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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/8398.txt b/8398.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..db3dbc4 --- /dev/null +++ b/8398.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5354 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sign at Six, by Stewart Edward White + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Sign at Six + +Author: Stewart Edward White + +Posting Date: August 11, 2012 [EBook #8398] +Release Date: June, 2005 +First Posted: July 6, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SIGN AT SIX *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Beth Trapaga and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Helen] + + +THE SIGN AT SIX + +By Stewart Edward White + + +With four illustrations by M. Leone Bracker + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + +I THE OWNER OF NEW YORK +II THE SHADOW OF MYSTERY +III THE MOVING FINGER WRITES +IV DARKNESS AND PANIC +V A SCIENTIST IN PINK SILK +VI THE WRATH TO COME +VII A WORLD OF GHOSTS +VIII PERCY DARROW'S THEORY +IX THE GREAT SILENCE +X THE LIFTING OF THE SPELL +XI THIRTY SECONDS MORE +XII THE UNKNOWN +XIII DARROW'S CHALLENGE +XIV THE FEAR OF DANGER +XV THE MASTER SPEAKS AGAIN +XVI THE PROFESSOR'S EXPERIMENT +XVII DRAWING THE NET +XVIII CONFUSION WORSE CONFOUNDED +XIX PERCY KEEPS VIGIL +XX THE PLAGUE OF COLD +XXI IN THE FACE OF ETERNITY +XXII THE MAN NEXT DOOR +XXIII HOW IT ALL WAS +XXIV WHAT HAPPENED AFTERWARD + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +THE OWNER OF NEW YORK + +Percy Darrow, a young man of scientific training, indolent manners, +effeminate appearance, hidden energy, and absolute courage, lounged +through the doors of the Atlas Building. Since his rescue from the +volcanic island that had witnessed the piratical murder of his old +employer, Doctor Schermerhorn, the spectacular dissolution of the +murderers, and his own imprisonment in a cave beneath the very roar of an +eruption, he had been nursing his shattered nerves back to their normal +strength. Now he felt that at last he was able to go to work again. +Therefore, he was about to approach a man of influence among practical +scientists, from whom he hoped further occupation. + +As the express elevator shot upward, he passed a long slender hand across +his eyes. The rapid motion confused him still. The car stopped, and the +metallic gates clanged open. Darrow obediently stepped forth. Only when +the elevator had disappeared did his upward glance bring to him the +knowledge that he had disembarked one floor too soon. + +Darrow's eye fell on a lettered sign outside the nearest door. He smiled a +slow red-lipped smile beneath his small silky mustache, drooped his black +eyelashes in a flicker of reminiscence, hesitated a moment, then stepped +languidly forward and opened the door. The sign indicated the headquarters +of the very modest commissionership behind which McCarthy chose to work. +McCarthy, quite simply, at that time owned New York. + +As Darrow entered, McCarthy hung up the telephone receiver with a smash, +and sat glaring at the instrument. After a moment he turned his small +bright eyes toward the newcomer. + +"Hello, Perc," he growled. "Didn't see you. Say, I'm so mad my skin +cracks. Just now some measly little shrimp called me up from a public +booth. What ye suppose he wanted, now? Oh, nothin'! Just told me in so +many words for me to pack up my little trunk and sail for Europe and never +come back! That's all! He give me until Sunday, too." McCarthy barked out +a short laugh, and reached for the cigar box, which he held out to Darrow. + +Percy shook his head. "What's the occasion?" he asked. + +"Oh, I don't know. Just bughouse, I guess." + +"So he wants you to go to Europe?" + +"Wants me? Orders me! Says I got to." McCarthy laughed. "Lovely thought!" + +He puffed out a cloud of smoke. + +"Says if I don't obey orders he'll send me a 'sign' to convince me!" went +on the boss. "He's got a mean voice. He ought to have a tag hung on him +and get carried to the morgue. He give me the shivers, like a dead man. I +never hear such a unholy thing outside a graveyard at midnight!" + +Percy Darrow was surveying him with leisurely amusement, a slight smile +playing over his narrow dark face. + +"Talking to get back your nerve," he surmised cheerfully to the usually +taciturn boss. "I'd like to know what it was got you going so; it isn't +much your style." + +"Well, you got yours with you," growled McCarthy, shifting for the first +time from his solid attitude of the bulldog at bay. + +"His 'sign' he promised is apt to be a bomb," observed Darrow. + +"He's nutty, all right," McCarthy agreed, "but when he said that, he was +doing the tall religious. He's got a bug that way." + +"Your affair," said Darrow. "Just the same, I'd have an outer office." + +"Outer office--rot!" said the boss. "An outer office just gets cluttered +up with people waiting. Here they've got to say it right out in +meeting--if I want 'em to. What's the good word, Perc? What can I do for +you?" + +Darrow smiled. "You know very well, my fat friend, that the only reason +you like me at all is that I'm the one and only man who comes into this +office who doesn't want one single thing of you." + +"I suppose that's it," agreed McCarthy. The telephone rang. He snatched +down the receiver, listened a moment, and thrust forward his heavy jowl. +"Not on your life!" he growled in answer to some question. While he was +still occupied with the receiver, Percy Darrow nodded and sauntered out. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +THE SHADOW OF MYSTERY + +Darrow walked up the one flight of steps to the story above. He found his +acquaintance in, and at once broached the subject of his errand. Doctor +Knox promised the matter his attention. The two men then embarked on a +long discussion of Professor Schermerhorn's discovery of super-radium, and +the strange series of events that had encompassed his death. Into the +midst of the discussion burst McCarthy, his face red with suppressed +anger. + +"Can I use your phone?" he growled. "Oh, yes," said he, as he caught sight +of the instrument. Without awaiting the requested permission, he jerked +the receiver from its hook and placed it to his ear. + +"Deader than a smelt!" he burst out. "This is a nice way to run a public +business! Thanks," he nodded to Doctor Knox, and stormed out. + +Darrow rose languidly. + +"I'll see you again," he told Knox. "At present I'm going to follow the +human cyclone. It takes more than mere telephones to wake McCarthy up like +that." + +He found the boss in the hall, his finger against the "down" button. + +"That's three cars has passed me," he snarled, trying to peer through the +ground glass that, in the Atlas Building, surrounded the shaft. "I'll tan +somebody's hide. Down!" he bellowed at a shadow on the glass. + +"Have a cigarette," proffered Percy Darrow. "Calm down. To the scientific +eye you're out of condition for such emotions. You thicknecks are subject +to apoplexy." + +"Oh, shut up!" growled McCarthy. "There isn't a phone in order in this +building two floors either way. I've tried 'em--and there hasn't been for +twenty minutes. And I can't get a messenger to answer a call; and that +ring-tailed, star-spangled ornament of a janitor won't answer his private +bell. I'll get him bounced so high the blackbirds will build nests in his +ear before he comes down again." + +After trying vainly to stop a car on its way up or down, McCarthy stumped +down a flight of stairs, followed more leisurely by the calmly unhurried +Darrow. Here the same performance was repeated. A half dozen men by now +had joined them. So they progressed from story to story until an elevator +boy, attracted by their frantic shouts, stopped to see what was the +matter. Immediately the door was slid back on its runners, McCarthy seized +the astonished operator by the collar. + +"Come out of that, you scum of the earth!" he roared. "Come out of that +and tell me why you don't stop for your signals!" + +[Illustration: McCarthy stumped down a flight of stairs.] + +"I ain't seen no signals!" gasped the elevator boy. + +Some one punched the button, but the little, round, annunciator disk in +the car failed to illuminate. + +"I wonder if there's anything in order in this miserable hole!" snarled +McCarthy. + +"The lights is gone out," volunteered the boy; and indeed for the first +time the men now crowding into the car noticed that the incandescents were +dead. + +While McCarthy stormed out to spread abroad impartial threats against +two public utility concerns for interfering with his business, Percy +Darrow, his curiosity aroused, interviewed the janitor. Under that +functionary's guidance he examined the points of entrance for the +different wires used for lighting and communication; looked over the +private-bell installations, and ascended again to the corridor, +abstractedly dusting his fingers. There he found a group of the +building's tenants, among whom he distinguished Doctor Knox. + +"Same complaint, I suppose--no phones, no lights, no bells," he +remarked. + +"Seems to be," replied Knox. "General condition. Acts as though the +main arteries had been cut outside." + +"Inside bells? House phones?" suggested Darrow. + +The repair men came in double-quick time and great confidence. They +went to work in an assured manner, which soon slackened to a slower +bewilderment. Some one disappeared, to return with a box of new +batteries. The head repair man connected a group of these with a small +bell in the executive office. The instrument, however, failed to +respond. + +"Try your ammeter," suggested Darrow, who had followed. + +The delicate needle of the instrument did not quiver. + +"Batteries dead!" said the repair man. "Jim, what the hotel-bill do you +mean by getting dead batteries? Go back and bring a new lot, and _test_ +'em." + +In due time Jim returned. + +"These test to fifteen," said he. "Go to it!" + +"Test--nothing!" roared the repair man after a moment. "These are dead, +too." + +Percy Darrow left the ensuing argument to its own warmth. It was growing +late. In the corridor a few hastily-brought lamps cast a dim light. Percy +collided against Doctor Knox entering the building. + +"Not fixed yet?" asked the latter in evident disappointment. "What's the +matter?" + +"I don't know," said Darrow slowly; "it puzzles me. It's more than an +ordinary break of connections or short-circuiting through apparatus. If +one could imagine a big building like this polarized in some way--anyhow, +the electricity is dead. Look here." He pulled an electric flash-light +from his pocket. "Bought this fresh on my way here. Tested it, of course. +Now, there's nothing wonderful about these toys going back on a man; +_but_"--he pressed the button and peered down the lens--"this is a funny +coincidence." He turned the lens toward his friend. The filament was dark. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +THE MOVING FINGER WRITES + +The condition of affairs in the Atlas Building lasted long enough to carry +the matter up to the experts in the employ of the companies; that is to +say, until about three o'clock the following morning. Then, without +reason, and all at once, the whole building from top to bottom was a blaze +of incandescent light. + +One of the men, stepping to the nearest telephone, unhooked the receiver. +To his ear came the low busy hum of a live wire. Somebody touched a bell +button, and the head janitor, running joyfully, two steps at a time, from +his lair, cried out that his bell had rung. + +The little group of workmen and experts nodded in a competent and +satisfied manner, and began leisurely to pack their tools as though at the +successful completion of a long and difficult job. + +But every man jack of them knew perfectly well that the electrical +apparatus of the building was now in exactly the same condition as it had +been the evening before. No repair work had followed a futile +investigation. + +As the group moved toward the outer air, the head repair man quietly +dropped behind. Surreptitiously he applied the slender cords of his pocket +ammeter to the zinc and carbon of the dead batteries concerning whose +freshness he and his assistant had argued. The delicate needle leaped +forward, quivered like a snake's tongue, and hovered over a number. + +"Fifteen," read the repair man; and then, after a moment: "Hell!" + +The daily business, therefore, opened normally. The elevators shot from +floor to floor; the telephones rang; the call-bells buzzed, and all was +well. At six o'clock came the scrub-woman; at half past seven the office +boys; at eight the clerks; a little later some of the heads; and precisely +at nine Malachi McCarthy, as was his invariable habit. + +As the bulky form of the political boss pushed around the leaves of the +revolving door, the elevator starter glanced at his watch. This was not to +determine if McCarthy was on time, but to see if the watch was right. + +McCarthy had recovered his good humor. He threw a joke at the negro +polishing the brass, and paused genially to exchange a word with the +elevator starter. + +"Worked until about three o'clock," the latter answered a question. "Got +it fixed all right. No, they didn't say what was the matter. Something to +do with the wires, I suppose." + +"Most like," agreed McCarthy. + +At this moment an elevator dropped from above and came to rest, like a +swift bird alighting. The doors parted to let out a young man wearing the +cap of the United Wireless. + +"Good morning, Mr. McCarthy," this young man remarked in passing. "Aren't +going into the sign-painting business, are you?" He laughed. + +"What ye givin' us, Mike?" demanded McCarthy. + +The young man wheeled to include the elevator starter in the joke. + +"Air was full of dope most of last night from some merry little jester +working a toy, home-made. He just kept repeating the same thing--something +about 'McCarthy, at six o'clock you shall have a sign given unto you. It +works,' over and over all night. Some new advertising dodge, I reckon. +Didn't know but you were the McCarthy and were getting a present from some +admiring constituent." + +He threw back his head and laughed, but McCarthy's ready anger rose. + +"Where did the stuff come from?" + +"Out of the fresh air," replied the operator. "From most anywhere inside +the zone of communication." + +"Couldn't you tell who sent it?" + +"No way. It wasn't signed. Come from quite a distance, though." + +"How can you tell that?" + +"You can tell by the way it sounds. Say, they ought to be a law about +these amatoors cluttering up the air this way. Sometimes I got to pick my +own dope out of a dozen or fifteen messages all ticking away in my +headpiece at once." + +"I know the crazy slob what sent 'em, all right, all right," growled +McCarthy. "He's nutty for fair." + +"Well, if he's nutty, I wish you'd hurry his little trip to Matteawan," +complained the operator, turning away. + +The boss went to his office, where he established himself behind his +table-top desk. There all day he conducted a leisurely business of +mysterious import, sitting where the cool autumn breeze from the river +brought its refreshment. His desk top held no papers; the writing +materials lay undisturbed. Sometimes the office contained half a dozen +people. Sometimes it was quite empty, and McCarthy sat drumming his blunt +fingers on the window-sill, chewing a cigar, and gazing out over the city +he owned. + +There were two other, inner, offices to McCarthy's establishment, in which +sat a private secretary and an office boy. Occasionally McCarthy, with +some especial visitor, retired to one of these for a more confidential +conversation. The secretary seemed always very busy; the office boy was +often in the street. At noon McCarthy took lunch at a small round table in +the cafe below. When he reappeared at the elevator shaft, the elevator +starter again verified his watch. Malachi McCarthy had but the one virtue +of accuracy, and that had to do with matters of time. At five minutes of +six he reached for his hat; at three minutes of six he boarded the +elevator. + +"Runs all right to-day, Sam," he remarked genially to the boy whom he had +half throttled the evening before. + +He stood for a moment in the entrance of the building, enjoying the sight +of the crowds hurrying to their cars, the elevated, the subway, and the +ferries. The clang and roar of the city pleased his senses, as a vessel +vibrates to its master tone. McCarthy was feeling largely paternal as he +stepped toward the corner, for to a great extent the destinies of these +people were in his hands. + +"Easy marks!" was his philanthropic expression of this sentiment. + +At the corner he stopped for a car. He glanced up at the clock of the +Metropolitan tower. The bronze hand pointed to the stroke of six. As he +looked, the first note of the quarter chimes rang out. The car swung the +corner and headed down the street. McCarthy stepped forward. The sweet +chimes ceased their fourfold phrasing, and the great bell began its spaced +and solemn booming. + +_One!--Two!--Three!--Four!--Five!--Six!_ McCarthy counted. At the +recollection of a crazy message from the Unknown, he smiled. He stepped +forward to hold up his hand at the car. Somewhat to his surprise the car +had already stopped some twenty feet away. + +McCarthy picked his way to the car. + +"Wonder you wouldn't stop at a crossing," he growled, swinging aboard. + +"Juice give out," explained the motorman. + +McCarthy clambered aboard and sat down in a comfortably filled car. Up and +down the perspective of the street could be seen other cars, also stalled. +Ten minutes slipped by; then Malachi McCarthy grew impatient. With a +muttered growl he rose, elbowed his way through the strap-hangers, and +stepped to the street. A row of idle taxicabs stood in front of the Atlas +Building. Into the first of these bounced McCarthy, throwing his address +to the expectant chauffeur. + +The man hopped down from his box, threw on the coil switch and ran to the +front. He turned the engine over the compression, but no explosion +followed. He repeated the effort a dozen times. Then, grasping the +starting handle with a firmer grip, he "whirled" the engine--without +result. + +"What's the matter? Can't you make her go?" demanded McCarthy, thrusting +his head from the door. + +"Will you please listen, sir, and see if you hear a buzz when I turn her +over?" requested the chauffeur. + +"I don't hear nothing," was the verdict. + +"I'm sorry, but you'll have to take another cab," then said the man. "My +coil's gone back on me." + +McCarthy impatiently descended, entered the next taxi in line, and +repeated the same experience. By now the other chauffeurs, noticing the +predicament of their brethren, were anxiously and perspiringly at work. +Not an engine answered the call of the road! A passing truck driver, +grinning from ear to ear, drove slowly down the line, dealing out the +ancient jests rescued for the occasion from an oblivion to which the +perfection of the automobile had consigned them. + +McCarthy added his mite; he was beginning to feel himself the victim of a +series of nagging impertinences, which he resented after his kind. + +"If," said he, "your company would put out something on the street besides +a bunch of retired grist-mills with clock dials hitched on to them, you +might be able to give the public some service. I've got lots of time. +Don't hurry through your afternoon exercise on my account. Just buy a +lawn-mower and a chatelaine watch apiece--you'd do just as well." + +By now every man had his battery box open, McCarthy left them, puzzling +over the singular failure of the electrical apparatus, which is the +nervous system of the modern automobile. + +He turned into Fifth Avenue. An astonishing sight met his eyes. + +The old days had returned. The center of the long roadway, down which +ordinarily a long file of the purring monsters of gasoline creep and dash, +shouldering aside the few hansoms and victorias remaining from a bygone +age, now showed but a swinging slashing trot of horses. + +Hansoms, hacks, broughams; up-raised whips, whirling in signal; the spat +spat of horses' hoofs; all the obsolescent vehicles that ordinarily doze +in hope along the stands of the side streets; it was a gay sight of the +past raised again for the moment to reality by the same mysterious blight +that had shadowed the Atlas Building the night before. + +Along the curbs, where they had been handpushed under direction from the +traffic squad, stood an unbroken line of automobiles. And the hood of each +was raised for the eager tinkering of its chauffeur. Past them streamed +the horses, and the faces of their drivers were illumined by broad grins. + +McCarthy looked about him for a hansom. There was none unengaged. In fact, +the boss soon determined that many others, like himself, were waiting for +a chance at the first vacant one. Reluctantly he made up his mind to walk. +He glanced up at the tower of the Metropolitan Building; then stared in +astonishment. The hands of the great dial were still perpendicular--the +hour indicated was still six o'clock! + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +DARKNESS AND PANIC + +Probably the only men in the whole of New York who accepted promptly and +unquestioningly the fact that the entire electrical apparatus of the city +was paralyzed were those in the newspaper offices. These capable citizens, +accustomed to quick adaptations to new environments and to wide reaches of +the imagination, made two or three experiments, and accepted the +inevitable. + +Within ten minutes the _Despatch_ had messenger boys on tap instead of +bells, bicycles instead of telephones, and a variety of lamps and candles +in place of electricity. Everybody else in town was speculating why in +blazes this visitation had struck them. The _Despatch_ was out after news. + +Marsden, city editor, detailed three men to dig up expert opinion on _why_ +it had all happened. + +"And if the scientific men haven't any other notions, ask 'em if it's +anything to do with the earth passing through the tail of the comet," he +told them. + +The rest of the staff he turned out for stories of the effects. His +imagination was struck by the contemplation of a modern civilized city +deprived of its nerve system. + +"Hunt up the little stuff," said he; "the big stuff will hunt you up--if +you scatter." + +After covering the usual police-station, theater and hotel assignments, he +sent Hallowell to the bridge; Longman to the Grand Central; Kennedy, +Warren and Thomas to the tubes, subways and ferries. The others he told to +go out on the streets. + +They saw a city of four million people stopped short on its way home to +dinner! They saw a city, miles in extent, set back without preparation to +a communication by messenger only! They saw a city, unprepared, blinking +its way by the inadequate illuminations of a half-century gone by! + +Hallowell found a packed mass of humanity at the bridge. Where ordinarily +is a crush, even with incessant outgoing trains sucking away at the +surplus, now was a panic--a panic the more terrible in that it was solid, +sullen, inert, motionless. Women fainted, and stood unconscious, erect. +Men sank slowly from sight, agonized, their faces contorted, but unheard +in the dull roar of the crowd, and were seen no more. Around the edges +people fought frantically to get out; and others, with the blind, +unreasoning, home instinct, fought as hard to get in. + +The police were unavailing. They could not penetrate to break the center. +Across the bridge streamed a procession of bruised and battered humanity, +escaped from or cast forth by the maelstrom. The daylight was fading, and +within the sheds men could not see one another's faces. + +Longman at the Grand Central observed a large and curious crowd that +filled the building and packed the streets round about. They waited for +their trains, and the twilight gathered. For ten minutes trains continued +to enter the shed. This puzzled Longman until he remembered that gravity +would bring in those this side of Harlem. None went out. The waiting +throng was a hotbed for rumors. Longman collected much human-interest +stuff, and was quite well satisfied with his story--until he saw what it +had meant elsewhere. + +For in the subways and tubes the stoppage of the trains had automatically +discontinued the suction ventilation. The underground thousands, in +mortal terror of the non-existent third-rail danger, groped their way +painfully to the stations. With inconceivable swiftness the mephitic +vapors gathered. Strong men staggered fainting into the streets. When +revived they told dreadful tales of stumbling over windrows of bodies +there below. + +Through the gathering twilight of the streets, dusky and shadowy, +flitted bat-like the criminals of the underworld. What they saw, that +they took. Growing bolder, they progressed from pocket-picking to +holdups, from holdups to looting. The police reserves were all out; +they could do little. Favored by obscurity, the thieves plundered. It +would have needed a solid cordon of officers to have protected +adequately the retail district. Swiftly a guerrilla warfare sprang up. +Bullets whistled. Anarchy raised its snaky locks and peered red-eyed +through the darkened streets of the city. + +Here and there fire broke out. Men on bicycles brought in the alarms; +then, as twilight thickened, men on foot. Chief Croker promptly +established lookouts in all the tall towers, as watchmen used a hundred +years ago to watch the night. + +And, up-town, Smith cursed the necessity of reading his evening paper by +candle-light; and Mary, the cook, grumbled because she could not telephone +the grocery for some forgotten ingredient; and Jones' dinner party was +very hilarious over the joke on their host; and men swore and their wives +worried because they had perforce to be very late to dinner. + +At eight o'clock, two hours after the inception of the curious phenomena, +the condition suddenly passed. The intimation came to the various parts of +the city in different ways. Strangely enough, only gradually did the +lights and transportation facilities resume their functions. Most of the +dynamos were being inspected by puzzled experts. Here and there the +blazing of a group of lights, the ringing of a bell, the response of a +volt or ammeter to test, hinted to the masters of the lightnings that +their rebellious steeds again answered the bit. + +Within a half-hour the city's illuminations again reflected softly from +the haze of the autumn sky; the clang of the merry trolley, the wail of +the motor's siren again smote the air. + +Malachi McCarthy, having caught a ride on a friendly dray, arrived home. +At eight ten his telephone bell for the first time jangled its summons. +McCarthy answered it. + +"I'm Simmons, the wireless operator," the small voice told him. "Say! +There's a lot of these fool messages in the air again. You know what they +said last night about six o'clock, and what happened." + +"Let's have 'em," growled McCarthy. + +"Here she is: 'McCarthy, will you do as I tell you? Answer. Remember the +sign at six o'clock.' It's signed 'M.'" + +"Where did that come from?" asked the boss. + +"Can't tell, but somewheres a long ways off." + +"How do you know that?" + +"By the sound." + +"How far--about?" + +"Might be anywhere." + +"Can you get an answer back?" + +"I think so. Can't tell whether my spark will reach that far. I can send +out a call for 'M.'" + +"Well, send this," said McCarthy. "'Go to hell.'" + +On the evening of the phenomena afore mentioned, Percy Darrow had +returned to his apartments, where he had dressed unusually early, and +by daylight. This was because he had a dinner engagement up-town. It +was an informal engagement for a family dinner at seven o'clock; but +Percy had been requested by one of the members to come at about six. +This was because the other members would presumably be dressing between +six and seven. + +The young man found a fire blazing on the hearth, although the evening was +warm. A graceful girl sat looking into the flames. She did not rise as the +scientist entered, but held out her hand with an air of engaging +frankness. + +"Sit down," she invited the guest. "This is a fearful and wonderful time +to ask you to venture abroad in your dress clothes, but I wanted to see +you most particularly before the rest of the family comes down." + +"You are a singularly beautiful woman," observed Darrow in a detached +manner, as he disposed his long form gracefully in the opposite armchair. + +The girl looked at him sharply. + +"That is intended as an excuse or explanation--not in the least as a +compliment," Darrow went on. + +"You would not be so obliging, if I were not--beautiful?" shot back the +girl. "That is indeed not complimentary!" + +"I should be exactly as obliging," amended Darrow lazily, "but I should +not feel so generally satisfied and pleased and rewarded in advance. I +should have more of a feeling of virtue, and less of one of pleasure." + +"I see," said the girl, her brows still level. "Then I suppose you are +not interested in what I might ask you as one human being to another!" + +"Pardon me, Helen," interrupted Darrow, with unusual decision. "That is +just what I am interested in--you as a human being, a delicious, +beautiful, feminine, human being who could mean half the created +universe to a lucky man." + +"But not the whole--" + +"No, not the whole," mused Darrow, relaxing to his old indolent attitude. +"You see," he roused himself to explain, "I am a scientist, for instance. +You could not be a scientist; you have not the training." + +"Nor the brains," interposed Helen Warford, a trifle bitterly. + +"Nor the kind of brains," amended Darrow. "I have enough of that sort +myself," he added. He leaned forward, a hunger leaping in the depths of +his brown eyes. "Helen," he pleaded, "can't you see how we need each +other?" + +But the girl shut both her eyes, and shook her head vigorously. + +"Unless people can be _everything_ to each other, they should be +nothing--people like us," said she. + +Darrow sighed and leaned back. + +"I feel that way, but the devil of it is I can't think it," said he. Then +after a pause: "What is it you want of me, Helen? I'm ready." + +She sat up straight, and clasped her hands. + +"It's Jack," said she. + +"What's the matter with Jack?" + +"Everything--and nothing. He's just out of college. This fall he must go +to work. Father wants him to go into an office. Jack doesn't care much, +and will drift into the office unless somebody stops him." + +"Well?" said Darrow. + +"An office will ruin him. He isn't in the least interested in the things +they do in offices; and he's too high-spirited to settle down to a grind." + +"He's like you in spirit, Helen," said Darrow. "What is he interested in?" + +"He's interested in you." + +"What!" cried Darrow. "Wish it were a family trait." + +"He thinks you are wonderful, and he knows all about all your adventures +and voyages with Doctor Schermerhorn. He admires the way you look and act +and talk. I suspect him of trying to imitate you." Helen's eyes gleamed +with amusement. + +[Illustration: "Can't you see how we need each other?"] + +Darrow smiled his slow and languid smile. + +"The last time I saw Jack he stood six feet and weighed about one hundred +and eight-five pounds," he pointed out. + +"The imitation is funny," admitted Helen, "but based on genuine +admiration." + +"What do you want me to do with him?" drawled Darrow. + +"I thought you could take him in with you; get him started at something +scientific; something that would interest and absorb him, and something +that would not leave all his real energies free for mischief." + +Darrow leaned his head against the back of the chair and laughed softly. +So long did his amusement continue that Helen at length brought him rather +sharply to account. + +"I was merely admiring," then exclaimed Darrow, "the delicious femininity +of the proposal. It displays at once such really remarkable insight into +the psychological needs of another human being, and such abysmal ignorance +of the demands of what we are pleased to call science." + +"You are the most superior and exasperating and conceited man I know!" +cried Helen. "I am sorry I asked you. I'd like to know what there is so +silly in my remarks!" + +"Jack is physically very strong; he is most courageous; he has a good +disposition, a gentleman's code, and an eager likable nature. I gather +further that he does me the honor of admiring me personally. He has +received a general, not a special, college education." + +"Well!" challenged Helen. + +"Barring the last, these are exactly the qualifications of a good +bull-terrier." + +"Oh!" cried the girl indignantly, and half rising. "You are insulting!" + +"No," denied Darrow. "Not that--never to you, Helen, and you know it! +I'm merely talking sense. Leaving aside the minor consideration that I +am myself looking for employment, what use has a scientist for a +bull-terrier? Jack has no aptitude for science; he has had none of the +accurate training absolutely essential to science. He probably wouldn't +be interested in science. At the moment he happens to admire me, and +I'm mighty glad and proud that it is so. But that doesn't help. If I +happened to be a saloon man, Jack would quite as cheerfully want to be +a barkeeper. I'd do anything in the world to help Jack; but I'm not the +man. You want to hunt up somebody that needs a good bull-terrier. Lots +do." + +"I hate such a cold-blooded way of going at things!" cried the girl. "You +show no more interest in Jack than if--than if--" + +Darrow smiled whimsically. "Indeed I do, Helen," he said quietly; "that is +why I don't want to touch his life. Science would ruin him quicker than an +office--in the long run. What he wants is a job of action--something out +West--or in the construction of our great and good city. Now, if I had a +political pull, instead of a scientific twist, I could land Jack in a +minute. Why don't you try that?" + +But Helen slowly shook her head. + +"Father and McCarthy are enemies," she said simply. She arose with an air +of weariness. "How dark it's getting!" she said, and pressed the electric +button in the wall. + +The light did not respond. + +"That's queer," she remarked, and pulled the chain that controlled the +reading light on the table. That, too, failed to illuminate. "Something +must be wrong with those things at the meter--what do you call them?" + +"Fuses," suggested Darrow. + +"Yes, that's it. I'll ring and have Blake screw in another." + +Darrow was staring at a small object he had taken from his pocket. It was +the electric flash-light he habitually carried to light his way up the +three dark flights at his lodgings. + +"Let me call him for you," he suggested, rising. + +"I'll ring," said Helen. + +But Darrow was already in the hall. + +"Blake!" he called down the basement stairway. "Bring lamps--or candles." + +The man appeared on the word, carrying a lamp. + +"I already had this, sir," he explained. "The lights went out some time +ago." + +"Did you look at the--fuses?" asked Helen. + +"Yes, miss." + +"Well, telephone to the electric company at once. We must have light." + +Percy Darrow had taken his place again in the armchair by the fire. + +"It is useless," said he, quietly. + +"Useless!" echoed Helen. "What do you mean?" Blake stood quietly at +attention. + +"You will find your telephone also out of order." + +Helen darted from the room, only to return after a moment, laughing. + +"You are a true wizard," she said. "Tell me, how did you know? What has +happened?" + +"A city," stated Percy didactically, "is like a mollusk; it depends +largely for its life and health on the artificial shell it has +constructed. Unless I am very much mistaken, this particular mollusk +is going to get a chance to try life without its shell." + +"I don't understand you," said Helen. + +"You will," said Percy Darrow. + +Mr. and Mrs. Warford descended soon after. They sat down to dinner by +the light of the table candles only. Darrow hardly joined at all in +the talk, but sat lost in a brown study, from which he only roused +sufficiently to accept or refuse the dishes offered him. At about +eight o'clock the telephone bell clicked a single stroke, as though +the circuit had been closed. At the sound Darrow started, then reached +swiftly into his pocket for his little flash-light. He gravely pressed +the button of this; then abruptly rose. + +"I must use your telephone," said he, without apology. + +He was gone barely a minute; then returned to the table with a clouded +brow. Almost immediately after the company had arisen from the board, he +excused himself and left. + +After he had assumed his coat, however, he returned for a final word with +Helen. + +"Where is Jack this evening?" he asked. + +"Dining out with friends. Why?" + +"Will you see him to-night?" + +"I can if necessary." + +"Do. Tell him to come down to my room as near eight o'clock to-morrow +morning as he can. I've changed my mind." + +"Oh!" cried Helen joyously. "Then you've concluded I'm right, after all?" + +"No," said Darrow; "but if this thing carries out to its logical +conclusion, I'm going to need a good bull-terrier pup!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +A SCIENTIST IN PINK SILK + +The next morning promptly at eight o'clock Jack Warford, in response +to a muttered invitation, burst excitedly into Percy Darrow's room. He +found the scientist, draped in a pale-pink silk kimono embroidered +with light-blue butterflies, scraping methodically at his face with a +safety-razor. At the sight the young fellow came to an abrupt stop, as +though some one had met him with a dash of cold water in the face. + +"Hello!" said he, in a constrained voice. "Just up?" + +Darrow cast a glance through his long silky lashes at the newcomer. + +"Yes, my amiable young canine, just up." + +Jack looked somewhat puzzled at the appellation, but seated himself. + +"Helen said you wanted to see me," he suggested. + +Darrow leisurely cleaned the component parts of his safety-razor, washed +and anointed his face, and turned. + +"I do," said he, "if you're game." + +"Of course I'm game!" cried the boy indignantly. + +Darrow surveyed his fresh, young, eager face and the trim taut bulk of him +with dispassionate eyes. + +"Are you?" he remarked simply. "Possibly. But you're not the man to be +sure of it." + +"I didn't mean it as bragging," cried Jack, flushing. + +"Surely not," drawled Darrow, stretching out his long legs. "But no +man can tell whether or not he's game until he's tried out. That's no +reflection on him, either. I remember once I went through seeing my +best friend murdered; being shot at a dozen times myself as I climbed +a cliff; seeing a pirate ship destroyed with all on board, apparently +by the hand of Providence; escaping from a big volcanic bust-up into a +cave, and having the cave entrance drop down shut behind me. I was as +cool as a cucumber all through it. I remember congratulating myself +that, anyhow, I was going to die game." + +"By Jove!" murmured Jack Warford, staring at him, fascinated. Evidently, +the super-beautiful garment had been forgotten. + +"Then a war-ship's crew rescued me; and I broke down completely, and acted +like a silly ass. I wasn't game at all; I'd just managed to postpone +finding it out for a while." + +"It was just the reaction!" cried Jack. + +"Well, if that sort of reaction happens along before the trouble is all +over, it looks uncommonly like loss of nerve," Percy Darrow pointed out. +"No man knows whether or not he's game," he repeated. "However," he smiled +whimsically, "I imagine you're likely to postpone your reactions as well +as the next." + +"What's up? What do you want me to do?" + +"Stick by me; obey orders," said Darrow. + +"What's up?" + +"Did you notice anything in the papers this morning?" + +"They're full of this electrical failure last night. Haven't you seen +them?" + +"Not yet. While I dress, tell me what they say." + +"The worst was in the tubes--" Warford began, but Darrow interrupted him. + +"I could tell you exactly what must have happened," said he, "if the +failure was complete. Never mind that. Was the condition general, or only +local? How far did it extend?" + +"It seemed to be confined to New York, and only about to Highbridge." + +"Long Island? Jersey?" + +"Yes; it hit them, too." + +"What are the theories?" + +"I couldn't see that they had any--that I could understand," said Jack. +"There's some talk of the influence of a comet." + +"Rubbish! Who sprung that?" + +"Professor Aitken, I think." + +"He ought to know better. Any others?" + +"I couldn't understand them all. There was one of polarizing the island +because of the steel structures; and the--" + +"No human agency?" + +"What?" + +"No man or men are suspected of bringing this about?" + +"Oh, no! You don't think--" + +"No, I don't think. I only imagine; and I haven't much basis for +imagining. But if my imaginations come out right, we'll have plenty to +do." + +"Where, now?" asked Jack, as the scientist finished dressing and reached +for his hat. "Breakfast?" + +"No, I ate that before I dressed. We'll make a call on the Atlas +Building." + +"All right," agreed Jack cheerfully. "What for?" + +"To ask McCarthy if he hasn't a job for you in construction." + +Jack came to a dead halt. + +"Say!" he cried. "Look here! You don't quite get the humor of that. Why, +McCarthy loves the name of Warford about the way a yellow dog loves a tin +can to his tail." + +"We'll call on him, just the same," insisted Darrow. + +"I'm game," said Jack, "but I can tell you the answer right now. No need +to walk to the Atlas Building." + +"I have a notion the Atlas Building is going to be a mighty interesting +place," said Darrow. + +They debouched on the street. The air was soft and golden; the sun warm +with the Indian summer. The clock on the Metropolitan tower was booming +nine. As the two set out at a slow saunter down the backwater of the side +street, Darrow explained a little further. + +"Jack," said he abruptly, "I'll tell you what I think--or imagine. I +believe last night's phenomena were controlled, not fortuitous or the +result of natural forces. In other words, some man turned off the juice in +this city; and turned it on again. How he did it, I do not know; but he +did it very completely. It was not a question of wiring alone. Even +dry-cell batteries were affected. Now, I can think of only one broad +general principle by which he could accomplish that result. Just what +means he took to apply the principle is beyond my knowledge. But if I am +correct in my supposition, there occurs to me no reason why he should not +go a step or so farther." + +"I don't believe I follow," said Jack contritely. + +"What I'm driving at is this," said Darrow; "this is not the end of the +circus by any means. We're going to see a lot of funny things--if my guess +is anywhere near right." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +THE WRATH TO COME + +"Did you ever meet McCarthy?" asked Darrow, as the elevator of the Atlas +sprang upward. + +"Never." + +"Well, no matter what he says or does, I want you to say +nothing--nothing." + +"Correct," said Jack. "I'll down-charge." + +"That's right," Darrow approved. "First of all, wait outside until I call +you." + +McCarthy was already at his desk, and in evil humor. When Darrow entered, +he merely looked up and growled. + +"Good morning," Darrow greeted him easily. "Any wireless this morning?" + +McCarthy threw back his heavy head. + +"That damn operator's been leaking!" he cried. + +"So there are 'wireless'," observed Darrow. "No, your operator didn't +leak. Who is he?" + +"If he didn't leak, what did you say that for?" + +"I'm a good guesser," replied Darrow enigmatically. "They say anything +about a 'sign' being sent, and such talk?" + +"You've been gettin' the dope yourself out of the air," returned McCarthy +sullenly. + +"Look here, my fat friend," drawled Darrow, his eyes half closing, "I'm +getting nothing from anywhere except in my own gray matter. What do your +messages have to say?" + +"Why should I tell you?" + +"Because I'm interested--and because I know who sent 'em." + +"So do I," snarled McCarthy, in a gust of temper. + +"And I'm beginning to suspect he's a man to look out for. And I doubt +if you'll ever find him. Of course, he's responsible for the row last +night--as well as for the trouble in the Atlas Building the night +before." + +"I don't know whether he is or not." + +"Oh, yes, you do; and I do; and the wireless man does. We're the only +three. The rest of them are still figuring on comets." + +"Well?" + +"I don't suppose there's any real doubt left in your mind but that this +man can turn the juice off again, if he wants to?" + +"I don't know as he did it," persisted McCarthy stoutly. + +"Now, how long do you suppose you'd last if the public should get on to +the fact that this hidden power was going to exert itself again unless you +left town?" + +A slight moisture bedewed McCarthy's forehead. + +"Not all your police, nor all your power could save you, if the general +public once became thoroughly convinced that it was to go through another +experience like last night's unless it ousted you. Why, a mob of a million +men would gather against you in an hour You see," drawled Percy Darrow, +"why you'd better look after that wireless man of yours--and me." + +"And you," repeated McCarthy. "What do you want?" + +"I want to see those wireless messages, first of all," said Darrow, +reaching out his hand. + +McCarthy hesitated; then swiftly thrust forward the flimsies. Darrow, a +slight smile curving his full red lips, held them to the light. They read +as follows: + + "McCarthy: A sign was promised you at six o'clock. It has been sent. + Repent and beware! Go while there is yet time. + + M." + +There were four of these, couched in almost identical language. The fifth +and last message was shorter: + + "McCarthy: Flee from the wrath to come. + + "M." + +"What," said Darrow, "is to prevent the other operators who must have +caught this message from giving it to the public? What, indeed, is to +prevent M.'s appealing direct to the public?" + +"I don't know," confessed McCarthy miserably. "Do you?" + +"Not at this moment. Will you send for the operator who took these?" + +McCarthy snatched down the telephone receiver, through which presently he +spoke a message. + +"What have you got to do with this?" he demanded, after he had hung up the +hook. + +"I want something," said Percy, "of course." + +"Sure," growled McCarthy, once more back on familiar ground, and glad of +it. "What is it?" + +"I'll tell you when I'm sure whether I can do anything for you in this +matter." + +"If this fellow didn't leak, how did you know about them wireless?" +demanded McCarthy again. "How do you know who's doin' this?" + +Darrow smiled. + +"The man who can control the juice as this man has is a scientific +expert with a full scientific equipment. If he communicated at all, it +would be by wireless, as that is the easiest way to cover his trail. I +remembered your telephone message from the fanatic about sending a +'sign'. Immediately after, the Atlas Building experienced on a small +scale what next day the city experienced on a larger scale. It was +legitimate inference to connect one with the other. Of course, if our +telephone friend was the man who had brought these things about, he +had done it to force you to do what he demanded. But he would lose the +effect of his lesson unless you understood his connection with the +matter. Hence, I concluded that you must have received messages--by +wireless--and that they must have repeated the warning as to a 'sign' +being sent. It was very simple." + +"You're smart, all right," conceded McCarthy. + +After a moment the wireless operator came in. + +"Simmons," said McCarthy, "answer this man's questions." + +"They will be in regard to these messages," said Darrow. "Where are they +from?" + +"Somewhere in the one-hundred to two-hundred-mile circles, depending on +the power of the sending instrument," replied the operator promptly. + +"Are you sure?" + +"I know my instruments pretty well; and I've had experience enough so I +can tell by the sound of the sending about how far off they come from." + +"And this was from somewhere about one to two hundred miles away, you +think?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Do you know whether any other instruments caught this?" + +"No, only mine." He was very positive. + +"How do you know?" + +"Mr. McCarthy had me inquire." + +"How do you account for it?" + +"I don't know, except that maybe my instrument happened to be just tuned +to catch it. That's another reason I know it was from far off. The farther +away the sending instrument, the nearer exactly it has to be tuned to the +receiving instrument. If it was nearer, 'most anybody'd get it." + +Percy Darrow nodded. + +"That's all, I guess. No, hold on. Did any of these come between six and +eight last evening?" + +For the first time the operator smiled. + +"No, sir; my instrument was dead." + +He went out. + +"Well?" growled McCarthy. + +"I don't know; but I can see more trouble." + +"Let him turn off his juice," blustered the boss; "we'll be ready, next +time." + +Percy Darrow smiled. + +"Will you?" he contented himself by saying. Then, after a moment's pause, +he added, "I'll agree to stop this fellow if you'll give me an absolutely +free hand. I'll even agree to find him." + +"What do you want?" + +"I want a job, a good engineering-construction job, for a friend of mine." + +"What can he do?" + +"He can learn. I want a good honest place where he can learn under a good +man." + +"Who is he?" + +"I'll bring him in." + +A moment later Jack, in answer to a summons, entered the office. + +McCarthy stared at him. "What kind of a job?" he growled. + +"Something active and out of doors," Darrow answered for him; "streets, +water, engineering." + +"It's a holdup," said McCarthy sullenly drawing a tablet toward himself, +and thrusting the stub of a pencil into his mouth. + +"A beneficent and just holdup," added Darrow; "the first of its kind in +this city." + +McCarthy glared at him malevolently. + +"It don't go unless you deliver the goods," he threatened. + +"Understood," agreed Darrow. + +"What's his name?" demanded McCarthy, withdrawing the pencil stub, and +preparing to write. + +"His name," answered Darrow, "is John Warford, Junior." + +McCarthy started to his feet with a bellow of rage, his face turning +purple. + +"Of all the infernal--!" he roared, and stopped, as though stricken dumb. +For two or three words further his mouth and throat went through the +motions of speech. Then an expression of mingled fear and astonishment +overspread his countenance. He sank back into his chair. Percy Darrow +nodded twice and smiled. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +A WORLD OF GHOSTS + +A deathly stillness had all at once fallen like a blanket, blotting out +McCarthy's violent speech. The rattling typewriter in the next room was +abruptly stilled. The roar of the city died as a living creature is cut by +the sword--all at once, without the transitionary running down of most +silences. Absolute dense stillness, like that of a sea calm at night, took +the place of the customary city noises. In his astonishment McCarthy +thrust a heavy inkstand off the edge of his desk. It hit the floor, +spilled, rolled away; but noiselessly, as would the inkstand in a moving +picture. + +To have one's world thus suddenly stricken dumb, to be transported orally +from the roar of a city to the peace of a woodland or a becalmed sea is +certainly astonishing enough. + +But this silence was particularly terrifying to both McCarthy and Jack +Warford, though neither would have been able to analyze the reason for its +weirdness. For silence is in reality a composite of many lesser noises. In +a woodland almost inaudible insects hum, breezes blow, leaves and grasses +rustle; at sea the tiny waves lap the sides and equally tiny breaths of +air stir the cordage; within the confines of the human shell the mere +physical acts of breathing, swallowing, winking, the mere physical facts +of the circulation of the blood, the beating of the heart, produce each +its sound. + +Even a man totally deaf feels the subtle influence of these latter +physical phenomena. And underneath all sound, perceptible alike to those +who can hear and those who can not, are the vibrations that accompany +every activity of nature as the manifestations of motion or of life. An +ordinary deep silence is not so much an absence of sound as an absence of +accustomed or loud sound. And in that unusual hush often for the first +time a man becomes acutely aware of the singing of the blood in his ears. + +But this silence was absolute. All these minor sounds had been eliminated. + +For a moment Boss McCarthy stared; then shoved back his chair with a +violent motion, and rose. He was like a shadow on a screen. The filching +from the world of one element of its every-day life had unexpectedly +rendered it all phantasmagoric. + +As McCarthy shouted, and no sound came; as he moved from behind his desk, +and no jar accompanied his heavy footfall, he appeared to lose blood and +substance, to become unreal. As no sound issued from his contorted face, +So it seemed that no force would follow his blow, were he to deliver one. + +He stumbled forward, dazed and groping as though he were in the dark, +instead of merely in silence; a striking example in the uncertainty of his +movements of how closely our senses depend on one another. + +Jack spoke twice, then closed his lips in a grim straight line. He held +his elbows close to his sides, and looked ready for anything. + +A look of mild triumph illumined Percy Darrow's usually languid +countenance. He stepped quickly to the wall, and turned the button of +the incandescent globe. The light instantly glowed. At this he nodded +twice more. From his pocket he drew a note-book and pencil, wrote in +it a few words, and handed it to the dazed and uncertain boss. + +"I was right," Darrow had scrawled. "This proves it. It's by no means the +end. Better be good." + +McCarthy's bulldog courage had recovered from its first daze. He began to +see that this visitation was not entirely personal, but extended also to +his two companions. This relieved his mind, for he had suspected some +strange new apoplexy. + +"Did you expect this?" he wrote. + +Darrow nodded. + +Together the three ghosts left the phantom office, and glided down the +phantom halls. Other ghosts in various stages of alarm were already +making their way down the stairs. Some of them spoke, but no sound +came. One woman, her eyes frightened, reached out furtively to touch +her neighbor, apparently to assure herself of his reality. Urged by an +uncontrollable impulse, a man thrust his hand through the ground glass +of an office door. The glass shivered, and crashed to the tile floor. +The pieces broke--silently. It was as though the man had been the +figure in a cinematograph illusion. He stared at his cut and bleeding +hand. The woman who had touched the man suddenly threw back her head +and screamed. They could see her eyes roll back, her face change +color, could discern the straining of her throat. No sound came. + +At this a panic seized them. They rushed down the stairs, clambering over +one another, pushing, scrambling, falling. A mob of a hundred men fought +for precedence. Blows were struck. No faintest murmur of tumult came from +their futile heat. It might have been the riot of a wax-works in a vacuum. + +They fell into the lower hallway, and fought their way to the street, and +stood there dazed and staring, a strange, wild-eyed, white-faced, bloody +crew. The hurrying avenue stopped to gaze on them curiously, gathering +compact in a mob that blocked all traffic. Policemen pushed their way in +and began roughly to question--and to question in real audible words. + +But for the space of a full minute these people stood there staring +upward, drinking in the blessed sound that poured in on them lavishly from +the life of the street; drinking deep gulps of air, as though air had +lacked. + +Darrow, and with him Jack Warford, had descended more leisurely. Before +leaving the building Darrow placed the flat of his hands over his ears, +and motioned Jack to do the same. Thus they missed the stunning effect of +receiving the world of noise all at once; as a man goes to a bright light +from a dark room. Furthermore, Darrow returned several times from the +sound to the silence, trying to determine where the line of demarcation +was drawn. Then, motioning to Jack, he began methodically to make his way +through the crowd. + +This proved to be by no means an easy task. Rumors of all sorts were +afoot. Some bold spirits were testing a new sensation by venturing into +the corridor of the building. The police were undecided as to what should +be done. One or two reporters were already at hand, investigating. +McCarthy, his assurance returned, was conversing earnestly with a police +captain. + +Percy Darrow, closely followed by Jack, managed to worm his way through +the crowd, and finally debouched on Broadway. + +"What was it? What struck us?" demanded Jack. "Do you know?" + +"I can guess; in essence," said Percy. "I was pretty sure after last +evening's trouble; but this underscores it, proves it. Also, it opens the +way." + +"What do you mean?" + +"Along the lines of these phenomena there are two more things possible. +Possible, I say. They might be called certain, were we dealing only with +theory; but there is still some doubt how the practical side of it may +work out." + +"I suppose you know what you're talking about," said Jack resignedly. "I +don't." + +"You don't need to, yet. But here's what I mean. If my theory is correct, +we are likely to be surprised still further." + +Jack ruminated; then his engaging young face lighted up with a smile. + +"All right," said he; "I'm enlisted for the war. What have you got to do +with it?" + +"I'll explain this much," said Darrow; "more I'll not tell at present, +even to you. If one breath should get out that any one suspected--well, +this is a man-hunt." + +"Who's the man?" + +"An enemy of McCarthy." + +"Whom you are going to find for him?" + +"Perhaps." + +"And you were putting up that job for me as part of your pay!" + +Percy Darrow smiled slowly. + +"As all of my pay--from McCarthy," said he. "I was just bedeviling him." + +Jack Warford started to say something, but the scientist cut him short. + +"This is bigger than McCarthy," he said decisively. "We are the only +people in this city who suspect a human origin of these phenomena. Other +men are yet working, and will continue to work, on the supposition that +they are the results of some unbalanced natural conditions. The phenomena +are, as yet, harmless. It will not greatly injure the city, once it is +prepared, to be without electricity or without sound for limited periods. +I doubt very much whether the Unknown can continue these phenomena for +longer than limited periods. But conceivably this man may become a peril. +He has, if I reason correctly, four arrows in his quiver; the fourth is +dangerous. It is our duty to find him before he uses the fourth arrow--if +indeed he has discovered the method of doing so. That is always in doubt." + +Jack's eyes were shining. + +"Bully!" he cried. + +"He may conceivably possess the power to launch the fourth and dangerous +arrow, but may withhold it unless he believes himself suspected or close +pressed. His probable mental processes are obscure. At present he directs +himself solely against McCarthy." Percy Darrow had been thinking aloud, +and realized it with a smile. "This is one of your jobs, fellow +detective," said he. "You've got to be a mark for me to think at." + +"I wish you'd think a little more clearly," observed Jack. "It sounds +interesting, but jumbled. I feel the way I did when I began to read +Greek." + +"McCarthy's incidental," observed Darrow in his detached tone. + +"Eh?" + +"Oh, I thought we might as well worry McCarthy by asking him for that job +on the side. It's amusing." + +"What do you want me to do?" asked Jack. + +"This," said Darrow, with an unusual rapidity of utterance. "See that +thick-set, quick man in gray clothes? He's a policeman. In a moment he'll +arrest me." + +"Arrest you--why?" demanded Jack, in tones of great astonishment. + +"I reason that McCarthy will come to that conclusion. He is beginning to +think I have something to do with what he calls his annoyances. I saw it +in his eyes. This last curious manifestation came along too pat. You +remember, it cut off the dressing-down he was going to give me." Darrow +chuckled in appreciation. "Didn't the humor of that strike you?" + +"Me? Oh, I was scared," admitted Jack. + +"I want you to go home and tell Helen just what happened in the Atlas +Building. Do not tell her that I believe the phenomena are due to any +human agency. Say simply that if it is repeated, and she happens to be +within the zone of its influence, to keep calm, and wait. It will pass, +and it is not to be feared. Tell her I said so." + +"Lord!" cried Jack. "You don't think it's going to happen again!" + +"Within the next twenty-four hours," said Darrow. + +"Oughtn't we to warn the people?" + +"And let our hidden antagonist know we are aware of his existence?" +inquired Darrow. + +"Anything else?" + +"No--yes. Buy a gun. If I bring you into any trouble, I'll see you clear. +You understand?" + +"I do." + +"I rely on your being game." + +"To the limit," said Jack. "Here comes your friend. Won't this arrest ball +things up? Shall I rustle bail?" + +"No," said Darrow. "I want to think. All I need is all the papers. I'll be +out by ten to-morrow morning, sure." + +"Why are you sure of that?" + +"_Because by that hour McCarthy will have disappeared_," said Percy +Darrow. + +The man in the gray suit, having finished his scrutiny, lounged forward. + +"You are Mr. Darrow," he stated. + +"Sure I am, my amiable but obvious sleuth," drawled that young man. "Lead +on." He nodded a farewell to Jack, and linked his arm in that of the +officer. After a few moments he burst into an irrepressible chuckle. + +"The fat, thick-necked, thick-witted, old fool!" said he. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +PERCY DARROW'S THEORY + +Percy Darrow in the police station, where he had been assigned an unused +office instead of a cell, amused himself reading the newspapers, of which +he caused to be brought in a full supply. Theories had begun to claim +their share of the space which, up to now, the fact stories had completely +monopolized. Darrow, his feet up, a cigarette depending from one corner of +his mouth, read them through to the end. Then he indulged the white walls +of his little apartment with one of his slow smiles. The simplest of the +theories had to do with comets. The most elaborate traced out an analogy +between the "blind spot" in vision and a "point of rest" in physical +manifestations--this "point of rest" had just now happened to drift to a +crowded center, and so became manifest. + +"Ingenious but fantastic youth," was Percy Darrow's tribute to the author, +Professor Eldridge of the university. + +The "human-interest" stories of both the evening before and those in the +extras describing the latest freak in the Atlas Building, Darrow passed +over with barely a glance. But certain figures he copied carefully into +his notebook. When he had found all of these, and had transcribed them, +they appeared about as follows: + + Atlas--Wednesday, 5:25. 3:00 (about): 9 hr. 35 min. + + General--Thursday, 6:00. 7:56 (exact): 1 hr. 56 min. + + Atlas--Friday, 10:10. 10:48 (exact): 38 min. + +On the basis of these latter figures he made some calculations which, when +finished, he looked on with doubtful satisfaction. + +"Need more statistics," said he to himself, "before I can pose as a +prophet. Just now I'm merely a guesser." + +By now it was afternoon. An official came to announce visitors, and a +moment later Helen and her brother came in. As Percy's case was merely one +of detention, or for some other obscurer reason, known only to those who +took their orders from McCarthy, the three were left alone to their own +devices. + +At the sight of Helen's trim tailor-clad figure Percy's expression +brightened to what, in his case, might almost be called animation. He +swept aside the accumulation of papers, and made room for both. After the +first greetings and exclamations, Helen demanded to know particulars and +prospects. + +"All right, I'll tell you," agreed Darrow. "I'm thought out; and I want to +hear it myself." + +Jack looked about him uneasily. + +"Is it wise to talk here?" he asked. "I don't doubt they have arrangements +for overhearing anything that is said." + +"I don't think they care what we say," observed Darrow. "They are merely +detaining me on some excuse or another that I haven't even taken the +trouble to inquire about." + +"That must astonish them some," said Jack. + +"And if they do overhear, I don't much care. Now," said he, turning to +Helen, "we have here three strange happenings comprising two +phenomena--the cutting off of the electricity, first in the Atlas +Building, second in the city at large; and the cutting off of sound in the +Atlas. Although we are, of course, not justified in generalizing from one +instance, what would you think by analogy would be the next thing to +expect?" + +"That sound would be cut off in the city," said Helen; "but Jack has +already delivered me your warning or advice," she added. + +"Precisely. Now as to theories of the ultimate cause. Naturally this must +have been brought about either by nature or by man. If by nature, it is +exceedingly localized, not to say directed. If by man, he must have in +some way acquired unprecedented powers over the phenomena of electricity +and sound. These he can evidently, at will, either focus, as on the Atlas +Building, or diffuse, as over the city. For the moment we will adopt the +latter hypothesis." + +"That it is a man in possession of extraordinary powers," said Helen, +leaning forward in her interest. "Go on." + +"We have, completed, only the phenomena of electricity," continued Darrow; +"the phenomena of sound remain to be completed. We observe as to that +(a)"--he folded back his forefinger--"the Atlas manifestation lasted about +nine and a half hours; and (b)"--he folded his middle finger--"the city +manifestation was a little less than two hours." + +"Yes," cried Jack, "but then this second--" + +"One minute," interrupted Darrow; "let me finish. Now, let us place +ourselves in the position of a man possessed of a new toy, or a new power +which he has never tried out! What would he do?" + +"Try it out," said Jack. + +"Certainly; try it out to the limit, to see just what it could do in +different circumstances. Now, take the lapses of time I have mentioned, +and assume, for the sake of argument, that these powers are limited." + +"Just how do you mean--limited?" asked Helen. + +"I mean exhaustible, like a watering-pot. You can water just so much, and +then you have to go back and fill up again. In that case, we can suppose +this man's stream will last nine hours and a half when he dribbles it down +on one spot, like the Atlas Building; but it will empty itself in about +two hours when he turns her upside down over a whole city. There remains +only the length of time necessary to refill the water-pot to round out our +hypothesis. That is something more than nine hours and something less than +fifteen." + +"How do you get those figures?" demanded Jack. + +"The Unknown is anxious, after the Atlas success, to try out his discovery +on the larger scale. He will naturally do so at the first opportunity +after his water-pot is refilled. But he wishes to do so at the first +effective opportunity. What is the most effective moment? The rush hours. +What are the rush hours? From eight to ten, and at six. Since he did not +pull off his show in the morning, we are fairly justified in concluding, +tentatively, that the water-pot was not full by then, and, as the Atlas +phenomena subsided at three of the morning before, the inference is +obvious." + +"But isn't the most effective time at night, anyway, on account of the +lights?" asked Jack. + +"Good boy!" approved Darrow. "He might have waited for that. But the +city-wide phenomena ceased at eight the night before; and the Atlas sound +phenomena did not occur until ten the next morning--fourteen hours. Now, +the most effective time to scare McCarthy was any time after nine. +McCarthy arrives as the clock strikes." + +Jack shook his head. + +"Oh, it's not proof; it's idle hypothesis," admitted Darrow. "We shall +have to test it. But let's go on with it, anyway, and see how it works +out." + +"What's McCarthy got to do with it?" demanded Helen. + +"That's so, you aren't in touch there." Darrow sketched briefly the +situation as it affected the boss. Helen's eyes were shining with +interest. + +"Now," continued Darrow, "having tried out his new power to the limit, our +friend would begin to use it only as he needed it. There is now no reason +to empty the water-pot entirely. All he wanted to do this morning was to +scare McCarthy, and impress the public. He did that in thirty-eight +minutes. On the basis of fourteen hours to fill the water-pot, it is +evident that he would be rehabilitated, ready for business, in an hour. +Therefore, all he is waiting for now is the most effective moment to try +out his city-wide experiment of silence. I imagine that will be about +six." + +"Sounds reasonable," admitted Jack. + +"Reasonable! It's certain!" cried Helen. + +Darrow smiled. "No, only a wild hypothesis." + +"It'll scare people to death," observed Jack. + +"They're scared already; and they're somewhat prepared by the performance +this morning. Besides, I don't see yet that human agency is suspected." + +"Don't you think you'd better warn people what is going to happen, and +tell them there's nothing to be frightened of?" pleaded Helen. + +"No," said Darrow, "I do not. It would confuse the phenomena, and they +must be unconfused in order that I can either prove or disprove my +hypothesis. If this lasts about two hours, the fact will go far to prove +me right. If the next manifestation comes at about ten the next morning, +we shall have established a periodicity, at least. But if the man realizes +that his existence is suspected, he will purposely vary in order to mix me +up." + +"The next manifestation!" cried Helen. "Then you think they will +continue--" + +"Why not," smiled Darrow, "until he has scared McCarthy out?" + +"Which will it be next time, do you think?" + +"Whatever happens, don't be frightened," said Darrow enigmatically. + +"It seems to me there is something absurd about all this," said Helen. "A +man with such a discovery, such powers, using them in such a manner, for +such a petty purpose!" + +"He is, of course, crazy," Darrow said quietly; "the methodical logical +lunatic--the most dangerous sort." + +"What is it he has discovered?" asked Jack. + +"I do not know, yet." + +"But you suspect?" + +Darrow nodded, but would not explain. + +"What will be the outcome?" + +"I am going to cut loose from science and guess wildly," said Darrow, +after a moment. "To-morrow morning, somewhere about ten, McCarthy will +disappear." + +"You said that before!" cried Jack. + +"Well, I say it again," drawled Darrow. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +THE GREAT SILENCE + +Percy Darrow sat quite calmly, though a little hungrily, through the first +of the two hours of the Great Silence. As it fell, he looked at his watch; +then went on reading. Strangely terrified faces flitted by the open door +of his little room. About seven o'clock Darrow, struck by a sudden idea, +arose, walked down the corridor outside, and quite deliberately set to +work to force the light door. As has been intimated, either by direct +order of McCarthy or because of some vagueness of the orders, the young +man had been confined, not in the jail proper, but in one of the living +apartments of the wing. + +Few realize how important a role sound plays in what might be called the +defensives of our every-day life. Sight is important, to be sure, but it +is more often corroborative than not; it is more often used to identify +the source of the alarm that has been communicated through other channels. +When we are told of the hero--or the villain--that he stood "with every +sense alert", our mental picture, in spite of the phrasing, is that of a +man listening intently for the first intimations of what may threaten. + +So it is in prison. The warders can, of necessity, remain within actual +view of but a few of the prisoners a small proportion of the time. But +through those massive and silent corridors sound stands watch-dog for +them. The minute scratch of a file, the vibrations attendant on the most +cautious attempts against the stone structure, the most muffled footfall +reports to the jailer that mischief is afoot. Instantly he is on the spot +to corroborate by his other faculties the warnings of the watch-dog of the +senses. + +Now the watch-dog was asleep. Percy Darrow reflected that, were it not for +the terror of these unexplainable hours, the prisoners within or their +friends without could assail their confines boldly and formidably, even +with dynamite, and none would be the wiser if only none happened to be +within actual visual range of the operations. He himself quite coolly used +the iron side piece to his bed as a battering-ram to break the locks of +the door. Then he walked down the long corridor and out through the police +station, bowing politely to the bewildered officers. The latter did not +attempt to stop him. + +The people in the streets were, for the most part, either standing +stock-still, or moving slowly forward in a groping sort of fashion. +Darrow, for the second time, noticed how analogous to the deprivation of +sight was the total deprivation of hearing and feeling vibration. + +Traffic was at a standstill. People's faces were bewildered, for the most +part; though here and there one showed contorted with the hysteria of +fright, or exalted with some other, probably religious, emotion. The same +impression of ghostliness came to Darrow here as in the Atlas Building. +Visual causes were not producing their wonted aural effect. + +On the street corner a peanut vender's little whistle sent aloft bravely +its jet of steam; the bells on a ragpicker's cart swung merrily back and +forth on their strap; a big truck, whose driver was either undaunted or +drunk, banged and clattered and rattled over the rough cobbles of a side +street--but no sound came from any one of them. + +This complete severance of one cause and effect was sufficient to +discredit all natural laws. No other cause and effect was certain. +Everywhere people were touching things to see if they were solid, or wet, +or soft, or hard, as the case might be. Even Darrow felt, absurdly enough, +that it would not be greatly serious to jump off the top of any building +into the street. + +Darrow swung confidently enough down the street. He was the only person, +with the exception of the drunken truck driver, who moved forward at a +natural and easy gait. The effect was startling. Darrow seemed to be the +only real human being of the lot. All the rest were phantasmagoric. + +But as he proceeded down-town the spell was beginning to break. People +were communicating with one another by means of pencil and paper. Darrow +was amused, on crossing the park, to see against the lighted windows on +Newspaper Row the silhouetted forms of activity. Evidently, the newspaper +men were already at work on this fresh story. + +Near the corner of the park Darrow saw standing a policeman of his varied +acquaintance. The scientist walked up to this man, who was standing in the +typical vacant uncertainty, smiled agreeably, clapped him on the back, and +shook his hand. The patrolman grasped Darrow's hand, but the look of +groping uncertainty deepened on his face. + +Darrow slipped his note-book from his pocket, and scribbled a few lines, +which he showed to the officer. The latter read, inwardly digested for a +moment, and smiled. + +"Keep your hair on," ran Darrow's screed. "This will pass in a few +minutes, and it won't hurt you, anyway. Don't look like all these other +dubs." + +He stood there companionably by the patrolman. They looked about them. All +at once, with this touch of normal, unafraid, human companionship, the +weird horror of the situation fell away. Darrow and his companion were +seeing humanity disjointed from its accustomed habit, as one looks on a +stage full of men hypnotized into belief of an absurdity. + +Where the blotting out of electricity had been tragic, this, as soon as +its utter harmlessness was realized, became comic. All about through the +park men were meeting the situation according to the limited ideas +developed by a crustacean life of absolute dependence on the shell of +artificial environment. A considerable number of all sorts had fallen on +their knees and were praying. One fat man in evening dress, with a silk +hat and a large diamond stud showing between the lapels of a fur-lined +coat, was particularly fervent. By force of habit Darrow remarked on this +individual. + +"I'll bet he hasn't been to church since he was a kid," he observed, of +course inaudibly. + +The policeman caught the direction of his look, however, and grinned with +understanding. + +Some stood frozen to one spot, their faces agonized, as a man would stand +still were the earth likely to yawn anywhere. Darrow would have liked to +reassure these, for their eyes expressed a frantic terror. One red-faced +individual with white side-whiskers, looking exactly like the comic-paper +caricatures of the trusts, had evidently refused to accept any arbitrary +dictates of natural forces. Probably he had never accepted any dictates of +any kind. He was going from one taxicab to another, trying to command a +driver to take him somewhere, talking vehemently and authoritatively, his +face getting more and more purple with anger. The taxicab drivers merely +stared at him stupidly. + +"That old boy's kept his nerve," Darrow remarked, of course inaudibly, to +his companion. "But he'll die of apoplexy if he doesn't watch out." + +Again the policeman caught the direction of Darrow's glance, and grinned +in understanding. He reached his huge gloved hand for the young man's +pencil and paper, on which he wrote the name of a man high in railroad +circles, and grinned again with evident relish. + +At this moment an entirely self-possessed young man swung across the +street. He surveyed the two men sharply a moment, then approached, +producing a sheaf of yellow paper as he did so. + +"Professor Darrow?" he wrote. + +Darrow nodded. + +The young man pointed to himself, then to the Despatch Building. + +"Cause?" he wrote, and waved his hand. + +Darrow shook his head. + +"Dangerous?" + +Darrow shook his head again. + +The reporter was about to add another question, when Darrow reached for +the paper. It was thrust eagerly into his hand. Darrow consulted his +watch. + +"If," he wrote, "you will wait here four minutes, I'll give you an +interview." + +The reporter read this, and nodded. + +"You're on!" he added to the written dialogue. Then he produced a +cigarette, lighted it, and joined the other two men in their amused +survey of the public's performances. + +During the four minutes that ensued Darrow examined the reporter +speculatively. Finally his eye lighted up with recollection. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +THE LIFTING OF THE SPELL + +The spell lifted. The city broke into a roar. People sprang into rapid and +violent motion, as though released from a physical lethargy. + +"All over?" asked the reporter. He asked it in a loud shout. + +"All over," replied Darrow. "You don't need to yell. I'm not deaf." + +The reporter grinned. + +"I guess that's what everybody else in town is doing," he surmised. + +Certainly this remark was justified by the sample in the square. Every man +was shouting at his neighbor to the lung-straining limit of his ability. +Three exhorters, their eyes ablaze with fanaticism, began to thunder forth +dire warnings of the wrath to come--and gained a hearing. Men rushed to +and fro aimlessly. The gentleman with the side-whiskers, who looked like +the caricatures of the trusts, having at last succeeded in making his +imperial wishes known, clambered into a taxicab, and sat back, apparently +unimpressed. After a moment the driver recovered sufficiently to fall into +the habit of obedience, and so drove away. + +While the three men watched, a burly individual with a red face came +hurtling directly at them. If they had not dodged hastily to one side, +they would have suffered a collision. + +"The end of the world is at hand!" this man was shrieking. "Repent! +Repent!" + +"That's Larry Mulcahey," remarked the reporter, with a grin. "He keeps +bar." + +"I'm hungry," observed Darrow. "Haven't eaten since noon." + +"Free lunch," suggested the reporter practically. "You won't be able to +get any service anywhere. How about that interview? Got anything to say?" + +"You're the busy little bee to-night," said Darrow. "But I'll tell you +what I'll do. I'll give you a tip. Be at the Atlas Building at not later +than nine to-morrow morning, and stay at least until ten. If you can fix +it, be on the tenth floor. Hunt up the United Wireless man and make him +talk. Then come to me." + +"That's afternoon paper stuff--unless it's exclusive," said the reporter +instantly. + +"If you'll obey my orders the most important part of it will be +exclusive," said Darrow. + +The reporter eyed him keenly. + +"Why?" he asked. + +"You're Hallowell, aren't you? I thought I wasn't mistaken. I saw you at +work on that Duane Street murder case. Your work was good. Besides, I like +the _Despatch_--and the afternoon papers are too soon for what I want." + +"Last reason accepted. Others received and placed on file." + +"All right," agreed Darrow. "Have it your own way--only obey orders." He +entered the door of the bar and advanced on the lunch counter. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +THIRTY SECONDS MORE + +At nine o'clock the following morning five men grouped in McCarthy's +office, talking earnestly. Darrow and Jack Warford had been the first to +arrive. McCarthy did not seem surprised to see them; nor did he greet them +with belligerence. + +"Well?" he demanded. + +"Well?" repeated Darrow, sinking gracefully to one corner of the table. +"You're an old fool, McCarthy. What good did you think it would do you to +arrest me?" + +"I intended to sweat you," confessed the boss frankly, "but I was too +busy." + +"Sweat me, eh?" demanded Darrow, with some amusement. "So you decided not +to, did you--hence the lack of enthusiasm on the part of the police in +effecting my recapture. You didn't imagine I caused all this, did you?" + +"I don't know," growled McCarthy. "But if you, or the other fellow, or +whoever or whatever it is, think you can bluff me out, you or he or it's +left! That's all!" + +"So you've been getting more wireless, have you?" surmised Darrow. + +McCarthy cast a surly glance toward Jack, whom previously he had ignored. + +"Yes," he admitted grudgingly. + +Darrow held out his hand. After a moment's hesitation McCarthy thrust +forward a single yellow paper, and Darrow read aloud in spite of the boss' +warning gesture: + + "McCarthy: The sign has been sent you and sent your people. You are + stubborn, but it shall not avail you. You must go; and within + twenty-four hours. It will not avail you unless you go. The _Celtic_ + leaves to-morrow at noon. You must go on that ship. I shall know + whether or not you obey me. Once more I shall warn you; one more + sign shall I send. Then I shall strike!" + +"He's getting garrulous," remarked Darrow reflectively; "but he's relieved +my mind. You'd better go." + +"Go!" cried McCarthy, half starting to his feet. "Not on your life!" + +Darrow surveyed him calmly. + +"You're getting rattled," said he, "and it doesn't pay you particularly to +try to bluff me. A jack-rabbit of average firmness could stampede you in +your present state of mind." + +"You think so?" sneered McCarthy. + +"I know so. And you're quite right. If you attempt the game too long, +he'll destroy you." + +"How?" demanded McCarthy. + +"Take my word for it, _he can do it!