forged note, Grover gave Potts -instructions to transfer from Doctor Ryder's rooms the mechanisms he -wanted to have installed for Roger's protection. With a changed switch -operated only from inside the room, the former ease of operation by -others, he thought, was eliminated. - -Roger, tired by celebration and resuming work, retired early, being sure -that his switch was set, his room theoretically a sealed place. - -Sleep came. Rest, though was disturbed by weird dreams. - -Sometimes, he knew, dreams had outward causes stimulating them, as -happens if a draft on exposed limbs makes one dream of riding on a sled -and falling into a snow bank in howling wind. - -His dream of a burglar, as he awakened and looked rather fearfully -around, made him grin, though. - -That room had been sealed by no one other than himself! - -But a low, humming whine made him certain that machinery was in -operation--the hum of the recorder motor. He located it. Proved it. -Shutting off the device in case some jar had started it, he went to test -his door. But he recalled that the motor still ran. - -To his dismay, the door was not merely unsealed. It stood ajar. - -Suddenly, startlingly, from behind him, his table radio spoke, in a -thin, strained, bizarre cry. - -"Fire!" and he heard, faintly, the crackle of flames. - -Then an uncanny silence, dreadful by contrast, came. - -He spied around the hall. It, too, was silent. He tiptoed down to the -library, telephoned the laboratory, and got no reply. - -Once again--something was wrong--in two places! He must go to that -laboratory. Grover should have answered--or Tip--or Astrovox! - - - - - Chapter 21 - TRAGEDY! - - -Half way to the laboratory, Roger pulled up in his stride, half ready to -laugh at his stupidity. A joke? Of course. - -Potts, on Grover's instructions, had made the room installation. To "get -back" at his chum for the suspicion about the Eye of Om, the handy man -could have made that "Fire" cry on a record, could have known how to -break a light beam. He, alone, could have prepared the impregnable place -so that it might be entered, it seemed to Roger. - -A recording, he also knew, was the other end of a reproduction. To print -a sound-track on a disk, one used a microphone; its diaphragm sent -vibrations through a selenium cell and other apparatus until it actuated -the recording diamond: to play it back, the process was reversed. - -The use of the diamond, instead of a smooth reproducing needle on a -hardened surface, _could_ cause that high, thin, scratchy voice. - -"But Cousin Grover was not at home," his mind prompted, "and the door -was open, and the light would not work. The lab. telephone was dead, -too!" - -Perhaps Potts had tried a joke; but it seemed as if it had turned into a -warning, a summons; because, when he reached the building, the door was -not secured, no protective beam had been set; and in the main office, he -smelt the sharp, acrid odor of burned powder. - -A gun must have been fired in there, he reasoned. By whom? For what? His -mind raced to terrifying impressions. Explosion! Shot! - -The place was jet-dark. As he investigated he decided that odor was -strongest close to the interviewing desk, pungent enough to choke him. - -Into the larger main room he made his way, finding the powder odor was -less strong beyond the main office as he switched on lights and took -broader observations. - -On the large desk used for interviewing visitors he saw that the framed -photograph of his aunt, Grover's sister, had been knocked down, and lay -on its face. An inkwell, in a pool of black on the floor beyond the -desk, was shattered into large fragments, and tiny bits. - -He stood still, and shouted. - -"Tip! Tip! Potiphar Potts! Tip!" - -Getting no answer he raced across the chemical section to the man's -small quarters. - -The bed had been used, its covers had been thrown back, as if in haste. - -No Potts, as once before, stood tied to the bedpost. - -The room was empty. - -He shouted for Astrovox, feeling a strange desire to laugh at the sound -of the name when it was shouted. "Astro--_vox!_" - -He called for his cousin. - -Then, with every light going, in spite of queer terrors, Roger made a -thorough search of the lower floor. - -That brought no result. Nothing seemed to have been moved and as far as -he could tell the safe was all right and the device that now made it -sink into a channel in the cellar, so that a steel plate could slide -over and make it impregnable, seemed to be in working condition. - -Reluctantly, forcing his dragging feet, he crept upstairs. - -No one was in sight. The old star-gazer was gone also! - -Roger stood, uncertainly glancing around. - -Had this been tragedy? A shot? At whom? Where were the rest? - -Of a sudden the threat in the note became his uppermost thought. Had -someone--or something!--drawn the rest away, and lured _him_ there? - -Roger, nervously, glanced around him. - -The innocent squirrels and rabbits and mice curled up in their temporary -respite from the ray-baths. The machines set up earlier hummed quietly, -recording, slowly moving the telescope, casting spectra of a star's -light in bands of greenish-brown, yellow and indigo on a flat -paper-table. Everything seemed innocent enough. - -But where, he mused, had the scientific star-student gone to? - -Where was Cousin Grover? And, above all, where was Tip, one out of all -of them who ought to have been on duty, if not asleep. - -Roger glanced up at the clock. - -Not five, but two, was the hour toward which the smaller hand was -dropping as the minute hand marked the quarter-of. - -It _had_ been "fire" that his record had screeched at him. - -But there was no fire here! - -Roger began to feel somewhat like a person flying in an airplane for the -first time, seeing everything else swinging beneath him, and feeling no -movement himself. - -It made him sickish. - -"Am I out of my mind?" he asked himself. "Is this a dream?" - -There must be some loose end of this amazing situation that he could get -hold of, to reel in the story and steady his rapidly failing sense of -reality. - -The sound-camera! It had been running perhaps, till its roll of non-flam -film was done. It might tell him something. - -Feverishly he got pyro, acid and the sodas into the developing water. He -did not stop even for distilled water but took tap fluid. - -He immersed the hurriedly rubber-wrapped celluloid. - -As it stayed the required fifteen or eighteen minutes, he went over the -lab. again, finding no more than before. - -He took out the roll, dipped it into hypo-acid fixing solution, and -impatiently watched its opaque yellowish high-lights slowly dissolve and -lose the un-needed silver salts, to clear into transparency as grays and -blacks became more evident. - -Hastily washing the film, he unreeled an end, held it up under a light, -to see if the sound-track at one side carried any shadows. - -There was a recording! - -Feverishly, forgetting his terrors, he raced to the projector in the -screening room. Carefully in spite of haste he threaded the wet "stock" -over the sprocket, down through the film gate, over another sprocket and -clipped the end to the take-up reel. He snapped on the light. - -At proper speed, and sorry that he must harm the wet emulsion, but eager -to hear its story, he ran his find. - -The picture was that of the upper room, narrowed down onto the various -activities of the old star-reader. The first was a take of his rabbits -as they scampered about under a change of ray-lamps. - -Then came the brief time-exposures of tabulations, preserved thus. - -But nowhere, except for natural sounds, the squeak of mice when a -movement of a high-frequency ray cast it upon them--the chatter of the -squirrels--ordinary lab. sounds of moving feet and muttered words by the -old man, did Roger hear what he sought--enlightenment. - -He was near the end of the reel, about to give up, when his ears sent a -message that snapped his muscles into taut tension. - -"Hear me. I am The Voice of Doom!" - -He saw, in the picture, the astrologer wheel and stare. He saw him turn -and run out of view. - -Then, with scream subsiding in moan, the Voice of Doom repeated its -earlier moaning, ending in the grind and sudden cessation. - -The film, unnoticed, ran out of the gate, and the magazine clicked to -the slap of its still revolving free end. - -Roger let it run on. He had discovered a strange clue! - -Once coming from a deserted room, and once spoken on a record that had -been considered blank, and then a third time from a record that had been -set to catch sound in Doctor Ryder's home, had come that same Voice of -Doom, the identical moaning and grating. - -In reality, in the heart of Tibet, Roger had also heard that sound. - -And in Tibet, the rock that cut off the sound had made no noise as its -counterweight allowed it to shut out the wind that made the moans as it -howled across the Himalayas and up through tunnel and whistling Buddha's -hollow cavities! - -Even as he made his startling realization, Roger heard a bell. - -It came from the office telephone. - -He dashed down the stairs, cutting out the projector as he ran by. - -"Hello!----" - -A voice came, thin with distance. - -"That you, Rog'?" - -"Yes. Tip--at the lab. Where are you?" - -"Hunting Grover." - -"Where did he go?" - -"To find the star-man." - -"And why did he leave?" - -"He was--took!" - -"Do you--does Grover--think he was--was in danger--hurt?" - -"We don't know. You stay there. I'll keep in touch." - -The connection broke off sharply. - -From behind him a voice addressed Roger. - -"Follow me--and be silent!" - -There stood the Lama from the Tibetan lamasery. Two others, also. - -Wordless, helpless, Roger moved: they closed in behind him. - -The night swallowed the quartet. - - - - - Chapter 22 - WHAT HAPPENED TO THE EYE OF OM - - -They allowed Roger to lock up the laboratory; but he had not been -permitted to re-set the rays or other protective devices. - -That did not concern him overmuch. Roger knew that the safe protection -was a separate circuit from those he had cut out when he had unfastened -the door on arriving. Besides, he told himself triumphantly, he had -recalled the camera fixed in the small decorative panel over the -interviewing chair, so arranged that it would photograph a short time -exposure of the office and of anyone there. Used to make records of -visitors on their arrival with new propositions, as well as a night -protection and recorder for the office, it had been operated by Roger, -with good presence of mind, when his captors had entered. - -Whoever came there later would be able to develop the picture he had -left recorded. He had not used the continuous mechanism, but his one -photograph would reveal him and the Tibetan trio. - -A taxi, taking them to some unknown district, was further cause for -triumph. The taxi, from a nearby stand, had been used before by the -laboratory people. Its driver knew him, though he gave no sign. - -Roger meant to act in such a way that the man, discharging his fare and -being paid, would suspect something wrong, return to the laboratory, or -consult the police. - -At a quiet, small hotel, the machine stopped. Roger, with hands clasped -behind his back, made gestures; waggling his fingers to attract the -taximan's notice, then touching himself and clenching his fist. - -"Thanks, feller," the man took his fare, and added, to show Roger he was -"wise," "That science place brought me a good tip. Guess I better go -back and see about more good fares there." - -Instead of causing a commotion as they passed the drowsy office clerk, -Roger let things stand as they were, and was taken up to a quiet suite -where the two guards placidly watched him while the Lama telephoned from -another room. - -After a while, returning, the man ushered in--Grover. - -"How did you come here?" cried Roger. - -"So they got you." - -"But you shouldn't----" - -"I didn't exactly walk into a trap, Roger. The Chief of Police knows -where I came in answer to a note handed me while I was trying to trace -Astrovox. If I do not telephone within an hour, somebody will come to -see what's what." - -He explained what Roger had not known (after hearing the strange events -of the opened door, the screeching table radio and seeing the -smoke-filled office). - -"I stayed to watch Astrovox make spectra-graphs of color bands," Grover -explained, "sending Tip here to be on guard. An excited call seeming to -come from him brought me to the house just as a note he got started him -to the laboratory. We passed, not knowing. I found your safeguards -apparently working, and returned. Potts was trying to reassure the -star-gazer who had heard that Voice of Doom. But Tip was frightened -also. We sent the astrologer to lie down on Tip's bed, while we -investigated. He came back to us after a few minutes saying he was too -much upset to stay there. He thought the Tibetans had involved him in -some manner." - -Tip, it appeared, had agreed to go along to be sure the man got going -and reached home safely. - -Tip had bidden him wait, in the chemical section, while he went to his -own room to get a weapon for safety's sake. - -"I suppose he must have heard something or started into the office, -Roger. At any rate, suddenly, we heard the shot. I was down those stairs -in a bound, and beat Tip by ten feet getting in where the smoke still -hung in the air." - -"It was strong when I got there." - -"But the office was empty. I told Potts to stay, and ran out. A man, -strolling, had stopped. I asked if he had seen a man go out and he -pointed up the street, and like most of those night-prowlers he tried to -avoid the light and hid his face with his hat brim. He was fairly short -and stoutish, but it wasn't Astrovox. I ran, and thought I saw the -star-gazer further along; but it was not our man. I suppose Tip, -worried, came to look for me. You say the wires were silent." - -He was stopped by the arrival of Tip who had been lured, as he had, by a -note delivered by a boy; and almost on his heels came Clark and Doctor -Ryder, fuming and puzzled and anxious. - -They were given no time to exchange words. The Lama spoke: - -"We want the sacred relic, the Eye of Om." - -"It is in the Buddha's head," Roger said earnestly, "I saw this man put -it there." - -"He tells the truth," Clark declared. - -"To prove it," Roger hurried on, "the prongs work open when you press -the Buddha's third left finger straight in and then back." - -The Lama stared. - -"And to furthermore prove it and make it inadmissible----" - -"Incontrovertible, Tip means," said Grover. - -"--I went back, later, to take wedges out of the lower lever, after we -beat your trick tunnel, and picked up the Imitation that Rog' tells me -Mister Clark throwed away. I carried it as far as Bombay, and figured it -wasn't worth anything anyhow, so I left it in the waste-basket in the -hotel room." - -The Tibetan lama stared at him sternly. - -"That was but an imitation. It was the one taken _out_ that I demand, -from the boy who must know where it is." - -"But--I tell you!" Roger was earnest, "I saw Mister Clark exchange the -false one. And he dropped the one taken out into his coat, and when we -got out of the tunnel and closed the rock, he threw it away, saying it -wasn't any use. Tip, here, found that!" - -The lama shook his head. - -"The Eye of Om is not in its socket!" - -A sudden thought came to Mr. Clark. With a cry of dismay he told them -his startling idea. - -"It must be that in the excitement, meaning to exchange the imitation -for the real--to put back what rightfully belonged there and protect my -friend, Doctor Ryder, I must have mixed the gems, and instead of -replacing the false one with the real one, I must have put the false one -back, and really threw away the true Eye." - -"Then--I throwed it away in Bombay." - -The lama considered the statement made by Tip. - -"If any of you speak falsely," he said, slowly, "you who speak so shall -hear the Voice of Doom and shall feel the Wrath of the Hand of Doom." - -With that threat he bade them depart. - - - - - Chapter 23 - THE ACID TEST - - -"Oh, no you don't," Grover spoke for the first time during the -interview, "there is a matter of a vanished scientific student of the -stars, a shot prior to his disappearance, and other things." - -The lama turned toward his aides. - -Grover, as Roger and Potts sidled close, smiled. - -"An hour and ten minutes has elapsed since I arrived," he remarked, -pleasantly, cool and slightly triumphant, "I would not be -surprised--yes, there they are." - -The police car, sent by the Chief of Police, brought two patrolmen and -as a frightened clerk ushered them in, the lama shrugged. - -Captor became prisoner, and with his pair of native aides, the lama was -taken to the laboratory by the interested officers. - -There, as Grover's car discharged its crowd of former captives, Roger -was able to reward the taximan who had faithfully read his signal and -who was waiting with a patrolman to be assured that all was well there -before going to the address the taximan had noted. - -"I knew this joint was lucky," the taximan chuckled, pocketing a -pleasing tip, "Hope all stays well--but if it doesn't--I'll be handy." - -While Tip was sent to develop camera films from various devices which -had been set off during the exciting developments, Roger was busy -assembling the ingredients for an experiment which Grover meant to -conduct, in order to learn which of the people there had held the pistol -that might have harmed old Astrovox--that had certainly been fired in -the office. - -To their surprise as they brought together the necessary chemicals and -Roger got out plaster-of-Paris from his stock-room, with highly refined -paraffin, the star electrician, Ellison, arrived. - -"What brings you here at five in the morning?" Grover stared at him with -a degree of suspicion. - -"I have been working out theories about our queer situation," declared -the electrical specialist, "I could not sleep, because Clark had told me -all about his experiences with Roger in Tibet, and I was of the opinion -that Roger might be in danger." - -"I told him how they had captured you," Clark said, as Roger recalled -that they had worked together in India on power-construction, so that -there was nothing to fix suspicion on them in thus having a reunion -after Clark's return. - -"I went to your home," he told Grover. "Roger's room was open, his aunt -was greatly disturbed because you were also absent." - -Naturally, he had come to the laboratory. - -While he softened the paraffin, Roger told him their adventures. - -"Now," Grover told the absorbed patrolmen, and a detective who had come, -by Police Chief's order, from Headquarters, "here is a dodge that some -police departments have tried, and it will interest you." - -Roger assembled on the interviewing desk his heater for a great lot of -the wax, held in a crucible over the electric stove. In a large glass -container he mixed, according to a formula dictated by Grover, nitric -acid and other chemicals, which discretion suggests should not be -mentioned here. - -"The purpose of this experiment," Grover said, "is to learn which hand, -if any among us, held, and discharged the weapon. That seems to be the -simplest way to narrow down investigation. Once we know our culprit, he -must reveal where Astrovox is, what happened." - -The very modern experiment, the police saw, was based on the fact that -the charges used in modern pistol projectiles form, during combustion, -gases which leave marks on any hand discharging the bullet. - -Grover explained his procedure. - -"The gases blow back sufficiently to mark the hand," he stated. "If our -test is made within five days after such an occurrence, the test will -reveal it. - -"I will be first. Roger will take the wax, properly softened, and at a -temperature around one hundred and fifteen degrees, Fahrenheit, not hot -enough to scald, will pour it over and will mould it around my hand." - -Roger carried out the action as it was described. - -"The paraffin, now cooling, at a point where it is hard enough to hold -its shape, is taken off." - -This, also, Roger carried out carefully, securing a sort of cast with -the shape of the hand moulded inside it. - -This, as Grover talked, Roger carefully placed in the chemical solution, -and they all watched in absorbed attentiveness. - -"If my hand has discharged any weapon or in any other way has gotten the -peculiar gases of powder combustion on it, within the past five days, -the acid and solution will bring up the stains as bluish discolorations -on the wax." - -No such spots appeared. - -Although a tedious operation to carry out for the Tibetan trio, and -then, by their own insistence, for Doctor Ryder, Clark, Tip and Roger, -the results in each case held them in suspense until there was clear -exoneration of all. - -"But Ellison hasn't submitted yet," said Tip, suddenly. - -"Because I have handled chemicals in my work that may come out in the -reaction," Ellison frowned. - -Nevertheless, though he declared that his work had brought out the -stains that showed as small blue spots and smears within his mould, -everybody felt that he ought to know what he declared he did not--where -was the star-scientist? - - - - - Chapter 24 - AN IMPOSSIBLE CAMERA "SHOT" - - -Grilled by the detective and the policemen, Ellison stubbornly protested -his ignorance of the whereabouts of the former astrologer. - -He could not establish an "alibi" further than his recent call at -Grover's home which the excited sister of the laboratory head was eager -to verify. - -Roger, finally, decided that there was one sure and final word to be -said by chemistry. If, as Ellison insisted, other chemicals than actual -burning gas caused the inside of the paraffin moulds to discolor, the -special tests for the chemicals he might name would say if Ellison was -truthful or not--a sort of chemical "Lie Detector," Roger confided to -Potts as they prepared for the experiments. - -To their amazement, Ellison was proved honest. The tests gave a reaction -for the very chemical he named. - -The Tibetans, of course, had to be released. They were warned, and -departed. - -With the experiments done, the materials removed and no gain, Tip -brought up the curious situation revealed by developing the office -camera film and others. - -"Here is the picture that Roger said he had it take," Tip displayed, to -the group assembled in the screening room, one "frame" of the non-flam -film. - -There were the Three, the Tibetan group, confronting Roger as his hand, -on the edge of the desk, disclosed his clever use of the "take" to leave -evidence of his capture. - -"Now--study this out if you can!" Tip called out from behind the -projector. - -He shifted the sprocket-turning handle to bring up the next picture. - -"That's the office, what you can see through the smoke," Tip declared, -"and the smoke comes from behind the desk, and so of course the man -standing there has got his back to the lens, and all we have got to go -on is his coat and his hair." - -He readjusted the "framing handle" to bring the picture into even more -exact alignment with the aperture plate of his projector, so that on the -screen every part showed. - -"Now, study that! There is old Astrovox, scared looking. He is facing -the big smudge of smoke from the pistol. - -"But what gets me," Tip finished, "is that the whole big puff of smoke -is still hanging in the air, and the man facing it is just hit--or else -his face is contractuated----" - -"Contorted," cried Roger. "Skip big words and say your say." - -"Or else his face is contorted by being awful sure he has been hit." - -He focused more sharply. - -"You can see him clear enough to know Astrovox didn't fire no gun. The -smoke is between him and the guy with his back to us. But--just look. -His hands rest both of 'em on the desk edge. That's how he hit against -the button in the desk edge that snapped his picture. - -"Now--where is any gun?" - -"He couldn't have dropped it, and have gotten his hands back onto the -desk before the smoke puff would have begun to shift," exclaimed a -policeman. "Look." He drew out his service weapon, aimed into a corner -where his bullet would show little and its mark could be wiped out with -putty and paint, and fired. - -The smoke, with his own movements, revealed disturbances almost as it -left the mouth of his weapon; and before he could drop it, the smoke -shifted. More! The pistol, falling, cut a swath in the pall. - -"There's no gun. And no one is hiding. The smoke is in front of that man -and between him and Astrovox," the detective agreed. - -"It's impossible," Potts exclaimed, "A camera can't take a picture of a -shot and leave out the gun." - -"Chemicals," prompted Grover, "could make the smudge." - -"Then how about this?" - -Potts had another film spliced onto the first one. He reeled it in at -regular motion picture speed, and out of the speakers came the strange -and abrupt recording of a loud, sharp, detonating sound, as near to the -discharge of a pistol as any of them had heard. - -Taken away by the ventilating system, the smoke of the police shot was -out of the way, the screen was clear to all, and they saw that the -camera had recorded light from the direction of the office, an abrupt -flash. With it, the detonation. - -"Kangaroos and apes dancin' on a film where none could be," Tip summed -up, baffled, "and now--a gunshot where the camera shows us there can't -be any gun." - -Even Grover, usually calm, looked disconcerted, and yet a little bit -excited. - -"Maybe," he declared, and turned to Roger, "but here is one more 'sound' -to add to your list. And I feel sure that out of that list, either as it -is, or when you complete it up to date, will come the hint that will -enable me to clear up everything." - -Over-confidence? - -Roger hoped not. - - - - - Chapter 25 - SCORE ONE FOR THE MYSTERY WIZARD - - -Grover stood up. His eyes were bright with some inner fire as he walked -forward, turned and faced his attentive audience. - -"You have overlooked a number of points shown in that picture," began -the laboratory Chief. - -"In the first place, assuming that a shot had been fired, you see that -there is no inkwell on the desk and that the picture of my sister has -been knocked over or has fallen over." - -"You mean, the shot was fired from another direction, and not by the man -whose back is turned." The detective spoke. - -"Can you see any other explanation for the disclosed conditions?" - -"The inkwell was in a pool of ink on the floor when I got here," said -Roger, excitedly, "and the picture of Auntie was on its face." - -"The shot was fired from a gun behind Astrovox," said Potts. - -"No," Grover corrected him, "because the smoke is closer to the other -man than to Astrovox. In fact, it is up around his side of the desk." - -"But his hands----" - -"He did not fire a gun," answering the policeman, Grover clarified his -deduction. "But--think! Where in that office could a man be, and not -have the camera register his presence? Granting that he could lift the -gun above his head and still keep it out of sight of the lens." - -"Can't be," cried Potts. - -"Can." Roger almost shouted in his interest. "He could crouch on the -side of the desk _toward_ Astrovox, and shoot at the man behind the -desk, and the puff of smoke would shoot out toward the man." - -"Yes," Grover agreed, but suddenly he jumped as his nerves reacted to a -new idea. - -"But--wait! A gun at that angle could not discharge a bullet to smash -the inkwell." - -They stared, and then admitted his sensible reasoning. - -"Back where we started," growled the detective. - -"It is a 'composite' picture, perhaps," said Ellison. "You know--one -part taken at one time, another exposed elsewhere, or at another time." - -"Possible, not probable," volunteered Doctor Ryder. "In -double-exposures, wouldn't the smoke be--I don't know the phrase----" - -"Not in register," cried Roger. "It can't be double- or triple-exposed. -Everything is all together, the smoke over the desk, and the men -properly distinct." - -"It just must be some trick picture," argued Ellison. - -"Did no other camera operated by some one having entered--they all ran -for three minutes--did none have the shot recorded?" asked Grover, and -Potts displayed films. - -"They all did. Some fainter." - -"We can test for distance, with a sort of applause-volume machine," -suggested Ellison. - -"But, first, let us come back to Astrovox," urged Grover. "He is gone. -Why? How? Did the man at the desk take him?" He turned and scanned the -groups intently. "The fellow with his back turned has your shoulders, -Ellison." - -"But not my suit." - -"You could change suits." - -"You certainly want to 'pin it on' me." - -"We want to find Astrovox." - -The electrician made a grunting sound. - -"I can't help, there." - -Grover, though, did not pursue the argument. He seemed buried in -meditation. - -"Here is something we overlooked, too." He spoke slowly, searching for -hints in his own inner processes. "Look at the smoke. The light in that -office, according to the picture itself, was the overhead dome. Now, -with that small actinic quality, the camera with a daylight type of -film, would have recorded only in exposures amounting to at least a -second. It _would_ have been possible for the man to have fired, dropped -the gun. Possibly if he snatched it up and let it drop--no. The flash -would have been filmed! Let's work at this! - -"Notice--the edge of the smoke is duller, less distinct, but the lower -part of the smudge is thick and dense, as though--the smoke had been -settling during the exposure." - -"So, where does that get us?" asked Ellison. - -"To this. The man at the desk is extremely clear. Astrovox is less -distinct, recognizable but still a trifle hazy. We assumed it was the -smoke. It isn't. It is the fact that when he heard the shot, Astrovox -was just outside the doorway. He ran in, too fast to be recorded in that -brief exposure that caught him just pausing. Now, that accounts for the -other camera's proving that a shot was fired. - -"It was fired at the man behind the desk. Then Astrovox ran in, and he -had to be there an appreciable fraction of time to be registered. He got -in just about half-way through the exposure, and his pause imprinted his -image just before the shutter closed. Now--what would have been his -natural, subsequent procedure?" - -Frightened by the past sound of the Voice of Doom, he went on, the man -had been about to leave, and was merely waiting for Potts. - -"He ran in, saw the source of the shot, saw the man crouched under the -desk after his shot had hit the inkwell instead of his mark, the other -man. He turned, and ran. But the man who had crouched would know that he -had been seen, must think the old man ran for help. - -"He went after Astrovox--to silence him!" - -The auditors, spellbound by his train of reasoning, had literally hung -in suspense. - -"The man evidently had a gun," Grover went ahead with his thought, -speaking slowly. "He took only a fraction of time to leap up and pursue. -He would not have let Astrovox get far. - -"Let us search the areaways nearby," he concluded, seriously. - -They scattered, the police officers and the detective organizing the -search. - -It was "score one" for the Mystery Wizard. - -Sound had been his deductions, as events showed. - -Only in one point had he been mistaken. - -The old astrologer had not been shot. His limp body, brought in from its -place within an old packing case across the street, showed that not the -muzzle had been used to make of him a target. The butt of the weapon had -left its mark. - -"Adrenalin--we may bring him back!" shouted Doctor Ryder. - -Potts raced for the nearest drug-store, while the police called an -ambulance. - -"Let me work with him," pleaded Doctor Ryder. - -But Tip did not secure the heart stimulant, so seldom, and yet -occasionally able to restore heart action after it has seemed to cease. - -They took him away, and Grover, stunned at his own accurate deductions, -hopeful that he had reasoned so accurately in time, went too. - -The rest hung around the telephone. - -At last came word. - -"He will probably live!" - - - - - Chapter 26 - ROGER LISTS HIS CLUES - - -During Grover's absence at the hospital, the staff began to arrive. -Until the secretary should come to handle the switchboard Doctor Ryder -volunteered to be monitor on calls, being extremely anxious concerning -the condition of the assaulted star-reader, as were the rest. - -Roger, as Toby Smith with a heavy suitcase arrived, turned over the few -requisitions for stock to his willing assistant. - -He wanted very much to fill up the list of sounds he had begun in the -office before going to Tibet. - -"Suits me fine," Toby agreed, "I got a lot more of Doctor Ryder's what -he calls compounds, that he is going to use to medicate the rats he is -going to replace." - -The members of the staff, trained under the phlegmatic, scientific -methods of Grover, took very little time to discuss conditions. The -routine work of scientific research had to proceed. They made it do so. -Each took up his task. Mr. Zendt, with his new investigations, and the -electricians and other staff men, left the matter that had no bearing on -their results in the hands of those most interested. - -Potts, while Roger located his "sound" list, speculated about the -situation. - -"That Ellison come out on top in the chemistry retroactivities," he -began, and when Roger had substituted "reactions," he proceeded: - -"But are you so sure, Rog'?" - -"Well, the way Grover works, I am not sure and I am not un-sure. I'm -going to dig to the heart of truth. Now, with our clues, we have a lot -of circumstantial evidence-clues; and we have a heap of visible clues; -but I think the audible ones will tell most, just as Grover does." - -"Circumstantial evidence? Such as what?" - -"People being at certain places. Here, maybe, when something happened. -And like Mister Ellison arriving just when we least expected." - -"Then, what about visible ones?" - -"The animals on a film taken in a room with no animals in it. The -actions of people, if we could only read them. The picture in the -office, last night, with a man's back turned, Astrovox scared, and the -smoke." - -"The others--the vocational clues----" - -"Do you mean 'vocal'?" - -"Uh-hum. Them I know most of. But there's ol--olle--something about a -factory----" - -"Olfactory? Clues coming from smells? I think you've got something. The -powder smell, for one." - -"And now, how will we coagulate 'em?" - -He was fond of that word, erroneously used, before--but to him a -discovery. - -"I don't know," Roger admitted, "there must be some link." - -He suggested that inasmuch as the man in the office shot had worn -gloves, as revealed on his outspread hands, no finger prints had been -left when he had inadvertently pressed the desk button. - -"But there might be clues on the floor, if they haven't been tracked up -too much," Roger suggested. "You do some micro-photography while I -revise my list." - -The list he located in their office file, behind the registrations he -had previously looked up to find the clue, as it had seemed, that Zendt, -with Australian experiences, must know about kangaroos, while -Ellison--there he cropped up again! could know, from India work, about -the ape they had seen in the film of the upper room. - -Looking over his list, in the light of what had happened, Roger was -inclined to drop out the seemingly unimportant fact that the case had -begun when both the fire and the protective system alarms had rung. He -felt that it had no discernible connection with his mystery, being so -easily accounted for by the fact that an ape and a kangaroo had -evidently gamboled around in the studio, setting off alarms unwittingly. - -Still, half-hesitant, he left it in, but re-wrote his list, so as to put -what seemed important in order, rather than try to follow the succession -of historical order, as he had done before. - -His list, thus revised and added to, ran this way: - - _Sound_ _Possible Meaning_ - - 1. Frying-grease-like Claws of animal. Radiator valve with steam - clicks and hisses and coming in. A snake, with its scales - pops. rattling. A lizard, like the big Iguanas. - 2. Voice of Doom. Tibetans' trick to frighten. A recording made - in Tibet. - 3. Voice of Doom again. On a record supposed to be new. Query: how - did Tibetans know all about our stock to - substitute? Query, could Ellison have done - it? - 4. Doctor Ryder's talk Voice was his. We thought and he admitted it - with man on record was Mr. Clark he was talking with. Query, - with No. 3. we thought it was to conceal identity that - Mr. Clark wrote; wonder if it was not a - talk with him in room, if he telephoned - instead? Is Mr. Clark completely cleared: - he is a jeweler. - 5. Clicks in headset. Could be so many electrical switch noises or - relays, but why was it so close to hearing - Voice of Doom? - 6. Drip or click in Was just before safe was opened, but was it - dark. the combination being worked by expert who - could tell by sound when tumblers fell - right? Does that make me think of Clark, a - jeweler? Not Tibetans as we had thought - from circumstances. Is Ellison able to work - a combination "by ear"? - 7. Thump or thud sound. Seemed to come in corner of room upstairs - just before I took the film that produced - the animal 'ghosts' after we had heard - Voice of Doom from up there. I wonder how - important it really is, or if it was just - plaster or a film in a can? - 8. A sort of thump on We thought he had been knocked down by a blow - Record when Dr. Ryder with recorder operating. But it turned out - vanished. he had gone away with Clark. Or so Clark - said. Has Clark got some hold over Doctor - Ryder that made him go after a telephone - summons? Was that thump the telephone taken - off hook? Not likely as it would be a click - like what I heard in headset. Do these tell - me anything? - 9. The cry of fire and No fire, and no reason for cry. Wait! It was - crackle of flame on like what old Astrovox said when we were - unused record in my collecting old papers in upper room? Is it - room. possible anybody made a record of it? But - Potts was the only one who was fixing - protection machines in my room. Yes, and - Potts says he threw away what turns out to - be the real Eye of Om. Oh, it can't be. - 10. Both alarms went Can't mean anything but I feel like keeping - off when mystery it on record. - began. - 11. Shot recorded in A brain-teaser. It was an explosive sound, - the lab films at same that synchronized with flash in film: and - time as flash. there was the smell of burned powder. How - does it fit? Did Clark or Ellison do it to - try to shoot the man at the desk? Or did - either one do it at the other? - 12. The Tibetan talked It _is_ 'sound' and might have some clue, he - English. used English in a Tibet monastery, and in - America again. - 13. The whistle and Wind howling as it blew hard or gentle in - moan in Tibet same as tunnel and Buddha-whistle. But no 'grind' - on recordings. in Tibet. - 14. Grind as if rocks Missing in real Tibet sound, as rock was - on records, after counter-weighted and moved silently open - Voice of Doom. and shut. Seems important, because it was - on record probably made in Tibet and - brought here by--Tibet lama? Clark? - Ellison? Zendt? - 15. Voice of Doom heard Was it record, same as others? Or what? I - by Astrovox. must ask when he recovers if it had grind - at end of moan. - -Those, as far as he could recall, were his sound-clues. - - - - - Chapter 27 - A "THERMAL" TRICK - - -With every meaning that he tried to attach to his listings, Roger found -himself growing more confused. - -He had only imaginative evidence against any of the names he had -inserted in his diary-like notations. As he scanned his list Roger saw -that he had done less interpreting than speculating; but he saw no way -to make interpretation of the listings get him anywhere. - -He filed it with his former list, and went to his routine, so that Toby -could go to dinner. - -The rest