_" replied Darrow. + +McCarthy ruminated, drumming his thick fingers on the desk. + +"Find him," said he, at last. + +"I intend to," replied Darrow. + +"That'll be all right about your friend's job," conceded McCarthy, with a +nod toward Jack. + +"I fancy you won't have anything to do with it," returned Darrow +pleasantly. + +At this moment the door opened and Hallowell entered. He nodded to Darrow, +and greeted McCarthy. + +"Nothing for you," growled the latter. + +Darrow glanced at his watch. + +"He will have in about five minutes," said he to the reporter. + +The fifth member of the party now entered in the person of Simmons, the +United Wireless operator. On seeing the number gathered in McCarthy's +office he came to a halt. + +Darrow immediately detached himself from the group and approached this +man. + +"Anything new?" he inquired in a low voice. + +Simmons glanced toward McCarthy. + +"New about what?" he demanded stolidly. + +"Any more messages from our mysterious friend out in the ether to our +equally mysterious friend at the desk?" + +"I don't know what you mean." + +Darrow surveyed him reflectively. + +"This is a pretty big story," he said at last, "and affects a lot of +people. If you really haven't leaked--well, he"--with a jerk of his head +toward McCarthy--"must bribe high, or have a strangle hold on you for +fair." + +He looked around to see the boss' eye fixed intently on him, smiled +pleasantly, and moved to one side. Simmons stepped forward, handed +McCarthy a paper, and went out. The boss read the message slowly, and +turned a little pale. After a moment or so he surreptitiously drew out +his watch. Percy Darrow smiled. He, too, held his watch in his hand. + +"Thirty seconds more--about," he remarked pleasantly. The boss looked up +startled. The last thing he saw was the faintly smiling, triumphant face +of the young scientist. Then absolute blackness fell on him. + +For several seconds astonishment held the inmates of the room chained to +their places; and for that space of time no sound broke the deathly +stillness. Then Percy Darrow spoke, in his natural voice. + +"Well, Jack," he remarked, "it worked out, to a second, almost. Now I'm +certain." + +As though this breaking of the silence had released a force hitherto held +in repression, the room filled with tumult and clamor, with crashing, +banging and scurrying of heavy bodies. A final concussion shook the air, +and then, again abruptly, silence fell. + +"Say!" Hallowell's voice spoke up, a trifle uncertainly. "I'll stand for +most any kind of a dark seance, but this particular spook business is +getting on my nerves. Are you there, Darrow?" + +"Yes, I'm here," answered the scientist. + +"Well, can you explain _that_ phenomenon?" + +"That," drawled Darrow, a slight note of laughter in his voice, "was that +extraordinary upheaval of natural forces known as Brother McCarthy going +away from here--hastily." + +Jack chuckled. + +"He hit me on the way out," remarked that young man. "I'll testify he was +a solid spook." + +The reporter was methodically striking match after match, but without +result. After a moment the acrid smell of burning woolen rose in the air. + +"Are you dropping those matches?" asked Darrow. + +"Sure; they're no good." + +"Well, they're good enough to burn holes in McCarthy's rugs. Stamp around +a little to put them out; and quit it." + +"What next; and how long?" asked Jack. "What is it? Have we gone blind, or +is it a total eclipse, or what?" + +"I don't know how long," came back Darrow's voice calmly. "Next we will +get out of the building. I want to make some observations. Get hold of my +hand; we'll have to grope our way out." + +"If we could only get a light," muttered Hallowell. + +"You can't," stated Darrow. + +They felt their way down the ten flights of stairs like blind men. A few +inmates of the building they jostled, or passed, or picked up on the way. + +"This settles it," one remarked profanely. "My lease quits. They can sue +and be damned. I decline to have anything more to do with any freak-lined +skyscraper of this description." + +In the lower corridors Darrow halted them. + +"Here's another thing," said he: "if I'm right, we should run out of this +just eleven feet beyond the last elevator cage." + +He felt his way along the grill, made four paces forward, and uttered a +little cry of satisfaction. The two men followed him blindly. As though +stepping from one room to another they emerged into glaring daylight! + +Both involuntarily looked back. The darkness hung there like a curtain, +just inside the outer walls of the building. Already a crowd had gathered +to observe this new and strange phenomenon of the now celebrated Atlas +Building. It was a curious and a facetious crowd, but not awestricken, as +it had been at the first manifestations of this freakish upset of natural +forces. + +A man observing the flight of an aeroplane for the first time loses his +sense of strangeness inside of a few minutes; and yet flying has been +since the days of Icarus considered one of the impossible achievements. So +the general public of Manhattan were becoming accustomed to reversals of +form in the affairs of the physical world. The frivolous majority, having +discovered nothing to be apprehended from the phenomena save a few hours' +helplessness of a sort, and much to be gained through the savor of +novelty, were inclined to an amused or irritated attitude, depending on +the extent to which its occupations were interfered with. The minority +took to religious meetings and interpretations. + +Darrow's exit, and that of his companions, was greeted uproariously. + +"'Please go 'way an' let me sleep!'" sang one, at the blinking men. + +"Here's another!" shrilled a gamin. "Get up! The porter wants to make up +your berth!" + +Several of the crowd, pending the usual arrival of the police to clear the +corridor, had ventured through the wide portals, and were experimenting +with this strange palpable quality of darkness. One or two popped inside +the curtain, but emerged quickly, looking a little scared. + +A bright youth made the discovery that if one lighted a match and stepped +within the blackness, the match was immediately extinguished, but that +upon emerging into daylight the flame came up again. Some one happened +along with a plumber's gasoline torch. Immediately this was lighted and +the experiment repeated. The bearer of the torch, astonished at the +instant extinguishment of the flame, felt with his hand to see what could +be the matter. Instantly he uttered a yelp of pain, and leaped outside, +displaying a badly burned palm. + +"There wasn't no flame; I swear it!" he explained excitedly, "but she +burned, just the same!" He rushed about from one to another, displaying +his injured palm to whoever would look. + +Darrow paid little attention to this gathering crowd. First of all, he +scanned a paper he held in his hand; then plunged back again into the +blackness. + +Jack Warford and Hallowell, left together, hesitated uncertainly. + +"He'll be back," the reporter decided finally, "and he's the man to tie +to." + +While waiting, he proceeded to pick up what information he could from +the bystanders. It seemed that the first intimation of anything wrong +was followed very shortly by the emergence of McCarthy, disheveled, +hatless, staring, gasping. The boss had stumbled into the street, +hesitated, then started south on a run. Before any one could stop him, +he had turned a corner and disappeared. The excitement at the Atlas +Building had distracted attention from him. Nobody wondered at his +getting rattled and running away. The few tenants remaining in the +building had stumbled forth, vowing never to return to such a--assorted +adjectives--building. That was all there seemed to be to say. + +In the meantime the crowd had increased from a few hundred to thousands. +Police appeared. The corridors were cleared of all but a few. Among these +were Hallowell and Jack Warford; the former as a reporter, the latter as +the reporter's companion. Doctor Knox and Professor Eldridge arrived +shortly. After a time Darrow reappeared, sauntering quite calmly from the +pall of darkness, as though emerging from behind a velvet curtain. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +THE UNKNOWN + +It will now become necessary to glance in passing at the personal +characteristics of Professor Eldridge. This man was in about his fortieth +year, tall, spare, keenly intellectual in countenance, cold, possessed of +an absolute reliance on the powers of science, beyond which his mental +processes did not stray. His manner was distinguished by a stiff unbending +formality; his expression by a glacial coldness of steel-gray eyes and a +straight-line compression of thin lips; his dress by a precise and +unvarying formalism, and his speech by a curious polysyllabic stiffness. + +This latter idiosyncrasy would, in another, have seemed either priggish or +facetiously intended. With Professor Eldridge it was merely a natural +method of speech. Thus, arriving once at the stroke of the dinner hour, he +replied to compliments on his punctuality by remarking: + +"I have always considered punctuality a virtue when one is invited to +partake of gratuitous nourishment." + +Withal, his scientific attainments were not only undoubted, but so +considerable as to have won for him against many odds the reputation of a +great scientist. His specialty, if such it might be called, was scientific +diagnosis. The exactness of scientific laws was so admirably duplicated by +the exactitudes of his mind that he seemed able, by a bloodless and +mechanical sympathy, to penetrate to the most obscure causes of the +strangest events. It might be added that practically his only social ties +were those with the Warfords, and that the only woman with whom he ever +entered into conversation was Helen. + +At sight of him Percy Darrow's lounging gait became accentuated to +exaggeration. + +"Hello, Prof!" he drawled. "On the job, I see. Good morning, Doctor," he +greeted Knox. "What do you make of it?" + +"I make of it that the Atlas Building will shortly be without tenants," +replied the doctor; "me, for one." + +Eldridge surveyed Darrow coldly through the glittering toric lenses of his +glasses. + +"The cause of these extraordinary phenomena is self-evident," he stated. + +"You mean their nature, not their cause," replied Darrow. "In nature, they +refer back to the interference with etheric and molecular vibrations. +That," he added, "is a fact that every boy in the grammar-school physics +class has figured out for himself. The cause is a different matter." + +"I stand corrected," said Eldridge. "Such lapses in accuracy of statement +are not usual with me, but may be considered as concomitant with unusual +circumstances." + +"Right-o!" agreed Darrow cheerfully. "Well, what about the causes?" + +"That I will determine when I am satisfied that all the elements of the +problem are in my hands." + +"Right-o!" repeated Darrow. "Well, I'll bet you a new hat I'll land the +cause before you do. Be a sport!" + +"I never indulge in wagers," replied Eldridge. + +"Well," said Darrow to Jack and Hallowell, "come on!" + +Without waiting to see if he was followed, the young man again plunged +into the black and clinging darkness. + +"Get hold of my coat," his voice came to the others. "We're going to +climb." + +Accordingly they climbed, in silence, up many flights of stairs, through +the cloying darkness. At last Darrow halted, turned sharp to the left, +fumbled for a door, and entered a room. + +"Simmons?" he said. + +"Here!" came a voice. + +"I thought you'd be on the job," said Darrow, with satisfaction. "How's +your instrument? Going, eh? We are in the wireless offices," he told the +others. "Sit down, if you can find chairs. We'll wait until the sun is +shining brightly, love, before we really try to get down to business. In +the meantime--" + +"In the meantime--" repeated both Jack and Hallowell, in a breath. "Go on, +my son," conceded the latter. "I bet we have the same idea." + +"Well, I was going to say that I'm not in the grammar-school physics +class, and I want to know what you meant by your remark to Eldridge," said +Jack. + +"That's my trouble," said Hallowell. + +"It's simple enough," began Darrow. "We have had, first, a failure of +all electricity; second, a failure of all sound; third, a failure of +all light. The logical mind would therefore examine these things to see +what they have in common. The answer simply jumps at you: _Vibration_. +Electricity and light are vibrations in ether; sound is vibration in +air or some solid. Therefore, whatever could absolutely stop vibration +would necessarily stop electricity, light and sound." + +"But," objected Jack, "if vibration were absolutely stopped, why wouldn't +they all three be blotted out at once?" + +"Because," explained Darrow, "the vibrations making these three phenomena +are different in character. Sound is made by horizontal waves, for +example, while electricity and light are made by transverse waves. +Furthermore, the waves producing electricity and light differ in length. +Now, it is conceivable that a condition which would interfere with +horizontal waves would not interfere with transverse waves; or that a +condition which would absolutely deaden waves two hundred and seventy +ten-millionths of an inch long would have absolutely no effect on those +one hundred and fifty-five ten-millionths of an inch long. Am I clear?" + +"Sure!" came the voices of his audience. + +"That much Eldridge and any other man trained in elementary science +already knows. It is no secret." + +"It hasn't been published," observed Hallowell grimly. + +"Well, go to it! The task of the independent investigator, of which we are +some, is now to discover, first, what are those conditions, and, second, +what causes them. With the exception of Mr. Hallowell, we all know what +this guiding power is." + +"Don't get it," growled Simmons. + +"Now, look here, Simmons, you are very loyal to McCarthy, for whatever +reason, but your loyalty is misplaced. For one thing, your man has +disappeared, and will not return. That last message scared him out. For +another thing, we're going to need you in our campaign, the worst way." + +"I'm from Copenhagen; you got to show me," said Simmons. + +Darrow laughed softly. + +"We'll show you, all right," said he. He sketched briefly for Hallowell's +benefit the reasoning already followed out, and which it is therefore +unnecessary to repeat here. "So now," he concluded, "we will consider this +hypothesis: that these phenomena are caused by one man in control of a +force capable of deadening vibrations in ether and solids within certain +definite limits." + +"Why do you limit it?" cried Hallowell. + +"Because we have had but one manifestation at a time. If this Unknown were +out really to frighten--which seems to be his intention--it would be much +more effective to visit us with absolute darkness and absolute silence +combined. That would be really terrifying. He has not done so. Therefore, +I conclude that his power is limited in applicability." + +"Isn't that a little doubtful?" spoke up Jack. + +"Of course," said Darrow cheerfully. "That's where we're going to win out +on this sporting proposition with our dear Brother Eldridge. He won't +accept any hypothesis unless it is absolutely copper-riveted. We will." + +"I think you underestimate Eldridge," spoke up Hallowell. "He's the only +original think-tank in a village of horse troughs." + +"I don't underestimate him one bit," countered Darrow; "but we have a head +start on him with our reasoning; that's all. He's absolutely sure to come +to the conclusions I have just detailed, only he'll get there a little +more slowly. That's why I want you in on this thing, Hallowell." + +"How's that?" + +"We'll publish everything up to date and cut the ground from under him." + +"What's your special grouch on Eldridge, anyway?" asked Jack. + +"I like to worry him," replied Percy Darrow non-committally. + +At this moment the darkness disappeared as though some one had turned a +switch. The reporter, the operator and the scientist's young assistant +moved involuntarily as though dodging, and blinked. Darrow shaded his eyes +with one hand and proceeded as though nothing had happened. + +"Here are the exclusive points of your story," he said to Hallowell, +handing him a sheaf of yellow wireless forms. "I got them in McCarthy's +office. They are messages from the unknown wielder of the mysterious +power to his enemy, the political boss. There will be plenty who will +conclude these messages to be the result of fanaticism, after the fact; +that is to say, they will conclude some wireless amateur has taken +advantage of natural phenomena and, by claiming himself the author of +them, has attempted to use them against his enemy. Of course, the answer +to that is that if the Unknown--let's call him Monsieur X--did not cause +these strange things, he at least knew enough about them to predict them +accurately." + +"You just leave that to me," hummed Hallowell under his breath. The +reporter had been glancing over the wireless forms, and his eyes were +shining with delight. + +"Here is the last one," said Darrow, producing a crumpled yellow paper +from his pocket. "I went back after it." + + "McCarthy: My patience is at an end. Your last warning will be sent + you at nine thirty this morning. If you do not sail on the Celtic at + noon I shall strike. You are of a stubborn and a stiff-necked + generation, but I am your lord and master, and my wrath shall be + visited on you. Begone, or you shall die the death." + +"That bluffed him out," said Darrow, "and I don't blame him. Now, +Simmons," said he, turning to the operator, who had sat in utter silence, +"how about it? Are you with us, or against us?" + +"How do you mean?" demanded Simmons. + +"This," said Darrow sharply. "The time has passed for concealment. Every +message through the ether must now reach the public. We must send messages +back. The case is out of private hands; it has become important to the +people. Will you agree on your honor faithfully to transmit?" He leaned +forward, his indolent frame startlingly tense. "Are you afraid of +McCarthy?" + +"He's been good to me--it's a family matter," muttered the operator. + +"Well--" Darrow arose, crossed to the operator, and whispered to him for a +moment. "You see the seriousness--you are an intelligent man." + +The operator turned pale. + +"I hadn't thought of that," he muttered. "I hadn't thought of that. Of +course I'm with you." + +"I thought you would be," drawled Percy Darrow slowly. "If you hadn't +decided to be, I'd have had another man put in your place. Hadn't thought +of that, either, had you?" + +"No, sir," replied Simmons. + +"Well, I prefer you. It's no job for a quitter, and I believe you'll +stick." + +"I'll stick," repeated Simmons. + +"Well, to work," said Darrow, lighting the cigarette he had been playing +with. "Send this out, and see if you can reach Monsieur X. + +"'_M_,'" he dictated slowly. "'Do you get this?' Repeat that until you get +a reply." + +Without comment the operator turned to his key. The long ripping crashes +of the wireless sender followed the movements of his fingers. + +"I get his '_I_--_I_,'" he said, after a moment. "It's almighty faint." + +"Good!" said Darrow. "Give him this: + + "'McCarthy has disappeared. Can no longer reach him with your + messages.'" + +"He merely answers '_I_--_I_,'" observed the operator. + +"By the way," asked Darrow, "what is your shift, anyhow? Weren't you on at +night when this thing began?" + +"I'm still on at night; but Mr. McCarthy sent me a message, and asked me +to stay on all this morning as a personal favor to him." + +"I see. Then you're still on at night?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Well, tell Monsieur X that fact, put yourself at his disposal, and tell +him he'd better get all his messages to you rather than to the other +operators here." + +"All right." + +"There's your story," said Darrow to Hallowell; "it's in those messages. +The scientific aspect will probably be done by somebody for the evening +papers. You better concentrate on Monsieur X's connection with McCarthy." + +"Say, my friend," said Hallowell earnestly, "do you think I'm a reporter +for the _Scientific American_ or a newspaper?" + +All three rose. The operator was busy crashing away at his Leyden jars. + +"What next?" asked Jack. + +"That depends on two things." + +"Whether or not McCarthy takes the _Celtic_," interposed Hallowell +quickly. + +"And whether Monsieur X will be satisfied with his mere disappearance, +if he does not take the _Celtic_," supplemented Darrow. "In any case, +we've got to find him. He's unbalanced; he possesses an immense and +disconcerting and a dangerous power; he is becoming possessed of a +_manie des grandeurs_. You remember the phrasing of his last message? 'I +am your lord and master, and my wrath shall be visited on you. Begone!' +That is the language of exaltation. Exaltation is not far short of +irresponsible raving." + +"What possible clue--" began Jack Warford blankly. + +"When a man is somewhere out in the ether there is no clue," replied +Darrow. + +"Then how on earth can you hope to find him?" + +"By the exercise of pure reason," said Darrow calmly. + + + + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +DARROW'S CHALLENGE + +With a final warning to Simmons as to the dissemination of any information +without consulting him, Darrow left the room. Hallowell listened to this +advice with unmixed satisfaction; the afternoon papers would not be able +to get at his source of information. The reporter felt a slight wonder as +to how Darrow had managed his ascendency over the operator. An inquiry as +to that met with a shake of the head. + +"I may have to ask your help in that later," was his only reply. + +At the corner, after pushing through a curious crowd, the men separated. +Hallowell started for the wharf; Jack Warford for home--at Darrow's +request. The scientist returned to his own apartments, where he locked +himself in and sat for five hours cross-legged on a divan, staring +straight ahead of him, doing nothing. At the end of that time he +cautiously stretched his legs, sighed, rose, and looked into the mirror. + +"I guess you're hungry," he remarked to the image therein. + +It was now near mid-afternoon. Percy Darrow wandered out, ate a leisurely +meal at the nearest restaurant, and sauntered up the avenue. He paused at +a news stand to buy an afternoon paper, glanced at the head-lines and a +portion of the text, and smiled sweetly to himself. Then he betook himself +by means of a bus to the Warford residence. + +Helen was at home, and in the library. With her was Professor Eldridge. +The men greeted each other formally. After a moment of general +conversation Darrow produced the newspaper. + +"I see you have your theories in print," he drawled. "Very interesting. I +didn't know you'd undertaken grammar-school physics instruction." + +"I know I'm going to be grateful for any sort of instruction--from +anybody," interposed Helen. "I'm all in the dark." + +"Like the Atlas Building," Darrow smiled at her. "Well, here's a very good +exposition in words of one syllable. I'll leave you the paper. Professor, +what have you concluded as to the causes?" + +"They are yet to be determined." + +"Pardon me," drawled Darrow, "they have been determined--or at least their +controlling power." + +"In what way, may I ask?" inquired Professor Eldridge formally. + +"Very simply. By the exercise of a little reason. I am going to tell you, +because I want you to start fairly with me; and because you'll know all +about it in the morning, anyway." + +"Your idea--the one you told us yesterday--is to be published?" cried +Helen, leaning forward with interest. + +"The basis of it will be," replied Darrow. "Now"--he turned to +Eldridge--"listen carefully; I'm not going to indulge in many +explanations. Malachi McCarthy, political boss of this city, has +made a personal enemy of a half-crazed or at least unbalanced man, +who has in some way gained a limited power over etheric and other +vibrations. This power Monsieur X, as I call him--the Unknown--has +employed in fantastic manifestations designed solely for the purpose +of frightening his enemy into leaving this country." + +Eldridge was listening with the keenest attention, his cold gray eyes +glittering frostily behind their toric lenses. + +"You support your major hypothesis, I suppose?" he demand calmly. + +"By wireless messages sent from Monsieur X to McCarthy, in which he +predicts or appoints in advance the exact hour at which these +manifestations take place." + +"In advance, I understand you to say?" + +"Precisely." + +"The proof is as conclusive for merely prophetic ability as for power +over the phenomena." + +"In formal logic; not in common sense." + +Eldridge reflected a moment further, removing his glasses, with the edge +of which he tapped methodically the palm of his left hand. Helen had sunk +back into the depths of her armchair, and was watching with immobile +countenance but vividly interested eyes the progress of the duel. + +"Granting for the moment your major hypothesis," Eldridge stated at last, +"I follow your other essential statements. The man is unbalanced because +he chooses such a method of accomplishing a simple end." + +"Quite so." + +"His power is limited because it has been applied to but one manifestation +of etheric vibration at a time; and each manifestation has had a defined +duration." + +Darrow bowed. "You are the only original think-tank," he quoted +Hallowell's earlier remark. + +"You are most kind to place me in possession of these additional facts," +said Eldridge, resuming his glasses, "for naturally my conclusions, based +on incomplete premises, could hardly be considered more than tentative. +The happy accident of an acquaintance with the existence of these wireless +messages and this personal enmity gave you a manifest but artificial +advantage in the construction of your hypothesis." + +"Did I not see you in the corridor of the Atlas Building the day of the +first electrical failure?" asked Darrow. + +"Certainly." + +"Then you had just as much to go on as I did," drawled Darrow, half +closing his eyes. The long dark lashes fell across his cheek, investing him +in his most harmless and effeminate look. + +"I fail to--" + +"Yes, you fail, all right," interrupted Darrow. "You had all the strings in +your hands, but you were a mile behind me in the solution of this mystery. +I'll tell you why: it was for the same reason that you're going to fail a +second time, now that once again I've put all the strings in your hands." + +"I must confess I fail to gather your meaning," said Professor Eldridge +coldly. + +"It was for the same reason that always until his death you were inferior +to dear old Doctor Schermerhorn as a scientist. You are an almost perfect +thinking machine." + +Darrow quite deliberately lighted a cigarette, flipped the match into the +grate, and leaned back luxuriously. Professor Eldridge sat bolt upright, +waiting. Helen Warford watched them both. + +"You have no humanity; you have no imagination," stated Darrow at last. +"You follow the dictates of rigid science, and of logic." + +"Most certainly," Eldridge agreed to this, as to a compliment. + +"It takes you far," continued Darrow, "but not far enough. You observe +only facts; I also observe men. You will follow only where your facts +lead; I am willing to take a leap in the dark. I'll have all this matter +hunted out while you are proving your first steps." + +"That, I understand it, is a challenge?" demanded Eldridge, touched in his +pride of the scientific diagnostician. + +"That," said Percy Darrow blandly, "is a statement of fact." + +"We shall see." + +"Sure!" agreed Darrow. "Now, the thing to do is to find Monsieur X. I +don't know whether your curiously scutellate mind has arrived at the point +where it is willing to admit the existence of Monsieur X or not; but it +will. The man who finds Monsieur X wins. Now, you know or can read in the +morning paper every fact I have. Go to it!" + +Eldridge bowed formally. + +"There's one other thing," went on Darrow in a more serious tone of voice. +"You have, of course, considered the logical result of this power carried +to its ultimate possibility." + +"Certainly," replied Eldridge coldly. "The question is superfluous." + +"It is a conclusion which many scientific minds will come to, but which +will escape the general public unless the surmise is published. For the +present I suggest that we use our influence to keep it out of the prints." + +Eldridge reflected. "You are quite right," said he; and rose to go. + +After his departure Helen turned on Darrow. + +"You were positively insulting!" she cried, "and in my house! How could +you?" + +"Helen," said Darrow, facing her squarely, "I maintained rigidly all the +outer forms of politeness. That is as far as I will go anywhere with that +man. My statement to him is quite just; he has no humanity." + +"What do you mean? Why are you so bitter?" asked Helen, a little subdued +in her anger by the young man's evident earnestness. + +"You never knew Doctor Schermerhorn, did you, Helen?" he asked. + +"The funny little old German? Indeed, I did! He was a dear!" + +"He was one of the greatest scientists living--and he was a dear! +That goes far to explain him--a gentle, wise, child-like, old man--with +imagination and a Heaven-seeking soul. He picked me up as a boy, +and was a father to me. I was his scientific assistant until he was +killed, murdered by the foulest band of pirates. Life passes; and that +is long ago." + +He fell silent a moment; and the girl looked on this unprecedented +betrayal of feeling with eyes at once startled and sympathetic. + +"Doctor Schermerhorn," went on Darrow in his usual faintly tired, +faintly cynical tone, "worked off and on for five years on a certain +purely scientific discovery, the nature of which you would not +understand. In conversation he told its essentials to this Eldridge. +Doctor Schermerhorn fell sick of a passing illness. When he had +recovered, the discovery had been completed and given to the +scientific world." + +"Oh!" cried Helen. "What a trick!" + +"So I think. The discovery was purely theoretic and brought no particular +fame or money to Eldridge. It was, as he looked at it, and as the doctor +himself looked at it, merely carrying common knowledge to a conclusion. +Perhaps it was; but I never forgave Eldridge for depriving the old man of +the little satisfaction of the final proof. It is indicative of the whole +man. He lacks humanity, and therefore imagination." + +"Still, I wish you wouldn't be quite so bitter when I'm around," pleaded +Helen, "though I love your feeling for dear old Doctor Schermerhorn." + +"I wish you could arrange to get out of town for a little while," urged +Darrow. "Isn't there some one you can visit?" + +"Do you mean there is danger?" + +"There is the potentiality of danger," Darrow amended. "I am almost +confident, if pure reason can be relied on, that when the time comes I can +avert the danger." + +"Almost--" said Helen. + +"I may have missed one of the elements of the case--though I do not think +so. I can be practically certain when I telephone a man I know--or see the +morning papers." + +"Telephone now, then. But why 'when the time comes'? Why not now?" + +Darrow arose to go to the telephone. He shook his head. + +"Let Eldridge do his best. He has always succeeded--triumphantly. Now he +will fail, and he will fail in the most spectacular, the most public way +possible." + +He lifted his eyes, usually so dreamy, so soft brown. Helen was startled +at the lambent flash in their depths. He sauntered from the room. After a +moment she heard his voice in conversation with the man he had called. + +"Hallowell?" he said, "good luck to find you. Did our friend leave on the +_Celtic_? No? Sure he didn't sneak off in disguise? I'll trust you to +think of everything. Sure! Meet me at Simmons' wireless in half an hour." + +Helen heard the click as he hung up the receiver. A moment later he +lounged back into the room. + +"All right," he said. "My job's done." + +"Done!" echoed Helen in surprise. + +"Either I'm right or I'm wrong," said Darrow. "Every element of the game +is now certainly before me. If my reasoning is correct I shall receive +certain proof of that fact within half an hour. If it is wrong, then I'm +away off, and Eldridge's methods will win if any can." + +"What is the proof? Aren't you wildly excited? Tell me!" cried Helen. + +"The proof is whether or not a certain message has been received over a +certain wireless," said Darrow. "I'll know soon enough. But that is not +the question; can not you get out of town for a little while?" + +Helen surveyed him speculatively. + +"If there is no danger, I can see no reason for it," she stated at length, +with decision. "If there is danger you should warn a great many others." + +"But if that warning might precipitate the danger?" + +"Shall I go or stay?" she demanded, ignoring the equivocation. + +Darrow considered. + +"Stay," he decided at last. "I'll bet more than my life that I'm right," +he muttered. "Now," he continued, a trifle more briskly, "be prepared +for fireworks. Unless I'm very much mistaken this little old town is +going variously and duly to be stood on its head at odd times soon. +That's the way I size it up. Don't be frightened; don't get caught +unprepared. I think we've had the whole bag of tricks. At almost any +moment we're likely to be cut off from all electricity, all sound, or +all light--never more than one at a time. I imagine we shall have ample +warning, but perhaps not. In any case, don't be frightened. It's harmless +in itself. Better stay home nights. You can reassure your friends if you +want to; but on no account get my name in this. If I am quoted, it will +do incalculable harm." + +"Why not tell the public that it is harmless?" demanded Helen. "Think of +the anxiety, the accidents, the genuine terror it would save." + +Darrow rose slowly to go. He walked quite deliberately over to Helen, and +faced her for a moment in silence. + +"Helen," he said impressively at last, "I have talked freely with you +because I felt I could trust you. Believe me, I know the exigencies of +this case better than you do; and you must obey me in what I say. I am +speaking very seriously. If you allow your sympathies to act on the very +limited knowledge you possess, you will probably bring about incalculable +harm. We walk in safety only while we stick to the path. If you try to act +in any case on what your judgment or your sympathies may advise, and +without consulting me, you may cause the city, the people, and all that +you know or care for to be blotted out of existence. Do you understand? +Do you believe me?" + +"I understand; I believe you," repeated the girl a trifle faintly. + +Darrow left without further ceremony. Helen stood where he had left her +on the rug, staring after him, a new expression in her eyes. She had +known Percy Darrow for many years. Always she had appreciated his +intellect, but deprecated what she had considered his indolence, his +softness of character, his tendency to let things drift. For the first +time she realized that not invariably do manners make the man. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +THE FEAR OF DANGER + +Before leaving the house, Darrow summoned Jack Warford. + +"Come on, old bulldog," said he. "You're to live with me a while now. The +game is closing down." + +"Bully," said Jack. "I'll pack a suit case." + +"Have it done for you, and sent down to my place. We must hustle for the +Atlas Building now." + +"What's doing?" asked Jack, as they boarded a surface car. + +"Absolutely nothing--for some time perhaps. But we must be ready. And the +waiting will be amusing, I promise you that." + +When they arrived at the Atlas Building, Darrow was surprised to find +Simmons already in charge of the office. + +"Thought you were on night duty," said he. + +"I am," replied Simmons curtly. "But judging by what you said this +morning, I considered I'd better be on the job myself." + +"Good boy," approved Darrow. "I see I've made no mistake in you. Just +stick it out twelve hours more, and we'll have it settled. Anything more?" + +Simmons thrust a message across the table. + +Darrow took it quite calmly. At this moment Hallowell entered. + +"What time did this come?" asked Darrow, nodding to the reporter. + +"At twelve thirty." + +Darrow nodded twice with great satisfaction. + +Then quite deliberately he unfolded the paper and perused its contents. +Without change of expression he handed it to Hallowell. The latter read +aloud: + + "TO THE PEOPLE: A traitor is among you--one who has betrayed you, + one and all, but whom you cherish to your bosoms as a viper. I, who + am greater than you all, have laid my commands upon him, and he has + seen fit to disobey. He is now in hiding among you. This man must be + produced. I would not willingly harass you, but this, my will, must + be carried out. If he is not found by six to-morrow a sign will be + sent to you that you may believe. I am patient, but I must be + obeyed." + +"Now, what do you think of that!" cried Hallowell. "He doesn't even +mention the name of his friend to the dear people who are to hunt him +down! Fine dope!" + +Darrow's face expressed a sleepy satisfaction. He stretched his arms and +yawned. + +"You might supply the deficiency," he suggested. "Well," he remarked to +Jack, "that settles it. Everything's running like a catboat in a fair +wind. He's in communication with us; he is gaining confidence in his +inflated imaginary importance; we are to have a continuance of his +peculiar activities; and we can put our hands on him at a moment's +notice." + +"What!" shouted Hallowell and Jack Warford, leaping to their feet. + +"Where is he?" demanded the reporter. + +"How do you know?" cried Jack. + +Simmons, his head-piece laid aside, looked up at him in silent curiosity. + +"It is sufficient for now that I do know," smiled Darrow. "As for how I +know, that last wireless proved it to me." + +All three men immediately bent over the message for a detailed perusal. +After a minute's scrutiny, Hallowell looked up in disappointment. + +"Too many for me," he confessed. "What is there in that?" + +But Darrow shook his head. + +"I play my own game," was all the explanation he would vouchsafe. + +"You may as well knock off, old man," he told Simmons. "I don't think +there'll be anything more doing to-night; and it doesn't matter if there +is. Tell your other man to jot down anything from that sending, if any +comes. Now," he turned to Hallowell, "I want to see your managing editor." + +The three took the subway to City Hall Square. The managing editor +received Darrow with much favor as the vehicle of a big scoop brought in +far enough ahead of going to press to permit of ample time for its +development. + +"Now, Mr. Curtis," said Darrow to this man, "this is going to be an +interesting week for you. Here's your last exclusive despatch. From +to-morrow morning every paper in town will naturally get every wireless +that comes in." + +"H'm," observed Curtis, reading the despatch. "What next?" + +"He'll fulfil his threat. To-morrow evening at six o'clock he will stop +the vibrations either of light, of electricity, or of sound--probably of +electricity, as he has appointed the rush hour." + +"Most likely," Curtis agreed. + +"Warn the people to keep out of the subways, and not to get scared. Take +it easy. There's no danger. Explain why in words of one syllable." + +"Sure." + +"Now, this is what I'm here for. Up to now these manifestations have been +harmless in their direct effects. But follow the hypothesis to its logical +conclusion. Suppose this man can arrest the vibrations not only of light +and sound, but also of the third member of the vibratory trinity. Suppose +he should go one step farther; and, even for the barest fraction of time, +should be able to stop the vibrations of heat!" + +The managing editor half rose. As the idea in its full significance gained +hold on their imaginations the three men turned to stare blankly at one +another. + +"That is annihilation!" Curtis whispered. + +"On a wholesale scale," agreed Darrow calmly. "It means the death of every +living thing from the smallest insect to the largest animal, from the +microbe to the very lichens on the stones of Trinity. I agree with the way +you look." He laughed a little. "But the case isn't so bad as it sounds," +he went on. "If the crust of the earth were to collapse, that would be +annihilation, too. But it isn't likely to happen. There are several things +to think of." + +"What, for the love of Pete!" gasped Curtis. "Any small efforts at +muck-racking this refrigerator trust would be thankfully received." + +"In the first place, as you know," explained Darrow, "his power seems to +be limited in certain directions. He apparently can stop vibrations only +of certain defined wave-lengths at one time. It may be that he is unable +to stop heat vibrations at all." + +"You'll have to do better than that," growled Curtis. + +"The rest is faith--on your part," replied Darrow. "For I'll guarantee +that even if Monsieur X has this power, I'll stop him before he exercises +it." + +"Guarantee?" inquired Curtis. + +"There's nothing to prevent my moving to California or Mombassa if I +thought myself in any danger here," Darrow pointed out. "It would be very +easy for me quietly to warn my friends and quietly do the grand sneak." + +"True," muttered Curtis, rummaging on his desk for a pipe. + +"The danger isn't the point--_it's the fear of danger_," said Darrow. + +Curtis looked up, arresting the operation of crowding the tobacco into the +pipe bowl. + +"Suppose that throughout the length and breadth of this city the idea +should be spread broadcast that at any given moment it might be destroyed. +Can you imagine the effect?" + +"Immediate exodus," grinned Curtis. "Immediate is a nice dignified word," +he added. + +"Quite so, and then?" + +"Eh?" + +"What in blazes would four million city people without homes or +occupations do? Where would they go? What would happen?" + +"You see what I mean," went on Darrow, after the slight pause necessary to +let this sink in. "The fear would bring about a general catastrophe only +less serious than the fact itself. It's up to you newspaper men to see +that they don't catch this fear. There'll be a hundred letters from foxy +boys with just enough logic or imagination to see the possibility of +cutting off the furnace; but without imagination enough to get the final +effect of telling people about it. Suppress it. Unless I'm mistaken, the +affair will be over in a week." + +Curtis drummed thoughtfully on his desk. + +"It's got to be done, and it will be done," he said at last. "I'll get to +every paper in the city to-night--if it costs us our scoop." + +"But won't the people who write the letters tell about it, anyway?" asked +Jack. "And won't the outside papers have the same stuff?" + +"Sure," agreed Curtis promptly, "but what isn't in the city press +doesn't get to the mass of the public; that's a cinch. There will be +some thousands or even tens of thousands who will leave; there'll be +rumors a-plenty; there'll be the damnedest row since the Crusades--but +the people will stick. I'm taking your word for the danger." + +"Well, I'm the hostage," Darrow reminded him. + +"Correct," said Curtis, reaching for the desk telephone. + +Hallowell followed the visitors to the narrow hall. + +"Now," said Darrow in parting, "remember what I have said. Don't mention +my name nor indicate that there is anywhere an idea that the identity or +whereabouts of Monsieur X is by anybody suspected." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +THE MASTER SPEAKS AGAIN + +Having thus detailed rather minutely the situation in which the city and +the actors in its drama found themselves, it now becomes necessary to move +the action forward to the point where the moneyed interests took a hand in +the game. + +That was brought about in somewhat more than fifty hours. + +In the meantime the facts as to vibrations were published in all the +papers; the despatches and the relations between McCarthy and Monsieur X +exclusively in the _Despatch_--to that organ's vast satisfaction and +credit; and the possibilities of tragedy in none. This latter fact was +greatly to the credit of a maligned class of men. It is common belief +that no cause is too sacred or no consequence too grave to give pause to +the editorial rapacity for news. The present instance disproved that +supposition. No journal, yellow or otherwise, contained a line of +suggestion that anything beyond annoyance was to be feared from these +queer manifestations. + +The consequences on a mixed population like that of New York were very +peculiar. The people naturally divided themselves into three classes. In +the first were those who had received their warning from logic, friends, +or the outside world; and who either promptly left town or, being unable +to do so, lived in fear. In the second were all that numerous body who, +neurasthenically unbalanced or near the overbalance, shut instinctively +the eyes of their reason and glowed with a devastating and fanatical +religious zeal. Among these, so extraordinarily are we constituted, +almost immediately grew up various sects, uniting only in the belief that +the wrath of God was upon an iniquitous people. + +By far the largest class of all, comprising the every-day busy bulk of +the people, were those who accepted the thing at its face value, read its +own papers, went about its business, and spared time to laugh at the +absurdities or growl at the inconveniences of the phenomena. With true +American adaptability, it speedily accustomed itself to both the +expectation of, and the coping with, unusual conditions. It went forth +about its daily affairs; it started for home a little early in order to +get there in season; it eschewed subways and theaters; it learned to wait +patiently, when one of the three blights struck its world, as a man waits +patiently for a shower to pass. + +This class, as has been said, was preponderantly in the majority, but +its mass was being constantly diminished as a little knowledge of +danger seeped into its substance. News of the possible catastrophe +passed from mouth to mouth; a world outside, waiting aghast at such +fatuity, began to get in its messages. Street corner alarmists talked +to such as would listen. Thousands upon thousands left the city. +Hundreds of thousands more, tied hard and fast by the strings of +necessity, waited in an hourly growing dread. + +The "sign" had been sent promptly at six o'clock, as promised. It proved +Darrow's prediction by turning out to be a stoppage of the electrical +systems. This time it lasted only half an hour-long enough to throw the +traffic and transportation into confusion. It was followed at short +intervals by demonstrations in light and sound; none was of long duration. + +After the first few, their occurrence came freakishly, in flashes, as +though the hidden antagonist delighted in confusing his immense audience. +The messages he sent over the wireless in the Atlas Building grew more and +more threatening and grandiose. They demanded invariably that McCarthy +should be sought out and delivered up to a rather vaguely described +vengeance; and threatened with dire calamities all the inhabitants of +Manhattan if the Unknown's desires were not fulfilled. These threats grew +more definite in character as time went on. + +The effect of all this in the long run was, of course, confusion and +instability. People laughed or cursed; but they also listened and +reasoned. Gradually, throughout the city, dread was extending the +blackness of its terror. A knowledge that would have caused a tremendous +panic if it had been divulged suddenly now gave birth to a deep seated +uneasiness. + +Where the panic would have torn men up by the roots and flung them in +terrorized mobs through the congested ways and out into the inhospitable +country, the uneasiness of dread held them cowering at their accustomed +tasks. They were afraid; but they had had time to think, and they realized +what it would mean to leave their beloved or accustomed or necessary city, +as the case might be. And it must be remembered that the definite +knowledge of what might be feared was not yet disseminated among them. + +But this attitude hurt business, and business struck back. The subways +were practically deserted; the theaters empty; the accustomed careless +life of the Great White Way thinned; the streams of life slackened. +Furthermore, the intelligent criminal immediately discovered that ideal +shields were being provided him gratis behind which to conduct his crimes. +In the silence a man could blow out the side of a bank building with +impunity, provided only he kept out of sight. In the darkness he could +pilfer at will, with only the proviso that he forget not his gum shoes. +The possibilities of night crime when electricity lacks have already been +touched upon. + +To meet unusual conditions the people individually and collectively rose +to heights of forgotten ingenuity. The physical life of a city is so well +established that the average city dweller grows out of the pioneer virtue +of adaptability. Now once more these people were forced to meet new and +untried conditions, to guard against new dangers, new opposing forces. In +an incredibly short space of time they grew out of aimless panic. They +learned to sit tight; to guard adequately their lives, their treasure, and +even to a certain extent their time against undue loss. + +In the meantime the moneyed powers had been prompt to act. They did not +intend to stand idly while their pockets were being picked by untoward +circumstances; nor did they intend to continue indefinitely the unusual +expenditures necessary to guard themselves against even a greater loss. As +there seemed to be two men to find, they employed the best of detectives +to search for McCarthy; and professor Eldridge, as the greatest living +expert, to hunt down the Unknown. Thus unexpectedly Eldridge found himself +with definite backing in his strange duel with Darrow. + +It is now desirable to place before the reader samples of the messages +sent by Monsieur X and received in the wireless office of the Atlas +Building, after which we can proceed once more to follow out the sequence +of events. + + "TO THE PEOPLE: The sign has been sent you. You must now believe. + The traitor is among you, and you must hunt him down. This is your + sacred duty, for I, your master, have laid it upon you." + +That was one of the first. After a round dozen of similar import, there +came this: + + "TO THE PEOPLE: I, your master, am displeased with you. The + visitations of darkness and of silence have been sent, but you have + heeded little. I doubt not that ye search, as I have commanded, but + you do not realize to the full your sacred obligation. You go about + your business and you carry on your affairs. Your business and your + affairs are not so important as these, my commands. Beware lest you + draw down the wrath of the Lord's Anointed. I am patient with your + ignorance; but give heed." + +The last at present to which your attention is called came just before the +events to be detailed: + + "TO THE PEOPLE: Your time is drawing short. You are a stubborn and a + stiff-necked generation. My patience is ebbing away. You have been + shown the power of my right hand, and you have gone your accustomed + ways. You have defied the might of the Right Hand of God. Now I will + lay on you my commands. + + "You must seek out Apollyon and deliver him even into my hands, and + that shortly. I shall be patient yet a little while longer, for I + know that you grope in darkness and have not the light that shines + upon me. But soon I shall strike." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +THE PROFESSOR'S EXPERIMENT + +Throughout all this excitement Percy Darrow did absolutely nothing. He +spent all his time, save that required for meals and the shortest +necessary sleep, in a round-armed wooden chair in the wireless station of +the Atlas Building. Jack Warford sat with him. Darrow rarely opened his +mouth for speech, but smoked slowly a few cigarettes, and rolled many +more, which he held unlighted in the corner of his mouth until they +dropped to pieces. He watched quietly all that went on; glanced through +such messages as came in from Monsieur X, read the papers, and dozed. To +reporters he was affable enough in his drawling slow fashion, but had +nothing to say. + +"Eldridge is doing this," he said to them; "I'm only in the position of an +interested spectator." + +Eldridge had taken hold in a thoroughly competent way. Back of the cold +precision of his undoubted scientific attainments lurked, unexpected by +most, a strong ambition and a less admirable hankering for the lime-light. +His opportunity to gratify all these appetites--science, advancement, and +fame--was too good not to cause him the deepest satisfaction. + +"I have determined," he told the reporters, "that this particular +instrument alone receives the messages from the unknown perpetrator. Our +investigations must be initiated, therefore, in this apartment." + +"How do you explain it?" asked one of the reporters. + +"I can not explain it scientifically," admitted Eldridge, "but I can +surmise that the fact either purposely or accidentally has to do either +with this instrument's location or with some slight and undetermined +peculiarity of its tuning." + +"You could easily tell which by moving the instrument to another station +where they aren't getting the messages now," suggested Darrow lazily. + +"Certainly," snapped Eldridge, "any child could deduce that. But I fail to +see the use or necessity for the determination at all unless in a spirit +of frivolous play. Our task is not to discover where the messages can be +received, but whence they are sent." + +He gazed frostily at the man who had interrupted him. Darrow smiled softly +back. + +"How far will your instrument carry in sending?" Eldridge asked Simmons. + +"Its extreme is about two hundred miles." + +"Then we can safely assume that a circle drawn with a two-hundred-mile +radius would contain this man you call Monsieur X"--the newspapers had +adopted Darrow's nickname for the Unknown--"since you have succeeded in +communicating with him." + +"Marvelous," said Darrow to Jack--but under his breath. + +"As the sending of Monsieur X is faint, it follows that he is somewhere +near the periphery of this circle, or that he is possessed of a primitive +or weak instrument. By the doctrine of probabilities we should be +justified in concluding against the latter supposition." + +"How's that, Professor?" asked the _Morning Register_ man. "It doesn't get +to me." + +"He is evidently a man not only of scientific attainments, but of immense +scientific possessions--as is evidenced by these phenomenal results he is +able to accomplish. But we are not justified in reasoning according to the +doctrine of probabilities. Therefore, we shall proceed methodically. I +have already made my preparations." + +Eldridge looked about him with an air of triumph. + +"I am fortunate enough to have, in the present crisis, unlimited financial +backing," he said. "Therefore, I am in a position to carry out the most +exhaustive of experiments." + +He stretched his hand out for a long roll, which he laid flat upon the +table, pinning down the corners. + +"Here is a map of the Eastern States," said he. "I have drawn a circle on +it with a two-hundred-miles radius. At this moment a private instrument +with a full crew to string sending and receiving wires is two hundred +miles from here on the New York Central Railroad. It has for its +transportation a private train, and it will be given a clear right of +way." He turned to Simmons. "Have you found yourself able to communicate +with this Monsieur X at any time?" + +"Communicate!" echoed Simmons. "Why, he's easier to talk to than a girl +who wants an ice-cream soda!" + +"Then send this: 'Your messages have been communicated to the people. Be +patient.'" + +Simmons touched the key. The spark leaped crashing. + +"What do you get?" asked Eldridge, after a moment. + +"Oh, a lot of the same sort of dope," answered Simmons wearily. "Do you +want it?" + +"No, it is not necessary," replied Eldridge. "But listen for another +message from about the same distance when he has finished." + +Silence fell on the room. At the end of ten minutes Simmons raised his +head. + +"I get 'O K Q' over and over," said he. "Want that?" + +"That," replied Eldridge with satisfaction, "indicates that my crew on the +special train in the Adirondacks two hundred miles away has heard your +message to Monsieur X." He glanced at his watch. "Now, if you would be so +good as to afford me a moment's assistance," he requested Simmons, "I wish +to disconnect from your battery one of your powerful Leyden jars, and to +substitute for it one of weaker voltage. I ventured to instruct my +delivery man to leave a few in the outer hall." + +"That will weaken the sending power of my instrument," objected Simmons. + +"Exactly what I wish to do," replied Eldridge. + +"He's clever all right," Darrow murmured admiringly to Jack. "See what +he's up to?" + +"Not yet," muttered Jack. + +The substitution completed, Eldridge again glanced at his watch. + +"Now," he instructed Simmons, "send the letters 'Q E D,' and continue to +do so until you again hear the letters 'O K Q.'" + +Simmons set himself to the task. It was a long one. At last he reported +his answer. + +"He sends 'O K Q ten,'" he said. + +Eldridge turned to the reporters. + +"That means that the substitution of the smaller Leyden jar for one of the +larger reduced the sending power of this instrument just ten miles," said +he. "My crew has quite simply moved slowly forward until it caught our +sending here." + +"Next," he instructed Simmons, "see if you can communicate with Monsieur +X." + +The operator speedily reported his success at that. Eldridge removed his +glasses and polished their lenses. + +"Thus, gentlemen," said he, "from our circle of two-hundred-mile radius we +have eliminated a strip ten miles wide. Naturally if this weakened sending +reaches only one hundred and ninety miles, and our antagonist receives our +messages, he must be nearer than one hundred and ninety miles. We will now +further reduce the strength of our sending and try again." + +The younger men present broke into a shout, + +"Good work!" somebody cried. They crowded about, keenly interested in this +new method of man-hunting. Only Darrow, tipped back in his chair against +the wall, seemed unexcited. + +To Jack's whispered question he shook his head. + +"It's ingenious," he acknowledged, "but he's on the wrong track." That was +as far as he would explain, and soon dropped into a slight doze. + +Throughout the greater part of the night the experiment continued. Battery +by battery the sending power of the instrument was weakened. Mile by mile +the special train drew nearer until, by catching the prearranged signal, +it determined just how far the new sending reached. Then Simmons tried +Monsieur X. As the latter invariably answered, it was, of course, evident +that he remained still in the narrowing zone of communication. It was +fascinating work, like the drawing of a huge invisible net. + +The reporters on the morning papers mastered only with difficulty their +inclination to stay. They had to leave before their papers went to press, +but were back again in an hour, unwilling to lose a moment of the game. A +tension vibrated the little office. Only Percy Darrow dozed alone in the +corner, leaning back in his wooden armchair. + +At near four o'clock in the morning Simmons raised his head after a long +bout of calling to announce that he could get no reply from Monsieur X. + +"He's got tired of your fool messages," remarked the _Register_ man. "And +I don't wonder! Guess he's gone to bed." + +Eldridge said nothing, but replaced the Leyden jar he had but just +removed. + +"Try one," said he. + +"I get him," reported Simmons, after a moment. + +"Send him anything plausible and reassuring," commanded Eldridge hastily. +He turned to his small and attentive audience in triumph. "Thus, +gentlemen," he announced, "we have proven conclusively that our man is +located between forty and fifty miles from New York. If we draw two +circles, with this building as center, the circumference of one of which +is fifty, the other forty miles away, we define the territory within which +the malefactor in question is to be found." + +The people in the room crowded close about the table to examine the map +upon which Professor Eldridge had drawn the circles. + +"There's an awful lot of country--some of it pretty wild," objected the +_Bulletin_ man. "It will be a long job to hunt a man down in that +territory." + +"Even if it were as extensive a task as a hasty review of the facts might +indicate," stated Eldridge, "I venture to assert that enough men would be +forthcoming to expedite such a search. But modifying circumstances will +lighten the task." + +"How's that?" asked the _Banner_ man, speaking for the others' evident +interest. + +"We have no means of surmising the method by which this man succeeds in +arresting vibratory motions of certain wave-lengths," said Eldridge +didactically, "any more than we are able to define the precise nature of +electricity. But, as in the case of electricity, we can observe the action +of its phenomena. Two salient features leap out at us: one is that these +phenomena are limited in time; the other that they are limited in space. +The latter aspect we will examine, if you please, gentlemen. + +"The phenomena have been directed with great accuracy (a) at the Atlas +Building; (b) at this city and some of its immediate suburbs. The +peculiarity of this can not but strike an observant mind. How is this man +able, at forty or fifty miles distance, to concentrate his efforts on one +comparatively small objective? We can only surmise some system of +insulating screens or focal mirrors. I might remark in passing that the +existence of this power to direct or focus the more rapid ethereal +vibrations would be a discovery of considerable scientific moment. But if +this is the method employed, why do we not cut a band of vibratory +nullifications, rather than touch upon a focal point?" + +"Repeat softly," murmured the irrepressible _Register_ man. + +"Why," explained Eldridge patiently, "are not the people and buildings +between here and the unknown operator affected? The only hypothesis we are +justified in working upon is that the man's apparatus is at a height +sufficient to carry over intervening obstacles. This hypothesis is +strengthened by the collateral fact that the territory we have just +determined as that within which he must be found lies in the highlands of +our own and neighboring states. We may, therefore, eliminate the low-lying +districts within our radius." + +Percy Darrow opened one eye. + +"Perhaps he's up in a balloon," he drawled languidly; "better take along +an aeroplane." + +Eldridge cast on him a look of cold scorn. Darrow closed the eye. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +DRAWING THE NET + +The "zone of danger", as the _Bulletin_ named it, was immediately the +scene of swarming activities. Besides the expedition immediately +despatched by the interests backing the investigation, several +enterprising newspapers saw a fine chance for a big scoop, and sent out +much-heralded parties of their own. The activities of these were well +reported, you may be sure. Public interest was at once focused +reassuringly on the chances of finding the annoying malefactor to-day or +to-morrow; there no longer existed a doubt that he would be found. The +weight of dread was lifted, and in the reaction people made light of the +inconveniences and fun of the menacing messages that now came in by the +dozen. + +[Illustration: "Let Eldridge do his best."] + +It was necessary to take extraordinary precautions against thieves and +fire; the people took them. It was needful to slacken business in order +that the congestion of the rush hour might not again prove tragic; +business was slackened. People were willing to undergo many things, +because, after all, they were but temporary. The madman of the Catskills +would sooner or later be found; his pernicious activities brought to a +conclusion. The country to be searched was tremendous, of course, but the +search was thorough. + +The public delivered itself joyously to a debauch of rumors and of +"extras". The insistent alarms of danger, trickling in slowly from the +outside world, dried up in the warmth of optimism. Only the more +thoughtful, to a few of whom these warnings came, coupled them with +Monsieur X's repeated threats, and walked uncertain and in humility. + +Percy Darrow did not interest himself in the search, nor did he desert his +post in the wireless office. There he did nothing whatever. Jack Warford +stayed with him, but immensely bored, it must be confessed. Once he +suggested that if Darrow had nothing for him to do that afternoon, he +thought he would like to go out for a little exercise. + +Darrow shook his head. + +"You may go, if you want to, Jack," said he, "but if you do I'll have to +get some one else. This isn't much of a job, but I may need you any +moment." + +"All right," agreed Jack cheerfully. "Only I wish you'd let a fellow know +what to expect." + +Darrow shook his head. The two now practically lived in the office. +Neither had taken his clothes off for several days. They slept in their +chairs or on the lounge. Darrow read the various messages from the +Unknown, glanced over the newspapers, and dozed. + +Thus there passed two days of the search. On the third day the +intermittent phenomena and the messages suddenly ceased. This fact was +hailed jubilantly by all the papers as indicating that at last the quarry +had become alarmed by the near-coming search. From the contracted district +still remaining to be combed over, nobody was permitted to depart; and so +closely was the cordon drawn by so large a posse that it was physically +impossible for any living being to slip by the line. + +Thus even if Monsieur X, convinced that at last his discovery was +imminent, should destroy his apparatus or attempt to move it and himself +to a place of safety, he would find his escape cut off. Thousands of men +were employed, and thousands more drafted in as volunteers to render this +outcome assured. + +It was an army deployed in an irregular circle and moving inward toward +its center. Men of the highest executive ability commanded it, saw to its +necessary deliberation, eliminated all possibility of a confusion through +which any man could slip. The occasion was serious, and it was taken +seriously. + +Of the outcome no one in touch with the situation had a moment's doubt. +The messages and the phenomena had continued to come from the danger zone. +It was of course evident that they could not have been sent from any +portion of the zone actually searched and occupied by the searchers. The +remaining portion of the zone, from which they were still coming, had been +completely surrounded. After that the manifestations had ceased. +Therefore, Monsieur X must be within the beleaguered circle. To add to the +probabilities, as Eldridge pointed out, the remaining district compassed +the highest hills in the zone--a fact on all fours with his hypothesis. + +On the appointed morning the army moved toward the center. Men beat the +ground carefully, so close to one another that they could touch hands. As +they closed in, the ranks became thicker. Animals of many kinds, confused +as the ranks closed in on them, tried to break through the cordon and were +killed. Captains held order in the front row, that the army might not +become a crowd. Birds, alarmed by the shouting, rose and wheeled. + +In the city immense crowds watched the bulletins sent momently from the +very field itself by private wires strung hastily for the occasion. +Enterprising journals had prepared huge rough maps, on which the +contracting circle was indicated by red lines, constantly redrawn. It was +discovery before a multitude. The imagination of the public, fired by its +realization of this fact, stretched itself ahead of the distant beaters, +bodying forth what they might find. + +As the circle narrowed excitement grew. All business ceased. The streets +were crowded; the windows of the buildings looking out on the numerous +bulletin-boards were black with heads. Those who could not see demanded +eagerly of those who could. + +In the Atlas Building the wireless operator hung out of his window. Beside +him was Jack Warford. + +Darrow declined to join them. "You tell me," said he. + +Jack therefore reported back over his shoulder the bulletins as they +appeared. The crowds below read them, their faces upturned. One ran: + + "Cordon now has surrounded the crest of the Knob. Station of + Monsieur X determined among oak-trees. Men halted. Picket company + surrounds." + +The crowd roared its appreciation and impatience. A long pause followed. +Then came the next bulletin: + + "Search discovers nothing." + +A puzzled angry murmur arose, confused and chopped, like cross currents in +a tideway. Finally this was hung out: + + "No traces of human occupancy." + +A moment's astonished pause ensued. Then, over the vast multitude, its +faces upturned in incredulous amazement; over the city lying sparkling in +the noonday sun fell the pall of absolute darkness. + +In the wireless office of the Atlas Building Percy Darrow laughed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +CONFUSION WORSE CONFOUNDED + +The absolute failure of Eldridge's hypothesis immediately threw public +confidence into a profound reaction. Certainty gave place to complete +distrust. Rumor gained ground. The exodus increased. Where formerly only +those who could do so without great sacrifice or inconvenience had left +town, now people were beginning to cut loose at any cost. Men resigned +their positions in order to get their families away; others began to +arrange their affairs as best they might, as though for a long vacation. +As yet panic had not appeared openly in the light of day, but she lurked +in the shadows of men's hearts. + +The railroads and steamboats were crowded beyond their capacity. Extra +trains followed one another as close together as the block signals would +allow them to run. Humanity packed the cars. It was like a continual +series of football days. In three of them it was estimated that two +hundred thousand people had left Manhattan. It would have been physically +impossible for the transportation lines to have carried a thousand more. +They had reached their capacity; the spigot was wide open. + +Percy Darrow showed Jack the head-lines to this effect. + +"Cheerful thought," he suggested. "Suppose the whole four million should +want to get out at the same time!" + +Eldridge had come back to the wireless office thoroughly bewildered. It is +a well-known fact that the exact scientist is the hardest man to fool, but +the most fooled if fooled at all. Witness the extent to which noted +scientists have been taken in by faking spiritualist mediums. So with +Eldridge. His hypothesis had been so carefully worked out that the failure +of its logic threw his mind into confusion. Until he could discover the +weak link in his chain of reasoning, that confusion must continue. + +An hour and a half after the bulletin announcing the failure of the search +had been posted, Eldridge rushed into the wireless office. The plague of +darkness had lifted after fifteen minutes' duration. + +"Call Monsieur X," he gasped to the day operator. In fifteen minutes, by +rapid substitutions of batteries to weaken or strengthen the sending +current, he had redetermined his previous data. Apparently, without the +shadow of a doubt, Monsieur X was within the circle. + +"He may be at sea," suggested the operator. + +But Eldridge shook his head. The circle of the sea had been well +patrolled, and for days. + +"Begin over again," drawled Darrow. "I told you that you were on the wrong +track." + +Eldridge glanced at him. + +"I can't say that you've done much!" said he tartly. + +"No?" queried Darrow, with one of his slow and exasperating smiles. +"Perhaps not. But you'd better get to thinking. You won't be able always +to take things easy. You may have to hustle before long." + +"There has been, I admit," said Eldridge stiffly, repeating in substance +the interview he had already given out, "some flaw in our chain of +reasoning. This it will be necessary to review with the object of +revision. Every physical manifestation must have some physical and +definite cause; and this can be found if time enough is bestowed on it. +Often the process of elimination is the only method by which the truth can +be determined." + +Darrow chuckled. + +"Look out the process of elimination doesn't overtake you," he remarked. + +Eldridge detailed the same reasoning, at greater length, to the men who +had employed him. These were very impatient. Business was being not merely +impeded, but destroyed. Their customers had no time for them; their +employees were in many cases leaving their jobs. They called in all the +help they could to assist Eldridge's speculations, but in the end they had +to fall back on the scientist as the best on the market. The case was not +left in his hands alone, however. After a meeting they offered a reward to +any one discovering and putting to an end the disconcerting phenomena. + +"Here's where we make money, Jack, big money," observed Darrow when he +read this offer. "It'll be bigger before we get through. You and I can +have the little expedition to Volcano Island." + +"Nothing suits me better," said Jack. "Are you sure we'll get it?" + +"Sure," said Darrow. + +Monsieur X had of course honored the waiting world with a message. It +followed the fifteen minutes of darkness: + + "TO THE PEOPLE: I have been patient and have stayed my hand in order + that you may learn the vanity of your endeavor. Who are ye that ye + shall strive to take me? Vanity and foolishness is your portion. Now + ye know my power and ye will listen unto my words as to the words of + the Master. Ye must hunt down this man McCarthy and deliver him over + unto me. If every one of you gives himself to the task, lo! it is + quickly done. Bestir yourselves against the wrath to come!" + +These events occupied the three days of the ordered exodus. The time was +further filled with rumor that ever grew more dire. Gradually business was +suspended entirely. Those who could not or would not go away stood about +talking matters over, and, as is always the case, matters did not improve +in the telling. The only activity in the city was that bent on seeking out +the abiding-place of Monsieur X. + +Eldridge had now come to the conclusion that he had perhaps been mistaken +in confining his efforts to so small an area. In fact, further experiments +rendered hazy the arbitrary outlines formerly determined for the zone of +danger. At times Monsieur X answered well within the forty-five-mile mark; +at times somewhat beyond the end of the fifty-mile radius. Eldridge +immediately undertook a series of more delicate experiments by means of +indicators especially designed by him for the occasion. Once more the +little wireless office became the focus of repertorial attention. + +"Our major premises we find still to be correct," announced Eldridge in +the coldly didactic manner characteristic of the man. "This unknown +operator is at a distance; and probably at a height. One indication we did +not take sufficiently into consideration--the fact that this instrument +alone is capable of communication with the instrument of this individual." + +Percy Darrow for the first time began to show signs of attention. He +dropped the legs of his chair to the floor and leaned forward. + +"That would indicate, gentlemen, that the instrument whose location we are +desirous of determining is of a peculiar nature. What that nature is we +have no means of determining accurately; but in conjunction with the fact +that our previous experiments failed to locate Monsieur X, we may adopt +the hypothesis that the wireless apparatus of that individual is not so +delicately responsive as the average. In other words, the zone within +which he may be found is in fact wider than we had supposed." + +Darrow leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. Eldridge +continued, explaining the means he had taken to determine more accurately +the exact location of Monsieur X. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +PERCY KEEPS VIGIL + +The morning of the third day after the failure of the search, and of the +sixth since McCarthy's disappearance, had arrived. During that time Percy +Darrow, apparently insensible to fatigue, had maintained an almost +sleepless vigil. His meals Jack Warford brought in to him; he dozed in his +chair or on the couch. Never did he appear to do anything. + +The very persistent quietude of the man ended by making its impression. To +all questions, however, Darrow returned but the one reply, delivered +always in a voice full of raillery: + +"I couldn't bear to miss a single step of Eldridge's masterly work." + +About half past nine of the morning in question, through the door to the +wireless office, always half opened, somebody looked hesitatingly into the +room. Instantly Darrow and Jack were on their feet and in the hallway. + +"Helen!" cried Jack. + +"What is it? Anything happened?" demanded Darrow. + +She surveyed them both amusedly. + +"You certainly look like a frowzy tramp, Jack," she told her brother +judiciously, "and you need sleep," she informed Darrow. + +The young scientist bowed ironically, his long lashes drooping over his +eyes in his accustomed lazy fashion as he realized that the occasion was +not urgent. Helen turned directly to him. + +"When are you going to stop this?" she demanded. + +Darrow raised his eyebrows. + +"You needn't look at me like that. You said you could lay your hands on +Monsieur X at any moment; why don't you do it?" + +"Eldridge is too amusing." + +"Too amusing!" echoed the girl. "All you think of is yourself." + +"Is it?" drawled Darrow. + +"Have you been out in the city? Have you seen the people? Have you seen +men out of work? Families leaving their homes? Panic spreading slowly but +surely over a whole city?" + +"Those pleasures have been denied me," said Darrow blandly. + +The girl looked at him with bright angry eyes. Her cheeks were glowing, +and her whole figure expressed a tense vibrant life in singular contrast +to the apparent indolence of the men at whom she was talking. + +"You are insufferable!" She fairly stamped her foot in vexation. "You are +an egoist! You would play with the welfare of four million people to +gratify your little personal desire for getting even!" + +"Steady, sis!" warned Jack. + +Darrow had straightened, and his indolent manner had fallen from him. + +"I have said I would permit no harm to come to these people, and I mean +it," said he. + +"No harm!" cried Helen. "What do you call this--" + +Darrow turned to the window looking out over the city. + +"This!" he said. "Why, this isn't harm! There isn't a man out there who is +not better off for what has happened to him. He has lost a little time, a +little money, a little sleep, and he has been given a new point of view, a +new manhood. As a city dweller he was becoming a mollusk, a creature that +could not exist without its shell. The city transported him, warmed him, +fed him, amused him, protected him. He had nothing to do with it in any +way; he didn't even know how it was done. Deprived of his push-buttons, he +was as helpless as a baby. Beyond the little stunt he did in his office or +his store, and beyond the ability to cross a crowded street, he was no +good. He not only didn't know how to do things, but he was rapidly losing, +through disuse, the power to learn how to do things. The modern city +dweller, bred, born, brought up on this island, is about as helpless and +useless a man, considered as a four-square, self-reliant individual, as +you can find on the broad expanse of the globe. I've got no use for a man +who can't take care of himself, who's got to have somebody else to do it +for him, whenever something to which he hasn't been accustomed rises up in +front of him!" + +His eye was fixed somberly on the city stretching away into the haze of +the autumn day. + +"You blame me for letting this thing run!" he went on. "Of course it +tickles me to death to see Eldridge flounder; but that isn't all. This is +the best thing that could happen to them out there! I'm just patriotic +enough to wish them more of it. It's good medicine! At last every man jack +of them is up against something he's got to decide for himself. The police +are useless; the fire department is useless; the railroads and street-cars +are crippled. If a man is going to take care of his life and property, he +must do it himself. He's buying back his self-reliance. Self-reliance is a +valuable property. He ought to pay something for it. Generally he has to +pay war or insurrection or bloody riot. In the present instance he's +getting off cheap." + +He turned back from the open window. His eye traveled beyond Helen's trim +figure down the empty hall. "Wait right here, Jack," he shot over his +shoulder, and rushed along the hall and down the stairway before either +the young man or his sister could recover from their astonishment. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +THE PLAGUE OF COLD + +Without pause, and three steps at a time, Darrow ran down three flights of +stairs. Then, recovering from his initial excitement somewhat, he caught +the elevator and shot to the street. There he walked rapidly to the +subway, which he took as far as City Hall Square. On emerging from the +subway station he started across for the _Despatch_ office as fast as he +could walk. By the entrance to the City Hall, however, he came to an +abrupt halt. From the open doorway rushed his friend, Officer Burns, of +the City Hall Station. The policeman's face was chalky white; his eyes +were staring, his cap was over one side, he staggered uncertainly. As he +caught sight of Darrow he stumbled to the young man and clung to his neck, +muttering incoherently. People passing in and out looked at him curiously +and smiled. + +"My God!" gasped Burns, his eyes roving. "I says to him, 'Mike, I don't +wonder you've got cold feet.' And there he was, and the mayor--Heaven +save--and his secretary! My God!" + +Darrow shook his shoulder. + +"Here," he said decisively, "what are you talking about? Get yourself +together! Remember you're an officer; don't lose your nerve this way!" + +At the touch to his pride Burns did pull himself together somewhat, but +went on under evident strong excitement. + +"I went in just now to the mayor's office a minute," said he, "and saw my +friend Mike Mallory, the doorkeeper, settin' in his chair, as usual. It +was cold-like, and I went up to him and says, 'Mike, no wonder you get +cold feet down here,' just by way of a joke; and when he didn't answer, I +went up to him, and he was dead, there in his chair!" + +"Well, you've seen dead men before. There's no occasion to lose your +nerve, even if you did know him," said Darrow. + +The brutality of the speech had its intended effect. Burns straightened. + +"That's all very well," said he more collectively. "_But the man was +froze_!" + +"Frozen!" muttered Darrow, and whistled. + +"Yes, and what's more, his little dog, setting by the chair, was froze, +too; so when I stepped back sudden and hit against him, he tumbled over +_bang_, like a cast-iron dog! That got my goat! I ran!" + +"Come with me," ordered Darrow decisively. + +They entered the building and ran up the single flight of stairs to the +second-story room which the mayor of that term had fitted up as a sort of +private office of his own. A sharp chill hung in the hallways; this +increased as they neared the executive's office. Outside the door sat the +doorkeeper in his armchair. Beside him was a dog, in the attitude of an +animal seated on its haunches, but lying on its side, one fore leg +sticking straight out. Darrow touched the man and stooped over to peer in +his face. The attitude was most lifelike; the color was good. A deadly +chill ran from Darrow's finger tips up his arm. + +He pushed open the door cautiously and looked in. + +"All right, Burns," said he. "The atmosphere has become gaseous again. We +can go in." With which strange remark he entered the room, followed +closely, but uncertainly by the officer. + +The private office possessed the atmosphere of a cold-storage vault. Four +men occupied it. At the desk was seated the mayor, leaning forward in an +attitude of attention, his triple chin on one clenched fist, his heavy +face scowling in concentration. Opposite him lounged two men, one leaning +against the table, the other against the wall. One had his hand raised in +argument, and his mouth open. The other was watching, an expression of +alertness on his sharp countenance. At a typewriter lolled the clerk, his +hand fumbling among some papers. + +The group was exceedingly lifelike, more so, Darrow thought, than any wax +figures the Eden Musee had ever placed for the mystification of its +country visitors. Indeed, the only indication that the men had not merely +suspended action on the entrance of the visitors was a fine white rime +frost that sparkled across the burly countenance of the mayor. Darrow +remembered that, summer and winter, that dignitary had always perspired! + +Burns stood by the door, rooted to the spot, his jaw dropped, his eye +staring. Darrow quite calmly walked to the desk. He picked up the inkstand +and gazed curiously at its solidified contents, touched the nearest man, +gazed curiously at the papers on the desk, and addressed Burns. + +"These seem to be frozen, too," he remarked almost sleepily, "and about +time, too. This is a sweet gang to be getting together on this sort of a +job!" + +Quite calmly he gathered the papers on the desk and stuffed them into his +pocket. He picked up the desk telephone, giving a number. "Ouch, this +receiver's cold," he remarked to Burns. "Hello, _Despatch_. Is Hallowell +in the office? Just in? Send him over right quick, keen jump, City Hall, +mayor's second-story office. No, right now. Tell him it's Darrow." + +He hung up the receiver. + +"Curious phenomenon," he remarked to Burns, who still stood rooted to the +spot. "You see, their bodies were naturally almost in equilibrium, and, as +they were frozen immediately, that equilibrium was maintained. And the +color. I suppose the blood was congealed in the smaller veins, and did +not, as in more gradual freezing, recede to the larger blood-vessels. I'm +getting frost bitten myself in here. Let's get outside." + +But Officer Burns heard none of this. As Darrow moved toward the door he +crossed himself and bolted. Darrow heard his heels clattering on the +cement of the corridors. He smiled. + +"And now the deluge!" he remarked. + +The crowds, terrified, inquisitive, sceptical, and speculative, gathered. +Officials swept them out and took possession. Hallowell and Darrow +conferred earnestly together. + +"He has the power to stop heat vibrations, you see," Darrow said. "That +makes him really dangerous. His activities here are in line with his other +warnings; but he is not ready to go to extremes yet. The city is yet +safe." + +"Why?" asked Hallowell. + +"I know it. But he has the power. If he gets dangerous we must stop him." + +"You are sure you can do it?" + +"Sure." + +"Then, for God's sake, do it! Don't you realize what will happen when news +of this gets out, and people understand what it means? Don't you feel your +guilt at those men's deaths?" He struck his hand in the direction of the +City Hall. + +"The people will buy a lot of experience, at cost of a little fright and +annoyance," replied Percy Darrow carelessly. "It'll do them good. When +it's over, they'll come back again and be good. As for that bunch in +there--when you look over those papers I think you'll be inclined to agree +with what the religious fanatics will say--that it was a visitation of +God." + +"But the old, the sick--there'll be deaths among them--the responsibility +is something fearful--" + +"Never knew a battle fought yet without some loss," observed Darrow. + +Hallowell was staring at him. + +"I don't understand you," said the reporter. "You have no heart. You are +as bad as this Monsieur X, and between you you hold a city in your +power--one way or the other!" + +"Well, I rather like being a little god," remarked Darrow. + +Hallowell started once more to plead, but Darrow cut him short. + +"You are thinking of the present," he said. "I am thinking of the future. +It's a good thing for people to find out that there's something bigger +than they are, or than anything they can make. That fact is the basis of +the idea of a God. These are getting to be a godless people." He turned on +Hallowell, his sleepy eyes lighting up. "I should be very sorry if I had +not intellect enough and imagination enough to see what this may mean to +my fellow people; and I should despise myself if I should let an +unrestrained compassion lose to four million people the rare opportunity +vouchsafed them." + +He spoke very solemnly. Hallowell looked at him puzzled. + +"Besides," said Darrow whimsically, "I like to devil Eldridge." + +He dove into the subway. Hallowell gazed after him. + +"There goes either a great man or a crazy fool," he remarked to an English +sparrow. He turned over rapidly the papers Darrow had found on the mayor's +desk, and smiled grimly. "Of all the barefaced, bald-headed steals!" he +said. + +Darrow soon mounted once more the elevator of the Atlas Building. He found +Jack and Helen still waiting. Before entering the wireless office Darrow +cast a scrutinizing glance along the empty hall. + +"It's all right," he said. "I'm surer than ever. Everything fits exactly. +Now, Helen," he said, "I want you to go home, and I want you to stay +there. No matter what happens, do not move from the house. This town is +going to have the biggest scare thrown into it that any town ever had +since Sodom and Gomorrah got their little jolt. In the language of the +Western prophet, 'Hell will soon be popping.' Let her pop. Sit tight; tell +your friends to sit tight. If necessary, tell them Monsieur X is captured, +and all his works. Tell them I said so." + +His air of languid indifference had fallen from him. His eye was bright, +and he spoke with authority and vigor. + +"You take her home, Jack," he commanded, "and return here at once. Don't +forget that nice new-blued pop-gun of yours; we're coming to the time when +we may need it." + +Jack rose instantly to his mood. + +"Correct, General!" he saluted. "Where'd you collect the plunder?" he +asked, pointing to a square black bag of some size that Darrow had brought +back with him. + +"That," said Darrow, "is the first fruit of my larcenous tendencies. I +stole that from the mayor's office in the City Hall." + +"What is it?" + +"That," said Darrow, "I do not know." + +He deposited the bag carefully by his chair, and turned, smiling, to +Helen. + +"Good-by," said he. "Sleep tight." + +They went out. Darrow seated himself in his chair, drew his hat over his +eyes, and fell into a doze. In the meantime, outside, all through the +city, hell was getting ready to pop. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +IN THE FACE OF ETERNITY + +Hell popped just as soon as the newspapers could get out their extras. +Monsieur X had at last struck, and both interest and belief urged the +managing editors at last to give publicity to all the theories, the facts, +and the latest message from the fanatic Unknown. + +The latter came about three o'clock: + + "TO THE PEOPLE: You have defied me, and you have doubted my power. + There is no good in you. I, who would have saved you, now must bring + about your death as a stubborn and a stiff-necked generation. In + humanity is no more good, and of this world I desire nothing more. + Prepare within the next three hours to appear before a mightier + throne than mine." + +Percy Darrow, reading this, said to Jack Warford, "It is time to act," +and, accompanied by the younger man, quietly left the room. + +The reader of imagination--and no other will read this tale--must figure +to himself the island of Manhattan during the next two hours. The entire +population, nearly, tried to leave it at once. When only the suburban +dwellers, urged simply by the desire for a hot dinner, attempt to return +home between five and six, the ways are congested enough. Now, stricken +with the fear of death, the human cattle fought frantically to reach the +inadequate exits of the great theater of tragedy. + +There was fighting in the streets, and panic, and stark rumor, of course; +and there was heroism, and coolness, and the taking of thought. To the +little group of men in the top floor of the Atlas Building the roar of +riot came up like the thunder of the orchestra before the rise of the +curtain. Most of the people in the streets fled from a danger they did not +understand. This little group in the wireless office realized clearly what +still and frozen dissolution the rising of the curtain would disclose. +They were not many; and they did not know what they were to do, if +anything; but they had not run away. + +Eldridge was there, looking somewhat flustered for the first time in his +life, and four of the large committee that had employed him. Simmons sat +calmly at his post, and of all the reporters Hallowell alone had stood by. +He had faith in Darrow, and he knew that in the _Despatch_ office a little +handful of men stood in the shadow of death on the off chance of the +biggest scoop since Noah's flood. + +The four solid citizens looked at one another. The oldest turned to +Eldridge. + +"Then your opinion is that the city is doomed?" + +"I can offer no other solution, sir," said the scientist. "It is at last +evident that this man's power over ethereal vibrations extends to those +forming heat-rays. If this is so, it follows that he can cut off all life +by stopping all heat. If his threat is carried out, we can but look +forward to a repetition on a large scale of the City Hall affair." + +The aged financier now spoke to Simmons. + +"And the last report from the searchers?" he asked formally. + +"The search is being pushed, sir," replied the operator, "by twenty +thousand men. There remain some fifty miles of country to go over, Mr. +Lyons." + +Lyons turned his shaggy head toward a younger, slim, keen-eyed man of +fifty. + +"And the city will, in your judgment, Mr. Perkins, take how long to +empty?" + +"Days--in the present confusion," said Perkins shortly. "We can move only +a limited percentage. Thank God, most of our men are standing by. I think +all our rolling stock is moving." + +Lyons nodded twice. + +"And you?" he asked the third of the party, a stout young man of +thirty-eight or so. + +"How many stations are on the job, Simmons?" asked this man. + +"All but two, sir," replied the operator. "D and P don't answer. I guess +they beat it." + +"How do they report the bulletin men?" + +"On the job," replied the wireless man. + +The stout young man turned to Lyons. + +"Well, sir," said he, "I don't know whether we or the hand of death will +be called on to quiet them"--he paused for an instant with uplifted hand; +the roar and crash and wail of the city-wide riot surged into the gap of +his silence--"but if it is we," he went on, "our little arrangements are +made. My men know what to do, and my men are on the job," he concluded +proudly. + +Lyons nodded again. + +"We have all done our best," said he. "Now, gentlemen, I do not see how we +can possibly accomplish anything more by remaining here. My automobile is +in concealment in the old stable in the rear of 127. My yacht is standing +off the Battery awaiting signal to come in. We have," he glanced at his +watch, "over an hour before the threatened catastrophe." + +He looked up expectantly. The men all glanced uneasily at one another, +except Simmons, who stared at his batteries stolidly. + +"Come, gentlemen," urged Lyons, after a moment. "There is really not much +time to lose, for you know the yacht must steam beyond the danger zone." + +"Beat it," spoke up Simmons, at last. "There ain't any good of you here. +If anything comes in, I can handle it. It's just a case of send out orders +to your bulletin men." + +"I think I'd better stay," observed Paige, the stout young man, with an +air of apology. "I know I'm not much use; but I've placed men, and they'll +stick; and if this freeze-out proposition goes through--why, they're in +it, and--" + +"That's how I feel," broke in Perkins. "But you have done your full duty, +Mr. Lyons, and you have no reason to stay. Let me get your car around to +you--" + +"Oh, I'm going to stay," said Lyons. "If you gentlemen feel it your duty, +how much more is it mine! Professor Eldridge"--he bowed to the +scientist--"you have done your best, which is more than any other mortal +man could have done, I am sure; and you, sir--" he said to Hallowell. + +Eldridge and Hallowell shook their heads. + +"I have failed," said Eldridge. + +"I am a reporter," said Hallowell. + +"We are in the hands of God," announced Lyons with great solemnity, and +folded his hands over his white waistcoat. + +At that moment the door slowly swung open and Percy Darrow entered. He was +smoking a cigarette, his hands were thrust deep in his trousers pockets; +he was hatless, and his usually smooth hair was rumpled. A tiny wound +showed just above the middle of his forehead, from which a thin stream of +blood had run down to his eyebrows. He surveyed the room with a humorous +twinkle shining behind his long lashes. + +"Well, well, well, well!" he remarked in a cheerful tone of voice. "This +is a nice, jolly, Quaker meeting! Why don't you get out and make a noise +and celebrate, like your friends outside?" + +"Thought you'd ducked," remarked Hallowell. The others said nothing, but +looked a grave disapproval. + +Darrow laughed. + +"No, I had to come back to see how Eldridge is getting on." He cast a +glance at the scientist. "How goes it, old socks?" he inquired. + +The man's manner, the tone of his voice, seemed as much out of place in +this atmosphere of solemnity as a penny whistle in a death chamber. Darrow +refused to notice the general attitude of disapproval, but planted himself +in front of Eldridge. + +"All in?" he challenged. "Or do you still cherish any delusions that you +will get your man inside of"--he looked at his watch--"eleven minutes?" + +A visible stir ran through the room at these words. "Eleven minutes!" +murmured Lyons, and held his watch to his ear. "It has stopped," he said +aloud. "It seems, gentlemen, that the only possible hope for us lies in +the doubt as to whether or not this Unknown will carry out this threat." + +"He's a first-rate hand to carry out threats," observed Darrow. + +"We have done our best," said Lyons calmly. "Let us compose ourselves to +meet everything--or nothing--as the fates may have decided." + +"That's all right," agreed Darrow, with unabated cheerfulness. "But +Eldridge and I had a little agreement, or bet. He bragged he'd get this +Monsieur X before I did. I'd like to know how he feels about his end of +it. Give it up?" + +Eldridge looked at him rebukingly. + +"I have failed," he acknowledged formally, "from lack of time to carry out +my investigation." + +"From lack of brains," said Darrow brutally, "as I believe you once said +in private conversation about my old master, Doctor Schermerhorn. Those +things are remembered. I am delighted to hand this back to you." He eyed +Eldridge, the brilliant smile still curving his lips. + +"Enough of this!" cried Lyons with authority. "This is unseemly in the +face of eternity." + +Darrow looked again at his watch. + +"We have still six minutes, sir; and this is an affair of long standing, +and on which I feel deeply. The score is settled," he said with entire +respect. "I am now at your command. I had intended," he went on in a +frivolous tone again, "to kick to you on my gas bill. It is too large. +You, as responsible head, know it is. But somehow, you know, the presence +here of you gentlemen has disarmed me. You don't need to be here; you all +have the facilities to get away. Here you are! I guess you can charge a +dollar and a quarter for gas if you want to." He looked from one to the +other, while he carefully wiped back the blood that was flowing from the +little wound in his forehead. "Eldridge acknowledges he has failed," he +repeated. + +"I fail to see how you have improved upon that failure," snapped Eldridge, +stung. + +"No?" queried Darrow. "I call Hallowell to witness that the game has been +fair. We had an even start; the data have been open to both." He raised +his voice a little. "Jack!" he called. + +Immediately through the open door from the hall outside came Jack Warford, +leading by the arm a strange and nondescript figure. It was that of a +small, bent, old-looking man, dressed in a faded suit of brown. His hair +was thin, and long, and white; his face sharp and lean. His gaze was fixed +straight before him, so that every one in the room at the same instant +caught the glare of his eyes. + +They were fixed, those eyes, like an owl's; or, better, a wildcat's, as +though they never winked. From the pupils, which were very small, the +little light-colored lines radiated across very large blue irises. There +was something baleful and compelling in their glare, so that even +Hallowell, cool customer as he was, forgot immediately all about the man's +littleness and shabbiness and bent figure, and was conscious only of the +cruel, clever, watchful, unrelenting, hostile spirit. As Jack dragged him +forward, the others could see that one foot shambled along the floor. + +"Gentlemen," observed Darrow in his most casual tones, "let me present +Monsieur X!" + +Every one exclaimed at once. Above the hubbub came Lyons' voice, clear and +commanding. + +"The proof!" he thundered. "This is too serious a matter for buffoonery. +The proof!" + +Percy Darrow raised his hand. Through the roar of the maddened city the +bell of the Metropolitan tower was beginning its chimes. By the third +stroke the uproar had died almost away. The people were standing still, +awaiting what might come. + +The sweet-toned chimes ceased. There succeeded the pause. Then the great +bell began to boom. + +_One--two--three--four--five--six_ came its spaced and measured strokes. +The last reverberations sank away. Nothing happened. Percy Darrow let his +hand fall. + +"The proof," he repeated, "is that you are still here." + +From the night outside rose a wild shriek of rejoicing, stupendous, +overwhelming, passionate. Paige sprang across the room. "Release!" he +shouted fairly in Simmons' ear. The spark crashed. And at a dozen places +simultaneously bulletins flashed; at a dozen other points placarded +balloons arose, on which the search-lights played; so that the people, +hesitating in their flight in thankfulness over finding themselves still +alive, raised their eyes and read: + + Monsieur X is captured. You are safe. + +At that a tumult arose, a tumult of rejoicing. + +Darrow had sauntered to the window, and was looking out. From the great +height of the Atlas Building he could see abroad over much of the city. +Here and there, like glowing planets, hung the balloons. + +"Clever idea," he observed. "I'm glad you thought of it." + +Hallowell was on his feet, his eyes shining. + +"I've got the only paper on the job!" he fairly shouted. "Darrow, as you +love me, give me the story. Where was he? Where did you get him?" + +Darrow turned from the window, and sardonically surveyed Eldridge. + +"He was in the office next door," said he, after a moment. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +THE MAN NEXT DOOR + +When, three hours previous, Darrow had arisen with the remark before +chronicled, Jack Warford had followed him in the expectation of a long +expedition. To the young man's surprise it lasted just to the hall. There +Darrow stopped before the blank door of an apparently unused office. Into +the lock of this he cautiously fitted a key, manipulated it for a moment, +and turned to Jack with an air of satisfaction. + +"You have your gun with you?" he asked. + +Jack patted his outside pocket. + +"Very well, now listen here: I am going to leave the key in the lock. If +you hear me whistle sharply, get in as quickly as you know how, and get to +shooting. Shoot to kill. If it happens to be dark and you can not make us +out, shoot both. Take no chances. On your quickness and your accuracy may +depend the lives of the whole city. Do you understand?" + +"I understand," said Jack steadily. "Are you sure you can make yourself +heard above all this row?" + +Darrow nodded, and slipped inside the door. + +He found the office chamber unlighted save by the subdued illumination +that came in around the drawn shades of the window. Against the dimness he +could just make out the gleaming of batteries in rows. An ordinary deal +table supported a wireless sender. A figure stood before the darkened +window, the figure of a little, old, bent man facing as though looking +out. Through the closed casement the roar of the panic-stricken city +sounded like a flood. The old man was in the attitude of one looking out +intently. Once he raised both arms, the fists clenched, high above his +head. + +Darrow stole forward as quietly as he could. When he was about half-way +across the room the old man turned and saw him. For the briefest instant +he stared at the intruder; then, with remarkable agility, cast himself +toward the table on which stood the wireless sender. Darrow, too, sprang +forward. They met across the table. Darrow clutched the old man's wrists. + +Immediately began a desperate and silent trial of strength. The old man +developed an unexpected power. The table lay between them, prohibiting a +closer grip. Inch by inch, impelled by the man's iron will, his hand +forced his way toward the sending key. Darrow put forth all his strength +to prevent. There was no violent struggle, no noise; simply the pressure +of opposing forces. Gradually the scientist's youth prevailed against the +older man's desperation. The hand creeping toward the sender came to a +stop. Then, all at once, the older man's resistance collapsed entirely. +Darrow swept his arm back, stepped around the table, and drew his +opponent, almost unresisting, back to the window. + +"Jack!" he called. + +At the sound of his voice the old man gathered his last vitality in a +tremendous effort to jerk loose from his captor. Catching Darrow unawares, +he almost succeeded in getting free. The flash was too brief. He managed +only to rap the young man's head rather sharply against a shade-fitting of +the window. + +The outer door jerked open, and Jack Warford leaped into the room, +revolver in hand. Darrow called an instant warning. + +"All right!" he shouted. "Turn on the light, next to you somewhere. Shut +the door." + +These orders were obeyed. The electric flared. By its light the office was +seen to be quite empty save for a cabinet full of books and papers; rows +and rows of battery jars; the receiving and sending apparatus of a +wireless outfit; the deal table, and one wooden chair. Darrow looked +around keenly. + +"That's all right, Jack," said he. "Just get around here cautiously and +raise the window shade. Look out you don't get near that table. That's it. +Now just help me get this man a little away from the table! Good! Now, tie +him up. No, bring over the chair. Tie him in that chair. Gently. That's +all right. Whew!" + +"You're hurt," said Jack. + +Darrow touched his forehead. + +"A bump," he said briefly. "Well, Jack, my son, we've done it!" + +"You don't mean to say--" cried Jack. + +Darrow nodded. + +"Now, my friend," he addressed the huddled figure in the chair, "the game +is up. You are caught, and you must realize it." He surveyed the captive +thoughtfully. "Tell me, who are you?" he added. "I should know you, for +you are a great discoverer." + +The old man stared straight at his interlocutor with his expressionless +eyes, behind which no soul, no mind, no vitality even seemed to lie. + +Darrow asked him several more questions, to which he received no replies. +The man sat like a captured beast. + +"I'm sorry," said Darrow to Jack. "I should like to have talked with him. +Such a man is worth knowing; he has delved deep." + +"He'll talk yet, when he gets over his grouch," Jack surmised. + +But Darrow shook his head. + +"The man is imbecile," he said. "He has been mentally unbalanced; and his +disorder has grown on him lately. When I drove back his wrist just now the +cord snapped in his brain." + +Jack turned to stare at the captive. + +"By Jove, I believe you're right!" said he at last. + +Darrow was standing looking down on the deal table. + +"Come here, Jack," said he. "I want you to look at the deadliest engine of +destruction ever invented or wielded by mortal man. I suspect that if you +were to reach out your hand and hold down the innocent-looking telegraph +key there you would instantly destroy every living creature in this city." + +Jack turned a little pale, and put both hands behind him. + +Darrow laughed. "Feel tempted?" he inquired. + +"Makes me a little dizzy, like being on a height," confessed Jack. "How's +the trick turned?" + +"I don't know," said Darrow. "I'm going to find out if I can." + +Without attempting to touch anything, he proceeded to examine carefully +every detail of the apparatus. + +"The batteries are nothing extraordinary, except in strength," he told +Jack, "and as near as I can make out the instrument is like any other. It +must be some modification in the sending apparatus, some system of +'tuning', perhaps--it's only a surmise. We'll just disconnect the +batteries," he concluded, "before we go to monkeying." + +He proceeded carefully and methodically to carry out his expressed +intention. When he had finished the task he heaved a deep sigh of relief. + +"I'm glad you feel that way, too," said Jack. "I didn't know what might +not happen." + +"Me, either," confessed Darrow. "But now I think we're safe." + +He proceeded on a methodical search through the intricacies of the +apparatus. For a time Jack followed him about, but after a while wearied +of so profitless an occupation, and so took to smoking on the +window-ledge. Darrow extended his investigations to the bookcase, and to a +drawer in the deal table. For over two hours he sorted notes, compared, +and ruminated, his brows knit in concentration. Jack did not try to +interrupt him. At the end of the time indicated, the scientist looked up +and made some trivial remark. + +"Got it?" asked Jack. + +"Yes," replied Darrow soberly. He reflected for several minutes longer; +then moved to the window and looked out over the city. Absolutely +motionless there he stood while the night fell, oblivious alike to the +roar and crash of the increasing panic and to the silent figures in the +darkened room behind him. At last he gave a sigh, walked quietly to the +electric light, and turned it on. + +"It's the biggest thing--and the simplest--the world has ever known in +physics, Jack" said he, "but it's got to go." + +"What?" asked Jack, rousing from the mood of waiting into which he had +loyally forced himself in spite of the turmoil outside. + +"The man has perfected a combined system of special tuning and definite +electrical energy," said Darrow, "by which through an ordinary wireless +sender he can send forth into the ether what might be called deadening or +nullifying waves. You are no doubt familiar with the common experiment by +which two sounds will produce a silence. This is just like that. By means +of this, within the radius of his sending instrument and for a period of +time up to the capacity of his batteries, a man can absolutely stop +vibration of either heat, sound, light, or electricity length. It is +entirely a question of simple formulas. Here they are." + +He held out four closely written pages bound together with manuscript +fasteners. + +"No man has ever before attained this knowledge or this power," went on +Darrow, after a moment; "and probably never again in the history of the +race will exactly this combination of luck and special talent occur. These +four pages are unique." + +He laid them on the edge of the table, produced a cigarette, lighted it, +picked up the four pages of formulas, and held the burning match to their +edges. The flame caught, flared up the flimsy paper. Darrow dropped the +burning corners as it scorched his fingers. It fell to the floor, +flickered, and was gone. + +Jack leaped forward with an exclamation of dismay. The old man bound to +the chair did not wink, but stared straight in front of him, his eyes +fixed like those of an owl or a wildcat. + +"For God's sake, Darrow!" cried Jack Warford. "Do you know what you have +done?" + +"Perfectly," replied Darrow calmly. "This is probably the greatest +achievement of the scientific intellect; but it must go. It would give to +men an unchecked power that belongs only to the gods." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +HOW IT ALL WAS + +For his share in the foregoing Percy Darrow was extensively blamed. It was +universally conceded that his action in permitting Monsieur X to continue +his activities up to the danger point was inexcusable. The public mind +should have been reassured long before. Much terror and physical suffering +might thus have been avoided--not to speak of financial loss. Scientific +men, furthermore, went frantic over his unwarranted destruction of the +formulas. Percy Darrow was variously described as a heartless monster and +a scientific vandal. To these aspersions he paid no attention whatever. + +Helen Warford, however, became vastly indignant and partisan, and in +consequence Percy Darrow's course in the matter received from her its full +credit for a genuine altruism. Hallowell, also, held persistently to this +point, as far as his editors would permit him, until at last, the public +mind somewhat calmed, attention was more focused on the means by which the +man had reached his conclusions rather than on the use of them he had +made. + +The story was told three times by its chief actor: once to the newspapers, +once to the capitalists from whom he demanded the promised reward, and +once to the Warfords. This last account was the more detailed and +interesting. + +It was of a late afternoon again. The lamps were lighted, and tea was +forward. Helen was manipulating the cups, Jack was standing ready to pass +them, Mr. and Mrs. Warford sat in the background listening, and Darrow +lounged gracefully in front of the fire. + +"From the beginning!" Helen was commanding him, "and expect +interruptions." + +"Well," began Darrow, "it's a little difficult to get started. But let's +begin with the phenomena themselves. I've told you before, how, when I was +in jail, I worked out their nature and the fact that they must draw their +power from some source that could be exhausted or emptied. You have read +Eldridge's reasoning as to why he thought Monsieur X was at a distance and +on a height. He took as the basis of his reasoning one fact in connection +with the wireless messages we were receiving--that they were faint, and +therefore presumably far distant or sent by a weak battery. He neglected, +or passed over as an important item of tuning, the further fact that the +instrument in the Atlas Building was the only instrument to receive +Monsieur X's messages. + +"Now, that fact might be explained either on the very probable supposition +that our receiving instrument happened in what we may call its undertones +to be the only one tuned to the sending instrument of Monsieur X; or it +might be because our instrument was nearer Monsieur X's instrument than +any other. This was unlikely because of the quality of the sound--it +sounded to the expert operator as though it came from a distance. +Nevertheless, it was a possibility. Taken by itself, it was not nearly so +good a possibility as the other. Therefore, Eldridge chose the other. + +"There were a number of other strictly scientific considerations of equal +importance. I do not hesitate to say that if I had been influenced only by +the scientific considerations, I should have followed Eldridge's lead +without the slightest hesitation. But as I told him at the time, a man +must have imagination and human sympathy to get next to this sort of +thing. + +"Leaving all science aside, for the moment, what do we find in the +messages to McCarthy? First, a command to leave within a specified and +brief period; second, a threat in case of disobedience. That threat was +always carried out." + +Darrow turned to Mrs. Warford. + +"With your permission, I should like to smoke," said he. "I can follow my +thought better." + +"By all means," accorded the lady. + +Darrow lighted his cigarette, puffed a moment, and continued: + +"For instance, at three o'clock he threatens to send a 'sign' unless +McCarthy leaves town by six. McCarthy does not leave town. Promptly at six +the 'sign' comes. What do you make of it?" + +Nobody stirred. + +"Why," resumed Darrow, "how, if Monsieur X was a hundred miles or so away, +as Eldridge figured, did he know that McCarthy had not obeyed him? We must +suppose, from the probable fact of that knowledge, that either Monsieur X +had an accomplice who was keeping him informed, or he must be near enough +to get the information himself." + +"There is a third possibility," broke in Jack. "Monsieur X might have sent +along his 'sign' at six o'clock, anyhow, just for general results." + +Darrow nodded his approval. + +"Good boy, Jack," said he. "That is just the point I could not be sure +about. But finally, at the time, you will remember, when I predicted +McCarthy's disappearance, Monsieur X made a definite threat. He said," +observed Darrow, consulting one of the bundle of papers he held in his +hand: + +"'My patience is at an end. Your last warning will be sent you at +nine-thirty this morning. If you do not sail on the _Celtic_ at noon, I +shall strike,' and so forth. The _Celtic_ sailed at noon, without +McCarthy. At twelve thirty came the first message to the people calling on +them to deliver up the traitor that is among you.' How did Monsieur X know +that McCarthy had not sailed on the _Celtic_? The answer is now +unavoidable: either an accomplice must have sent him word to that effect, +or he must have determined the fact for himself. + +"I eliminated the hypothesis of an accomplice on the arbitrary grounds of +plain common sense. They don't grow two such crazy men at once; and one +crazy man is naturally too suspicious to hire help. I took it for granted. +Had to make a guess somewhere; but, contrary to our legal friends, I +believe that enough coincidences indicate a certainty. But if Monsieur X +himself saw the _Celtic_ sail without McCarthy, and got back to his +instrument within a half-hour, it was evident he could not be quite so far +away as Eldridge and the rest of them thought." + +"One thing," spoke up Jack, "I often wondered what you whispered to +Simmons to induce him to pass those messages over to you. Mind telling?" + +"Not a bit. Simmons is an exceptional man. He has nerve and intelligence. +I just pointed out to him the possibility that Monsieur X might have +control over heat vibrations. He saw the public danger at once, and +realized that McCarthy's private rights in those messages had suddenly +become very small." + +Jack nodded. "Go ahead," said he. + +"I had already," proceeded Darrow, "found out where the next wireless +station is located. Monsieur X must be nearer the Atlas station than to +this other. It was, therefore, easy to draw a comparatively small circle +within which he must be located." + +"So far, so good," said Helen. "How did you finally come to the conclusion +that Monsieur X was in the next office?" + +"Do you remember," Darrow asked Jack, "how the curtain of darkness hung +about ten or twelve feet inside the corridor of the Atlas Building?" + +"Sure," replied Jack. + +"And do you remember that while the rest of you, including Eldridge, were +occupied rather childishly with the spectacular side of it, I had +disappeared inside the blackness?" + +"Certainly." + +"Well, in that time I determined the exact extent of the phenomena. I +found that it extended in a rough circle. And when I went outside and +looked up--something every one else was apparently too busy to do--I saw +that this phenomenon of darkness also extended above the building, out +into open space. At the moment I noted the fact merely, and tried to fix +in my own mind approximately the dimensions. Then here is another point: +when the city-wide phenomena took place, I again determined their extent. +To do so I did not have to leave my chair. The papers did it for me. They +took pains to establish the farthest points to which these modern plagues +of Manhattan reached." + +Darrow selected several clippings from his bundle of papers. + +"Here are reports indicating Highbridge, Corona, Flatbush, Morrisania, +Fort Lee, Bay Ridge as the farthest points at which the phenomena were +manifested. It occurred to nobody to connect these points with a pencil +line. If that line is made curved, instead of straight, it will be found +to constitute a complete circle _whose center is the Atlas Building_!" + +The audience broke into exclamations. + +"Going back to my former impressions, I remembered that the pall of +blackness extended this far and that far in the various directions, so +that it required not much imagination to visualize it as a sphere of +darkness. And strangely enough the center of that sphere seemed to be +located somewhere near the floor on which were installed the United +Wireless instruments. It at once became probable that what we may call the +nullifying impulses radiated in all directions through the ether from +their sending instrument. + +"Next I called upon the janitor of the Atlas Building, representing myself +as looking for a suitable office from which to conduct my investigations. +In this manner I gained admission to all unrented offices. All were empty. +I then asked after the one next door, but was told it was rented as a +storeroom by an eccentric gentleman now away on his travels. That was +enough. I now knew that we had to do with a man next door, and not miles +distant, as purely scientific reasoning would seem to prove." + +"But Professor Eldridge's experiments--" began Jack. + +"I am coming to that," interrupted Darrow. "When Eldridge began to call up +Monsieur X, that gentleman answered without a thought of suspicion; nor +was he even aware of the very ingenious successive weakenings of the +current. In fact, as merely the thickness of a roof separated his +receiving instrument from the wires from which the messages were sent, it +is probable that Eldridge might have weakened his current down practically +to nihil, and still Monsieur X would have continued to get his message." + +"Wouldn't he have noticed the sending getting weaker?" asked Jack +shrewdly. + +"Not until the very last. Our sending must have made a tremendous crash, +anyway, and he probably read it by sound through the wall." + +"But at about the fifty-mile limit of sending we lost him," objected Jack. + +"You mean at about two o'clock in the morning," amended Darrow. + +"Eh? Yes, it was about two. But how did he get on to what Eldridge was +doing?" + +"He read it in the paper," replied Darrow. "At twelve the reporters left. +At a little before two our enterprising friend, the _Despatch_, issued an +extra in its usual praiseworthy effort to enlighten the late Broadway jag. +Monsieur X read it, and knew exactly what was up." + +"How do you know?" + +"Because I read the extra myself." + +"But even then?" + +"Then he began to pay more attention. It was easy enough to fake when he +knew what was doing. For all I know, he could hear Eldridge giving his +directions." + +The company present ruminated over the disclosures thus far made. + +"About the City Hall affair?" asked Helen finally. + +"I used to sit where I could command the hall," said Darrow, "and, +therefore, I was aware that Monsieur X never left his room. To make the +matter certain, I powdered the sill of the door with talcum, which I +renewed every day after the cleaners. You remember we got to talking very +earnestly in the hall, so earnestly that I, for one, forgot to watch. When +I realized my remissness, I saw that the powder on the sill had been +disturbed, that Monsieur X had gone out. + +"My first thought then was to warn the people. To that end I was on my way +to the _Despatch_ office when sheer chance switched me into the City Hall +tragedy. I possessed myself of the apparatus--" + +"That was the square black bag!" cried Jack. + +"Of course--and hustled back to the Atlas Building. You can bet I was +relieved when I found that Monsieur X had returned to his lair." + +"Talcum disturbed again?" asked Jack. + +"Precisely." + +"And the black bag?" + +"Contained merely a model wireless apparatus with a clockwork arrangement +set to close the circuit at a certain time. That is why Monsieur X was not +involved in his own catastrophe." + +"I see!" + +"Then all I had to do was to sit still and wait for him to become +dangerous." + +"How did you dare to take such chances?" cried Helen. + +"I took no chances," answered Darrow. "Don't you see? If he were to +attempt to destroy the city, he must either involve himself in the +destruction, or he must set another bit of clockwork. If he had left his +office again I should have seized him, broken into the office, and smashed +the apparatus." + +"But he was crazy," spoke up Mrs. Warford. "How could you rely on his not +involving himself in the general destruction?" + +"Yes, why did you act when you did?" seconded Helen. + +"As long as he held to his notion of getting hold of McCarthy," explained +Darrow, "he had a definite object in life, his madness had a definite +outlet--he was harmless. But the last message showed that his disease had +progressed to the point where McCarthy was forgotten. His mind had risen +to a genuine frenzy. He talked of general punishments, great things. At +last he was in the state of mind of the religious fanatic who lacerates +his flesh and does not feel the wound. When he forgot McCarthy, I knew it +was time to act. Long since I had provided myself with the requisite key. +You know the rest." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +WHAT HAPPENED AFTERWARD + +There remains only to tell what became of the various characters of the +tale. + +McCarthy, on whom the action started, returned, but never regained his +political hold. Darrow always maintained that this was only the most +obvious result of his policy of delaying the denouement. People had been +forced to think seriously of such matters; and, when aroused, the public +conscience is right. + +Darrow demanded, and received, the large money reward for his services in +the matter. Pocketing whatever blame the public and his fellow scientists +saw fit to hand out to him, he and Jack Warford disappeared in command of +a small schooner. The purpose of the expedition was kept secret; its +direction was known only to those most intimately concerned. If it ever +returns, we may know more of it. + +Eldridge went on being a scientist, exactly as before. + +Simmons received a gold medal, a large cash sum, any amount of newspaper +space, and an excellent opportunity to go on a vaudeville circuit. + +Hallowell had his salary raised; and received in addition that rather +vague brevet title of "star reporter". + +Helen Warford is still attractive and unmarried. Whether the latter +condition is only pending the return of the expedition is not known. + +As for the city, it has gone back to its everyday life, and the riffles on +the surface have smoothed themselves away. In outside appearances +everything is as before. Yet for the present generation, at least, the +persistence of the old independent self-reliance of the people is assured. +They have been tested, and they have been made to think of elemental +things seriously. For some time to come the slow process of +standardization has been arrested. + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sign at Six, by Stewart Edward White + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SIGN AT SIX *** + +***** This file should be named 8398.txt or 8398.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/3/9/8398/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Beth Trapaga and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions 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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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Sign at Six + +Author: Stewart Edward White + +Release Date: June, 2005 [EBook #8398] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on July 6, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SIGN AT SIX *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Beth Trapaga +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + +[Illustration: Helen] + + +THE SIGN AT SIX + +By Stewart Edward White + + +With four illustrations by M. Leone Bracker + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + +I THE OWNER OF NEW YORK +II THE SHADOW OF MYSTERY +III THE MOVING FINGER WRITES +IV DARKNESS AND PANIC +V A SCIENTIST IN PINK SILK +VI THE WRATH TO COME +VII A WORLD OF GHOSTS +VIII PERCY DARROW'S THEORY +IX THE GREAT SILENCE +X THE LIFTING OF THE SPELL +XI THIRTY SECONDS MORE +XII THE UNKNOWN +XIII DARROW'S CHALLENGE +XIV THE FEAR OF DANGER +XV THE MASTER SPEAKS AGAIN +XVI THE PROFESSOR'S EXPERIMENT +XVII DRAWING THE NET +XVIII CONFUSION WORSE CONFOUNDED +XIX PERCY KEEPS VIGIL +XX THE PLAGUE OF COLD +XXI IN THE FACE OF ETERNITY +XXII THE MAN NEXT DOOR +XXIII HOW IT ALL WAS +XXIV WHAT HAPPENED AFTERWARD + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +THE OWNER OF NEW YORK + +Percy Darrow, a young man of scientific training, indolent manners, +effeminate appearance, hidden energy, and absolute courage, lounged +through the doors of the Atlas Building. Since his rescue from the +volcanic island that had witnessed the piratical murder of his old +employer, Doctor Schermerhorn, the spectacular dissolution of the +murderers, and his own imprisonment in a cave beneath the very roar of an +eruption, he had been nursing his shattered nerves back to their normal +strength. Now he felt that at last he was able to go to work again. +Therefore, he was about to approach a man of influence among practical +scientists, from whom he hoped further occupation. + +As the express elevator shot upward, he passed a long slender hand across +his eyes. The rapid motion confused him still. The car stopped, and the +metallic gates clanged open. Darrow obediently stepped forth. Only when +the elevator had disappeared did his upward glance bring to him the +knowledge that he had disembarked one floor too soon. + +Darrow's eye fell on a lettered sign outside the nearest door. He smiled a +slow red-lipped smile beneath his small silky mustache, drooped his black +eyelashes in a flicker of reminiscence, hesitated a moment, then stepped +languidly forward and opened the door. The sign indicated the headquarters +of the very modest commissionership behind which McCarthy chose to work. +McCarthy, quite simply, at that time owned New York. + +As Darrow entered, McCarthy hung up the telephone receiver with a smash, +and sat glaring at the instrument. After a moment he turned his small +bright eyes toward the newcomer. + +"Hello, Perc," he growled. "Didn't see you. Say, I'm so mad my skin +cracks. Just now some measly little shrimp called me up from a public +booth. What ye suppose he wanted, now? Oh, nothin'! Just told me in so +many words for me to pack up my little trunk and sail for Europe and never +come back! That's all! He give me until Sunday, too." McCarthy barked out +a short laugh, and reached for the cigar box, which he held out to Darrow. + +Percy shook his head. "What's the occasion?" he asked. + +"Oh, I don't know. Just bughouse, I guess." + +"So he wants you to go to Europe?" + +"Wants me? Orders me! Says I got to." McCarthy laughed. "Lovely thought!" + +He puffed out a cloud of smoke. + +"Says if I don't obey orders he'll send me a 'sign' to convince me!" went +on the boss. "He's got a mean voice. He ought to have a tag hung on him +and get carried to the morgue. He give me the shivers, like a dead man. I +never hear such a unholy thing outside a graveyard at midnight!" + +Percy Darrow was surveying him with leisurely amusement, a slight smile +playing over his narrow dark face. + +"Talking to get back your nerve," he surmised cheerfully to the usually +taciturn boss. "I'd like to know what it was got you going so; it isn't +much your style." + +"Well, you got yours with you," growled McCarthy, shifting for the first +time from his solid attitude of the bulldog at bay. + +"His 'sign' he promised is apt to be a bomb," observed Darrow. + +"He's nutty, all right," McCarthy agreed, "but when he said that, he was +doing the tall religious. He's got a bug that way." + +"Your affair," said Darrow. "Just the same, I'd have an outer office." + +"Outer office--rot!" said the boss. "An outer office just gets cluttered +up with people waiting. Here they've got to say it right out in +meeting--if I want 'em to. What's the good word, Perc? What can I do for +you?" + +Darrow smiled. "You know very well, my fat friend, that the only reason +you like me at all is that I'm the one and only man who comes into this +office who doesn't want one single thing of you." + +"I suppose that's it," agreed McCarthy. The telephone rang. He snatched +down the receiver, listened a moment, and thrust forward his heavy jowl. +"Not on your life!" he growled in answer to some question. While he was +still occupied with the receiver, Percy Darrow nodded and sauntered out. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +THE SHADOW OF MYSTERY + +Darrow walked up the one flight of steps to the story above. He found his +acquaintance in, and at once broached the subject of his errand. Doctor +Knox promised the matter his attention. The two men then embarked on a +long discussion of Professor Schermerhorn's discovery of super-radium, and +the strange series of events that had encompassed his death. Into the +midst of the discussion burst McCarthy, his face red with suppressed +anger. + +"Can I use your phone?" he growled. "Oh, yes," said he, as he caught sight +of the instrument. Without awaiting the requested permission, he jerked +the receiver from its hook and placed it to his ear. + +"Deader than a smelt!" he burst out. "This is a nice way to run a public +business! Thanks," he nodded to Doctor Knox, and stormed out. + +Darrow rose languidly. + +"I'll see you again," he told Knox. "At present I'm going to follow the +human cyclone. It takes more than mere telephones to wake McCarthy up like +that." + +He found the boss in the hall, his finger against the "down" button. + +"That's three cars has passed me," he snarled, trying to peer through the +ground glass that, in the Atlas Building, surrounded the shaft. "I'll tan +somebody's hide. Down!" he bellowed at a shadow on the glass. + +"Have a cigarette," proffered Percy Darrow. "Calm down. To the scientific +eye you're out of condition for such emotions. You thicknecks are subject +to apoplexy." + +"Oh, shut up!" growled McCarthy. "There isn't a phone in order in this +building two floors either way. I've tried 'em--and there hasn't been for +twenty minutes. And I can't get a messenger to answer a call; and that +ring-tailed, star-spangled ornament of a janitor won't answer his private +bell. I'll get him bounced so high the blackbirds will build nests in his +ear before he comes down again." + +After trying vainly to stop a car on its way up or down, McCarthy stumped +down a flight of stairs, followed more leisurely by the calmly unhurried +Darrow. Here the same performance was repeated. A half dozen men by now +had joined them. So they progressed from story to story until an elevator +boy, attracted by their frantic shouts, stopped to see what was the +matter. Immediately the door was slid back on its runners, McCarthy seized +the astonished operator by the collar. + +"Come out of that, you scum of the earth!" he roared. "Come out of that +and tell me why you don't stop for your signals!" + +[Illustration: McCarthy stumped down a flight of stairs.] + +"I ain't seen no signals!" gasped the elevator boy. + +Some one punched the button, but the little, round, annunciator disk in +the car failed to illuminate. + +"I wonder if there's anything in order in this miserable hole!" snarled +McCarthy. + +"The lights is gone out," volunteered the boy; and indeed for the first +time the men now crowding into the car noticed that the incandescents were +dead. + +While McCarthy stormed out to spread abroad impartial threats against +two public utility concerns for interfering with his business, Percy +Darrow, his curiosity aroused, interviewed the janitor. Under that +functionary's guidance he examined the points of entrance for the +different wires used for lighting and communication; looked over the +private-bell installations, and ascended again to the corridor, +abstractedly dusting his fingers. There he found a group of the +building's tenants, among whom he distinguished Doctor Knox. + +"Same complaint, I suppose--no phones, no lights, no bells," he +remarked. + +"Seems to be," replied Knox. "General condition. Acts as though the +main arteries had been cut outside." + +"Inside bells? House phones?" suggested Darrow. + +The repair men came in double-quick time and great confidence. They +went to work in an assured manner, which soon slackened to a slower +bewilderment. Some one disappeared, to return with a box of new +batteries. The head repair man connected a group of these with a small +bell in the executive office. The instrument, however, failed to +respond. + +"Try your ammeter," suggested Darrow, who had followed. + +The delicate needle of the instrument did not quiver. + +"Batteries dead!" said the repair man. "Jim, what the hotel-bill do you +mean by getting dead batteries? Go back and bring a new lot, and _test_ +'em." + +In due time Jim returned. + +"These test to fifteen," said he. "Go to it!" + +"Test--nothing!" roared the repair man after a moment. "These are dead, +too." + +Percy Darrow left the ensuing argument to its own warmth. It was growing +late. In the corridor a few hastily-brought lamps cast a dim light. Percy +collided against Doctor Knox entering the building. + +"Not fixed yet?" asked the latter in evident disappointment. "What's the +matter?" + +"I don't know," said Darrow slowly; "it puzzles me. It's more than an +ordinary break of connections or short-circuiting through apparatus. If +one could imagine a big building like this polarized in some way--anyhow, +the electricity is dead. Look here." He pulled an electric flash-light +from his pocket. "Bought this fresh on my way here. Tested it, of course. +Now, there's nothing wonderful about these toys going back on a man; +_but_"--he pressed the button and peered down the lens--"this is a funny +coincidence." He turned the lens toward his friend. The filament was dark. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +THE MOVING FINGER WRITES + +The condition of affairs in the Atlas Building lasted long enough to carry +the matter up to the experts in the employ of the companies; that is to +say, until about three o'clock the following morning. Then, without +reason, and all at once, the whole building from top to bottom was a blaze +of incandescent light. + +One of the men, stepping to the nearest telephone, unhooked the receiver. +To his ear came the low busy hum of a live wire. Somebody touched a bell +button, and the head janitor, running joyfully, two steps at a time, from +his lair, cried out that his bell had rung. + +The little group of workmen and experts nodded in a competent and +satisfied manner, and began leisurely to pack their tools as though at the +successful completion of a long and difficult job. + +But every man jack of them knew perfectly well that the electrical +apparatus of the building was now in exactly the same condition as it had +been the evening before. No repair work had followed a futile +investigation. + +As the group moved toward the outer air, the head repair man quietly +dropped behind. Surreptitiously he applied the slender cords of his pocket +ammeter to the zinc and carbon of the dead batteries concerning whose +freshness he and his assistant had argued. The delicate needle leaped +forward, quivered like a snake's tongue, and hovered over a number. + +"Fifteen," read the repair man; and then, after a moment: "Hell!" + +The daily business, therefore, opened normally. The elevators shot from +floor to floor; the telephones rang; the call-bells buzzed, and all was +well. At six o'clock came the scrub-woman; at half past seven the office +boys; at eight the clerks; a little later some of the heads; and precisely +at nine Malachi McCarthy, as was his invariable habit. + +As the bulky form of the political boss pushed around the leaves of the +revolving door, the elevator starter glanced at his watch. This was not to +determine if McCarthy was on time, but to see if the watch was right. + +McCarthy had recovered his good humor. He threw a joke at the negro +polishing the brass, and paused genially to exchange a word with the +elevator starter. + +"Worked until about three o'clock," the latter answered a question. "Got +it fixed all right. No, they didn't say what was the matter. Something to +do with the wires, I suppose." + +"Most like," agreed McCarthy. + +At this moment an elevator dropped from above and came to rest, like a +swift bird alighting. The doors parted to let out a young man wearing the +cap of the United Wireless. + +"Good morning, Mr. McCarthy," this young man remarked in passing. "Aren't +going into the sign-painting business, are you?" He laughed. + +"What ye givin' us, Mike?" demanded McCarthy. + +The young man wheeled to include the elevator starter in the joke. + +"Air was full of dope most of last night from some merry little jester +working a toy, home-made. He just kept repeating the same thing--something +about 'McCarthy, at six o'clock you shall have a sign given unto you. It +works,' over and over all night. Some new advertising dodge, I reckon. +Didn't know but you were the McCarthy and were getting a present from some +admiring constituent." + +He threw back his head and laughed, but McCarthy's ready anger rose. + +"Where did the stuff come from?" + +"Out of the fresh air," replied the operator. "From most anywhere inside +the zone of communication." + +"Couldn't you tell who sent it?" + +"No way. It wasn't signed. Come from quite a distance, though." + +"How can you tell that?" + +"You can tell by the way it sounds. Say, they ought to be a law about +these amatoors cluttering up the air this way. Sometimes I got to pick my +own dope out of a dozen or fifteen messages all ticking away in my +headpiece at once." + +"I know the crazy slob what sent 'em, all right, all right," growled +McCarthy. "He's nutty for fair." + +"Well, if he's nutty, I wish you'd hurry his little trip to Matteawan," +complained the operator, turning away. + +The boss went to his office, where he established himself behind his +table-top desk. There all day he conducted a leisurely business of +mysterious import, sitting where the cool autumn breeze from the river +brought its refreshment. His desk top held no papers; the writing +materials lay undisturbed. Sometimes the office contained half a dozen +people. Sometimes it was quite empty, and McCarthy sat drumming his blunt +fingers on the window-sill, chewing a cigar, and gazing out over the city +he owned. + +There were two other, inner, offices to McCarthy's establishment, in which +sat a private secretary and an office boy. Occasionally McCarthy, with +some especial visitor, retired to one of these for a more confidential +conversation. The secretary seemed always very busy; the office boy was +often in the street. At noon McCarthy took lunch at a small round table in +the cafe below. When he reappeared at the elevator shaft, the elevator +starter again verified his watch. Malachi McCarthy had but the one virtue +of accuracy, and that had to do with matters of time. At five minutes of +six he reached for his hat; at three minutes of six he boarded the +elevator. + +"Runs all right to-day, Sam," he remarked genially to the boy whom he had +half throttled the evening before. + +He stood for a moment in the entrance of the building, enjoying the sight +of the crowds hurrying to their cars, the elevated, the subway, and the +ferries. The clang and roar of the city pleased his senses, as a vessel +vibrates to its master tone. McCarthy was feeling largely paternal as he +stepped toward the corner, for to a great extent the destinies of these +people were in his hands. + +"Easy marks!" was his philanthropic expression of this sentiment. + +At the corner he stopped for a car. He glanced up at the clock of the +Metropolitan tower. The bronze hand pointed to the stroke of six. As he +looked, the first note of the quarter chimes rang out. The car swung the +corner and headed down the street. McCarthy stepped forward. The sweet +chimes ceased their fourfold phrasing, and the great bell began its spaced +and solemn booming. + +_One!--Two!--Three!--Four!--Five!--Six!_ McCarthy counted. At the +recollection of a crazy message from the Unknown, he smiled. He stepped +forward to hold up his hand at the car. Somewhat to his surprise the car +had already stopped some twenty feet away. + +McCarthy picked his way to the car. + +"Wonder you wouldn't stop at a crossing," he growled, swinging aboard. + +"Juice give out," explained the motorman. + +McCarthy clambered aboard and sat down in a comfortably filled car. Up and +down the perspective of the street could be seen other cars, also stalled. +Ten minutes slipped by; then Malachi McCarthy grew impatient. With a +muttered growl he rose, elbowed his way through the strap-hangers, and +stepped to the street. A row of idle taxicabs stood in front of the Atlas +Building. Into the first of these bounced McCarthy, throwing his address +to the expectant chauffeur. + +The man hopped down from his box, threw on the coil switch and ran to the +front. He turned the engine over the compression, but no explosion +followed. He repeated the effort a dozen times. Then, grasping the +starting handle with a firmer grip, he "whirled" the engine--without +result. + +"What's the matter? Can't you make her go?" demanded McCarthy, thrusting +his head from the door. + +"Will you please listen, sir, and see if you hear a buzz when I turn her +over?" requested the chauffeur. + +"I don't hear nothing," was the verdict. + +"I'm sorry, but you'll have to take another cab," then said the man. "My +coil's gone back on me." + +McCarthy impatiently descended, entered the next taxi in line, and +repeated the same experience. By now the other chauffeurs, noticing the +predicament of their brethren, were anxiously and perspiringly at work. +Not an engine answered the call of the road! A passing truck driver, +grinning from ear to ear, drove slowly down the line, dealing out the +ancient jests rescued for the occasion from an oblivion to which the +perfection of the automobile had consigned them. + +McCarthy added his mite; he was beginning to feel himself the victim of a +series of nagging impertinences, which he resented after his kind. + +"If," said he, "your company would put out something on the street besides +a bunch of retired grist-mills with clock dials hitched on to them, you +might be able to give the public some service. I've got lots of time. +Don't hurry through your afternoon exercise on my account. Just buy a +lawn-mower and a chatelaine watch apiece--you'd do just as well." + +By now every man had his battery box open, McCarthy left them, puzzling +over the singular failure of the electrical apparatus, which is the +nervous system of the modern automobile. + +He turned into Fifth Avenue. An astonishing sight met his eyes. + +The old days had returned. The center of the long roadway, down which +ordinarily a long file of the purring monsters of gasoline creep and dash, +shouldering aside the few hansoms and victorias remaining from a bygone +age, now showed but a swinging slashing trot of horses. + +Hansoms, hacks, broughams; up-raised whips, whirling in signal; the spat +spat of horses' hoofs; all the obsolescent vehicles that ordinarily doze +in hope along the stands of the side streets; it was a gay sight of the +past raised again for the moment to reality by the same mysterious blight +that had shadowed the Atlas Building the night before. + +Along the curbs, where they had been handpushed under direction from the +traffic squad, stood an unbroken line of automobiles. And the hood of each +was raised for the eager tinkering of its chauffeur. Past them streamed +the horses, and the faces of their drivers were illumined by broad grins. + +McCarthy looked about him for a hansom. There was none unengaged. In fact, +the boss soon determined that many others, like himself, were waiting for +a chance at the first vacant one. Reluctantly he made up his mind to walk. +He glanced up at the tower of the Metropolitan Building; then stared in +astonishment. The hands of the great dial were still perpendicular--the +hour indicated was still six o'clock! + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +DARKNESS AND PANIC + +Probably the only men in the whole of New York who accepted promptly and +unquestioningly the fact that the entire electrical apparatus of the city +was paralyzed were those in the newspaper offices. These capable citizens, +accustomed to quick adaptations to new environments and to wide reaches of +the imagination, made two or three experiments, and accepted the +inevitable. + +Within ten minutes the _Despatch_ had messenger boys on tap instead of +bells, bicycles instead of telephones, and a variety of lamps and candles +in place of electricity. Everybody else in town was speculating why in +blazes this visitation had struck them. The _Despatch_ was out after news. + +Marsden, city editor, detailed three men to dig up expert opinion on _why_ +it had all happened. + +"And if the scientific men haven't any other notions, ask 'em if it's +anything to do with the earth passing through the tail of the comet," he +told them. + +The rest of the staff he turned out for stories of the effects. His +imagination was struck by the contemplation of a modern civilized city +deprived of its nerve system. + +"Hunt up the little stuff," said he; "the big stuff will hunt you up--if +you scatter." + +After covering the usual police-station, theater and hotel assignments, he +sent Hallowell to the bridge; Longman to the Grand Central; Kennedy, +Warren and Thomas to the tubes, subways and ferries. The others he told to +go out on the streets. + +They saw a city of four million people stopped short on its way home to +dinner! They saw a city, miles in extent, set back without preparation to +a communication by messenger only! They saw a city, unprepared, blinking +its way by the inadequate illuminations of a half-century gone by! + +Hallowell found a packed mass of humanity at the bridge. Where ordinarily +is a crush, even with incessant outgoing trains sucking away at the +surplus, now was a panic--a panic the more terrible in that it was solid, +sullen, inert, motionless. Women fainted, and stood unconscious, erect. +Men sank slowly from sight, agonized, their faces contorted, but unheard +in the dull roar of the crowd, and were seen no more. Around the edges +people fought frantically to get out; and others, with the blind, +unreasoning, home instinct, fought as hard to get in. + +The police were unavailing. They could not penetrate to break the center. +Across the bridge streamed a procession of bruised and battered humanity, +escaped from or cast forth by the maelstrom. The daylight was fading, and +within the sheds men could not see one another's faces. + +Longman at the Grand Central observed a large and curious crowd that +filled the building and packed the streets round about. They waited for +their trains, and the twilight gathered. For ten minutes trains continued +to enter the shed. This puzzled Longman until he remembered that gravity +would bring in those this side of Harlem. None went out. The waiting +throng was a hotbed for rumors. Longman collected much human-interest +stuff, and was quite well satisfied with his story--until he saw what it +had meant elsewhere. + +For in the subways and tubes the stoppage of the trains had automatically +discontinued the suction ventilation. The underground thousands, in +mortal terror of the non-existent third-rail danger, groped their way +painfully to the stations. With inconceivable swiftness the mephitic +vapors gathered. Strong men staggered fainting into the streets. When +revived they told dreadful tales of stumbling over windrows of bodies +there below. + +Through the gathering twilight of the streets, dusky and shadowy, +flitted bat-like the criminals of the underworld. What they saw, that +they took. Growing bolder, they progressed from pocket-picking to +holdups, from holdups to looting. The police reserves were all out; +they could do little. Favored by obscurity, the thieves plundered. It +would have needed a solid cordon of officers to have protected +adequately the retail district. Swiftly a guerrilla warfare sprang up. +Bullets whistled. Anarchy raised its snaky locks and peered red-eyed +through the darkened streets of the city. + +Here and there fire broke out. Men on bicycles brought in the alarms; +then, as twilight thickened, men on foot. Chief Croker promptly +established lookouts in all the tall towers, as watchmen used a hundred +years ago to watch the night. + +And, up-town, Smith cursed the necessity of reading his evening paper by +candle-light; and Mary, the cook, grumbled because she could not telephone +the grocery for some forgotten ingredient; and Jones' dinner party was +very hilarious over the joke on their host; and men swore and their wives +worried because they had perforce to be very late to dinner. + +At eight o'clock, two hours after the inception of the curious phenomena, +the condition suddenly passed. The intimation came to the various parts of +the city in different ways. Strangely enough, only gradually did the +lights and transportation facilities resume their functions. Most of the +dynamos were being inspected by puzzled experts. Here and there the +blazing of a group of lights, the ringing of a bell, the response of a +volt or ammeter to test, hinted to the masters of the lightnings that +their rebellious steeds again answered the bit. + +Within a half-hour the city's illuminations again reflected softly from +the haze of the autumn sky; the clang of the merry trolley, the wail of +the motor's siren again smote the air. + +Malachi McCarthy, having caught a ride on a friendly dray, arrived home. +At eight ten his telephone bell for the first time jangled its summons. +McCarthy answered it. + +"I'm Simmons, the wireless operator," the small voice told him. "Say! +There's a lot of these fool messages in the air again. You know what they +said last night about six o'clock, and what happened." + +"Let's have 'em," growled McCarthy. + +"Here she is: 'McCarthy, will you do as I tell you? Answer. Remember the +sign at six o'clock.' It's signed 'M.'" + +"Where did that come from?" asked the boss. + +"Can't tell, but somewheres a long ways off." + +"How do you know that?" + +"By the sound." + +"How far--about?" + +"Might be anywhere." + +"Can you get an answer back?" + +"I think so. Can't tell whether my spark will reach that far. I can send +out a call for 'M.'" + +"Well, send this," said McCarthy. "'Go to hell.'" + +On the evening of the phenomena afore mentioned, Percy Darrow had +returned to his apartments, where he had dressed unusually early, and +by daylight. This was because he had a dinner engagement up-town. It +was an informal engagement for a family dinner at seven o'clock; but +Percy had been requested by one of the members to come at about six. +This was because the other members would presumably be dressing between +six and seven. + +The young man found a fire blazing on the hearth, although the evening was +warm. A graceful girl sat looking into the flames. She did not rise as the +scientist entered, but held out her hand with an air of engaging +frankness. + +"Sit down," she invited the guest. "This is a fearful and wonderful time +to ask you to venture abroad in your dress clothes, but I wanted to see +you most particularly before the rest of the family comes down." + +"You are a singularly beautiful woman," observed Darrow in a detached +manner, as he disposed his long form gracefully in the opposite armchair. + +The girl looked at him sharply. + +"That is intended as an excuse or explanation--not in the least as a +compliment," Darrow went on. + +"You would not be so obliging, if I were not--beautiful?" shot back the +girl. "That is indeed not complimentary!" + +"I should be exactly as obliging," amended Darrow lazily, "but I should +not feel so generally satisfied and pleased and rewarded in advance. I +should have more of a feeling of virtue, and less of one of pleasure." + +"I see," said the girl, her brows still level. "Then I suppose you are +not interested in what I might ask you as one human being to another!" + +"Pardon me, Helen," interrupted Darrow, with unusual decision. "That is +just what I am interested in--you as a human being, a delicious, +beautiful, feminine, human being who could mean half the created +universe to a lucky man." + +"But not the whole--" + +"No, not the whole," mused Darrow, relaxing to his old indolent attitude. +"You see," he roused himself to explain, "I am a scientist, for instance. +You could not be a scientist; you have not the training." + +"Nor the brains," interposed Helen Warford, a trifle bitterly. + +"Nor the kind of brains," amended Darrow. "I have enough of that sort +myself," he added. He leaned forward, a hunger leaping in the depths of +his brown eyes. "Helen," he pleaded, "can't you see how we need each +other?" + +But the girl shut both her eyes, and shook her head vigorously. + +"Unless people can be _everything_ to each other, they should be +nothing--people like us," said she. + +Darrow sighed and leaned back. + +"I feel that way, but the devil of it is I can't think it," said he. Then +after a pause: "What is it you want of me, Helen? I'm ready." + +She sat up straight, and clasped her hands. + +"It's Jack," said she. + +"What's the matter with Jack?" + +"Everything--and nothing. He's just out of college. This fall he must go +to work. Father wants him to go into an office. Jack doesn't care much, +and will drift into the office unless somebody stops him." + +"Well?" said Darrow. + +"An office will ruin him. He isn't in the least interested in the things +they do in offices; and he's too high-spirited to settle down to a grind." + +"He's like you in spirit, Helen," said Darrow. "What is he interested in?" + +"He's interested in you." + +"What!" cried Darrow. "Wish it were a family trait." + +"He thinks you are wonderful, and he knows all about all your adventures +and voyages with Doctor Schermerhorn. He admires the way you look and act +and talk. I suspect him of trying to imitate you." Helen's eyes gleamed +with amusement. + +[Illustration: "Can't you see how we need each other?"] + +Darrow smiled his slow and languid smile. + +"The last time I saw Jack he stood six feet and weighed about one hundred +and eight-five pounds," he pointed out. + +"The imitation is funny," admitted Helen, "but based on genuine +admiration." + +"What do you want me to do with him?" drawled Darrow. + +"I thought you could take him in with you; get him started at something +scientific; something that would interest and absorb him, and something +that would not leave all his real energies free for mischief." + +Darrow leaned his head against the back of the chair and laughed softly. +So long did his amusement continue that Helen at length brought him rather +sharply to account. + +"I was merely admiring," then exclaimed Darrow, "the delicious femininity +of the proposal. It displays at once such really remarkable insight into +the psychological needs of another human being, and such abysmal ignorance +of the demands of what we are pleased to call science." + +"You are the most superior and exasperating and conceited man I know!" +cried Helen. "I am sorry I asked you. I'd like to know what there is so +silly in my remarks!" + +"Jack is physically very strong; he is most courageous; he has a good +disposition, a gentleman's code, and an eager likable nature. I gather +further that he does me the honor of admiring me personally. He has +received a general, not a special, college education." + +"Well!" challenged Helen. + +"Barring the last, these are exactly the qualifications of a good +bull-terrier." + +"Oh!" cried the girl indignantly, and half rising. "You are insulting!" + +"No," denied Darrow. "Not that--never to you, Helen, and you know it! +I'm merely talking sense. Leaving aside the minor consideration that I +am myself looking for employment, what use has a scientist for a +bull-terrier? Jack has no aptitude for science; he has had none of the +accurate training absolutely essential to science. He probably wouldn't +be interested in science. At the moment he happens to admire me, and +I'm mighty glad and proud that it is so. But that doesn't help. If I +happened to be a saloon man, Jack would quite as cheerfully want to be +a barkeeper. I'd do anything in the world to help Jack; but I'm not the +man. You want to hunt up somebody that needs a good bull-terrier. Lots +do." + +"I hate such a cold-blooded way of going at things!" cried the girl. "You +show no more interest in Jack than if--than if--" + +Darrow smiled whimsically. "Indeed I do, Helen," he said quietly; "that is +why I don't want to touch his life. Science would ruin him quicker than an +office--in the long run. What he wants is a job of action--something out +West--or in the construction of our great and good city. Now, if I had a +political pull, instead of a scientific twist, I could land Jack in a +minute. Why don't you try that?" + +But Helen slowly shook her head. + +"Father and McCarthy are enemies," she said simply. She arose with an air +of weariness. "How dark it's getting!" she said, and pressed the electric +button in the wall. + +The light did not respond. + +"That's queer," she remarked, and pulled the chain that controlled the +reading light on the table. That, too, failed to illuminate. "Something +must be wrong with those things at the meter--what do you call them?" + +"Fuses," suggested Darrow. + +"Yes, that's it. I'll ring and have Blake screw in another." + +Darrow was staring at a small object he had taken from his pocket. It was +the electric flash-light he habitually carried to light his way up the +three dark flights at his lodgings. + +"Let me call him for you," he suggested, rising. + +"I'll ring," said Helen. + +But Darrow was already in the hall. + +"Blake!" he called down the basement stairway. "Bring lamps--or candles." + +The man appeared on the word, carrying a lamp. + +"I already had this, sir," he explained. "The lights went out some time +ago." + +"Did you look at the--fuses?" asked Helen. + +"Yes, miss." + +"Well, telephone to the electric company at once. We must have light." + +Percy Darrow had taken his place again in the armchair by the fire. + +"It is useless," said he, quietly. + +"Useless!" echoed Helen. "What do you mean?" Blake stood quietly at +attention. + +"You will find your telephone also out of order." + +Helen darted from the room, only to return after a moment, laughing. + +"You are a true wizard," she said. "Tell me, how did you know? What has +happened?" + +"A city," stated Percy didactically, "is like a mollusk; it depends +largely for its life and health on the artificial shell it has +constructed. Unless I am very much mistaken, this particular mollusk +is going to get a chance to try life without its shell." + +"I don't understand you," said Helen. + +"You will," said Percy Darrow. + +Mr. and Mrs. Warford descended soon after. They sat down to dinner by +the light of the table candles only. Darrow hardly joined at all in +the talk, but sat lost in a brown study, from which he only roused +sufficiently to accept or refuse the dishes offered him. At about +eight o'clock the telephone bell clicked a single stroke, as though +the circuit had been closed. At the sound Darrow started, then reached +swiftly into his pocket for his little flash-light. He gravely pressed +the button of this; then abruptly rose. + +"I must use your telephone," said he, without apology. + +He was gone barely a minute; then returned to the table with a clouded +brow. Almost immediately after the company had arisen from the board, he +excused himself and left. + +After he had assumed his coat, however, he returned for a final word with +Helen. + +"Where is Jack this evening?" he asked. + +"Dining out with friends. Why?" + +"Will you see him to-night?" + +"I can if necessary." + +"Do. Tell him to come down to my room as near eight o'clock to-morrow +morning as he can. I've changed my mind." + +"Oh!" cried Helen joyously. "Then you've concluded I'm right, after all?" + +"No," said Darrow; "but if this thing carries out to its logical +conclusion, I'm going to need a good bull-terrier pup!