of the day was without apparent development. - -Toby, leaving the suitcase, at closing time, went home. The others did -the same. Roger and Tip remained until last. - -"Well, Grover has stayed close to Doctor Ryder's patient," Tip mused, -aloud. "That is, the patient Doctor Ryder just missed getting, because I -told the druggists I wanted 'aggrenalin' and they said they never heard -of nothing like it. If I'd of got the right name, he'd of saved Astrovox -'stead of the internes doing it." - -"I talked over the wire with my cousin," responded Roger. "Just make an -extra check on everything for safety's sake, and he says for us to _stay -away_ from here, tonight, no matter what we hear. You are to go to a -hotel to sleep. And he says you must." - -"What's going to happen here?" - -"I wish I guessed," Roger retorted, "but I don't seem able to do even -that. With all the clues on my list or somewhere in the films and so on, -I just see new developments, and they are worse than before, and confuse -me." - -"What say we go to one of those spirit mediators." - -"A medium? A fortune teller?" - -"She might coagulate our ideas." - -"Curdle them? She probably would." - -"It means to make 'em set--hang together." - -Roger chuckled and refused. He wanted to work out every circuit, trace -every wire, be certain that when he locked up, nothing could get in or -out of that research laboratory without leaving a record and if anything -happened then--well--he'd have to look to Tip about it! - -Potts said good-night, and went away as instructed. - -At home, telling with some reserves his experiences of the night before, -to his aunt, Roger felt a constant tugging of desire to go and see if -all was right. - -Grover's orders to stay away were, he felt, a magnet drawing, tugging, -pulling him toward the forbidden place. - -What danger, he wondered, might lurk in just a visit? - -Still, he obeyed, against every dragging urge. - -Toby Smith telephoned about nine o'clock. - -"Say, can we get into that lab?" - -"Why, Toby?" - -"I clean forgot to put away Doctor Ryder's compounds. I put down his -suitcase, and got busy with Mr. Zendt who wanted a heap of chemicals, -and it slipped my mind." - -"Orders are not to go there at night," Roger told him. - -"Well--but he said lock 'em in the safety cabinet, against fire. I -forgot. Well----" - -"But there won't be any fire." - -"But--lookit, Roger--you didn't notice, maybe----" - -"That you had marked on a paper a list of words? I did. Fireworks. -Pyrotechnics. Lycopodium." - -"Well--I mixed some--an' left 'em in a big tray till tomorrow." - -Roger gasped, at his end of the connection. - -Suppose a gas in the atmosphere reacted with some exposed ingredient? - -All at once, though, a person so far totally unsuspected began to assume -importance. - -This Toby Smith! He had originally sold, for a camera, a gem supposed to -have been both sacred and invaluable. - -He had been to Tibet before, Doctor Ryder had mentioned. (He could have -known the value of that gem). - -Besides, here he was, at a time when Grover had explicitly forbidden -Roger, for some hidden reason, against going near the lab. And he was -insisting on his disobedience of orders by implying dire happenings! - -Roger hesitated. - -Why was it important for him to be lured to the laboratory? Had Clark -not explained to the Tibetans about the blunder through which the real -jewel, jettisoned by Clark, picked up by Potts, had been lost, they -might want to lure him, to bring some idea of revenge to pass. - -Why should Toby want to do that? - -Perhaps, Roger speculated, the youth wanted to get him there and then by -use of force open the safe or some other thing. - -The value of their own laboratory formulae and data was not less, to -them, than a jewel such as the Eye of Aum. - -"Against orders!" - -Roger, his decision made, started to hang up. - -"You'd let that stuff explode, maybe----" - -"Listen, Toby. I obey the Boss. Besides, don't worry. We have a -positive-action, fire smothering gas in drums, and a thermostat that -operates a relay, much like those on heating equipment, at a rise of -eight degrees from the normal shown by another thermometer outside the -lab. The gas smothers any fire. Chemicals, even." - -"That's good. Then I needn't worry." - -"You needn't worry, Toby." - -Hanging up, Roger waited for a further effort. - -When it came--if it _was_ a new attempt!--its form was startling. - -The inter-connecting fire alarm in the library of his home rang. Roger -considered for a moment. Of course, the gas should cover every possible -danger, save everything. Even against the delicate electric adjustments -and the unreplaceable devices, the gas would work without harming them -as water might do. - -The thought brought another. - -"Water!" - -The firemen would respond to the alarm, sent out over the telephone, to -Headquarters, automatically. - -Water would ruin the delicate armatures, coils, etc. - -And how could the alarm go off by human means when he had made so -certain that no one could enter? - -He decided to try to get Grover at the hospital where he waited for any -word, or murmur, raving or otherwise, from the unconscious astrologer. - -Grover was not available, they told him. He had gone out to get a late -repast. - -Grover would not be available for an hour. Roger could not see the -laboratory electrical apparatus ruined. The order to stay away had not -taken this development into account. - -He got a taxi and was hurried to the vicinity of the lab. - -Already he heard the screech of sirens, as at the start of the queer -chain of contradictions, impossibilities and misfits. - -This time, though, a weird orange-reddish glow came up into the cloudy -sky from above their skylight! - -As Roger leaped out, flinging the taximan a dollar, the glow was quashed -as if by magic. The system of protection had worked. - -He stopped the breaking of the door, as before, but this time with no -need for argument. The X-Ray and fluoroscope were not going as they had -been that former time. - -Hastily Roger located the Captain of the first company to have arrived: -he knew that the one so scoring a beat was in charge, stayed till last, -was responsible. It was "his fire." - -Rapidly he told as much as was necessary to convince the man that no -further damage could possibly ensue, but he found the man hard to -convince. - -"But I declare," Roger insisted, "the lycopodium and stuff that you saw -blazing up through the skylight was just fireworks compounds, made up--I -begin to think--for just that use. It made a grand glow, but probably -blazed only in a tray. The room it was in is fireproof. Our film is all -non-flam, in sealed or airtight cans. Our chemicals are in airtight -containers." - -He added that his check of the tell-tale, on the brief entry he had -made, disclosed no entrances by others. Such was impossible. - -"Then how was the stuff ignited? Spontaneous combustion." - -"I suppose some gas was left open, on purpose, that would in time -penetrate to the chemicals in the mixture. But the heat of that little -couple of pounds of powder burning ten minutes would not raise our -fire-thermostat more than a degree, and it must go up six or eight to -set off the alarm." - -"The alarm came in, young fellow. How?" - -Roger took him across to a drug store. In its window, against the wall, -a huge advertising thermometer registered Fahrenheit degrees and stood -at sixty-four. He hurried the man back, showed him the small -interconnected thermometer for registering air temperature, against -which the other inside one reacted. This one stood at fifty-five. - -"Somebody wanted the alarm set off to lure me here--simple trick. Only -had to hold ice on this one till it dropped eight degrees _below_ the -other and then the other would be eight above it and off went the -alarm." - -Fire, an alarm adjusted for heat, set off by ice! Toby? Who else? - - - - - Chapter 28 - THE FUSE - - -From the pay station in the drug store Roger got the hospital and was -connected with Grover. - -"Is Astrovox all right? Did he say anything?" - -"He will probably recover, Roger, but he won't talk for many days, -perhaps for weeks." - -Rapidly, concisely, Roger outlined the situation. - -"But I told you----" - -"I am not in the lab. I went right away from there, making sure all the -safety things were still on, before the firemen had pulled away." - -"Don't go back, no matter what. And--Roger--be sure your room is -protected fully before you go to bed." - -"What's the matter? Do you know?--who is it?" - -"I don't know who it is, but some desperate person has determined to -protect him or herself by any necessary means." - -"The Tibetans?" - -"I think not, Roger." - -It was some person or group recognized by Astrovox. That recognition had -led to the blow he was suffering from. - -"Fortunately, it was not fatal," Grover continued, "and I stayed here -less to hear him, for I knew that would not be probable. I was here to -protect him if anyone, knowing he lived, tried more desperate methods -still." - -"You can't stay day and night." - -"No," answered Grover. "Potts is on his way here now. I will be home in -an hour or a little more than an hour." - -Roger asked one more question. - -"Why would they want to lure me to the lab?" - -"No other way to get in." - -"But they did get in, Grover. The lyco----" - -"Probably touched off with a long pole, from the skylight. They could -break the glass, insert a long pole, like the one we use to shift the -ventilators. To draw firemen who would smash in--or set off an alarm -that would bring you, especially after the preparation by Toby." - -"Then he----" - -"Probably someone either paid him well, or else, as I think is more -likely, he really had left the powder there. Some one knew it." - -"Why should I be bothered?" - -Grover's theory was that through his reputation as the Ear Detective, or -else because of some film or other data, the suspected miscreant feared -him as he had feared Astrovox. - -The conversation ended and Roger, finding his old friend, the taxi -driver, on his night station, used his car. - -At home he made certain that the devices, moved from Doctor Ryder's -residence, which no longer seemed threatened, because the absence of the -Eye of Om had been explained to the Tibetans, all worked. He shifted the -recording needle a dozen turns of the threaded arm that made it follow a -spiral path. The call of "fire" and the crackling noises occupied only -the start of the disk. He set the recorder to fall in place further over -toward the center. - -Switching on the electrically charged locks, he kept his desk lamp -burning while he retired. - -Just as he was about to turn it out, the light died. - -Thinking that the bulb had been used up, he tried another light, just as -a precaution, recalled to mind by the doctor's experience. - -That light was unresponsive. - -At once Roger raced to the door into the hall. - -With no current the lock, with his key inside, turned readily. - -Intuition told him what had happened here, as in the other instance. - -The cellar fuse box had been opened and a fuse had been removed. That -prevented current from entering the circuits, and even the alarm was -silent, although he knew that cutting off the current served as well as -any other way to start the recorder disk and the camera. He cut them off -hurriedly. - -"I'll want them, maybe, a little later," he told himself. "Whoever did -this will have to come up two flights of stairs. It will give me just -time to re-adjust them to go on again, if I want. And I hope he or she -or it left the fuse by the box." - -He had a plan. A trap, made useless to protect him, could be made useful -to hold someone else! - -Slipping into his bathroom, with his clothes carefully tucked under his -arm, Roger unlocked the door into Grover's adjoining room. - -He went in there stealthily. - -Then, waiting, he listened. - -His one danger lay in the chance that the miscreant might come by way of -Grover's room, if it was known to be empty. - -As he heard someone working a jimmy or other springing implement on his -door, very quietly, though, he slipped into the hall with as little -noise as the hinges of the door allowed. It was hardly likely that the -slight squeaks were audible down the hall. - -He saw a man, bent low, his back fortunately turned that way, as he -tried to snap open the lock without much noise, perhaps trusting that -Roger slept soundly and would not awaken. - -Like a wraith slipping without sound along a haunted hallway, Roger got -to the stairway. Its noise must be risked. He trod close to the wall -side, stepping two lifts down to avoid a known faulty stair. - -It required nice psychological deduction to enable him to use his trap, -if the fuse was available. The marauder, or worse, must be in the room, -and as Roger hoped, he would probably have shut the door to muffle any -commotion from getting to other possibly occupied rooms. - -Once in, the person would see he was not in bed, and had not been, and -would either take a moment to discover if he hid, or would pause to -consider; he must have been watching, must have seen Roger arrive. - -The fuse, when he snapped on a cellar bulb in the garage, was on a ledge -under the switch box. Was it too soon, Roger wondered, to screw it into -the tiny receptacle? - -He must not wait too long. His absence once assured, suspicion and fear -would drive out the one who was now _his_ quarry. - -He must risk it at once. - -He screwed home the small 15-ampere fuse. - -With hopeful heart and padding feet he ran up the cellar steps, up the -next flight, and paused to take observations. - -All was quiet. - -Had his trap sprung? He could tell by finding a rubber glove among -Grover's things, with which to try the knob he had so recently turned -with ease into his bathroom. - -He got the insulating glove from among some old laboratory togs, too big -for him but satisfactory for his need. - -With care he turned the knob. The door did not yield. The system was on. - -A difficulty came into mind. - -To see if he had a captive he must release the heavy charge, by use of a -small cable-key that broke the circuit. If his presumable evil-wisher -was caught, he might get out before Roger could re-set the system. - -He listened. There was not an audible sound, coming through the door. - - - - - Chapter 29 - A SURPRISING CAPTURE - - -A sound in the lower hall made Roger turn. To his delight, Grover came -in. Quickly the younger cousin set out the situation. - -"Go down and draw the fuse again," Grover suggested. "Queer that I did -not think of that simple way to nullify all our protection. It explains -how the safe was so easily opened, as well as Doctor Ryder's situation. -When you are ready, pull only the ten ampere fuse in the equalizer of -the circuit marked number four." - -Roger knew that the switch and fuse box held different fuses for various -parts of the home, with two heavier fuses set into the main feed from -the street. Grover's idea was, he saw, to eliminate the front portion of -the house including his room, while the light in the rear of the hall, -and his aunt's quarters, would be left on. In that way, with a front -hall light going, Grover could tell when the fuse was out and have light -enough in the hall to work by. - -As soon as he had performed his task he ran up the steps, to find -Grover, extremely surprised, facing, in the hall, the last man they had -suspected of interest in the matter. - -The assistant electrical engineer, Mr. Millman, stood there. - -"A lame explanation," Grover was saying as Roger arrived. - -"To you, maybe. To me it seems reasonable that I would have hit on the -method somebody used to get to the safe and I think it is perfectly -logical that I should test out my theory that Roger had been playing all -those tricks in the laboratory." - -"What tricks?" Roger demanded. - -"This one, if you want a sample." - -Millman walked over to the recording device, exchanged from his pocket a -reproducer, made a quick wire connection to Roger's compact table radio, -as Roger had had the connection when the recorder had roughly re-played -the formerly recorded cry and crackles. - -"I was making a recording of motor sparking, and just as I set our lab. -machine going, I realized that the diamond was cutting a sound record, -not just running smoothly. You can tell if you are watching closely, as -I was. We cut out the record, took it off, and I told Ellison and Zendt -to say nothing. I began to suspect that Roger, who was up with Astrovox, -was having fun at our expense." - -He set the machine going and the needle, automatically dropping onto the -groove just beyond the cuttings, as Roger had set it, had to be lifted -back. Then Grover heard, as had Roger before, the cry, "Fire" and the -rattling, crackling as if flames ate dry wood or paper. - -"Now if that was recorded, it had to come from somewhere. We had not -started the sparking motor." Millman was earnest. "And I knew that Roger -was up there. Later, unable to find this record, at the laboratory, I -reasoned that it must be that Roger had brought it to his home. -Evidently, I thought, he wanted to hide it. I decided to make sure. -Being an electrician, I thought, at once, how to get in by pulling a -fuse, not needing to cut wires or put the safety devices out of -commission permanently." - -"What do you think, Roger?" Grover turned to his younger cousin, "Does -it strike you as convincing?" - -"Maybe he might feel that way." - -"But--with some desperate person abroad----" - -"Do I look desperate?" Millman laughed. He was tallish, and a most -serious mannered, quiet, earnest person. "What motive could _I_ have for -wanting to hurt Roger?" - -"You can best answer that," Grover said quietly. - -"I simply wanted to justify my belief that Roger was behind all the -spooky goings-on; the animals on the films, and so on." He nodded to -show his satisfaction. "I think I have proved it." - -"Did Potts put this record here?" demanded Grover, and Roger saw that he -was thinking fast. - -Hating to add still one more count against the handy man who had only -his own word to support his declaration that he had flung away a -supposably priceless Eye of Om when Clark had made his blunder in the -temple, and Potts had found the discarded gem, Roger nodded. - -"And how was the recording made? Do you know?" - -Again Roger nodded. Grover frowned. - -"How?" - -"I was helping Astrovox carry away packing papers; and he mentioned that -Mars, the planet, ruled fire. That word, and the crackle of the paper -bunched up in our arms, would make that sound." - -"Was there an open microphone near you?" - -Then Roger started. - -"No." - -"Then--how?----" - -"If we could go to the lab." Roger had an inspiration, "I could show -you." - -It would keep till morning, Grover decided; and dismissing Millman with -a warning that his actions were at least not beyond suspicion, Grover -set the cable-switch on, and prepared to sleep with Roger. - -During the balance of the night their rest was undisturbed. - -As soon as they reached the laboratory, Roger took Grover to the -recording machine. - -"You will think I did this, because I know so much about it," the -youthful radio and sound expert said, "but it is just putting a meaning -behind certain sounds on my list, and adding the natural explanation." - -His reasoning proved to have been correct. - -A strange voice had come unexplainably from an upper room having no -occupant: - -Roger bent, examining the mechanism under the recording turntable. He -investigated the contacts whereby the electrical impulses sent from the -small "mike" at the sparking motor, through the selenium cell, got into -the amplifying transformer-coil to be increased enough to operate the -recording diamond attaching to a special diaphragm over the disk on the -turntable. - -"A wire had been soldered on, here--see," he pointed. "Somebody had a -wire that didn't need to be there. Now, if I just wind this end of a bit -of wire around that contact, to replace the missing one--" he made the -temporary connection, "and lead it down to one or the other side of the -floor outlet, and there attach it even loosely around one prong of the -little plug-in that furnishes current for the motor of our recorder, we -may discover where the speaker upstairs is located." - -Hastily he made a temporary splice onto the plug prong. Grover went up -the steps, pausing as Roger put a commercial test-record in place, -switched on the motor and set the reproducing needle on the groove. - -Immediately, from upstairs, there came the recording, in a booming, -hollow distortion, natural to the poor connection and the device they -had to locate above. - -Grover, walking over to the corner from which came the sound, gave a -surprised call for his cousin who shut off the record and ran to the -disclosure he was sure he would find. His guess was right. There, laid -practically flat on one of the empty cabinet shelves, with its small -speaker-unit set into a cutout spot of the shelves, and concealed by the -thick wood it was let into, was a good sized slab of thin wood. - -The wires to the small operating battery concealed in a non-flam film -can, and from that running to a wall outlet that connected the room -devices with the main source of current, they traced. - -A recording had been made, downstairs, of voices in the upper room. - -To all appearances there was no microphone up there to have conveyed the -voice and paper-rattle. Apparently there was no loud speaker up there to -have broadcast the Voice of Doom so bafflingly. - -"You say to dig past appearances," Roger reminded his cousin, "and while -they can be falsified, the truth never changes. Well, if it 'appears' -that there is no mike, and that there is no speaker, we know we heard -the Voice of Doom, and we know we heard the recording made by Astrovox, -upstairs, on a record, downstairs." - -"There is, naturally, some connecting wire. But--it does not show. You -know more about radio than I, Roger. Have you located it?" - -"Well, when we used to build experimental sets, before commercial radios -got to be common and reasonable in price, I used to try to record my own -voice, so I could play it back. I used the same sort of radio hookup for -that, I think, that is used in making commercial phonograph -records--only, I didn't have a carbon mike, so I tried reversing the -function of the speaker I had. It was a Balsa-wood one, that I assembled -from a small vibrator-unit, and a flat slab of thin Balsa-wood." - -"Used the speaker as a microphone or telephone receiver would be used -today." - -"Right, Grover. And, another thing I remember from my experiments. There -was a device that was supposed to use the house electric wiring as an -antenna--an aerial. If you put a special plug, with only _one_ prong -instead of two the way regular electric contacts are made, in a wall -outlet, the circuit of the house current was not carried at all, and the -single contact went to the aerial binding-post of my set, and made the -whole house wiring act like an antenna. There was a terrible line-hum. -It wasn't practical. But I think----" - -"As long as only one 'side' of the house current is tapped," Roger told -his cousin and Chief, "and the part it connects with is not grounded, it -will act like an antenna--or, in this hookup, it makes any of our -outlets a conductor between whatever is plugged into it and the -Balsa-wood speaker." - -"Besides Ellison and Millman, both electricians," Grover mused out loud, -"Potts would know, at least from observation, a lot of electrical -'stunts'. This one, possibly. And he knows how to record; and all about -microphones, speakers and other apparatus that he has to adjust in his -regular laboratory duties." - -Another count against Potts, Roger thought--at least by implication in -the evidence. - -But, then again, it also pointed to Ellison or Millman, maybe both. - -Toby arrived. As with Roger he viewed the cremated powders, and the -melted metal tray on a scorched table of fireproofed wood under a zinc -sheathing, where his "pyrotechnics" had burned, Roger had to admit to -himself that the youth's manner and expression indicated sincere shame -that he had experimented and had left his combustibles exposed. But, -then, the call had come, last night, so close ahead of the fire alarm -that had led to his trip to the lab. Had Toby been lurking nearby after -having chilled the outside thermometer enough to cause the one on the -alarm system to be higher and to set off the device? There had not been -enough heat to release the gas, he made certain of that at once. Toby -_might_ be one of those "dumb"-clever fellows who pretended to be -ignorant to cover up something, to keep suspicion away from themselves. -He decided to add Toby to his list of potentially suspectable people. - - - - - Chapter 30 - THE VOICELESS WARNING - - -Since Astrovox would be away for a good while and his experiments could -hardly be picked up by anyone else, Roger was told to arrange a -temporary home for the rabbits, squirrels and mice and rats he had been -experimenting on; and a nearby pet shop agreed to house them. - -In assembling their cages, Roger noticed several of the mice showing -symptoms of being very nearly done for. - -"What do you suppose is wrong?" he asked Doctor Ryder, who was clearing -aside some of the absent man's apparatus in order to set up his cages -again. He expected a fresh litter of white rats for his medical -experiments. - -"There was a fire, wasn't there?" - -"You think the smoke overcame them, Doctor?" - -"Exactly, Roger." He wrote down some stimulating combinations of -medicinal chemicals to try on them. - -The bio-chemist, Zendt, also took an interest. - -"Of course, if the lamps are already turned off," he said, "it is that -the smoke overcame them. That little fellow is particularly bad." - -He indicated a tiny mouse of the sort used in the experiments, lying -almost as if in a coma. - -Roger, with his quick sympathy, and with Toby eagerly obeying orders, -improvised a makeshift "oxygen tent" and since it would be in the way in -the room already crowded with the cages and plant-beds, he took the -small stimulator with its tiny occupant into the dark-room where he -could attend to it and watch the mouse's reaction and response while he -developed some plates taken by the staff the afternoon before. - -The mouse, Roger saw with pleasure, gave signs of reviving. - -So quickly it recuperated that he put it back into a cage, but kept it -near him in the dark-room while he saw, on the developing plates, slow -images emerge. - -The pictures, photographs of crystal formations, he finished, making -wet-contact prints. These he took to Mr. Zendt. Others, of the old -astrologer's, he put aside to print later. They would not be needed for -some time. - -Coming back, Roger observed that his tiny patient was apparently much -better. He dissembled the oxygen apparatus, and was about to take it to -his stock-room, to the section where spare apparatus was stored, when he -had a visitor. - -Mr. Clark, his Tibetan traveling companion, the well-to-do jeweler, came -in through the light-trap, with a cheerful greeting. - -"How are you doing?" he inquired, "and what is the latest quotation on -Tibetan's, common." His stock-market joke made Roger grin. - -"Glad you didn't say 'Tibetan's, preferred.'" he answered. "As far as I -know, they certainly are not preferred. The quotation is -lower-than-minus. No sale." - -He was wondering what might be the object of the call. - -Not a visit for love he was sure. - -"I hear there was almost a tragedy here," the rich gem expert was -getting to the point, Roger surmised. - -"Yes, sir." - -He was not going to give information. - -"Poor old star-gazer. He should have seen his fate coming. If his -star-reading could warn him, why didn't he take care?" - -"I don't know. He had said something about Neptune and Saturn in -opposition and Mars opposed to Uranus, with the world between the -opposite planets, pulled this way and that, if I understand him. Maybe -he was trying to take care of himself, but he always says we are put -into this world to have certain experiences. We cannot escape them, and -what the stars' forces did to influence our cells in brain and body at -birth, he thinks, indicates what sort of experiences we will have." - -Roger, seldom over-talkative, was willing to expand this idea. - -Not that he wholly grasped what it meant. Nor was he "sold" on the star -philosophy. But it diverted Mr. Clark from whatever plan he had come -there to try, Roger thought; and if he was right about it, Clark would -come back to his subject and would thus show Roger what it was. - -"Astrovox often said," he hurried on with the topic, "we cannot avoid -our Destiny, escape experiences. But we have what he called Free Will to -decide how we will meet them." - -"A very sound philosophy, Roger. But----" - -"Now he's going to give himself away," decided Roger. - -"But--where have you put The Eye of Om?" - -Roger, petrified by amazement, could only stare, in the dim, ruby -dark-room light. "I?----" - -"Yes. Eye of Om. You really took it, of course." - -"Mr. Clark!" Roger drew himself to his full height in sudden anger at -the challenge, the accusation. - -"Well, how else could it have happened? You know, for you saw, when the -prongs in the Buddha's forehead socket were loosened, I took out the old -gem and put in a new one--the one we had brought. And when you sent -Potts back, do you imagine I am idiot enough to believe that _he_ knew -one stone from another, or that he found the one I chucked away into a -regular abyss, there in the Himalayas?" - -He scowled. - -"You went there. You saw the real stone put in. You sent Potts to--shall -I say the real word? No--to bring it--that's close and not quite so -evil-sounding as the fact. Anyway, Roger, do you think we don't how -loyal Potts is to you? He would tell any sort of story, just to protect -you." - -"Say, you go and tell Grover that." - -Roger was boiling. - -Clark, scanning his working face, calmly chuckled. - -"Your films will be overdone, or whatever happens if you forget them." - -Roger, reminded, hastily extracted from trays the plates of an -experiment with chemical diffusion, and got them into hypo. - -"I shan't bother Grover. We discussed it and he suggested coming to you. -As long as this way doesn't elicit the information, perhaps there will -be other methods. You know what taking the gem means to those Tibetans?" - -Roger, fuming, smarting under the unjust accusation, refused to reply. - -Turning on his heel, Mr. Clark left. - -Roger washed his negatives, made his prints. - -To his surprise his pet, the tiny mouse, began to run about, to show -unmistakable signs of animation--or was it of excitement? - -Roger studied him. - -The tiny animal was racing around its cage. - -Memory of the fact that such mice on submarines indicated the presence -of leaks from battery or engine of undetected gases such as sulphuric -acid gas came. He wondered if his dark-room held such a menace to -respiration. He decided to take the mouse to the outer air and observe -its reaction. - -To his dismay, the inner door of the light trap did not respond. - -He was wedged or otherwise fastened in. And the mouse was certainly -exhibiting signs of uneasiness. - - - - - Chapter 31 - THE HIDDEN MENACE - - -Instead of shouting, beating on the door and otherwise wasting energy -and using up the available oxygen of the room, Roger paused, taking only -the precaution of mounting on a high developing table, to avoid any -floor accumulation of poisonous fumes. - -Such mice, he remembered, could detect a dangerous fume long before -human nostrils caught the odor; and this made them life-savers on -submarines. They gave the crews time to trace gas fumes and suppress or -nullify their effect. - -"Now, there isn't any gas I know of in what I am using," Roger spoke, -under his breath, to his tiny companion, just as most people will -discuss an emergency with a dog or cat. - -Fumes of such chemicals as he might use for "reducing" and -"intensifying" improperly exposed negatives gave off offensive odors in -certain mixtures; but he had mixed none. Hypo was not dangerous: and the -ventilating system should have sucked away any fumes of whatever sort, -he knew. - -Nevertheless, the animal grew still more excited. - -Roger lighted the white, glaring dome light, ignoring possible ruining -of the developing plates in his trays. - -He knew every content of that room. - -Nothing was out of place except what he had been using. - -There was the extra paraphernalia of the oxygen apparatus. Nothing else -was visible. - -It came to him that no odor or fume could be liberated that would cause -such frenzy in the little white savior unless it was introduced from an -outside source. - -He would find out. - -He went to the intake of the ventilator, and with litmus paper, and -other handy agents, he made several tests, keeping his nose and lips -within the tight folds of a handkerchief as he did it. - -The litmus did not at once indicate anything. But when he thought of -what he had sometimes read of closed garages, with car engines running, -in which people had been overcome by exhaust fumes such as carbon -monoxide, he made a hasty test, with what he had available, and was very -sure that the gas or one of that nature, was in the air. - -A tiny animal might be going to save his life. Roger knew his next move. -He would shut the ventilator, prevent the inflow of any more fumes, -leaving the exhaust openings to suck clear the accumulation which would -lie near the floor. He got his oxygen equipment, and climbing onto the -highest table, he made an improvised airman's outfit such as they used -when ascending beyond the human range of breathable air. He used his -oxygen and mixed it with air inhaled only through a handkerchief -strainer. - -He thought in this way he could hold out, and then whoever had come so -close to being in line for the electric chair----. He watched the mouse -for signs. - -After a few minutes the animal, at his level, quieted. - -Roger, allowing still more time, finally laid aside his protective "gas -mask" arrangement, and quietly tried the door. It had been unwedged. He -did not emerge, however, but went into a corner to wait. - -Whoever might open that door, he thought---- - -A criminal would haunt the scene, to see the effect of his plan. - -Would it, he wondered, be Clark? He had threatened. Or--Toby? Or -Millman? Of course not the Tibetans. They were not chemists: they were -priests. - -He grew tense, watchful. - -The outer light-trap door was being opened. - - - - - Chapter 32 - SCIENCE FIGHTS CRAFT - - -Watching, Roger saw and recognized the man who entered. The bio-chemist, -Zendt, came in with a film magazine of exposed celluloid in one hand. - -"How are my diffusion shots coming along?" - -"In the hypo." - -Roger watched narrowly. - -Zendt was either a master of facial control or he was one of those -"innocent bystanders" who manage to intrude when some crucial point of a -drama is about to be played. - -"Please develop this run from the speed camera. Ellison and Millman have -caught the torque of their erratic motor on film. Sixteen exposures to a -foot--a million to the minute. Shooting time, one half minute. Does that -tell you the size of reel to wind it on?" - -Roger, making mental computation with one side of his mind as he studied -the situation with the other, nodded. - -He would put the ceiling light out, but he would not satisfy Zendt by -staying there. Perhaps the man came prepared to hold him at his -dark-room work in case he had not yet been sufficiently dosed. - -"Bring you prints soon," he told Zendt. "I'll get this into a developing -tank." He risked a question. - -"Is anybody in the cellar? The ventilator seems to be choked. No air -comes in. It's--stuffy." - -"Maybe. Millman was down, earlier. Potts hasn't come. Grover has gone -out." To let Potts get sleep, to stand guard over Astrovox, Roger -decided. - -"I'll telephone down and see--oh, look. It was shut off." - -Clever actor or innocent intruder, Zendt betrayed neither interest nor -disappointment. He simply nodded and went out. - -Roger considered his position. - -He reasoned: if Zendt was blameless, some one else was watching. From -seeing Zendt emerge the unknown would be sure that Roger was still all -right. But if he left, all possibility of detecting who was the culprit -might be gone. - -Still, he had no chemicals in assortments that would enable him to -detect the possible introduction of some fume through a hole in the -walls, or some other move. Besides, he was open to bodily attack. - -He must not be there. No one must see him leave. - -He remembered that there were chemicals that he would need, and inasmuch -as he was known to be all right, he could easily get them. - -He emerged, seeing Doctor Ryder busy with his arrival of white rats, -with Toby helping him put them into the glass pen through the trapdoor -in the top that prevented them from escaping. - -"Got to force-up some underexposed negatives," he remarked as he passed -them. To the stock-room he went, and procured the ingredients he needed; -but not for an intensifier for under-exposed film! Returning, he noticed -Zendt, watching the rats also. - -Once more in the dark-room Roger proceeded methodically and carefully to -produce a very businesslike detonating torpedo with crystals of gritty -hard iron oxide-rust! to take the place of the gravel usually packed in -a commercial torpedo of the sort formerly sold for exploding by contact -with the sidewalk. - -The other ingredients he mixed with care as to method, as well as -formula, knowing that certain chemicals must be combined in a certain -sequence. Wrapped in a fairly good paper taken from a packet of printing -paper, he had his torpedo ready at last. - -There was no window from which to fling it, but he knew that by putting -a chair on the developing table by the wall, he could get his hands up -to the small outlet around the exhaust fan. The old equipment, -discontinued since the laboratory had put in air-conditioning, led to -the open air. - -He got to the position carefully, took his torpedo, and adjusting the -small exhaust fan so that its blades would interfere the least with an -open passage for the missile, he took his chance, against striking the -blades, flinging with a quick jerk of his wrist that sent the detonator -straight through past the fan. - -Hurriedly he climbed down and got the chair back in place as he heard, -muffled by the drop, a sharp explosion on the pavement in front of the -laboratory. - -He was certain that the noise would draw everybody. - -In the space between the outer and the inner light door he listened. -Doctor Ryder and Toby went with the rest. The way must be free. - -Roger, emerging, saw that his guess had been correct. - -There, poked up through the skylight coaming, was the long, and -large-girth telescope of Astrovox. - -To an athletic youth, with agility and endurance, to climb the steadily -enlarging, inclined barrel was no hard task. Once at the top he got over -onto the roof with skilful swings of his body and flexing muscles -drawing him safely over the coaming. - -Then he watched, unseen from below, careful to be on the side facing the -sun so as not to let his shadow reveal his position. - -There he watched for an hour as Doctor Ryder and Toby returned, and -others came to the stock-room, but went away to await his arrival from -the dark-room. Their wants must not be urgent. - -The vigil was fruitless, though. - -No one entered the dark-room, barely visible in his quick glances. - -A new idea came. He went up the rainspout of the adjoining roof, using -knees for grip and hands to pull him up from one bracing ring to -another. Down the adjoining fire escape he went, to the top floor of the -candy factory where, to the surprised girls, he whispered, pretending to -be mischievous, "Playing a trick on the folks next door." They all knew -him, from seeing him going to and from work. He accepted some candy, and -went down and out onto the street. - -He saw no one watching. The brown mark of the torpedo detonation was -still on the pavement. He slipped into the laboratory cellar, by way of -its ash-lift, unobserved as far as he could tell. - -To the air-conditioning system he made his way, trying to see if any of -its outlets, especially one to the dark-room section, had been removed -or tampered with. He saw some signs that a pipe wrench had ground rough -bright spots on the piping, and smiled. His idea had been right as to -where the gas had been sent up. A survey among old trash awaiting the -attention of Potts revealed a large, empty tank. Some one must have -charged it--whether by purchasing the materials or by injecting the -exhaust from a car he never found out. - -There, though, was his evidence. He left it as it was. - -Grover had been right. - -Some person or group, with intentions far more vicious than had been in -evidence among the Tibetans, had marked him. Why? What did he know? Not -the place of the lost Eye of Om. For that they would want to take him -prisoner, to question him. This attack had been because someone was sure -that he knew more than he did. - -Could he find out what he was supposed to know? - -To try was Roger's immediate intention. - - - - - Chapter 33 - A NEW SUSPICION - - -It was Roger's plan to consult his list of "sound" evidence and try to -make it tell him whatever secret must be hidden there. - -No other plan seemed so likely to be fruitful. If he was supposed to be -in the dark-room, his presence in the office must show to some guilty -person that Roger was equally alert and crafty. He wanted to "start -something" in the open. Underground methods, secret attempts to do away -with him, were hateful to open-natured, frank Roger. - -Strolling up from the cellar, he watched the effect of his arrival from -that unexpected quarter. Mr. Millman, discovering him, looked up with a -start. - -"Hey! Thought you were developing the stuff Zendt took up." - -Zendt--Millman. Roger connected the two mentally. - -"Those speed pictures are important." Mr. Ellison scowled, and Roger -began to wonder whether his anger was genuine or if he, himself, was -giving too much importance to a mere annoyance. - -"I was just testing my new 'cloak of invisibility,'" Roger put on a -careless manner. He would give _them_ something to puzzle about. - -"Science is just the reality that used to be fairy stories," he said, -with a grin. "Pegasus, the flying horse, was just another way of -prophesying airplanes. And if a magician could wave a wand and turn a -beast into a Prince, doesn't chemistry transmute base elements into -wonderful, modern products? I got an idea that the cloak or helmet of -invisibility, like the Helmet in Wagner's opera that I heard on the -radio, is just the prophecy of some Omega-ray, that makes things -transparent and invisible without hurting them. It works, too. Did you -see me go out?" - -"No," Mr. Millman snapped out the word, adding: - -"But we _will_ see you go out--to the observation ward of the -psychopathic division in some hospital if you waste any more time with -this crazy talk." - -Roger, thinking quickly, decided that he was hearing a threat. Millman -was not joking. If an astrologer, coming into the office, had recognized -the man, either facing him or hidden under the desk, and for that -knowledge had come near to being "sent West," then it would not be put -past such desperate people to believe they would deliberately put him -into the ward where supposedly insane people are kept, while doctors -studied their mentality. - -That, he reflected swiftly, would effectively get him out of the way; -and it would discredit his ideas. - -"I was only joking. What's the matter with everybody? Snap me up because -I chased out past you to see what the shooting was for." - -"Well, get back to your work. Potts isn't here. It's up to you to keep -things going till the Chief says differently." - -Roger looked defiant. He meant to see how far the man--or the pair, -would go. - -Doctor Ryder and Mr. Zendt, who had evidently been conferring on the -upper floor about some biochemical condition of the disease the doctor -was studying, heard the raised voice of the electrical engineer and came -down the stairway. - -"What's going on?" asked Doctor Ryder, twisting his watch chain, which -hung across his ample chest. Roger, who saw the big charm, which hung on -the chain, flicking its golden back in the light, realized, with an -inward start, that the doctor seemed to be telegraphing with that -"heliographic" flicker, as a Boy Scout would use a mirror to send a -message from his camp to another, from a hilltop. - -"Oho!" Roger's mind was alert, "So he's telegraphing somebody." - -He hid his smile of triumph. - -"So you're in it, are you?" he mentally accused. "Well, two can play -that heliograph game. I can read if you can send." - -While he listened to Mr. Ellison's angry commands to get that film -developed or the Chief would be called up, Roger mentally received the -flickers of the heliograph-like gold back of the twisting charm. - -"B-e c-a-r-e-f-u-l." - -"Warning him," Roger's mental comment was not audible. - -"More?" He saw the charm continue, as if the doctor was nervous. - -"R-o-g-e-r," it told him. - -"He's warning _me_!" - -Roger, grateful, and glad that his first suspicion had been unwarranted, -waited to see if more would come, while his facial expression was meant -to infuriate Millman and Ellison. - -"B-e-h-i-n-d y-o-u." - -Roger, turning his head, realized that there _was_ good intention -plainly apparent in that peculiar flicker-warning. - -In the office doorway stood a stranger. - -Whether he meant good or ill Roger did not know. But he swung sharply, -about to demand the stranger's right to intrude beyond the railing when -he saw that the stenographer, Miss Murry, had sent him in. - -Roger, taking him in, saw a short, bald-headed, thin gentleman in a -frock coat, striped trousers and a high silk hat. - -"I am looking for a Roger Brown," the man studied the group. "The office -girl thought I ought to find him in what she calls a dark-room up some -stairs. Can you tell me?" - -"I am Roger Brown, sir." - -Roger stepped forward. - -"Can I see you in private?" - -Roger saw that Doctor Ryder's watch ornament, emblem of a secret -fraternity, was flicking around again. - -"S-a-y l-i-t-t-l-e," it seemed to counsel. - -"I can take you to my cousin's private room, sir." He nodded to show the -doctor that he understood. "But I can say little about our work until my -cousin is here." He led the way to the private door. He had told the -doctor that he caught the two words. - -"So you are Roger Brown." The man was seated in the "thinking den" -opposite Roger, who stood by the window and admired the sumptuous -limousine with its chauffeur, waiting outside. - -"Yes, sir. How do you know my name, and what do you want to see me -about?" - -"I know your name--no matter how. As for what I came about, I want to -dicker with you direct, instead of with anybody else." - -"Dicker?" - -"For the Eye of--er--Aum or Ohm." - -"Why do you think you can dicker with me, Mister----" - -The man did not reveal his name. - -"You have the thing." - -"Who says I have?" - -"I know you have it, Roger. The point is," he glanced at his watch, "and -I must hurry--the point is, you got it. Somebody else offers to get it -from you and sell it to me but I think I may get a better price from -you, direct." - -"Well, you can't. Who says you could get it from him?" - -"Young friend of yours--Tobias or something like that." - -"Toby Smith, huh? Well, he can't sell it because I can't turn it over to -him. Only saw it in the Buddha's head, and in a man's hand. Maybe Toby -already has it. Let's go ask him." - -"Can't waste time. What's your best price?" - -"Well----" Roger had an idea. "You leave your card and I'll get in touch -with you." - -"I won't go higher than ninety thousand. If that suits, call up Clark, -on Fifth Avenue, and say you are ready to close. He will understand, and -will arrange everything. Good day." - -Brusquely, abruptly, the man left. Roger let him go. - -But when the limousine had drawn away, Roger marked down its license -number, and within five minutes, from the Bureau of Motor Vehicle -Licenses he had information. - -That license plate on the limousine belonged to a wealthy man, often -mentioned in financial news. Roger, from a book of "Who's Who" learned -more; he was a collector, among other things. - -But, Roger asked himself, was his wealth, position and hobby any reason -not to place his name among those suspected, or at least connected with -the Eye of Om mystery? - -And Toby. And Clark. They came uppermost again. - -If only he could get the hidden clue in his list! - - - - - Chapter 34 - TRAGEDY STRIKES AGAIN - - -Without consulting his list, because he did not want to have it in sight -any more than he wanted its place in the files discovered, Roger used -the "thinking den" for just what its name implied. - -"Claws on glass," he reflected. "Click of a contact. Voice of Doom -upstairs from Balsa-wood speaker. That's what the click was for. The -plug-in that made the connection through the house-wiring from record to -speaker-unit. The Voice again on a record that ought to have been -blank?" - -He went through his list, mentally, to get all fifteen sounds clear in -his brain again. - -"The call of 'Fire' and paper rattle sounding like flames," he completed -his silent inventory. - -"Of course," he told himself, "the last one links up with the Voice of -Doom on the record, and that links up with the Voice out of the speaker -upstairs. And the click, as the plug-in was made is a link there too. -Then, again, the thump in the corner that made me start the picture -machine--that could have been disconnecting the plug-in. Doctor Ryder -had thought it was going to be more, for he was with me and cried out, -'start the machine' or something." - -The clicks that he had first misread as dripping faucets in a -washing-sink, that had turned out to be the safe combination being -manipulated by an expert, he put out of mind as explained. - -"The claws on glass hooks up with the film that showed the -ghost-kangaroo," he decided. "That can be side-tracked. Now, that leaves -the talk that named Clark, after the Voice of Doom--all three times it -could have been the same record, of course--what is left?" - -He re-pictured his clues. - -"The grind of moving rocks on the records. None in real rocks. A thump -on the record. How do they tell me anything? The record was not really -made in Tibet. It was made in America. I seem to remember that the Tibet -voice was deeper than the one on the record. But why did the record add -something not in Tibet? The rock rasp. Is that my real clue?" - -Puzzling about it, and trying to see what link there was between the -thump and that additional grinding sound, he got no inspiration. - -His meditation was interrupted by the arrival of a caller, a man from -the Museum of Natural History. - -He wanted the laboratory to work out some extremely complete system for -protecting the museum's very valuable collections, such as the gem -exhibit, and other priceless collections. - -Roger had to explain the absence of his cousin on "business" and to -accept the assignment conditionally on Grover's acceptance. - -"Probably some short-wave system could be worked out," he said, and the -caller left. - -Grover telephoned. Told of the call, he agreed to accept the commission -and would call at the museum before coming to the lab., when relieved by -Potts toward nightfall. - -Roger went back to his broken thread of meditation. - -An attempt had been made to get into his room. Millman had been caught. -His motive, he had said, was to learn whether Roger played scientific -tricks. Did that ring true? Or, as Roger felt, could he have wanted to -silence a tongue able to accuse him about Astrovox? - -Roger tried to fit that theory in. - -"It just won't quite come," he mused, despondently. "But I must be -considered fair game because I know something. There is the man who -thinks I have the Eye. Having it wouldn't make them want to get me out -of the way. Only the Tibetans would try that, and _not until_ I said -where the Eye is hidden. And I don't know. Still, I have been attacked -by some gas in the dark-room. Now what _am_ I supposed to know that -would reveal the 'who' in this?" - -A shout from the upper floor broke his reflections. - -With a sinking feeling in his stomach and with heart skipping, he opened -the private door and looked, listening, toward the stairs. - -Millman and Ellison, Hope and others, were stampeding toward the steps. - -"What was it?" he called. - -"Doctor Ryder--something has happened----" - -He joined the hurrying group. - -In the partitioned room, among the cages and plant-housing, on the -floor, lay Doctor Ryder, with Toby standing beside him, his face looking -horrified. - -"What is it?" Mr. Zendt came stamping up the steps. - -Ellison, bending in a crouch over the prone figure, looked up. - -"Did he faint?" he asked Toby sharply. - -"N--no, sir. Just fell down that way." - -"Are you--sure?" - -"Ye--yes-sir." - -Roger moved closer. "Is he--alive?" - -"His pulse is very low, but he breathes. Now," Ellison stood up, -organizing them dictatorially, "Toby, bring ammonium--any form." - -It flicked through Roger's subconscious mind that the electrician knew -chemicals. He had not used the ordinary, every-day "ammonia" but then he -had not added the word to indicate the chemical nature of an ammonia -solution. It might be because he was excited. - -"Roger, have the stenographer call a doctor--or an ambulance from police -Headquarters is a quicker call. Zendt, what do you say this is?--Stroke? -Coma?" The bio-chemist bent down, squatted. - -"Did he stand in front of that Beta-ray?" he asked Toby. - -The helper, apparently very much frightened, perhaps afraid of being -accused of something, grasped at this eagerly. - -"Oh, yes-sir. He was right in front of it, working on them new rats he -got in. Why? Will that lamp burn him?" - -"Those rays may have a disintegrative effect, some reaction in the human -body. I can't say. I saw it was on, and asked." - -If that was a solution, there was tragedy, but not a culprit--a careless -accident, instead, Roger mused. - -Was Toby's word, he mused, having made the stenographer contact the -police--was Toby's word to be trusted. Or had he--what? - -The ammonia, and chafing of wrists, had no beneficial effect. - -Almost immediately a police car came; and soon afterward the interne -from the ambulance was examining the man who had been put on the -laboratory's emergency cot. - -The doctor bent close, sniffed at the faint breath. - -"Get the stretcher," he ordered abruptly. - -"What is it?" Roger's voice shook. - -"Poison, I think." He used their medicinal emetics as a first-aid -measure, but almost without waiting for effects, took the inert figure -away. - -Mr. Zendt, standing reflective among the group of stunned laboratory -workers, suddenly confronted Toby. - -"Did he--drink anything?" - -"Y--er----" - -"_Did he?_" - -"I--no--yes, sir." - -"Water?" - -"Y--yes, sir." - -"Did he get it himself--where? What glass did he use? A clean one?" - -Under the fire of questions Roger saw Toby redden and then whiten, heard -him stammer and try to evade. - -Out of it all came a sudden declaration. - -"I never give him no poison. He told me to get him a drink. I went to -the cooler, and drawed water in the glass. I knowed it was clean. I -always get told about washing everything the minute it's done with, and -I did it even with the glass." - -If he had washed the glass, no evidence or clue to its former contents -would remain in it. Was that, thought Roger, a way that a person might -behave who had put something in the water? Or was Toby, as he insisted, -innocent. But no one else had been there! Or had Zendt, formerly up with -the doctor, put anything in that glass perhaps intended for either of -the pair working there? - -It was a maze. - -And out of the staff, two were impotent. - -Roger shuddered. A thought turned him all goose-flesh. - -Might some one else be the next? - -Which of them? - -Maybe he, himself, might be. - -Or--he thought--was it all over? Was the real culprit caught? - -The police arrested Toby, took him away. - - - - - Chapter 35 - THE STALKING TERROR - - -Roger left the laboratory. He located Grover. His recital amazed and -stunned his cousin. - -"Astrovox unconscious still. Ryder hovering in the balance. Toby in a -cell." Grover summed up. "Two attempts to reach you--and why? Can't you -think, Roger?" - -"I've mauled my brain, but I just don't see what I seem to be expected -to know." - -"And the missing jewel," groaned Grover. "Where is it?" - -"I haven't seen it since Clark put it in his pocket, in the temple, -Grover." - -His cousin considered the matter as they took lunch in a quiet corner of -an uptown restaurant. - -"You lock up securely and make certain that the devices all work." -Grover said, as they separated, "I shan't have to stay with the old man, -because it isn't expected that he will regain his wits for at least -several days. I must go to the museum. Business has to go on. Then I -will have a talk with Potts. We have given him what the French call a -'white card'--a clean slate. But--I want to question him. He might have -picked up the real gem. He could have realized what a find it was. He -may not have discarded it. And while I hate to suspect him--" - -"But he wasn't there, today, when Doctor Ryder--" - -"How do you know?" - -Roger was silent. Like Grover he hated the idea; but Potts had been -free, supposedly resting. He might have been around. If anybody could -know ways to get in--oh, it was not thinkable, though! - -Much more Roger preferred to mistrust the electricians, or the -bio-chemist. - -On his way back he stopped at home to get the record carrying the "fire" -and crackles. He would need a fresh record for that night. - -With his package he returned to the laboratory. Everything was quiet, -there. The men, in their activities, were sober but busy. Zendt greeted -Roger. - -"How is Astrovox?" - -Roger told him. It was suspicious, the young cousin decided, that Zendt -was so anxious. Less so, it seemed, about Doctor Ryder. He made no -inquiry, though Roger, coming in, had called up the hospital to learn -that the man was out of danger due to the prompt action of the interne -at the laboratory. He must be quiet, for ten days or, at least, for a -week, Roger had been told. - -"Astrovox," he told Zendt, "is unable to say anything, and they don't -expect anything else for days." - -That, he hoped, would "spike" any intentions the man might have to harm -the old astrologer. Not wishing to say more he hurried to the dark-room, -quickly put the waiting films in a time-and-temperature regulated bath -and went out of the place for the eighteen minutes that would elapse -during development. He busied himself clearing out the waiting -requisitions for minor needs from the stockroom, tested the glass used -by the doctor with no result, and then put the films in hypo. for -fifteen minutes, staying in the open rooms during fixing period and -washing afterward. He was not going to be caught in that dark-room, with -Grover and Potts away and some stalking menace quite possibly still -abroad. - -His list was still in the file, he made certain. He had thought that it -might have been taken; but he realized that whatever was on the paper -was also in his head, and that was why he was endangered. - -When it came close to closing time he helped clear away used trays and -other chemical apparatus, washing-up. He gathered up all films and got -ready for the next day's work. The developed and printed film he left on -the drying drums, not caring to stay long in the dark-room. - -When, close to the office at all times, he was certain that the staff -was absolutely out of the building, he began a careful and thorough, but -hurried series of operations. - -His decision to stay there all night, discussed with Grover, had finally -been agreed to by his older cousin. - -At home, there was no way to avert the trick used before. The fuse box -could not be guarded unless they hired a Falcon patrolman. - -That the laboratory was more impregnable had been proved the night -before by the effort used to enter. The fire, set off probably by a pole -carrying a light, inserted from above the telescope, had been assurance -that even the skylight was considered too risky by whoever had wanted to -enter. That one had set the fire, hoping that firemen would have broken -in, giving him--not her unless the stenographer was suspectable--a -chance to run in with them. - -What _they_ could want (or what _he_ could want), Roger did not seem -able to decide. Not the laboratory's secrets. When the false gem had -been sought in the safe, nothing else had been disturbed. - -Roger, determined to stay all night in the laboratory, made his -preparations with thoroughness and care in spite of his speed. - -The old microphones set at doors, windows and other probable entrances, -he tested. The cameras he took out of circuit. They would not need to -record, because no one must get in to be snapped. - -From the upper room he resurrected the old shadow-box with its panel of -lights, connecting them into circuits so that the least disturbance by -any microphone, even a vibration of its sensitive diaphragm by slight -sounds, would cut a relay and light the right lamp. - -The connections of the magnetic plates he traced, to be sure no one had -cut a cable. Where they all came together at the transformer Roger -transferred the connection from the 180-volt step-up to the next higher -output. Anyone touching any plate must receive a 300-volt charge. He -would not risk anyone getting away, granting that such a one got past -the bolts he wired fast, as he did with window catches. - -The fuse-box bothered him. If an intruder could in any way get in and -pull out fuses, perhaps all his precautions to hold them would be -futile. - -Presently a solution of that difficulty came to his trained mind. - -With the fuses left in place, he disconnected the cables that fed the -protective devices, wearing heavy rubber gloves and with rubbers on his -feet. - -Taking that set of flexible cables back behind the furnace and to the -main box of the electric company input, he risked later censure for -tampering with their property by breaking their seal on the box, -throwing off the big, main switch, and connecting-in his cables to the -main line just within the input lines. He closed the box, sealed it with -the switch again in the "on" blades, and knew that any outsider must be -ignorant of his precaution. The fuses could be pulled, the wires at the -switch-boxes could be cut, and still his plates and microphones would be -actively charged, potent and effective. - -Roger, effectively sealed in, he felt, sat down with the supper he had -ordered in, saving milk and sandwiches for later, and ate with a feeling -that he was safe. - -Half way through the meal, with an inspiration, he took a charged wire -from the main-line up to the telescope still poked up out of the -skylight. He had climbed up. If anyone started to climb down--what a -shock that telescope would give. - -Contentedly he closed his meal with a big cream-puff. - -Soon after that darkness came. Roger, unwilling to discover his presence -by lighting a light, sat comfortably in Grover's "thinking den," and put -his thoughts to work on the problem of that list of sounds. - -If he had only guessed it, his very elaborate precautions had been -overdone by just one protective effort. - -Night chased the western glow away and brought stars to look down upon a -very quiet, apparently deserted building. - -Roger, restless after an hour of fruitless thinking, wandered at slow -pace toward the upper floor, planning to start there on an inspection -route that would kill time and give new assurance. - -He had not completely mounted the stairs when he heard a sharp, almost -explosive crackle. His eyes were dazzled by a flash as if it had begun -to storm and lightning had flashed. He stood, transfixed. The flash -died, and to his amazement he heard a queer sound as if splintered glass -were dropping, tinkling and scattering; and yet it was a muffled sort of -clinking noise. - -He summoned his best courage and with shaking limbs crept on up to the -second story. There, looking around half-fearfully, he was more amazed -than ever. In the gloom, objects he knew well by location loomed without -any apparent change. The telescope pushed its long barrel upward, the -table and chairs, cabinets and cages, seemed as before. - -He threw on a switch for light. - -None came! - -He stood there, baffled. Had the power-house cut off their "juice" or -had a dynamo cut out for the time? No. There had been that detonation -and flash. A torpedo such as he had made? No--more like the spark from -their high-tension transformer jumping a gap. - -As he stood there, something below him went over with a crash! - - - - - Chapter 36 - A LAW OF NATURE - - -Roger, in the dark, hearing the echoes of that crash, felt fright that -nearly swept him into unreasoning panic. - -Not quite, though! - -With every effort of will he held his muscles steady when he wanted to -run. Clear faculties would be all he had left to pit against an -adversary certainly more than simply vindictive. The unknown was almost -as brilliant in mind as was his cousin, Grover. - -Grover? Why _he_ would have thought out that one and only way in. - -Roger, forcing himself to be calm, realized at once how his extra -protection had been turned against him. - -He had wired to the telescope. Some one, climbing the candy factory fire -escape, looking down from the roof of that building, could, by the angle -of view, have seen him attach that wire, peering down past the bulk of -the telescope. Thus charged, all the miscreant had to do was to lay a -wire or rod or any metallic carrier, from the candy factory drains or -rainspouts across to the skylight. By pushing it into contact with the -heavy charge in the telescope, a short-circuit could be established that -would blow even the main-line fuses. - -Thus, and in no other way, could the devices have been rendered -impotent, the locks be only held by wires which a powerful implement in -hands so adroit could easily sever. - -Even the alarms would not work. They had undoubtedly operated at the -instant of the break, and in time a Falcon patrol agent and anyone who -called police from home, would help him. But until then!---- - -He must, Roger knew, be his own protector. - -At ten Grover would arrive, using a pre-arranged signal. - -Not for an hour would he come. - -"Self-preservation is the first law of Nature," Roger's mind in a -whimsical flash reminded him. Instead of throwing his faculties into a -turmoil, the imminent danger calmed him. That much Grover had made him -learn. - -By opening a way in, the miscreant had, for Roger, made clear a way out. -He was, then, in no vital trap. - -He could afford to drive back panic, to think carefully what to do. - -If the whole building had been short-circuited, the telescope was no -longer charged. He had climbed it. Climb it he could again. - -His problem, though, was to trap his unknown adversary if he could. - -With no electrical help he must think out a plan. - -It must be clever, Roger knew. His menace was from a man as brainy as -was his cousin. And that, Roger felt, was a compliment to a very -unjustified person. - -He thought he knew what the crash had been. Something deliberately upset -in the cellar, to scare him. It had come about as long after the flash -as would have been consumed in rising to the roof on a rope, scuttling -down the fire escape, opening the cellar coal chute, and climbing down. - -He estimated the time that had since elapsed. The adversary had by now -gotten up the cellar stairway and would be on the ground floor. - -Would he come further or try to lure Roger down, the solitary youth -wondered. - -He must let that become apparent by what his keen ears would detect. - -He discarded all but attentive listening, making his mind focus on some -plan to trap his adversary. - -What his mind had, with seeming whimsicality, obtruded during his moment -of terror, came back to Roger. "Law of Nature." seemed to prod at his -thoughts. _What_ law of Nature? How would it help? - -Almost as though some inner monitor was going to save him, a mental -visualization of the laboratory seemed to become clear to his mind. He -saw the ceilings, with the slim pipes that ran here and there to -openings; and he connected the vision with the fact that their -fire-protective apparatus had _not_ functioned, when the alarm had been -set off. The tanks of heavy gas, under pressure, were still charged. - -"Gravity!" Roger's mind grasped at an idea, "that's the Law of Nature I -am trying to think up." - -As if he had received a key to a tantalizing problem, Roger solved his -course of procedure in a flash. In his mind he ran over their stock of -chemicals. Hydrocyanic acid, a stinging, powerful combination of -cyanogen and hydrogen; and hydrochloric acid--and many more. - -One of these, akin to a tear gas, would do. But he was cautious, and in -spite of the pressing uncertainty he paused to be sure he would not take -for his plan anything that could, in combination with the -fire-smothering gas, cause an explosion. - -Almost at once he had the solution. Sulphuretted hydrogen--the common, -refined gas that comes in the city mains from gas plants to stoves and -gas jets--_that_ would not explode in combination with the heavy gas in -the compression-tank system! - -He wanted a gas that would stupefy: but he needed to be sure that it -would lie, close to the floor. - -The gas in the fire-prevention apparatus was such a heavy gas that on -being liberated, under pressure, it would settle rapidly, diffusing and -spreading, as if it could be likened to a cloud, surcharged with -moisture, settled on the earth, enfolding it like a blanket. - -There, in the upper room, was the means of releasing the city gas, -which, Roger knew, would stupefy of its own constituents--even kill, in -time. He did not intend to give it that much time! He merely had the -desire to put his assailant into a state where he could not leave. - -Either the intruder was hesitating because of Roger's silence or he was -very quiet in his actions. - -Roger, equally quiet, was extremely active. He had unlaced and had -slipped off his shoes at once. On stocking feet he tiptoed to the large -gas outlet set into the wall for use with Bunsen burners or gas heaters -used in experiments where a regulated heat was needed. - -This he opened, full, by turning the valve one half a revolution. - -Darting swiftly away from its low, humming release of a heavy flow, he -ran quietly across to the thermostat on the wall, connected into the -fire alarm and release system. Under it was a manual lever, one to be -operated by hand, in any emergency where the thermometer failed. - -Swiftly Roger threw this on, and with his handkerchief tied over his -nostrils and back of his head, for already he smelled the gas of the -opened outlets, he swarmed up the telescope. - -The house-lighting gas, he knew, would be held down, running to the -lower floor down the stairway, and the amount released would be enough -to stupefy quite soon. Even if the adversary climbed the stairs, he -would be in a bath of the sleep-inducing sulphuretted hydrogen. - -With his arms and legs helping him rise, Roger clambered up the inclined -metal barrel of the telescope. At the top, above the flow of smother-gas -to kill fires, he paused, listening. - -Not a sound. - -To the roof he clambered, and sat on the coaming of their skylight, -looking down, waiting a few moments in case the other tried to come up. - -Below him all was silence. - - - - - Chapter 37 - REVELATION! - - -Soon Roger felt that he had given the gases time to flow down, to -produce at least inertia or coma. He must not dally too long. He -scrambled up the rain-drain as he had previously done. - -Down the front fire escape of the candy factory he scuttled. - -No one seemed to be near, as he gave a hasty survey. - -Then Roger stiffened, on the lower stage of the fire escape. On the -other side of the street some one emerged from a doorway. - -Hearing the man walk rapidly across, Roger dropped, landing in a crouch -that broke his fall. - -He meant to accost the person openly, and risk consequences. - -"Stop!" he shouted. - -He got almost as great a shock as had come from the flash of the -short-circuited telescope. - -"Rog'!" - -"_Tip!_" - -He recovered from his daze. A cold horror stole over him. - -Potts, their handy man, around there. And no one else. Or--was another -inside? More probably, smelling gas, Potts had retreated the way he had -come, escaping. - -"What are you doing here?" Roger demanded. - -"Watching. Grover bid me to." - -"Well, we will soon know. He's due at ten." - -Roger pretended he had something in his coat pocket. - -"You're covered, Potiphar. Don't try to escape." - -"Me?" in surprise. "Are you batty?" - -"Somebody short-circuited the telescope after seeing me wire to it, to -be sure no one got in to attack me. You'd know how to do that!" - -"Oh, yeah?" - -There would be a way to tell whether Potts was aware of the gas. - -"Easy to prove you're innocent. Let's go in and search." - -Briefly, not entirely, he stated the case, omitting the gas. - -Potts drew back. "We ain't--armed. I see through your scheme, with your -hand in that empty pocket. Nix. I go in when we get a cop or somebody." - -He might know about the gas and that would account for his lame excuse. -It was not like Potiphar, Roger thought, to shirk danger. - -"All right. But I've got to get in and shut off that gas." - -He had to let Potts go, just in case there was any other inside the -fume-filled lab. Roger, running to the drug store, where an ex-service -man was on duty as he remembered, begged him to find an old gas-mask. -The man hunted through some things in a back room, and gave Roger the -proprietor's old war trophy, which Roger, with his aid, adjusted. - -Thus protected, and aware that Tip still waited, he ran in with no fear -of setting off electrified alarms, dashed up to the second floor by aid -of a flashlamp picked up in the office, seeing no one. - -The gas he shut off hurriedly and then he set the thermostat lever back -in case the tanks held more unexpelled fumes. - -Throwing wide all the windows on the ground floor, he wished that they -had current for the fans to blow out more quickly the gases. - -Potts, waiting, wanted to quarrel about Roger's suspicions; but Roger -sent him to the drug store to return the mask and call the lighting -company, tell the rough conditions and get an emergency squad in to -re-fuse and seal their input boxes. - -Grover came along about the same time that the truck finished and -departed. - -Quickly, on the sidewalk, Roger recounted the situation. - -With current on, in spite of the company's annoyance at this tampering -with sealed boxes, Roger, smelling less gas than would be dangerous in a -momentary invasion, set fans going and rushed out. - -On the pavement they discussed conditions. Roger could not help feeling -that Potts was to blame, had been, in spite of all loyalties, in face of -past good conduct--Potts had been his adversary. - -"He was the one who put the record on my home recorder, with the -fire-call on it already." - -"How'd I know?" flared Potts, "I--it was with the unused ones." - -"Oh, yeah?" Roger threw back at him his former grunt. - -"Tip could have substituted an exposed film for the unused ones, so that -we developed the animals. He could have taken the film to the zoo and -got the kangaroo, maybe with an ape. We can check," he insisted. "He -could have transferred the first culture meant for the rats to the place -behind Doctor Ryder's racks." - -"For that matter, Grover could of did any of them. He could have as much -cupola as me." - -"Cupola?" broke in Roger. - -"He means 'cupidity'," remarked Grover, "thinking about the Eye." - -"But _he_ says he found it. Admits it. And Mr. Clark vows he had -blundered, and threw away the good gem," persisted Roger, sure of his -incriminating clues. "Who says the gem was left in India? Who had the -sense to pull fuses, to stop our devices? Who else but somebody trained -by you, Grover----" - -"Well, _you_ was trained, too," cried Potts, angry. - -"The gas is expelled by now," Grover had not lost his cold, serious -expression. "There is desperate need for action, more than for -recrimination. Let's go in." - -They sat in the office. Roger recounted the clever warning with his -watch charm on its big chain, given by Doctor Ryder, and all the -mystifying, or incriminating conversations and occurrences, including a -fuller account of his experience in the dark-room. - -"I suppose the poor mice are gassed," he muttered, finally. - -But Grover was not listening. - -"Tip," he stood up, "help me push this desk aside." - -Potts did as bidden. - -"No shot was fired in here," Grover snapped. "When Astrovox was later -assaulted. What happened, Roger? Don't you know? And _you_ exploded a -torpedo to call attention to a certain place and away from some other?" - -Roger was all at sea for a moment. - -"Astrovox was leaving. The other fellow didn't know that." Grover had -caught some clue or hint, somewhere. He was as active, as alive, as if -he had never been a cold, precise, restrained scientist. - -"Some one wanted us all to run here. As he produced the summons, -Astrovox ran in. The man realized that he was recognized. Poor Astrovox! -Well, he will recover. And--see there!" - -He pointed to a brown, scorched spot under the far edge of the desk as -it had been before. - -"A foot, on an explosive, such as your torpedo, Roger. Evidence out of -sight. Evidently had no time, later, to remove the burn, but did remove -the exploded detonating cap. Rubbed his shoe over it. See the scorch? -Test and you will get something like a gunpowder reaction. Maybe you can -scrape up dust that would test out with the nitric acid to show the -stains of explosive gases." - -Of a sudden he straightened up. - -"The acid test!" - -Roger, and Potts, gaping, had no way of following the swift deductions -which the Mystery Wizard, on the trail at last, made. - -"Roger--no, Potts, you do it--run out and bring a taxi. Roger, you go up -and watch in the stock-room, but keep out of range of any missile sent -through the skylight." - -He began writing as Tip rushed out and Roger obeyed. On his way, as -Potts came racing back, Roger heard, "Go to that address. Bring every -shoe you can dig up. And get what's written below, on your way back." - -He locked the door after the man departed. Roger heard the alarms being -re-set. Then his older cousin joined him. - -"What told you?" Roger knew that the Mystery Wizard was, at last, living -up to his name. - -"Claws-on-glass. Think. That was one big error. You have told me the -truth." - -Roger was baffled. He saw nothing that he had said which linked up with -the queer, sizzly, scrapey, frying and clicking sound. - -Grover, with the upper floor extension plugged in, made call after call. -"Grover Brown, calling Chief of Police--hello--that you? Chief, we're -going to have a round-up at the lab." The usual calm was nil-minus. -"Will you?--Glad if you come with the men--I will ask you not to let the -men be seen--Wait at corners, across the street--Watch the skylight of -our roof for a blue signal--Yes, then come in a hurry--Good-bye." - -To Roger's stupefaction he repeated almost the same instructions to the -men from Tibet, adding, "And--I promise to return to you the genuine Eye -of Om--Good-bye." - -"But what told you, Grover?" - -Grover glanced at his wrist-watch. - -"The one clue that no one else could furnish." - -He stood erect, alert, his eyes glinting. - -"We've got work to do. Let's get going!" - - - - - Chapter 38 - THE VIGIL - - -"Blue glow," Roger gasped. "Are _you_ going to have fireworks too?" - -"No. You will adjust the big sun-lamp so it sends rays upward. Put the -blue filter from the star-reader's plant beds on it. It is only fair -that part of his equipment should help catch and round up the one who -struck him." - -Roger, with nothing but thoughts to occupy him, went to prepare the -signal. He could hear Grover making calls. To a police Bureau. To his -staff men. To Falcon's patrol agency. - -To Roger it appeared to be as dense a mystery as ever; but to his -brilliant cousin something had torn aside the fog. - -He tried to fathom that evasive clue. He went over his ideas. Claws on -glass? No! Then what, besides? Something he should recognize in the -light of what he knew. Something that the miscreant had imagined him -bright enough to have guessed, perhaps. - -It escaped him, eluded his every attempt to read that riddle. - -Only a short time was he allowed to concentrate. - -There were hookups to be made. A chair in the store-room was to be wired -down two legs, positive and negative wiring, a plate of metal as thin as -possible was to be found and put on the seat, with small clamps to hold -it in place under a thin covering cloth. It was to be left where it -stood, but two wires must be taken from a wall outlet, led to small, -flat disks like microphone diaphragms, tacked onto the floor at a place -Grover designated. - -With that done and the wires fixed in a plug-in to fit the outlet, Roger -left the circuit disconnected as ordered, and busied himself leading -wires from the sun-lamp, with its blue cover-glass, to the stock-room -shelves where they must be so set that a can of film, shifted and -dropped over them by hand, would complete the circuit, act as a switch -to light up the sun-lamp. - -Grover came up, inspected, and pronounced the work well done. - -"Now, get a nitric acid test-bath ready, in a big container--and have -some wax melted and ready for the test for exploded gases." - -"Whose hands did we overlook?" - -"No hands. Feet." Grover answered, alertly, and with a -smile--mystery-solving seemed to transform him from a staid, -self-contained scientist into an eager, boyish experimenter. - -"Shoes?" - -"Exactly." - -"His?" - -"Right." - -"Then--whose?" - -"If you are too dull to have read your own sound clues, Ear Detective, -far be it from me to dull your wits by telling. Think!" - -Presently Millman, Zendt, Ellison, Hope and several other staff men, in -pairs or alone, arrived. They were eager, excited as they questioned. -Grover, picking Roger's list of clues out of his file, presented it and -suggested that what he had learned they could learn, while Roger -recounted his own experiences up to date. - -That was done; and they pored over his list. Grover, getting a lot of -amusement out of their guesses, chuckled to himself; but his younger -cousin felt that he was watching them to see when the guilty one would -crack and admit that he was cornered. - -Who, besides, could be guilty? Doctor Ryder was in hospital; so was -Astrovox. So, in jail, Toby Smith was out of the night's excitement. - -To his amazement, a police car, arriving, brought an officer who brought -in the last captive he had been thinking about--Toby. - -The men seemed to have found no light in Roger's list. - -Roger, who had heard their sane, or wild surmises, suddenly sat up. - -Some brain cell, stimulated by the continual stress of cogitation, spoke -its concealed message. - -"I know--Grover--how dumb I've been." - -He scribbled a name on a slip from the office desk. - -Grover nodded. - -"You should have seen--heard the right answer long ago." - -"I left it for the Mystery Wizard, so he could keep up his reputation," -grinned Roger. - -The Tibetans walked past, identifying their presence, but went on down -the street. Grover, watchful, looking out of the window, made a signal -that he had noticed them, and then suggested that they all go up to the -stock room. - -There, in the silence, with no light except that in the monitor-panel -which Roger had set up to show which entrance was used when they could -expect callers, they sat around, puzzling and trying to make Grover -speak, although any one of them could have been suspicious of any other, -the way they talked. A light announced the arrival of a visitor, but -Grover did not move. Potts, he knew, was coming; and his inference was -the right one. - -Potts, with a bagful of shoes, came in and dropped his find beside -Grover's chair. - -"Take this chair, old fellow," Grover was very grave and had an air of -trying to make up to his handy man for Roger's mistrust; but Roger knew -that the chair moved over so casually had been most carefully set on two -small disks, not charged yet--but how easily so made active agents for -trapping the sitter! - -"Now we must be patient," Grover stated, arranging the nitric-acid bath, -paraffin heater and other apparatus on a table. "I shall test some -shoes, presently, and I expect them to verify my judgment. In the dark, -though, I shall give the miscreant one chance to secure his Eye of Om -before I denounce him." - -Someone, in the dark, shifted his feet, Roger imagined, uneasily. - -"You don't mean to say you left it there!" It was Toby who made the -gasping admission in his sudden excitement. - -_He_ knew it was there! - -"Still where, for all your seeming denseness, you worked out its place," -agreed Grover. "If you care to, you might apologize to Roger for telling -the millionaire collector that _he_ had it. Of course it was to avert -all suspicion from yourself." - -"Aw--" - -He did not have time to complete his denial or blustering cry. - -A light in the tell-tale went out. The main door was opening. - -"Nervy," commented Grover. - -A strange, heavy thudding, or thumping, accompanied by something as much -like the drag of a heavy rope as any other sound, told Roger that some -weird development was coming. Could it be--really, a kangaroo? - -And why, then, was there a strange chattering and jumping sound? - -What would they see? - -Those sounds grew louder. The stairway shook. Low growls or words of -command sounded. - -Some animal, approaching. Or animals! No man--Roger was sure. - - - - - Chapter 39 - THE APE AND THE KANGAROO - - -Whatever was in the laboratory, it was coming straight up to the second -floor. Roger, crouched beside the floor outlet to await a signal to plug -in and electrify that chair, wondered why Grover did not move the film -can, make contact and light the signal lamp to summon the police and the -Tibetans. - -Instead, Grover spoke, low and meaningly. - -"The first man who gets up is the guilty one!" - -Zendt, who had started to rise, sank back abruptly. Ellison and Millman -stayed as they were, half bent forward. - -"Guilty nothing!" Toby spoke in a rasping voice. "Think I'll sit here -and let something attack me?" - -"You heard me," snapped Grover. - -Roger knew that it would be a question of seconds only; and they would -then see the approaching creature. - -There in the dark it was a tense moment, and a nerve racking one. - -Louder, thudding on the floor, with a strange dragging sound at the end -of each pause, came the approach. - -"Roger--that bag." - -"The shoes, Grover?" in dismay. What was the matter with Grover? - -"Quickly. That bag." - -Roger lifted it, and Grover, snatching it, opened the paper sack, -dragged out a bulky object, just discernible in the dim light they had -from the tell-tale panel. - -Roger gasped. - -"Boxing gloves!" - -"Lights!" snapped Grover; and as Potts, lifting an arm, snapped on the -wall switch just above the place his chair occupied, Roger saw his -cousin pulling on the padded mitten-like objects. - -Whether the rest knew or not, that told Roger what to expect, if not the -whole situation. A kangaroo. A boxing kangaroo. The one he had -photographed when he had questioned its attendant who had said no pet or -trained animal had left the stable. - -In the next room something stopped, and there came, not loudly, a low -command. - -There was an interval of suspense. What, Roger wondered, was the -condition in that partitioned place adjoining their waiting room? - -After a momentary wait, and more seemingly guttural commands, the -thumping was resumed; and the animal, in short hops, came to the -entrance door. - -There it paused as if dazzled or surprised at the light or by the crowd. - -Behind it, in the other, darker room, shown by their own light, Roger -saw a hairy, man-like creature, either chimpanzee or some other large -mammal it seemed to be. The kangaroo's keeper, he assumed. - -Just as in the under-exposed film, where the ghostly ape and its -Australian companion had seemed to dance, the kangaroo hopped in, while -the ape, grimacing and beating its chest, danced in behind it. - -Straight at Grover leaped the kangaroo. It wore boxing gloves! - -Roger, crouched, tense and frightened, saw his cousin, with a typical -boxer's stance, prepare to carry the coming battle to his astonishingly -expert antagonist. - -In that room, while the company shrank back, against walls, pushing -their chairs out in front of them, leaving a clear space, the animal and -the man closed in as fast and as bizarre a contest as Roger had ever -viewed. Not clumsily, but with lightning-quick jabs of its short -forearms the beast lunged, taking blows without a sound. - -Grover, clever through gym training, fast on his feet, evaded the fairly -clumsy leaps and lunges. At every chance he got in a blow. - -If, as Roger inferred, the ape was indeed the trainer, the bulky -creature bore out the idea. Grover had to watch the skipping, leaping -hairy thing that tried to get around and catch him; and also, as far as -Roger could discern his cousin's tactics, Grover seemed to be so -handling his leaps and side-wise ducking that the ape would be mostly -near to Potts who sat, tense, but still, in that chair; and Roger, -crouched by the wall outlet, wondered if he, the handy man, meant to -take part and if Grover had foreseen it. - -"No you don't!" Grover seemed to be talking to the kangaroo, but of -course it was the ape he really meant to have hear, Roger knew. - -"You keep far from the cabinet. What if it is ... och--oh! Missed me, -old fellow ... even if it is unlocked." - -As though telling a story as he dodged and ducked, Grover always talked -as he maneuvered, his breath well conserved by his ease of action. - -"So there _was_ a scientific student who turned to jewel theft! ... he -did want to get rich quickly ... he was clever ... made a specialty of -locating ... prized gems.... Through a jeweler named Clark, he ... he -got into contact with those ... who would pay well ... got the gems ... -used the jewelry place as a clearing house...." - -In that fashion he began outlining a solution. - -"Heard of the Eye of Om, didn't he?... Went to Tibet, taking Toby ... -didn't dare make a stab for it, though...." - -Grover jumped back so that the monkey missed grabbing him. - -"Got through Clark a man ... who would pay fabulous price for that Eye. -And ... worked out plan to have it so cleverly stolen _for him_ that he -would never be suspected by Tibetans or other gem thieves ... oh, you -would, eh?..." as the ape made a lunge and Roger, avoiding it, had to -drop to his haunches to avoid the boxing kangaroo's leap and stroke, -"Would, eh?... try to get to that cabinet.... Like to paw the Eye of the -Buddha, eh, would you?" as the ape started to take a part by coming up -to grasp him from behind. Roger was about to shout, but he saw that -Grover, like an eel, slipped aside. He did not strike at the ape. - -"The gem robber knew he would be suspected if he ... took the Eye ... -returned to America ... made an elaborate plan ... would use science ... -chose our lab...." - -Grover, his cousin saw, as did the rest, kept maneuvering so as to keep -the lunging paws approaching as he backed around. For some unseen -purpose he seemed to be manipulating his actions so that he could get -the ape and the kangaroo into some desired relationship or position. - -Roger, still at his place, not daring to desert his post, saw the ape -back toward Potts. - -Instantly, as though by some previous order, Potts snapped his body out -of the chair, and with his arms, catching the thing that walked upright -like a man around its torso, he dragged its shaggy body backward off the -huge feet and flung it into the chair. - -"Plug in!" - -Still dancing backward from the leaping kangaroo, Grover shouted. Roger, -checking the tremble and shake of his excited hands, swiftly drove home -the prepared plug and at the same instant from the thus electrified -chair rose a sheer animal howl of pain and fright and fury. - -Still alert, Grover had a moment to catch his breath. - -As if startled, the kangaroo paused. On haunches, its forepaws were -hanging down over its pouch--it was a female with the pouch to carry its -young!--while from the chair came the most ferocious grunts and -screeches. The trainer, thought Roger, was an actor in spite of his -surprise. He maintained the animal voice well. - -As if prepared for the situation, Potts dragged from a pocket some -light, strong electric wire, and with gloves of rubber which Roger had -seen him getting ready, he managed to get the wire around the beast, or -rather, as Roger put it to himself, the man in the animal hide. - -"You can cut the plug out, now, Roger." - -Grover, with a wary eye on the still quiet kangaroo, which had not -moved, spoke the command. Roger obeyed. - -Released from the shocking cycles of current, the thing in the chair -growled and struggled against the bonds which Potts had cleverly wound -to prevent use of arms or legs. So powerful, though, was the beast, that -it once upset the chair and had to be righted, growling and using -guttural imprecations or shouts of hatred. - -"To go on with my story," Grover calmly confronted the quiet kangaroo, -"the man chose our laboratory as the base of his plans. He came here. To -start his operations, he watched his chance one night, and hid in our -large refrigerating unit, that is in the spare-stores room, since we -used it to test chilling processes for food shipments. - -"Being unsuspected, he had been able to make certain preparations. -First, he put the culture intended to inoculate some white rats, into -our chemical section, half-hidden, but purposely left where it could -throw suspicion on a certain person. Then, when the rats had been -inoculated, but with a harmless drug that made them sleep, he was ready -for his next step." - -To Roger's surprise, everyone had been so amazed and so startled by this -calm recital aimed, apparently, at a dumb brute that sat back with -drooping, glove-shrouded forepaws and listened!--or was too baffled by -the capture of the trainer to continue the battle--the staff had settled -in the chairs again. - -"This mysterious, clever criminal," Grover coolly proceeded to tell the -animal his theories and deductions. "This former student of various -biological, chemical and related subjects, bribed an animal trainer who -had a vaudeville animal act, to let the animal used in the act come -here. He wanted it to be caught if any plan failed, so he could -disappear but the animal could not tell on him." - -He bent forward, and quietly removed the laced ham-like gloves from the -beast's relaxed paws, and it seemed not to resent the act, but let the -free forearms hang loosely across its stomach, and pouch. - -"Borrowing the white rats from the act, this miscreant prevented them -from being inoculated by exchanging labels on the culture, later -recovering the labels as the bottles emptied were thrown to the fire. -The labels, on the real culture again, were put where they would seem to -clear someone by incriminating him through circumstantial position in -the racks. Really, though, they had a different purpose." - -He startled all but Roger. - -"The appearance was that the man whose rack they occupied was being -persecuted. In reality, he did it himself, to make me suspect every -other staff man." - -"Not Doctor Ryder!" Millman gasped. - -"You have named the culprit." - -"But he's poisoned, in the hospital----" - -Grover went right on, ignoring Ellison's shout. - -"He confused us by 'stealing' the rats, and in other ways, because he -wanted us to think of every possibility but the real one." - -"And that was?----" prompted Hope. - -"He wanted us to help him take a false imitation of the Eye of Om to a -Tibetan temple, replace it for the true one, which he could then sell -for a great sum. In other words, what we thought we were doing, helping -restore the true jewel, was exactly the reverse! - -"We innocently helped remove the True Eye of Om!" - - - - - Chapter 40 - THE MYSTERY WIZARD'S SOLUTION - - -While the beast shackled in the chair kept up its hoarse growls and -struggles, Grover outlined, for the benefit--it seemed--of a -kangaroo--or the one in the chair--his deductions. - -"Was that clever? You know it was. To plan to steal a sacred gem under -the pretext of replacing a fake one with the true Eye." - -Roger had not guessed that, nor, by the exclamations, had the rest of -the group--or most of them. - -"The mystery of the white rats, supposed to be deadly menaces because we -thought they were inoculated with germs of a spinal malady, got our -attention turned to every possible idea but the real one. - -"To add to our consternation, give a ghostly touch with the animal -'spooks' on a film, this clever thief made a record of what he recalled -about the Tibetan Buddha's 'Voice of Doom.' Like most criminals, he -overshot his mark, adding the grind of rocks, when in truth there was no -such grind. The sound was caused by wind, always howling across the -Himalayas, coming through a wind-tunnel cut in rock from the base of a -cliff to the lamasery temple on its crest. - -"He made a record, with moans, cries and groans, and added the effect of -the rock closing, from his imagination of what would be right." - -That record he had managed to slip onto their own recorder-reproducer -machine, with a hookup which Roger knew all about, Grover went on. The -weird manifestation had startled them, while watching for the man, one -night. With a Balsa-wood speaker hidden flat on a dusty shelf, he had -caused a spooky voice to draw them up where the prepared film, in a can -carefully re-sealed, was handy to be taken and, later, developed, to -complicate mysteries further with the spooky animals, he added. - -"That was all for the reason that he had to bring in Tibet, logically," -went on Grover, "he had to prepare us for the fact that he was in danger -from the Tibetan vengeance. Of course, by this time, the staff knows, as -we do, who I refer to." - -Of course, Roger decided. The others nodded. Who, but the guilty man he -accused, could be meant? He had said the man was menaced. - -"Doctor Ryder was the only one who claimed he was threatened," said -Millman, "and I suspected Roger of playing jokes!" - -"Well, I suspected you when you came to my room," retorted the youthful -listener. - -"And I did not know whom to suspect," Grover took up his story. "Clues -pointed this way and that. Appearances are easily falsified and I tried -to dig past them to truth--only, I lacked the right hint, and never -dreamed that a gem was to be stolen under the pretext of restoring it! -That was easily planned, for once the gem had been seen, perhaps -photographed with a watch-camera or some small photographic device, a -man like Clark, working with him for a share of the profit from various -gem sales, could reproduce in imitation the green jewel." - -Toby, he inferred--and the youth eagerly attested the truth of the -inference--had been paid well, being a former helper at the Clark store -on Fifth Avenue, but out of work--had been paid to sell the supposedly -"real" Eye, its facsimile, for an absurd amount, as he had accepted a -movie camera. - -"I fell into the lure," Grover hurried along, "because, for a time, the -Tibetan Voice of Doom manifestation, and the robbery of our safe, -confused me. It was easy to do that last by de-fusing our cellar -switch-boxes, a point I had never thought of. Scientists, like -criminals--or average people--trip up often enough on some minor point -in a plan." - -Because the radio would allow him to be in touch, and for the sake of -the travel, adventure and scientific aid Roger would get and give, his -older cousin confessed that he had been glad to see Roger help the -supposed replacement of a sacred relic. - -"Clark was brought in cleverly by use of a record. It was the same one -that had been used for the Voice here, and when the needle was dropped -onto the unused part, it made a thump that was one of the sounds of a -series of clues which puzzled Roger and me, because the _appearance_ was -that it was all one recording. - -"The trip to Tibet went off as scheduled. Roger, really a sort of 'bait' -because of his youth, was, as hoped, taken up to the lamasery as a sort -of curiosity--a young American well up in scientific methods and -operations. Innocently he played the thief's plans, and still the very -apparatus that he insisted on taking there made the lamas suspicious, -especially one of their wiser men who had been out of their country, who -understood English, and who had read Roger's memoranda of radio talks to -and from lamasery and camp. - -"With Tibetan vindictiveness, they let him hear the Voice of Doom, -probably operated by a concealed priest in the hollow image, and then -consigned him, and Potts, to the tunnel. By sheer wit and scientific -knowledge Roger found that he was in a sort of whistling tube, operated -when the rock door was opened, by wind. He worked out, with Tip's wise -help, the secret, and they escaped. - -"Clark, when Roger got to camp, took the supposed Eye and with Roger -watching and unsuspicious, actually replaced the true Eye with the false -one he and Ryder had brought along. He had another, and to make Roger -think he was genuinely through with the stone, so as to be clear if any -Tibetan revenge developed, he threw away one more imitation. Potts, -worried about the levers having been wedged which he considered an error -of judgment, went back to repair it." - -So interested were the men in following the developing solution that -they had forgotten how bizarre was this relation of a mystery and its -unveiling--to a beast. - -The animal seemed fascinated, or cowed, or subdued in some way. Perhaps, -thought Roger, the plight of the hidden keeper made it tame. - -Grover drew his theories into shape. - -"Naturally, with the real gem, Clark and Ryder made all speed to radio -the prepared airplane. It met them. In Bombay, as he had no desire to be -further involved, Potts discarded the false gem he had picked up." - -Then, proceeding on pure deduction, Grover felt that the Tibetans had -discovered their real loss, had discerned that Roger and Tip had solved -the intricate tunnel secret and had escaped. To write, with Roger's -discarded note book as a guide, in a semblance of his writing, was easy. -The letter had come by fast mail steamers and had further confused him. - -"Then the thief, with the gem in his fellow-worker's possession, -encountered difficulties," went on Grover; "the man who had been -intending to buy the jewel probably became frightened, afraid of the -danger that the stone might bring around him. So many priceless jewels -carry curses, or bring disaster, that he must have gotten 'cold feet' -and a new buyer had to be sought. The gem, also, had to be secured, in -case the Tibetans actually put into action their vengeful methods. - -"Toby was working here. Ryder thought it a clever plan to have this -former aide help him, and so he concealed the gem and had it innocently -delivered here, but Toby, not as dumb as he was considered, suspected -the truth, discovered the hidden gem, and on his own hook offered to -sell it to a buyer he had known at Clark's store. - -"That made it necessary for Ryder to recover the gem quickly from the -concealment no longer unsuspected here. He tried to get people away from -upstairs, by detonating with his foot a torpedo under our office desk; -but Astrovox, our scientific star-student, had been about to go home, -frightened by some foolish combination of star-positions and a -manifestation planned to scare him away. He walked in before Ryder could -hide, recognized him--and the desperate man struck him. - -"Soon thereafter he realized that in a list of some fifteen sounds made -by Roger there lay the actual clue that incriminated him and no one -else!" - -"What was it?" asked Ellison anxiously or eagerly, Roger told himself. - -"What Roger thought was claws-on-glass. His very first sound-clue. With -that on a list, and in the clever head of the stock-room clerk, Ryder -had two things to do quickly. He must get the gem, and he must either -find a way to throw suspicion elsewhere or get Roger out of the way." - -Roger realized why many attempts had been made, like the one in the -dark-room. - -"I warned Roger. Ryder, when Toby--who knew where the gem -was--telephoned him that he had left explosives out in the open--Ryder -tried to use that as a way to lure Roger here to open up, because we had -so arranged things that actually no one could even enter and not be -caught--he was deadly afraid of being electrocuted too soon. - -"But Roger is still safe, the gem is available, and so--as you well -know, there is no more mystery, except this: - -"How do you think you are going to get the Eye of Om--now?" - -Roger stared at his cousin. Saying that. To a beast! - - - - - Chapter 41 - MAN AND BEAST - - -With his mocking smile Grover walked over to their safety cabinets, -unlocked and threw one wide open. - -Roger, with Potts, sidled over near the door, to block the beast if it -had been taught to snatch anything in its paws and hop away. - -"No need," Grover laughed, "with its partner, the ape, bound. There is -no way to get out of that hide." He gestured toward the cabinet. "There -it is, just as you hid it, the True Eye, in a can supposed to contain -medicating compounds to use on the rats. Clever, just as was entry into -Roger's room, with the 'Fire' record, by that often-used idea of the -pulled fuse. I have wondered why you did nothing to him. Or did Millman -come along too soon and scare you off?" - -He paused, and they all stared. Could Grover have miscalculated, Roger -wondered, in implying that the kangaroo was the impersonator? He had -assumed it was the ape. - -The beast, on its haunches and flatly extended tail, reached two clawed -paws upward, caught one of the round cans from the front row, and -dropping it in the loose pouch, in the skin, turned and started hopping -toward the door, its claws upraised. - -Grover, as it moved toward the chair occupied by the ape, deftly caught -its tail and swung an end around a chair leg. - -"Shall I turn on the current?" he chuckled. - -The animal became quiet, stopped. - -Once only he tried to escape and when Potts made a move to obstruct the -way Grover calmly waved him back. - -"But he's got the can, Grover!" Roger also stepped forward. - -Grover actually grinned at them. - -"Let him go," Grover waved back Potts and Roger as the thing began to -hop toward them and they made preparations to try to stop it. - -"The Doctor," went on Grover as the animal paused an instant, "to get -Toby where his word would not be trusted, to remove him from the -laboratory before he could take away the gem he knew about, planned his -own poisoning this morning. He sent Toby for a drink, and by swallowing -some quick-acting sedative, perhaps strong codein, or another of the -poppy derivatives, he seemed to be poisoned. To make it appear like -strychnine or some other--wait! I'll venture to assert that in the other -room Roger will find the shell of some pit such as you crack in a peach -and extract a tiny kernel. Those inner kernels of a peach pit, chewed -up, would leave on his breath just the same odor as a very dangerous -poison which I shan't name." - -Later that was verified. Roger found the cracked peach pit. - -"It was easy to 'recover' and come here tonight," Grover ended. - -He stood, looking with a mocking smile at the crouched beast and the -bound animal. The latter, quiet for a moment, growled deeply. - -"The ape, trained at a certain point, to unfasten the kangaroo-skin so -that Doctor Ryder can wriggle out of it, can't help," he remarked. "Oh, -yes," to Millman's question, "the ape is genuine, a well trained animal. -The kangaroo--shall we help him?" - -He walked over, and with a quick motion pointing out the laced -arrangement of eyelets under an armpit--or forepaw--he dragged the -lacing apart. - -Revealed, it was seen by all that Doctor Ryder actually was in the skin, -crouched down as the size of the animal compelled him to be so that he -could barely get his forearms into the front paws. - -The head, too small to hold his own cranium, was fixed almost in one -position by supports, and eye-holes were cut lower in the skin, well -concealed by the way the skin of the chest was sewed and the animal hair -arranged. - -"He rented it from the animal trainer, who sometimes put it on, and -played the part of his own animal in the act if the kangaroo became too -fractious or when it was ill in our varied climate as they travelled -from theatre to theatre." - -Cramped, scowling, Doctor Ryder emerged. - -"Very cleverly worked out," he growled. "Yes, it is all true. I did plan -to have your laboratory staff help me steal the Eye, just the way you -have it worked out. And if it had not been for Roger, almost at the -beginning thinking of developing a sound-film I had neglected to put out -of commission, you might not have found out." - -"Probably we never would," Grover agreed, and as bluecoats came tramping -up the stairs, with a man who went at once to his animal, and with -soothing words quieted it, released and removed it, the Tibetan lama and -his cohorts came in. - -"But what _was_ the sound-clue?" asked Millman, "the fire-cry on a -record supposed to be unused? I got that, you know. But it meant only a -prank of Roger's to me." - -"Neither that, which revealed how the Balsa-wood was connected up, nor -the Voice of Doom, made by Ryder, here, but not traceable to him alone; -nor the click as he switched on the motor; nor the clicks as his trained -thief's fingers manipulated our safe; nor the rest." - -"Well, what _did_ the sound that Roger described as claws on glass -really signify that linked up Ryder and not any of us?" asked Zendt. - -The pseudo-physician, scowling, was twirling his watch-charm with -nervous fingers as he watched the Tibetans who scowled at him. - -"He is showing you," Grover remarked. - -"Don't you see?" Roger turned to Millman. "I got the right idea only -just tonight." - -"The watch-chain? But----" - -"You, Mr. Millman, and Mr. Ellison, were on the ground floor when the -man came down because he had seen the rich man arrive in his car, and -knew Toby had played false to him," Grover stated. - -"Think," Roger hinted, "he twitched and twirled that charm so it flicked -light from the gold, the way a heliograph does." - -"That, when Roger told me, connected him with the first sound-clue of -the scratching, hissing, clicking sound at first claimed to be a snake, -then supposed to be his kangaroo." - -"Don't you see," interposed Tip, who was improving, by leaving out the -big words, "he had to bend over to get the rats out of the trap on top -of the cage. He brought the ape to unlace his disguise. And his watch -chain and charm scraped and rattled and slid on the cage, and our -sound-camera film got the sound from the microphone inside the cage." - -"Of course--and no one else wears a chain and charm," agreed Zendt, "we -all have wrist-watches." - -"Well, what's the use of holding me for all this?" growled the man by -the skin. He picked it up. - -"I'll just return this--go on and arrest me if you have any charge you -can support with evidence that a clever lawyer can't break down," -snarled the man. - -"A sound record, through your own Balsa-wood device, and down to our -recorder, will do the trick," Grover smiled. "Made by you, just now, -when you admitted all my previously recorded accusations." - -"All right. I'm licked. Good night, all." - -He turned as if to give himself up to a policeman. - -"He's got the Eye, in with that compound!" cried Roger, as Toby pointed -at the pouch in the Kangaroo skin. - -"Oh, no he hasn't," Grover actually chuckled in triumph, "in the same -way that he substituted the prepared can of film for a blank strip when -he handed Roger the can to load the magazine--so his animal ghosts would -seem to appear on an unexposed film when developed, I substituted a can -of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and a trace of ozone, perhaps, and a few -other gases----" - -"Air?" gasped Ryder, shaking the can taken from the skin. - -"A free sample of air that is no longer contaminated by the gas Roger so -cleverly used to drive you out--a ruse that enabled me to get here -before you could return in disguise." - -The man was defeated. - -He was allowed to remain only long enough to make Grover's triumph -complete by sending Roger to the cabinet to take down the can just -behind the place from which he had removed his false one. - -Therefrom, the Tibetans were glad to receive, as they forgot all -animosity toward Roger, the true Eye of Om. - -For his attempts on Roger's safety and his act toward Astrovox, Ryder -stayed behind bars a long time. - - - - - Chapter 42 - CLOSING TIME - - -The Ear Detective, more favored than ever because he had been the means -of listing sound-clues, one of which had completely linked Ryder into -his crime, was busy. - -Astrovox, well recovered from his blow on the temple, was going to -"shoot" the stars as they crossed over the lens of his telescope and -Roger was getting a sound-film into a camera. - -"Why in the world did Ryder have to go to all that trouble?" the old -star-reader inquired. "How much simpler to have come in his own clothes. -More freedom for his hands, that way, and no need to bring the ape to -unlace his animal skin." - -"He knew," Roger explained, "about out protective device, and by wearing -the skin and bringing the dancing ape, he would never be photographed -and he would fool us all the more." - -"Well," remarked Astrovox, "you'll remember that Neptune--the planet of -deception--was opposed by Saturn, the planet of obstruction, and there -was an opposition of Mars, ruling explosives, with Uranus, which is, you -might say, the planet that brings up the unexpected." - -Roger smiled to himself. - -Good old Astrovox, he mused, with his oppositions and "aspects" and all, -was, still, a very clever scientist, and must be humored. - -"Yes," he chuckled, "and if I remember all you told me, something like -this was in the 'horoscope' that day. The 'sixth house' has to do with -animals--smaller animals, and Neptune with larger ones." - -"That is my astrological teaching." - -"Well, Neptune is in that sixth house, and if Saturn is the planet of -obstruction it shows why the false doctor in his deceptive disguises, -would be obstructed or caught." - -"Rats!" Tip snapped. - -"Rats are under the sixth house," Astrovox seriously persisted in -apparently preposterous ideas, "and Neptune showed how the gas was used -and also how the acid test, when Grover applied it to the shoes Ryder -had worn, revealed in the paraffin cast the exploded gas of the torpedo -he had stepped on to attract attention just when I ran in and recognized -him." - -"What explains _my_ denseness?" Grover arrived, with a special quartz -lens for some prism-and-spectroscope color work, "I was put off the -track at first because Ryder knew my favorite axiom, 'dig past -appearances that can be falsified, to find truth which is ever the -same.' He deliberately hid the culture tubes in his own racks, and I -fell into his trap, trusting him, thinking he was being victimized by -some one else. It made it possible for him to be here, operate the trick -with the Voice of Doom and hand Roger the prepared film supposed to be -unexposed, carrying his animal pictures that he took at a special -performance given him for good pay by the animal trainer." - -"Your density was because Mercury was in the twelfth house, and squared -the moon in the third--wrong deductions." - -"Maybe those 'houses' are true," chuckled Grover, "I know one house _I_ -am going to occupy. My own home. For a good sleep. How about you, -Roger?" - -"After I see that all our apparatus is fixed for the night." - -"You go ahead," Potts grinned fondly at his chum, all suspicions -forgiven, "I'll see that everything er--uh--coagulates!" - - - THE END - - - - - The Mystery - of the - 15 Sounds - - - _By - Van Powell_ - -When Roger's uncle offered him an opportunity to help in his scientific -laboratory while the boy's parents were in Europe, Roger jumped at the -chance. His uncle's laboratory--one of the most perfectly equipped--was -the most fascinating place in the world. - -Even the latest scientific devices, however, could not keep out the -"Voice of Doom" which sounded hollowly through the laboratories in the -dead of night, or prevent the ghostly antics of the phantom kangaroo and -his ape-like companion. These and many other occurrences make THE -MYSTERY OF THE 15 SOUNDS one of the best boys' mystery stories of the -year. - - - - - _Books for Boys_ - - -In selecting the books of this series we, as publishers, have tried to -present a varied assortment, which will stir the imaginations of all -boys. At the same time we have kept these stories from being -nerve-wreckers. - - Herman M. Appel - Secret of the Flambeau, The. - - William Dixon Bell - Sacred Scimiter, The. - Moon Colony, The. - Secret of Tibet, The. - - Walter Butts, Jr. - Brothers of the Senecas. - - Graham M. Dean - Agent Nine and the Jewel Mystery. - Agent Nine Solves His First Case. - Circle 4 Patrol. - Daring Wings. - Herb Kent, West Point Cadet. - Herb Kent, West Point Full Back. - Slim Evans and His Horse "Lightning." - Treasure Hunt of the S-18. - - Edwin Green - Air Monster. - Secret Flight. - - William Heyliger - Big Leaguer. - Detectives, Inc. - Fighting Blood. - Loser's End, The. - - Norton H. Jonathan - Dan Hyland, Police Reporter. - - Gilbert A. Lathrop - Whispering Rails. - Mystery Rides the Rails. - - George Morse - Circus Dan. - Extra. - Vanishing Liner. - - John A. Moroso - Nobody's Buddy. - - Ambrose Newcomb - Eagles of the Sky. - Flying the Coast Sky Ways. - Sky Detectives. - Trackers of the Fog Pack. - - Van Powell - Mystery of the 15 Sounds. - - Warren F. Robinson - "G" Man's Son, The. - "G" Man's Son, at Porpoise Island. - Phantom Whale, The. - - Lieut. Noel Sainsbury - Bill Bolton and the Flying Fish. - Bill Bolton, Flying Midshipman. - Bill Bolton and Hidden Danger. - Bill Bolton and Winged Cartwheels. - - Harold M. Sherman - Captain of the Eleven. - Down the Ice. - Interference. - In Wrong Right. - It's A Pass. - Over the Line. - Strike Him Out. - Tahara, Among African Tribes. - Tahara, Boy King of the Desert. - Tahara, Boy Mystic of India. - Tahara, in the Land of Yucatan. - Under the Basket. - - Wayne Whipple - Young Abraham Lincoln. - Young Franklin Roosevelt. - - - THE GOLDSMITH PUBLISHING CO. - CHICAGO, ILL. - - - - - Transcriber's Notes - - ---Copyright notice provided as in the original--this e-text is public - domain in the country of publication. - ---Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and - dialect unchanged. - ---In the text versions, delimited italics text in _underscores_ (the - HTML version reproduces the font form of the printed book.) - - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Mystery of the Fifteen Sounds, by Van Powell - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MYSTERY OF THE FIFTEEN SOUNDS *** - -***** This file should be named 53214.txt or 53214.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/3/2/1/53214/ - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Dave Morgan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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