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +A SCIENTIST IN PINK SILK + +The next morning promptly at eight o'clock Jack Warford, in response +to a muttered invitation, burst excitedly into Percy Darrow's room. He +found the scientist, draped in a pale-pink silk kimono embroidered +with light-blue butterflies, scraping methodically at his face with a +safety-razor. At the sight the young fellow came to an abrupt stop, as +though some one had met him with a dash of cold water in the face. + +"Hello!" said he, in a constrained voice. "Just up?" + +Darrow cast a glance through his long silky lashes at the newcomer. + +"Yes, my amiable young canine, just up." + +Jack looked somewhat puzzled at the appellation, but seated himself. + +"Helen said you wanted to see me," he suggested. + +Darrow leisurely cleaned the component parts of his safety-razor, washed +and anointed his face, and turned. + +"I do," said he, "if you're game." + +"Of course I'm game!" cried the boy indignantly. + +Darrow surveyed his fresh, young, eager face and the trim taut bulk of him +with dispassionate eyes. + +"Are you?" he remarked simply. "Possibly. But you're not the man to be +sure of it." + +"I didn't mean it as bragging," cried Jack, flushing. + +"Surely not," drawled Darrow, stretching out his long legs. "But no +man can tell whether or not he's game until he's tried out. That's no +reflection on him, either. I remember once I went through seeing my +best friend murdered; being shot at a dozen times myself as I climbed +a cliff; seeing a pirate ship destroyed with all on board, apparently +by the hand of Providence; escaping from a big volcanic bust-up into a +cave, and having the cave entrance drop down shut behind me. I was as +cool as a cucumber all through it. I remember congratulating myself +that, anyhow, I was going to die game." + +"By Jove!" murmured Jack Warford, staring at him, fascinated. Evidently, +the super-beautiful garment had been forgotten. + +"Then a war-ship's crew rescued me; and I broke down completely, and acted +like a silly ass. I wasn't game at all; I'd just managed to postpone +finding it out for a while." + +"It was just the reaction!" cried Jack. + +"Well, if that sort of reaction happens along before the trouble is all +over, it looks uncommonly like loss of nerve," Percy Darrow pointed out. +"No man knows whether or not he's game," he repeated. "However," he smiled +whimsically, "I imagine you're likely to postpone your reactions as well +as the next." + +"What's up? What do you want me to do?" + +"Stick by me; obey orders," said Darrow. + +"What's up?" + +"Did you notice anything in the papers this morning?" + +"They're full of this electrical failure last night. Haven't you seen +them?" + +"Not yet. While I dress, tell me what they say." + +"The worst was in the tubes--" Warford began, but Darrow interrupted him. + +"I could tell you exactly what must have happened," said he, "if the +failure was complete. Never mind that. Was the condition general, or only +local? How far did it extend?" + +"It seemed to be confined to New York, and only about to Highbridge." + +"Long Island? Jersey?" + +"Yes; it hit them, too." + +"What are the theories?" + +"I couldn't see that they had any--that I could understand," said Jack. +"There's some talk of the influence of a comet." + +"Rubbish! Who sprung that?" + +"Professor Aitken, I think." + +"He ought to know better. Any others?" + +"I couldn't understand them all. There was one of polarizing the island +because of the steel structures; and the--" + +"No human agency?" + +"What?" + +"No man or men are suspected of bringing this about?" + +"Oh, no! You don't think--" + +"No, I don't think. I only imagine; and I haven't much basis for +imagining. But if my imaginations come out right, we'll have plenty to +do." + +"Where, now?" asked Jack, as the scientist finished dressing and reached +for his hat. "Breakfast?" + +"No, I ate that before I dressed. We'll make a call on the Atlas +Building." + +"All right," agreed Jack cheerfully. "What for?" + +"To ask McCarthy if he hasn't a job for you in construction." + +Jack came to a dead halt. + +"Say!" he cried. "Look here! You don't quite get the humor of that. Why, +McCarthy loves the name of Warford about the way a yellow dog loves a tin +can to his tail." + +"We'll call on him, just the same," insisted Darrow. + +"I'm game," said Jack, "but I can tell you the answer right now. No need +to walk to the Atlas Building." + +"I have a notion the Atlas Building is going to be a mighty interesting +place," said Darrow. + +They debouched on the street. The air was soft and golden; the sun warm +with the Indian summer. The clock on the Metropolitan tower was booming +nine. As the two set out at a slow saunter down the backwater of the side +street, Darrow explained a little further. + +"Jack," said he abruptly, "I'll tell you what I think--or imagine. I +believe last night's phenomena were controlled, not fortuitous or the +result of natural forces. In other words, some man turned off the juice in +this city; and turned it on again. How he did it, I do not know; but he +did it very completely. It was not a question of wiring alone. Even +dry-cell batteries were affected. Now, I can think of only one broad +general principle by which he could accomplish that result. Just what +means he took to apply the principle is beyond my knowledge. But if I am +correct in my supposition, there occurs to me no reason why he should not +go a step or so farther." + +"I don't believe I follow," said Jack contritely. + +"What I'm driving at is this," said Darrow; "this is not the end of the +circus by any means. We're going to see a lot of funny things--if my guess +is anywhere near right." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +THE WRATH TO COME + +"Did you ever meet McCarthy?" asked Darrow, as the elevator of the Atlas +sprang upward. + +"Never." + +"Well, no matter what he says or does, I want you to say +nothing--nothing." + +"Correct," said Jack. "I'll down-charge." + +"That's right," Darrow approved. "First of all, wait outside until I call +you." + +McCarthy was already at his desk, and in evil humor. When Darrow entered, +he merely looked up and growled. + +"Good morning," Darrow greeted him easily. "Any wireless this morning?" + +McCarthy threw back his heavy head. + +"That damn operator's been leaking!" he cried. + +"So there are 'wireless'," observed Darrow. "No, your operator didn't +leak. Who is he?" + +"If he didn't leak, what did you say that for?" + +"I'm a good guesser," replied Darrow enigmatically. "They say anything +about a 'sign' being sent, and such talk?" + +"You've been gettin' the dope yourself out of the air," returned McCarthy +sullenly. + +"Look here, my fat friend," drawled Darrow, his eyes half closing, "I'm +getting nothing from anywhere except in my own gray matter. What do your +messages have to say?" + +"Why should I tell you?" + +"Because I'm interested--and because I know who sent 'em." + +"So do I," snarled McCarthy, in a gust of temper. + +"And I'm beginning to suspect he's a man to look out for. And I doubt +if you'll ever find him. Of course, he's responsible for the row last +night--as well as for the trouble in the Atlas Building the night +before." + +"I don't know whether he is or not." + +"Oh, yes, you do; and I do; and the wireless man does. We're the only +three. The rest of them are still figuring on comets." + +"Well?" + +"I don't suppose there's any real doubt left in your mind but that this +man can turn the juice off again, if he wants to?" + +"I don't know as he did it," persisted McCarthy stoutly. + +"Now, how long do you suppose you'd last if the public should get on to +the fact that this hidden power was going to exert itself again unless you +left town?" + +A slight moisture bedewed McCarthy's forehead. + +"Not all your police, nor all your power could save you, if the general +public once became thoroughly convinced that it was to go through another +experience like last night's unless it ousted you. Why, a mob of a million +men would gather against you in an hour You see," drawled Percy Darrow, +"why you'd better look after that wireless man of yours--and me." + +"And you," repeated McCarthy. "What do you want?" + +"I want to see those wireless messages, first of all," said Darrow, +reaching out his hand. + +McCarthy hesitated; then swiftly thrust forward the flimsies. Darrow, a +slight smile curving his full red lips, held them to the light. They read +as follows: + + "McCarthy: A sign was promised you at six o'clock. It has been sent. + Repent and beware! Go while there is yet time. + + M." + +There were four of these, couched in almost identical language. The fifth +and last message was shorter: + + "McCarthy: Flee from the wrath to come. + + "M." + +"What," said Darrow, "is to prevent the other operators who must have +caught this message from giving it to the public? What, indeed, is to +prevent M.'s appealing direct to the public?" + +"I don't know," confessed McCarthy miserably. "Do you?" + +"Not at this moment. Will you send for the operator who took these?" + +McCarthy snatched down the telephone receiver, through which presently he +spoke a message. + +"What have you got to do with this?" he demanded, after he had hung up the +hook. + +"I want something," said Percy, "of course." + +"Sure," growled McCarthy, once more back on familiar ground, and glad of +it. "What is it?" + +"I'll tell you when I'm sure whether I can do anything for you in this +matter." + +"If this fellow didn't leak, how did you know about them wireless?" +demanded McCarthy again. "How do you know who's doin' this?" + +Darrow smiled. + +"The man who can control the juice as this man has is a scientific +expert with a full scientific equipment. If he communicated at all, it +would be by wireless, as that is the easiest way to cover his trail. I +remembered your telephone message from the fanatic about sending a +'sign'. Immediately after, the Atlas Building experienced on a small +scale what next day the city experienced on a larger scale. It was +legitimate inference to connect one with the other. Of course, if our +telephone friend was the man who had brought these things about, he +had done it to force you to do what he demanded. But he would lose the +effect of his lesson unless you understood his connection with the +matter. Hence, I concluded that you must have received messages--by +wireless--and that they must have repeated the warning as to a 'sign' +being sent. It was very simple." + +"You're smart, all right," conceded McCarthy. + +After a moment the wireless operator came in. + +"Simmons," said McCarthy, "answer this man's questions." + +"They will be in regard to these messages," said Darrow. "Where are they +from?" + +"Somewhere in the one-hundred to two-hundred-mile circles, depending on +the power of the sending instrument," replied the operator promptly. + +"Are you sure?" + +"I know my instruments pretty well; and I've had experience enough so I +can tell by the sound of the sending about how far off they come from." + +"And this was from somewhere about one to two hundred miles away, you +think?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Do you know whether any other instruments caught this?" + +"No, only mine." He was very positive. + +"How do you know?" + +"Mr. McCarthy had me inquire." + +"How do you account for it?" + +"I don't know, except that maybe my instrument happened to be just tuned +to catch it. That's another reason I know it was from far off. The farther +away the sending instrument, the nearer exactly it has to be tuned to the +receiving instrument. If it was nearer, 'most anybody'd get it." + +Percy Darrow nodded. + +"That's all, I guess. No, hold on. Did any of these come between six and +eight last evening?" + +For the first time the operator smiled. + +"No, sir; my instrument was dead." + +He went out. + +"Well?" growled McCarthy. + +"I don't know; but I can see more trouble." + +"Let him turn off his juice," blustered the boss; "we'll be ready, next +time." + +Percy Darrow smiled. + +"Will you?" he contented himself by saying. Then, after a moment's pause, +he added, "I'll agree to stop this fellow if you'll give me an absolutely +free hand. I'll even agree to find him." + +"What do you want?" + +"I want a job, a good engineering-construction job, for a friend of mine." + +"What can he do?" + +"He can learn. I want a good honest place where he can learn under a good +man." + +"Who is he?" + +"I'll bring him in." + +A moment later Jack, in answer to a summons, entered the office. + +McCarthy stared at him. "What kind of a job?" he growled. + +"Something active and out of doors," Darrow answered for him; "streets, +water, engineering." + +"It's a holdup," said McCarthy sullenly drawing a tablet toward himself, +and thrusting the stub of a pencil into his mouth. + +"A beneficent and just holdup," added Darrow; "the first of its kind in +this city." + +McCarthy glared at him malevolently. + +"It don't go unless you deliver the goods," he threatened. + +"Understood," agreed Darrow. + +"What's his name?" demanded McCarthy, withdrawing the pencil stub, and +preparing to write. + +"His name," answered Darrow, "is John Warford, Junior." + +McCarthy started to his feet with a bellow of rage, his face turning +purple. + +"Of all the infernal--!" he roared, and stopped, as though stricken dumb. +For two or three words further his mouth and throat went through the +motions of speech. Then an expression of mingled fear and astonishment +overspread his countenance. He sank back into his chair. Percy Darrow +nodded twice and smiled. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +A WORLD OF GHOSTS + +A deathly stillness had all at once fallen like a blanket, blotting out +McCarthy's violent speech. The rattling typewriter in the next room was +abruptly stilled. The roar of the city died as a living creature is cut by +the sword--all at once, without the transitionary running down of most +silences. Absolute dense stillness, like that of a sea calm at night, took +the place of the customary city noises. In his astonishment McCarthy +thrust a heavy inkstand off the edge of his desk. It hit the floor, +spilled, rolled away; but noiselessly, as would the inkstand in a moving +picture. + +To have one's world thus suddenly stricken dumb, to be transported orally +from the roar of a city to the peace of a woodland or a becalmed sea is +certainly astonishing enough. + +But this silence was particularly terrifying to both McCarthy and Jack +Warford, though neither would have been able to analyze the reason for its +weirdness. For silence is in reality a composite of many lesser noises. In +a woodland almost inaudible insects hum, breezes blow, leaves and grasses +rustle; at sea the tiny waves lap the sides and equally tiny breaths of +air stir the cordage; within the confines of the human shell the mere +physical acts of breathing, swallowing, winking, the mere physical facts +of the circulation of the blood, the beating of the heart, produce each +its sound. + +Even a man totally deaf feels the subtle influence of these latter +physical phenomena. And underneath all sound, perceptible alike to those +who can hear and those who can not, are the vibrations that accompany +every activity of nature as the manifestations of motion or of life. An +ordinary deep silence is not so much an absence of sound as an absence of +accustomed or loud sound. And in that unusual hush often for the first +time a man becomes acutely aware of the singing of the blood in his ears. + +But this silence was absolute. All these minor sounds had been eliminated. + +For a moment Boss McCarthy stared; then shoved back his chair with a +violent motion, and rose. He was like a shadow on a screen. The filching +from the world of one element of its every-day life had unexpectedly +rendered it all phantasmagoric. + +As McCarthy shouted, and no sound came; as he moved from behind his desk, +and no jar accompanied his heavy footfall, he appeared to lose blood and +substance, to become unreal. As no sound issued from his contorted face, +So it seemed that no force would follow his blow, were he to deliver one. + +He stumbled forward, dazed and groping as though he were in the dark, +instead of merely in silence; a striking example in the uncertainty of his +movements of how closely our senses depend on one another. + +Jack spoke twice, then closed his lips in a grim straight line. He held +his elbows close to his sides, and looked ready for anything. + +A look of mild triumph illumined Percy Darrow's usually languid +countenance. He stepped quickly to the wall, and turned the button of +the incandescent globe. The light instantly glowed. At this he nodded +twice more. From his pocket he drew a note-book and pencil, wrote in +it a few words, and handed it to the dazed and uncertain boss. + +"I was right," Darrow had scrawled. "This proves it. It's by no means the +end. Better be good." + +McCarthy's bulldog courage had recovered from its first daze. He began to +see that this visitation was not entirely personal, but extended also to +his two companions. This relieved his mind, for he had suspected some +strange new apoplexy. + +"Did you expect this?" he wrote. + +Darrow nodded. + +Together the three ghosts left the phantom office, and glided down the +phantom halls. Other ghosts in various stages of alarm were already +making their way down the stairs. Some of them spoke, but no sound +came. One woman, her eyes frightened, reached out furtively to touch +her neighbor, apparently to assure herself of his reality. Urged by an +uncontrollable impulse, a man thrust his hand through the ground glass +of an office door. The glass shivered, and crashed to the tile floor. +The pieces broke--silently. It was as though the man had been the +figure in a cinematograph illusion. He stared at his cut and bleeding +hand. The woman who had touched the man suddenly threw back her head +and screamed. They could see her eyes roll back, her face change +color, could discern the straining of her throat. No sound came. + +At this a panic seized them. They rushed down the stairs, clambering over +one another, pushing, scrambling, falling. A mob of a hundred men fought +for precedence. Blows were struck. No faintest murmur of tumult came from +their futile heat. It might have been the riot of a wax-works in a vacuum. + +They fell into the lower hallway, and fought their way to the street, and +stood there dazed and staring, a strange, wild-eyed, white-faced, bloody +crew. The hurrying avenue stopped to gaze on them curiously, gathering +compact in a mob that blocked all traffic. Policemen pushed their way in +and began roughly to question--and to question in real audible words. + +But for the space of a full minute these people stood there staring +upward, drinking in the blessed sound that poured in on them lavishly from +the life of the street; drinking deep gulps of air, as though air had +lacked. + +Darrow, and with him Jack Warford, had descended more leisurely. Before +leaving the building Darrow placed the flat of his hands over his ears, +and motioned Jack to do the same. Thus they missed the stunning effect of +receiving the world of noise all at once; as a man goes to a bright light +from a dark room. Furthermore, Darrow returned several times from the +sound to the silence, trying to determine where the line of demarcation +was drawn. Then, motioning to Jack, he began methodically to make his way +through the crowd. + +This proved to be by no means an easy task. Rumors of all sorts were +afoot. Some bold spirits were testing a new sensation by venturing into +the corridor of the building. The police were undecided as to what should +be done. One or two reporters were already at hand, investigating. +McCarthy, his assurance returned, was conversing earnestly with a police +captain. + +Percy Darrow, closely followed by Jack, managed to worm his way through +the crowd, and finally debouched on Broadway. + +"What was it? What struck us?" demanded Jack. "Do you know?" + +"I can guess; in essence," said Percy. "I was pretty sure after last +evening's trouble; but this underscores it, proves it. Also, it opens the +way." + +"What do you mean?" + +"Along the lines of these phenomena there are two more things possible. +Possible, I say. They might be called certain, were we dealing only with +theory; but there is still some doubt how the practical side of it may +work out." + +"I suppose you know what you're talking about," said Jack resignedly. "I +don't." + +"You don't need to, yet. But here's what I mean. If my theory is correct, +we are likely to be surprised still further." + +Jack ruminated; then his engaging young face lighted up with a smile. + +"All right," said he; "I'm enlisted for the war. What have you got to do +with it?" + +"I'll explain this much," said Darrow; "more I'll not tell at present, +even to you. If one breath should get out that any one suspected--well, +this is a man-hunt." + +"Who's the man?" + +"An enemy of McCarthy." + +"Whom you are going to find for him?" + +"Perhaps." + +"And you were putting up that job for me as part of your pay!" + +Percy Darrow smiled slowly. + +"As all of my pay--from McCarthy," said he. "I was just bedeviling him." + +Jack Warford started to say something, but the scientist cut him short. + +"This is bigger than McCarthy," he said decisively. "We are the only +people in this city who suspect a human origin of these phenomena. Other +men are yet working, and will continue to work, on the supposition that +they are the results of some unbalanced natural conditions. The phenomena +are, as yet, harmless. It will not greatly injure the city, once it is +prepared, to be without electricity or without sound for limited periods. +I doubt very much whether the Unknown can continue these phenomena for +longer than limited periods. But conceivably this man may become a peril. +He has, if I reason correctly, four arrows in his quiver; the fourth is +dangerous. It is our duty to find him before he uses the fourth arrow--if +indeed he has discovered the method of doing so. That is always in doubt." + +Jack's eyes were shining. + +"Bully!" he cried. + +"He may conceivably possess the power to launch the fourth and dangerous +arrow, but may withhold it unless he believes himself suspected or close +pressed. His probable mental processes are obscure. At present he directs +himself solely against McCarthy." Percy Darrow had been thinking aloud, +and realized it with a smile. "This is one of your jobs, fellow +detective," said he. "You've got to be a mark for me to think at." + +"I wish you'd think a little more clearly," observed Jack. "It sounds +interesting, but jumbled. I feel the way I did when I began to read +Greek." + +"McCarthy's incidental," observed Darrow in his detached tone. + +"Eh?" + +"Oh, I thought we might as well worry McCarthy by asking him for that job +on the side. It's amusing." + +"What do you want me to do?" asked Jack. + +"This," said Darrow, with an unusual rapidity of utterance. "See that +thick-set, quick man in gray clothes? He's a policeman. In a moment he'll +arrest me." + +"Arrest you--why?" demanded Jack, in tones of great astonishment. + +"I reason that McCarthy will come to that conclusion. He is beginning to +think I have something to do with what he calls his annoyances. I saw it +in his eyes. This last curious manifestation came along too pat. You +remember, it cut off the dressing-down he was going to give me." Darrow +chuckled in appreciation. "Didn't the humor of that strike you?" + +"Me? Oh, I was scared," admitted Jack. + +"I want you to go home and tell Helen just what happened in the Atlas +Building. Do not tell her that I believe the phenomena are due to any +human agency. Say simply that if it is repeated, and she happens to be +within the zone of its influence, to keep calm, and wait. It will pass, +and it is not to be feared. Tell her I said so." + +"Lord!" cried Jack. "You don't think it's going to happen again!" + +"Within the next twenty-four hours," said Darrow. + +"Oughtn't we to warn the people?" + +"And let our hidden antagonist know we are aware of his existence?" +inquired Darrow. + +"Anything else?" + +"No--yes. Buy a gun. If I bring you into any trouble, I'll see you clear. +You understand?" + +"I do." + +"I rely on your being game." + +"To the limit," said Jack. "Here comes your friend. Won't this arrest ball +things up? Shall I rustle bail?" + +"No," said Darrow. "I want to think. All I need is all the papers. I'll be +out by ten to-morrow morning, sure." + +"Why are you sure of that?" + +"_Because by that hour McCarthy will have disappeared_," said Percy +Darrow. + +The man in the gray suit, having finished his scrutiny, lounged forward. + +"You are Mr. Darrow," he stated. + +"Sure I am, my amiable but obvious sleuth," drawled that young man. "Lead +on." He nodded a farewell to Jack, and linked his arm in that of the +officer. After a few moments he burst into an irrepressible chuckle. + +"The fat, thick-necked, thick-witted, old fool!" said he. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +PERCY DARROW'S THEORY + +Percy Darrow in the police station, where he had been assigned an unused +office instead of a cell, amused himself reading the newspapers, of which +he caused to be brought in a full supply. Theories had begun to claim +their share of the space which, up to now, the fact stories had completely +monopolized. Darrow, his feet up, a cigarette depending from one corner of +his mouth, read them through to the end. Then he indulged the white walls +of his little apartment with one of his slow smiles. The simplest of the +theories had to do with comets. The most elaborate traced out an analogy +between the "blind spot" in vision and a "point of rest" in physical +manifestations--this "point of rest" had just now happened to drift to a +crowded center, and so became manifest. + +"Ingenious but fantastic youth," was Percy Darrow's tribute to the author, +Professor Eldridge of the university. + +The "human-interest" stories of both the evening before and those in the +extras describing the latest freak in the Atlas Building, Darrow passed +over with barely a glance. But certain figures he copied carefully into +his notebook. When he had found all of these, and had transcribed them, +they appeared about as follows: + + Atlas--Wednesday, 5:25. 3:00 (about): 9 hr. 35 min. + + General--Thursday, 6:00. 7:56 (exact): 1 hr. 56 min. + + Atlas--Friday, 10:10. 10:48 (exact): 38 min. + +On the basis of these latter figures he made some calculations which, when +finished, he looked on with doubtful satisfaction. + +"Need more statistics," said he to himself, "before I can pose as a +prophet. Just now I'm merely a guesser." + +By now it was afternoon. An official came to announce visitors, and a +moment later Helen and her brother came in. As Percy's case was merely one +of detention, or for some other obscurer reason, known only to those who +took their orders from McCarthy, the three were left alone to their own +devices. + +At the sight of Helen's trim tailor-clad figure Percy's expression +brightened to what, in his case, might almost be called animation. He +swept aside the accumulation of papers, and made room for both. After the +first greetings and exclamations, Helen demanded to know particulars and +prospects. + +"All right, I'll tell you," agreed Darrow. "I'm thought out; and I want to +hear it myself." + +Jack looked about him uneasily. + +"Is it wise to talk here?" he asked. "I don't doubt they have arrangements +for overhearing anything that is said." + +"I don't think they care what we say," observed Darrow. "They are merely +detaining me on some excuse or another that I haven't even taken the +trouble to inquire about." + +"That must astonish them some," said Jack. + +"And if they do overhear, I don't much care. Now," said he, turning to +Helen, "we have here three strange happenings comprising two +phenomena--the cutting off of the electricity, first in the Atlas +Building, second in the city at large; and the cutting off of sound in the +Atlas. Although we are, of course, not justified in generalizing from one +instance, what would you think by analogy would be the next thing to +expect?" + +"That sound would be cut off in the city," said Helen; "but Jack has +already delivered me your warning or advice," she added. + +"Precisely. Now as to theories of the ultimate cause. Naturally this must +have been brought about either by nature or by man. If by nature, it is +exceedingly localized, not to say directed. If by man, he must have in +some way acquired unprecedented powers over the phenomena of electricity +and sound. These he can evidently, at will, either focus, as on the Atlas +Building, or diffuse, as over the city. For the moment we will adopt the +latter hypothesis." + +"That it is a man in possession of extraordinary powers," said Helen, +leaning forward in her interest. "Go on." + +"We have, completed, only the phenomena of electricity," continued Darrow; +"the phenomena of sound remain to be completed. We observe as to that +(a)"--he folded back his forefinger--"the Atlas manifestation lasted about +nine and a half hours; and (b)"--he folded his middle finger--"the city +manifestation was a little less than two hours." + +"Yes," cried Jack, "but then this second--" + +"One minute," interrupted Darrow; "let me finish. Now, let us place +ourselves in the position of a man possessed of a new toy, or a new power +which he has never tried out! What would he do?" + +"Try it out," said Jack. + +"Certainly; try it out to the limit, to see just what it could do in +different circumstances. Now, take the lapses of time I have mentioned, +and assume, for the sake of argument, that these powers are limited." + +"Just how do you mean--limited?" asked Helen. + +"I mean exhaustible, like a watering-pot. You can water just so much, and +then you have to go back and fill up again. In that case, we can suppose +this man's stream will last nine hours and a half when he dribbles it down +on one spot, like the Atlas Building; but it will empty itself in about +two hours when he turns her upside down over a whole city. There remains +only the length of time necessary to refill the water-pot to round out our +hypothesis. That is something more than nine hours and something less than +fifteen." + +"How do you get those figures?" demanded Jack. + +"The Unknown is anxious, after the Atlas success, to try out his discovery +on the larger scale. He will naturally do so at the first opportunity +after his water-pot is refilled. But he wishes to do so at the first +effective opportunity. What is the most effective moment? The rush hours. +What are the rush hours? From eight to ten, and at six. Since he did not +pull off his show in the morning, we are fairly justified in concluding, +tentatively, that the water-pot was not full by then, and, as the Atlas +phenomena subsided at three of the morning before, the inference is +obvious." + +"But isn't the most effective time at night, anyway, on account of the +lights?" asked Jack. + +"Good boy!" approved Darrow. "He might have waited for that. But the +city-wide phenomena ceased at eight the night before; and the Atlas sound +phenomena did not occur until ten the next morning--fourteen hours. Now, +the most effective time to scare McCarthy was any time after nine. +McCarthy arrives as the clock strikes." + +Jack shook his head. + +"Oh, it's not proof; it's idle hypothesis," admitted Darrow. "We shall +have to test it. But let's go on with it, anyway, and see how it works +out." + +"What's McCarthy got to do with it?" demanded Helen. + +"That's so, you aren't in touch there." Darrow sketched briefly the +situation as it affected the boss. Helen's eyes were shining with +interest. + +"Now," continued Darrow, "having tried out his new power to the limit, our +friend would begin to use it only as he needed it. There is now no reason +to empty the water-pot entirely. All he wanted to do this morning was to +scare McCarthy, and impress the public. He did that in thirty-eight +minutes. On the basis of fourteen hours to fill the water-pot, it is +evident that he would be rehabilitated, ready for business, in an hour. +Therefore, all he is waiting for now is the most effective moment to try +out his city-wide experiment of silence. I imagine that will be about +six." + +"Sounds reasonable," admitted Jack. + +"Reasonable! It's certain!" cried Helen. + +Darrow smiled. "No, only a wild hypothesis." + +"It'll scare people to death," observed Jack. + +"They're scared already; and they're somewhat prepared by the performance +this morning. Besides, I don't see yet that human agency is suspected." + +"Don't you think you'd better warn people what is going to happen, and +tell them there's nothing to be frightened of?" pleaded Helen. + +"No," said Darrow, "I do not. It would confuse the phenomena, and they +must be unconfused in order that I can either prove or disprove my +hypothesis. If this lasts about two hours, the fact will go far to prove +me right. If the next manifestation comes at about ten the next morning, +we shall have established a periodicity, at least. But if the man realizes +that his existence is suspected, he will purposely vary in order to mix me +up." + +"The next manifestation!" cried Helen. "Then you think they will +continue--" + +"Why not," smiled Darrow, "until he has scared McCarthy out?" + +"Which will it be next time, do you think?" + +"Whatever happens, don't be frightened," said Darrow enigmatically. + +"It seems to me there is something absurd about all this," said Helen. "A +man with such a discovery, such powers, using them in such a manner, for +such a petty purpose!" + +"He is, of course, crazy," Darrow said quietly; "the methodical logical +lunatic--the most dangerous sort." + +"What is it he has discovered?" asked Jack. + +"I do not know, yet." + +"But you suspect?" + +Darrow nodded, but would not explain. + +"What will be the outcome?" + +"I am going to cut loose from science and guess wildly," said Darrow, +after a moment. "To-morrow morning, somewhere about ten, McCarthy will +disappear." + +"You said that before!" cried Jack. + +"Well, I say it again," drawled Darrow. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +THE GREAT SILENCE + +Percy Darrow sat quite calmly, though a little hungrily, through the first +of the two hours of the Great Silence. As it fell, he looked at his watch; +then went on reading. Strangely terrified faces flitted by the open door +of his little room. About seven o'clock Darrow, struck by a sudden idea, +arose, walked down the corridor outside, and quite deliberately set to +work to force the light door. As has been intimated, either by direct +order of McCarthy or because of some vagueness of the orders, the young +man had been confined, not in the jail proper, but in one of the living +apartments of the wing. + +Few realize how important a role sound plays in what might be called the +defensives of our every-day life. Sight is important, to be sure, but it +is more often corroborative than not; it is more often used to identify +the source of the alarm that has been communicated through other channels. +When we are told of the hero--or the villain--that he stood "with every +sense alert", our mental picture, in spite of the phrasing, is that of a +man listening intently for the first intimations of what may threaten. + +So it is in prison. The warders can, of necessity, remain within actual +view of but a few of the prisoners a small proportion of the time. But +through those massive and silent corridors sound stands watch-dog for +them. The minute scratch of a file, the vibrations attendant on the most +cautious attempts against the stone structure, the most muffled footfall +reports to the jailer that mischief is afoot. Instantly he is on the spot +to corroborate by his other faculties the warnings of the watch-dog of the +senses. + +Now the watch-dog was asleep. Percy Darrow reflected that, were it not for +the terror of these unexplainable hours, the prisoners within or their +friends without could assail their confines boldly and formidably, even +with dynamite, and none would be the wiser if only none happened to be +within actual visual range of the operations. He himself quite coolly used +the iron side piece to his bed as a battering-ram to break the locks of +the door. Then he walked down the long corridor and out through the police +station, bowing politely to the bewildered officers. The latter did not +attempt to stop him. + +The people in the streets were, for the most part, either standing +stock-still, or moving slowly forward in a groping sort of fashion. +Darrow, for the second time, noticed how analogous to the deprivation of +sight was the total deprivation of hearing and feeling vibration. + +Traffic was at a standstill. People's faces were bewildered, for the most +part; though here and there one showed contorted with the hysteria of +fright, or exalted with some other, probably religious, emotion. The same +impression of ghostliness came to Darrow here as in the Atlas Building. +Visual causes were not producing their wonted aural effect. + +On the street corner a peanut vender's little whistle sent aloft bravely +its jet of steam; the bells on a ragpicker's cart swung merrily back and +forth on their strap; a big truck, whose driver was either undaunted or +drunk, banged and clattered and rattled over the rough cobbles of a side +street--but no sound came from any one of them. + +This complete severance of one cause and effect was sufficient to +discredit all natural laws. No other cause and effect was certain. +Everywhere people were touching things to see if they were solid, or wet, +or soft, or hard, as the case might be. Even Darrow felt, absurdly enough, +that it would not be greatly serious to jump off the top of any building +into the street. + +Darrow swung confidently enough down the street. He was the only person, +with the exception of the drunken truck driver, who moved forward at a +natural and easy gait. The effect was startling. Darrow seemed to be the +only real human being of the lot. All the rest were phantasmagoric. + +But as he proceeded down-town the spell was beginning to break. People +were communicating with one another by means of pencil and paper. Darrow +was amused, on crossing the park, to see against the lighted windows on +Newspaper Row the silhouetted forms of activity. Evidently, the newspaper +men were already at work on this fresh story. + +Near the corner of the park Darrow saw standing a policeman of his varied +acquaintance. The scientist walked up to this man, who was standing in the +typical vacant uncertainty, smiled agreeably, clapped him on the back, and +shook his hand. The patrolman grasped Darrow's hand, but the look of +groping uncertainty deepened on his face. + +Darrow slipped his note-book from his pocket, and scribbled a few lines, +which he showed to the officer. The latter read, inwardly digested for a +moment, and smiled. + +"Keep your hair on," ran Darrow's screed. "This will pass in a few +minutes, and it won't hurt you, anyway. Don't look like all these other +dubs." + +He stood there companionably by the patrolman. They looked about them. All +at once, with this touch of normal, unafraid, human companionship, the +weird horror of the situation fell away. Darrow and his companion were +seeing humanity disjointed from its accustomed habit, as one looks on a +stage full of men hypnotized into belief of an absurdity. + +Where the blotting out of electricity had been tragic, this, as soon as +its utter harmlessness was realized, became comic. All about through the +park men were meeting the situation according to the limited ideas +developed by a crustacean life of absolute dependence on the shell of +artificial environment. A considerable number of all sorts had fallen on +their knees and were praying. One fat man in evening dress, with a silk +hat and a large diamond stud showing between the lapels of a fur-lined +coat, was particularly fervent. By force of habit Darrow remarked on this +individual. + +"I'll bet he hasn't been to church since he was a kid," he observed, of +course inaudibly. + +The policeman caught the direction of his look, however, and grinned with +understanding. + +Some stood frozen to one spot, their faces agonized, as a man would stand +still were the earth likely to yawn anywhere. Darrow would have liked to +reassure these, for their eyes expressed a frantic terror. One red-faced +individual with white side-whiskers, looking exactly like the comic-paper +caricatures of the trusts, had evidently refused to accept any arbitrary +dictates of natural forces. Probably he had never accepted any dictates of +any kind. He was going from one taxicab to another, trying to command a +driver to take him somewhere, talking vehemently and authoritatively, his +face getting more and more purple with anger. The taxicab drivers merely +stared at him stupidly. + +"That old boy's kept his nerve," Darrow remarked, of course inaudibly, to +his companion. "But he'll die of apoplexy if he doesn't watch out." + +Again the policeman caught the direction of Darrow's glance, and grinned +in understanding. He reached his huge gloved hand for the young man's +pencil and paper, on which he wrote the name of a man high in railroad +circles, and grinned again with evident relish. + +At this moment an entirely self-possessed young man swung across the +street. He surveyed the two men sharply a moment, then approached, +producing a sheaf of yellow paper as he did so. + +"Professor Darrow?" he wrote. + +Darrow nodded. + +The young man pointed to himself, then to the Despatch Building. + +"Cause?" he wrote, and waved his hand. + +Darrow shook his head. + +"Dangerous?" + +Darrow shook his head again. + +The reporter was about to add another question, when Darrow reached for +the paper. It was thrust eagerly into his hand. Darrow consulted his +watch. + +"If," he wrote, "you will wait here four minutes, I'll give you an +interview." + +The reporter read this, and nodded. + +"You're on!" he added to the written dialogue. Then he produced a +cigarette, lighted it, and joined the other two men in their amused +survey of the public's performances. + +During the four minutes that ensued Darrow examined the reporter +speculatively. Finally his eye lighted up with recollection. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +THE LIFTING OF THE SPELL + +The spell lifted. The city broke into a roar. People sprang into rapid and +violent motion, as though released from a physical lethargy. + +"All over?" asked the reporter. He asked it in a loud shout. + +"All over," replied Darrow. "You don't need to yell. I'm not deaf." + +The reporter grinned. + +"I guess that's what everybody else in town is doing," he surmised. + +Certainly this remark was justified by the sample in the square. Every man +was shouting at his neighbor to the lung-straining limit of his ability. +Three exhorters, their eyes ablaze with fanaticism, began to thunder forth +dire warnings of the wrath to come--and gained a hearing. Men rushed to +and fro aimlessly. The gentleman with the side-whiskers, who looked like +the caricatures of the trusts, having at last succeeded in making his +imperial wishes known, clambered into a taxicab, and sat back, apparently +unimpressed. After a moment the driver recovered sufficiently to fall into +the habit of obedience, and so drove away. + +While the three men watched, a burly individual with a red face came +hurtling directly at them. If they had not dodged hastily to one side, +they would have suffered a collision. + +"The end of the world is at hand!" this man was shrieking. "Repent! +Repent!" + +"That's Larry Mulcahey," remarked the reporter, with a grin. "He keeps +bar." + +"I'm hungry," observed Darrow. "Haven't eaten since noon." + +"Free lunch," suggested the reporter practically. "You won't be able to +get any service anywhere. How about that interview? Got anything to say?" + +"You're the busy little bee to-night," said Darrow. "But I'll tell you +what I'll do. I'll give you a tip. Be at the Atlas Building at not later +than nine to-morrow morning, and stay at least until ten. If you can fix +it, be on the tenth floor. Hunt up the United Wireless man and make him +talk. Then come to me." + +"That's afternoon paper stuff--unless it's exclusive," said the reporter +instantly. + +"If you'll obey my orders the most important part of it will be +exclusive," said Darrow. + +The reporter eyed him keenly. + +"Why?" he asked. + +"You're Hallowell, aren't you? I thought I wasn't mistaken. I saw you at +work on that Duane Street murder case. Your work was good. Besides, I like +the _Despatch_--and the afternoon papers are too soon for what I want." + +"Last reason accepted. Others received and placed on file." + +"All right," agreed Darrow. "Have it your own way--only obey orders." He +entered the door of the bar and advanced on the lunch counter. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +THIRTY SECONDS MORE + +At nine o'clock the following morning five men grouped in McCarthy's +office, talking earnestly. Darrow and Jack Warford had been the first to +arrive. McCarthy did not seem surprised to see them; nor did he greet them +with belligerence. + +"Well?" he demanded. + +"Well?" repeated Darrow, sinking gracefully to one corner of the table. +"You're an old fool, McCarthy. What good did you think it would do you to +arrest me?" + +"I intended to sweat you," confessed the boss frankly, "but I was too +busy." + +"Sweat me, eh?" demanded Darrow, with some amusement. "So you decided not +to, did you--hence the lack of enthusiasm on the part of the police in +effecting my recapture. You didn't imagine I caused all this, did you?" + +"I don't know," growled McCarthy. "But if you, or the other fellow, or +whoever or whatever it is, think you can bluff me out, you or he or it's +left! That's all!" + +"So you've been getting more wireless, have you?" surmised Darrow. + +McCarthy cast a surly glance toward Jack, whom previously he had ignored. + +"Yes," he admitted grudgingly. + +Darrow held out his hand. After a moment's hesitation McCarthy thrust +forward a single yellow paper, and Darrow read aloud in spite of the boss' +warning gesture: + + "McCarthy: The sign has been sent you and sent your people. You are + stubborn, but it shall not avail you. You must go; and within + twenty-four hours. It will not avail you unless you go. The _Celtic_ + leaves to-morrow at noon. You must go on that ship. I shall know + whether or not you obey me. Once more I shall warn you; one more + sign shall I send. Then I shall strike!" + +"He's getting garrulous," remarked Darrow reflectively; "but he's relieved +my mind. You'd better go." + +"Go!" cried McCarthy, half starting to his feet. "Not on your life!" + +Darrow surveyed him calmly. + +"You're getting rattled," said he, "and it doesn't pay you particularly to +try to bluff me. A jack-rabbit of average firmness could stampede you in +your present state of mind." + +"You think so?" sneered McCarthy. + +"I know so. And you're quite right. If you attempt the game too long, +he'll destroy you." + +"How?" demanded McCarthy. + +"Take my word for it, _he can do it!_" replied Darrow. + +McCarthy ruminated, drumming his thick fingers on the desk. + +"Find him," said he, at last. + +"I intend to," replied Darrow. + +"That'll be all right about your friend's job," conceded McCarthy, with a +nod toward Jack. + +"I fancy you won't have anything to do with it," returned Darrow +pleasantly. + +At this moment the door opened and Hallowell entered. He nodded to Darrow, +and greeted McCarthy. + +"Nothing for you," growled the latter. + +Darrow glanced at his watch. + +"He will have in about five minutes," said he to the reporter. + +The fifth member of the party now entered in the person of Simmons, the +United Wireless operator. On seeing the number gathered in McCarthy's +office he came to a halt. + +Darrow immediately detached himself from the group and approached this +man. + +"Anything new?" he inquired in a low voice. + +Simmons glanced toward McCarthy. + +"New about what?" he demanded stolidly. + +"Any more messages from our mysterious friend out in the ether to our +equally mysterious friend at the desk?" + +"I don't know what you mean." + +Darrow surveyed him reflectively. + +"This is a pretty big story," he said at last, "and affects a lot of +people. If you really haven't leaked--well, he"--with a jerk of his head +toward McCarthy--"must bribe high, or have a strangle hold on you for +fair." + +He looked around to see the boss' eye fixed intently on him, smiled +pleasantly, and moved to one side. Simmons stepped forward, handed +McCarthy a paper, and went out. The boss read the message slowly, and +turned a little pale. After a moment or so he surreptitiously drew out +his watch. Percy Darrow smiled. He, too, held his watch in his hand. + +"Thirty seconds more--about," he remarked pleasantly. The boss looked up +startled. The last thing he saw was the faintly smiling, triumphant face +of the young scientist. Then absolute blackness fell on him. + +For several seconds astonishment held the inmates of the room chained to +their places; and for that space of time no sound broke the deathly +stillness. Then Percy Darrow spoke, in his natural voice. + +"Well, Jack," he remarked, "it worked out, to a second, almost. Now I'm +certain." + +As though this breaking of the silence had released a force hitherto held +in repression, the room filled with tumult and clamor, with crashing, +banging and scurrying of heavy bodies. A final concussion shook the air, +and then, again abruptly, silence fell. + +"Say!" Hallowell's voice spoke up, a trifle uncertainly. "I'll stand for +most any kind of a dark seance, but this particular spook business is +getting on my nerves. Are you there, Darrow?" + +"Yes, I'm here," answered the scientist. + +"Well, can you explain _that_ phenomenon?" + +"That," drawled Darrow, a slight note of laughter in his voice, "was that +extraordinary upheaval of natural forces known as Brother McCarthy going +away from here--hastily." + +Jack chuckled. + +"He hit me on the way out," remarked that young man. "I'll testify he was +a solid spook." + +The reporter was methodically striking match after match, but without +result. After a moment the acrid smell of burning woolen rose in the air. + +"Are you dropping those matches?" asked Darrow. + +"Sure; they're no good." + +"Well, they're good enough to burn holes in McCarthy's rugs. Stamp around +a little to put them out; and quit it." + +"What next; and how long?" asked Jack. "What is it? Have we gone blind, or +is it a total eclipse, or what?" + +"I don't know how long," came back Darrow's voice calmly. "Next we will +get out of the building. I want to make some observations. Get hold of my +hand; we'll have to grope our way out." + +"If we could only get a light," muttered Hallowell. + +"You can't," stated Darrow. + +They felt their way down the ten flights of stairs like blind men. A few +inmates of the building they jostled, or passed, or picked up on the way. + +"This settles it," one remarked profanely. "My lease quits. They can sue +and be damned. I decline to have anything more to do with any freak-lined +skyscraper of this description." + +In the lower corridors Darrow halted them. + +"Here's another thing," said he: "if I'm right, we should run out of this +just eleven feet beyond the last elevator cage." + +He felt his way along the grill, made four paces forward, and uttered a +little cry of satisfaction. The two men followed him blindly. As though +stepping from one room to another they emerged into glaring daylight! + +Both involuntarily looked back. The darkness hung there like a curtain, +just inside the outer walls of the building. Already a crowd had gathered +to observe this new and strange phenomenon of the now celebrated Atlas +Building. It was a curious and a facetious crowd, but not awestricken, as +it had been at the first manifestations of this freakish upset of natural +forces. + +A man observing the flight of an aeroplane for the first time loses his +sense of strangeness inside of a few minutes; and yet flying has been +since the days of Icarus considered one of the impossible achievements. So +the general public of Manhattan were becoming accustomed to reversals of +form in the affairs of the physical world. The frivolous majority, having +discovered nothing to be apprehended from the phenomena save a few hours' +helplessness of a sort, and much to be gained through the savor of +novelty, were inclined to an amused or irritated attitude, depending on +the extent to which its occupations were interfered with. The minority +took to religious meetings and interpretations. + +Darrow's exit, and that of his companions, was greeted uproariously. + +"'Please go 'way an' let me sleep!'" sang one, at the blinking men. + +"Here's another!" shrilled a gamin. "Get up! The porter wants to make up +your berth!" + +Several of the crowd, pending the usual arrival of the police to clear the +corridor, had ventured through the wide portals, and were experimenting +with this strange palpable quality of darkness. One or two popped inside +the curtain, but emerged quickly, looking a little scared. + +A bright youth made the discovery that if one lighted a match and stepped +within the blackness, the match was immediately extinguished, but that +upon emerging into daylight the flame came up again. Some one happened +along with a plumber's gasoline torch. Immediately this was lighted and +the experiment repeated. The bearer of the torch, astonished at the +instant extinguishment of the flame, felt with his hand to see what could +be the matter. Instantly he uttered a yelp of pain, and leaped outside, +displaying a badly burned palm. + +"There wasn't no flame; I swear it!" he explained excitedly, "but she +burned, just the same!" He rushed about from one to another, displaying +his injured palm to whoever would look. + +Darrow paid little attention to this gathering crowd. First of all, he +scanned a paper he held in his hand; then plunged back again into the +blackness. + +Jack Warford and Hallowell, left together, hesitated uncertainly. + +"He'll be back," the reporter decided finally, "and he's the man to tie +to." + +While waiting, he proceeded to pick up what information he could from +the bystanders. It seemed that the first intimation of anything wrong +was followed very shortly by the emergence of McCarthy, disheveled, +hatless, staring, gasping. The boss had stumbled into the street, +hesitated, then started south on a run. Before any one could stop him, +he had turned a corner and disappeared. The excitement at the Atlas +Building had distracted attention from him. Nobody wondered at his +getting rattled and running away. The few tenants remaining in the +building had stumbled forth, vowing never to return to such a--assorted +adjectives--building. That was all there seemed to be to say. + +In the meantime the crowd had increased from a few hundred to thousands. +Police appeared. The corridors were cleared of all but a few. Among these +were Hallowell and Jack Warford; the former as a reporter, the latter as +the reporter's companion. Doctor Knox and Professor Eldridge arrived +shortly. After a time Darrow reappeared, sauntering quite calmly from the +pall of darkness, as though emerging from behind a velvet curtain. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +THE UNKNOWN + +It will now become necessary to glance in passing at the personal +characteristics of Professor Eldridge. This man was in about his fortieth +year, tall, spare, keenly intellectual in countenance, cold, possessed of +an absolute reliance on the powers of science, beyond which his mental +processes did not stray. His manner was distinguished by a stiff unbending +formality; his expression by a glacial coldness of steel-gray eyes and a +straight-line compression of thin lips; his dress by a precise and +unvarying formalism, and his speech by a curious polysyllabic stiffness. + +This latter idiosyncrasy would, in another, have seemed either priggish or +facetiously intended. With Professor Eldridge it was merely a natural +method of speech. Thus, arriving once at the stroke of the dinner hour, he +replied to compliments on his punctuality by remarking: + +"I have always considered punctuality a virtue when one is invited to +partake of gratuitous nourishment." + +Withal, his scientific attainments were not only undoubted, but so +considerable as to have won for him against many odds the reputation of a +great scientist. His specialty, if such it might be called, was scientific +diagnosis. The exactness of scientific laws was so admirably duplicated by +the exactitudes of his mind that he seemed able, by a bloodless and +mechanical sympathy, to penetrate to the most obscure causes of the +strangest events. It might be added that practically his only social ties +were those with the Warfords, and that the only woman with whom he ever +entered into conversation was Helen. + +At sight of him Percy Darrow's lounging gait became accentuated to +exaggeration. + +"Hello, Prof!" he drawled. "On the job, I see. Good morning, Doctor," he +greeted Knox. "What do you make of it?" + +"I make of it that the Atlas Building will shortly be without tenants," +replied the doctor; "me, for one." + +Eldridge surveyed Darrow coldly through the glittering toric lenses of his +glasses. + +"The cause of these extraordinary phenomena is self-evident," he stated. + +"You mean their nature, not their cause," replied Darrow. "In nature, they +refer back to the interference with etheric and molecular vibrations. +That," he added, "is a fact that every boy in the grammar-school physics +class has figured out for himself. The cause is a different matter." + +"I stand corrected," said Eldridge. "Such lapses in accuracy of statement +are not usual with me, but may be considered as concomitant with unusual +circumstances." + +"Right-o!" agreed Darrow cheerfully. "Well, what about the causes?" + +"That I will determine when I am satisfied that all the elements of the +problem are in my hands." + +"Right-o!" repeated Darrow. "Well, I'll bet you a new hat I'll land the +cause before you do. Be a sport!" + +"I never indulge in wagers," replied Eldridge. + +"Well," said Darrow to Jack and Hallowell, "come on!" + +Without waiting to see if he was followed, the young man again plunged +into the black and clinging darkness. + +"Get hold of my coat," his voice came to the others. "We're going to +climb." + +Accordingly they climbed, in silence, up many flights of stairs, through +the cloying darkness. At last Darrow halted, turned sharp to the left, +fumbled for a door, and entered a room. + +"Simmons?" he said. + +"Here!" came a voice. + +"I thought you'd be on the job," said Darrow, with satisfaction. "How's +your instrument? Going, eh? We are in the wireless offices," he told the +others. "Sit down, if you can find chairs. We'll wait until the sun is +shining brightly, love, before we really try to get down to business. In +the meantime--" + +"In the meantime--" repeated both Jack and Hallowell, in a breath. "Go on, +my son," conceded the latter. "I bet we have the same idea." + +"Well, I was going to say that I'm not in the grammar-school physics +class, and I want to know what you meant by your remark to Eldridge," said +Jack. + +"That's my trouble," said Hallowell. + +"It's simple enough," began Darrow. "We have had, first, a failure of +all electricity; second, a failure of all sound; third, a failure of +all light. The logical mind would therefore examine these things to see +what they have in common. The answer simply jumps at you: _Vibration_. +Electricity and light are vibrations in ether; sound is vibration in +air or some solid. Therefore, whatever could absolutely stop vibration +would necessarily stop electricity, light and sound." + +"But," objected Jack, "if vibration were absolutely stopped, why wouldn't +they all three be blotted out at once?" + +"Because," explained Darrow, "the vibrations making these three phenomena +are different in character. Sound is made by horizontal waves, for +example, while electricity and light are made by transverse waves. +Furthermore, the waves producing electricity and light differ in length. +Now, it is conceivable that a condition which would interfere with +horizontal waves would not interfere with transverse waves; or that a +condition which would absolutely deaden waves two hundred and seventy +ten-millionths of an inch long would have absolutely no effect on those +one hundred and fifty-five ten-millionths of an inch long. Am I clear?" + +"Sure!" came the voices of his audience. + +"That much Eldridge and any other man trained in elementary science +already knows. It is no secret." + +"It hasn't been published," observed Hallowell grimly. + +"Well, go to it! The task of the independent investigator, of which we are +some, is now to discover, first, what are those conditions, and, second, +what causes them. With the exception of Mr. Hallowell, we all know what +this guiding power is." + +"Don't get it," growled Simmons. + +"Now, look here, Simmons, you are very loyal to McCarthy, for whatever +reason, but your loyalty is misplaced. For one thing, your man has +disappeared, and will not return. That last message scared him out. For +another thing, we're going to need you in our campaign, the worst way." + +"I'm from Copenhagen; you got to show me," said Simmons. + +Darrow laughed softly. + +"We'll show you, all right," said he. He sketched briefly for Hallowell's +benefit the reasoning already followed out, and which it is therefore +unnecessary to repeat here. "So now," he concluded, "we will consider this +hypothesis: that these phenomena are caused by one man in control of a +force capable of deadening vibrations in ether and solids within certain +definite limits." + +"Why do you limit it?" cried Hallowell. + +"Because we have had but one manifestation at a time. If this Unknown were +out really to frighten--which seems to be his intention--it would be much +more effective to visit us with absolute darkness and absolute silence +combined. That would be really terrifying. He has not done so. Therefore, +I conclude that his power is limited in applicability." + +"Isn't that a little doubtful?" spoke up Jack. + +"Of course," said Darrow cheerfully. "That's where we're going to win out +on this sporting proposition with our dear Brother Eldridge. He won't +accept any hypothesis unless it is absolutely copper-riveted. We will." + +"I think you underestimate Eldridge," spoke up Hallowell. "He's the only +original think-tank in a village of horse troughs." + +"I don't underestimate him one bit," countered Darrow; "but we have a head +start on him with our reasoning; that's all. He's absolutely sure to come +to the conclusions I have just detailed, only he'll get there a little +more slowly. That's why I want you in on this thing, Hallowell." + +"How's that?" + +"We'll publish everything up to date and cut the ground from under him." + +"What's your special grouch on Eldridge, anyway?" asked Jack. + +"I like to worry him," replied Percy Darrow non-committally. + +At this moment the darkness disappeared as though some one had turned a +switch. The reporter, the operator and the scientist's young assistant +moved involuntarily as though dodging, and blinked. Darrow shaded his eyes +with one hand and proceeded as though nothing had happened. + +"Here are the exclusive points of your story," he said to Hallowell, +handing him a sheaf of yellow wireless forms. "I got them in McCarthy's +office. They are messages from the unknown wielder of the mysterious +power to his enemy, the political boss. There will be plenty who will +conclude these messages to be the result of fanaticism, after the fact; +that is to say, they will conclude some wireless amateur has taken +advantage of natural phenomena and, by claiming himself the author of +them, has attempted to use them against his enemy. Of course, the answer +to that is that if the Unknown--let's call him Monsieur X--did not cause +these strange things, he at least knew enough about them to predict them +accurately." + +"You just leave that to me," hummed Hallowell under his breath. The +reporter had been glancing over the wireless forms, and his eyes were +shining with delight. + +"Here is the last one," said Darrow, producing a crumpled yellow paper +from his pocket. "I went back after it." + + "McCarthy: My patience is at an end. Your last warning will be sent + you at nine thirty this morning. If you do not sail on the Celtic at + noon I shall strike. You are of a stubborn and a stiff-necked + generation, but I am your lord and master, and my wrath shall be + visited on you. Begone, or you shall die the death." + +"That bluffed him out," said Darrow, "and I don't blame him. Now, +Simmons," said he, turning to the operator, who had sat in utter silence, +"how about it? Are you with us, or against us?" + +"How do you mean?" demanded Simmons. + +"This," said Darrow sharply. "The time has passed for concealment. Every +message through the ether must now reach the public. We must send messages +back. The case is out of private hands; it has become important to the +people. Will you agree on your honor faithfully to transmit?" He leaned +forward, his indolent frame startlingly tense. "Are you afraid of +McCarthy?" + +"He's been good to me--it's a family matter," muttered the operator. + +"Well--" Darrow arose, crossed to the operator, and whispered to him for a +moment. "You see the seriousness--you are an intelligent man." + +The operator turned pale. + +"I hadn't thought of that," he muttered. "I hadn't thought of that. Of +course I'm with you." + +"I thought you would be," drawled Percy Darrow slowly. "If you hadn't +decided to be, I'd have had another man put in your place. Hadn't thought +of that, either, had you?" + +"No, sir," replied Simmons. + +"Well, I prefer you. It's no job for a quitter, and I believe you'll +stick." + +"I'll stick," repeated Simmons. + +"Well, to work," said Darrow, lighting the cigarette he had been playing +with. "Send this out, and see if you can reach Monsieur X. + +"'_M_,'" he dictated slowly. "'Do you get this?' Repeat that until you get +a reply." + +Without comment the operator turned to his key. The long ripping crashes +of the wireless sender followed the movements of his fingers. + +"I get his '_I_--_I_,'" he said, after a moment. "It's almighty faint." + +"Good!" said Darrow. "Give him this: + + "'McCarthy has disappeared. Can no longer reach him with your + messages.'" + +"He merely answers '_I_--_I_,'" observed the operator. + +"By the way," asked Darrow, "what is your shift, anyhow? Weren't you on at +night when this thing began?" + +"I'm still on at night; but Mr. McCarthy sent me a message, and asked me +to stay on all this morning as a personal favor to him." + +"I see. Then you're still on at night?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Well, tell Monsieur X that fact, put yourself at his disposal, and tell +him he'd better get all his messages to you rather than to the other +operators here." + +"All right." + +"There's your story," said Darrow to Hallowell; "it's in those messages. +The scientific aspect will probably be done by somebody for the evening +papers. You better concentrate on Monsieur X's connection with McCarthy." + +"Say, my friend," said Hallowell earnestly, "do you think I'm a reporter +for the _Scientific American_ or a newspaper?" + +All three rose. The operator was busy crashing away at his Leyden jars. + +"What next?" asked Jack. + +"That depends on two things." + +"Whether or not McCarthy takes the _Celtic_," interposed Hallowell +quickly. + +"And whether Monsieur X will be satisfied with his mere disappearance, +if he does not take the _Celtic_," supplemented Darrow. "In any case, +we've got to find him. He's unbalanced; he possesses an immense and +disconcerting and a dangerous power; he is becoming possessed of a +_manie des grandeurs_. You remember the phrasing of his last message? 'I +am your lord and master, and my wrath shall be visited on you. Begone!' +That is the language of exaltation. Exaltation is not far short of +irresponsible raving." + +"What possible clue--" began Jack Warford blankly. + +"When a man is somewhere out in the ether there is no clue," replied +Darrow. + +"Then how on earth can you hope to find him?" + +"By the exercise of pure reason," said Darrow calmly. + + + + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +DARROW'S CHALLENGE + +With a final warning to Simmons as to the dissemination of any information +without consulting him, Darrow left the room. Hallowell listened to this +advice with unmixed satisfaction; the afternoon papers would not be able +to get at his source of information. The reporter felt a slight wonder as +to how Darrow had managed his ascendency over the operator. An inquiry as +to that met with a shake of the head. + +"I may have to ask your help in that later," was his only reply. + +At the corner, after pushing through a curious crowd, the men separated. +Hallowell started for the wharf; Jack Warford for home--at Darrow's +request. The scientist returned to his own apartments, where he locked +himself in and sat for five hours cross-legged on a divan, staring +straight ahead of him, doing nothing. At the end of that time he +cautiously stretched his legs, sighed, rose, and looked into the mirror. + +"I guess you're hungry," he remarked to the image therein. + +It was now near mid-afternoon. Percy Darrow wandered out, ate a leisurely +meal at the nearest restaurant, and sauntered up the avenue. He paused at +a news stand to buy an afternoon paper, glanced at the head-lines and a +portion of the text, and smiled sweetly to himself. Then he betook himself +by means of a bus to the Warford residence. + +Helen was at home, and in the library. With her was Professor Eldridge. +The men greeted each other formally. After a moment of general +conversation Darrow produced the newspaper. + +"I see you have your theories in print," he drawled. "Very interesting. I +didn't know you'd undertaken grammar-school physics instruction." + +"I know I'm going to be grateful for any sort of instruction--from +anybody," interposed Helen. "I'm all in the dark." + +"Like the Atlas Building," Darrow smiled at her. "Well, here's a very good +exposition in words of one syllable. I'll leave you the paper. Professor, +what have you concluded as to the causes?" + +"They are yet to be determined." + +"Pardon me," drawled Darrow, "they have been determined--or at least their +controlling power." + +"In what way, may I ask?" inquired Professor Eldridge formally. + +"Very simply. By the exercise of a little reason. I am going to tell you, +because I want you to start fairly with me; and because you'll know all +about it in the morning, anyway." + +"Your idea--the one you told us yesterday--is to be published?" cried +Helen, leaning forward with interest. + +"The basis of it will be," replied Darrow. "Now"--he turned to +Eldridge--"listen carefully; I'm not going to indulge in many +explanations. Malachi McCarthy, political boss of this city, has +made a personal enemy of a half-crazed or at least unbalanced man, +who has in some way gained a limited power over etheric and other +vibrations. This power Monsieur X, as I call him--the Unknown--has +employed in fantastic manifestations designed solely for the purpose +of frightening his enemy into leaving this country." + +Eldridge was listening with the keenest attention, his cold gray eyes +glittering frostily behind their toric lenses. + +"You support your major hypothesis, I suppose?" he demand calmly. + +"By wireless messages sent from Monsieur X to McCarthy, in which he +predicts or appoints in advance the exact hour at which these +manifestations take place." + +"In advance, I understand you to say?" + +"Precisely." + +"The proof is as conclusive for merely prophetic ability as for power +over the phenomena." + +"In formal logic; not in common sense." + +Eldridge reflected a moment further, removing his glasses, with the edge +of which he tapped methodically the palm of his left hand. Helen had sunk +back into the depths of her armchair, and was watching with immobile +countenance but vividly interested eyes the progress of the duel. + +"Granting for the moment your major hypothesis," Eldridge stated at last, +"I follow your other essential statements. The man is unbalanced because +he chooses such a method of accomplishing a simple end." + +"Quite so." + +"His power is limited because it has been applied to but one manifestation +of etheric vibration at a time; and each manifestation has had a defined +duration." + +Darrow bowed. "You are the only original think-tank," he quoted +Hallowell's earlier remark. + +"You are most kind to place me in possession of these additional facts," +said Eldridge, resuming his glasses, "for naturally my conclusions, based +on incomplete premises, could hardly be considered more than tentative. +The happy accident of an acquaintance with the existence of these wireless +messages and this personal enmity gave you a manifest but artificial +advantage in the construction of your hypothesis." + +"Did I not see you in the corridor of the Atlas Building the day of the +first electrical failure?" asked Darrow. + +"Certainly." + +"Then you had just as much to go on as I did," drawled Darrow, half +closing his eyes. The long dark lashes fell across his cheek, investing him +in his most harmless and effeminate look. + +"I fail to--" + +"Yes, you fail, all right," interrupted Darrow. "You had all the strings in +your hands, but you were a mile behind me in the solution of this mystery. +I'll tell you why: it was for the same reason that you're going to fail a +second time, now that once again I've put all the strings in your hands." + +"I must confess I fail to gather your meaning," said Professor Eldridge +coldly. + +"It was for the same reason that always until his death you were inferior +to dear old Doctor Schermerhorn as a scientist. You are an almost perfect +thinking machine." + +Darrow quite deliberately lighted a cigarette, flipped the match into the +grate, and leaned back luxuriously. Professor Eldridge sat bolt upright, +waiting. Helen Warford watched them both. + +"You have no humanity; you have no imagination," stated Darrow at last. +"You follow the dictates of rigid science, and of logic." + +"Most certainly," Eldridge agreed to this, as to a compliment. + +"It takes you far," continued Darrow, "but not far enough. You observe +only facts; I also observe men. You will follow only where your facts +lead; I am willing to take a leap in the dark. I'll have all this matter +hunted out while you are proving your first steps." + +"That, I understand it, is a challenge?" demanded Eldridge, touched in his +pride of the scientific diagnostician. + +"That," said Percy Darrow blandly, "is a statement of fact." + +"We shall see." + +"Sure!" agreed Darrow. "Now, the thing to do is to find Monsieur X. I +don't know whether your curiously scutellate mind has arrived at the point +where it is willing to admit the existence of Monsieur X or not; but it +will. The man who finds Monsieur X wins. Now, you know or can read in the +morning paper every fact I have. Go to it!" + +Eldridge bowed formally. + +"There's one other thing," went on Darrow in a more serious tone of voice. +"You have, of course, considered the logical result of this power carried +to its ultimate possibility." + +"Certainly," replied Eldridge coldly. "The question is superfluous." + +"It is a conclusion which many scientific minds will come to, but which +will escape the general public unless the surmise is published. For the +present I suggest that we use our influence to keep it out of the prints." + +Eldridge reflected. "You are quite right," said he; and rose to go. + +After his departure Helen turned on Darrow. + +"You were positively insulting!" she cried, "and in my house! How could +you?" + +"Helen," said Darrow, facing her squarely, "I maintained rigidly all the +outer forms of politeness. That is as far as I will go anywhere with that +man. My statement to him is quite just; he has no humanity." + +"What do you mean? Why are you so bitter?" asked Helen, a little subdued +in her anger by the young man's evident earnestness. + +"You never knew Doctor Schermerhorn, did you, Helen?" he asked. + +"The funny little old German? Indeed, I did! He was a dear!" + +"He was one of the greatest scientists living--and he was a dear! +That goes far to explain him--a gentle, wise, child-like, old man-- +with imagination and a Heaven-seeking soul. He picked me up as a boy, +and was a father to me. I was his scientific assistant until he was +killed, murdered by the foulest band of pirates. Life passes; and that +is long ago." + +He fell silent a moment; and the girl looked on this unprecedented +betrayal of feeling with eyes at once startled and sympathetic. + +"Doctor Schermerhorn," went on Darrow in his usual faintly tired, +faintly cynical tone, "worked off and on for five years on a certain +purely scientific discovery, the nature of which you would not +understand. In conversation he told its essentials to this Eldridge. +Doctor Schermerhorn fell sick of a passing illness. When he had +recovered, the discovery had been completed and given to the +scientific world." + +"Oh!" cried Helen. "What a trick!" + +"So I think. The discovery was purely theoretic and brought no particular +fame or money to Eldridge. It was, as he looked at it, and as the doctor +himself looked at it, merely carrying common knowledge to a conclusion. +Perhaps it was; but I never forgave Eldridge for depriving the old man of +the little satisfaction of the final proof. It is indicative of the whole +man. He lacks humanity, and therefore imagination." + +"Still, I wish you wouldn't be quite so bitter when I'm around," pleaded +Helen, "though I love your feeling for dear old Doctor Schermerhorn." + +"I wish you could arrange to get out of town for a little while," urged +Darrow. "Isn't there some one you can visit?" + +"Do you mean there is danger?" + +"There is the potentiality of danger," Darrow amended. "I am almost +confident, if pure reason can be relied on, that when the time comes I can +avert the danger." + +"Almost--" said Helen. + +"I may have missed one of the elements of the case--though I do not think +so. I can be practically certain when I telephone a man I know--or see the +morning papers." + +"Telephone now, then. But why 'when the time comes'? Why not now?" + +Darrow arose to go to the telephone. He shook his head. + +"Let Eldridge do his best. He has always succeeded--triumphantly. Now he +will fail, and he will fail in the most spectacular, the most public way +possible." + +He lifted his eyes, usually so dreamy, so soft brown. Helen was startled +at the lambent flash in their depths. He sauntered from the room. After a +moment she heard his voice in conversation with the man he had called. + +"Hallowell?" he said, "good luck to find you. Did our friend leave on the +_Celtic_? No? Sure he didn't sneak off in disguise? I'll trust you to +think of everything. Sure! Meet me at Simmons' wireless in half an hour." + +Helen heard the click as he hung up the receiver. A moment later he +lounged back into the room. + +"All right," he said. "My job's done." + +"Done!" echoed Helen in surprise. + +"Either I'm right or I'm wrong," said Darrow. "Every element of the game +is now certainly before me. If my reasoning is correct I shall receive +certain proof of that fact within half an hour. If it is wrong, then I'm +away off, and Eldridge's methods will win if any can." + +"What is the proof? Aren't you wildly excited? Tell me!" cried Helen. + +"The proof is whether or not a certain message has been received over a +certain wireless," said Darrow. "I'll know soon enough. But that is not +the question; can not you get out of town for a little while?" + +Helen surveyed him speculatively. + +"If there is no danger, I can see no reason for it," she stated at length, +with decision. "If there is danger you should warn a great many others." + +"But if that warning might precipitate the danger?" + +"Shall I go or stay?" she demanded, ignoring the equivocation. + +Darrow considered. + +"Stay," he decided at last. "I'll bet more than my life that I'm right," +he muttered. "Now," he continued, a trifle more briskly, "be prepared +for fireworks. Unless I'm very much mistaken this little old town is +going variously and duly to be stood on its head at odd times soon. +That's the way I size it up. Don't be frightened; don't get caught +unprepared. I think we've had the whole bag of tricks. At almost any +moment we're likely to be cut off from all electricity, all sound, or +all light--never more than one at a time. I imagine we shall have ample +warning, but perhaps not. In any case, don't be frightened. It's harmless +in itself. Better stay home nights. You can reassure your friends if you +want to; but on no account get my name in this. If I am quoted, it will +do incalculable harm." + +"Why not tell the public that it is harmless?" demanded Helen. "Think of +the anxiety, the accidents, the genuine terror it would save." + +Darrow rose slowly to go. He walked quite deliberately over to Helen, and +faced her for a moment in silence. + +"Helen," he said impressively at last, "I have talked freely with you +because I felt I could trust you. Believe me, I know the exigencies of +this case better than you do; and you must obey me in what I say. I am +speaking very seriously. If you allow your sympathies to act on the very +limited knowledge you possess, you will probably bring about incalculable +harm. We walk in safety only while we stick to the path. If you try to act +in any case on what your judgment or your sympathies may advise, and +without consulting me, you may cause the city, the people, and all that +you know or care for to be blotted out of existence. Do you understand? +Do you believe me?" + +"I understand; I believe you," repeated the girl a trifle faintly. + +Darrow left without further ceremony. Helen stood where he had left her +on the rug, staring after him, a new expression in her eyes. She had +known Percy Darrow for many years. Always she had appreciated his +intellect, but deprecated what she had considered his indolence, his +softness of character, his tendency to let things drift. For the first +time she realized that not invariably do manners make the man. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +THE FEAR OF DANGER + +Before leaving the house, Darrow summoned Jack Warford. + +"Come on, old bulldog," said he. "You're to live with me a while now. The +game is closing down." + +"Bully," said Jack. "I'll pack a suit case." + +"Have it done for you, and sent down to my place. We must hustle for the +Atlas Building now." + +"What's doing?" asked Jack, as they boarded a surface car. + +"Absolutely nothing--for some time perhaps. But we must be ready. And the +waiting will be amusing, I promise you that." + +When they arrived at the Atlas Building, Darrow was surprised to find +Simmons already in charge of the office. + +"Thought you were on night duty," said he. + +"I am," replied Simmons curtly. "But judging by what you said this +morning, I considered I'd better be on the job myself." + +"Good boy," approved Darrow. "I see I've made no mistake in you. Just +stick it out twelve hours more, and we'll have it settled. Anything more?" + +Simmons thrust a message across the table. + +Darrow took it quite calmly. At this moment Hallowell entered. + +"What time did this come?" asked Darrow, nodding to the reporter. + +"At twelve thirty." + +Darrow nodded twice with great satisfaction. + +Then quite deliberately he unfolded the paper and perused its contents. +Without change of expression he handed it to Hallowell. The latter read +aloud: + + "TO THE PEOPLE: A traitor is among you--one who has betrayed you, + one and all, but whom you cherish to your bosoms as a viper. I, who + am greater than you all, have laid my commands upon him, and he has + seen fit to disobey. He is now in hiding among you. This man must be + produced. I would not willingly harass you, but this, my will, must + be carried out. If he is not found by six to-morrow a sign will be + sent to you that you may believe. I am patient, but I must be + obeyed." + +"Now, what do you think of that!" cried Hallowell. "He doesn't even +mention the name of his friend to the dear people who are to hunt him +down! Fine dope!" + +Darrow's face expressed a sleepy satisfaction. He stretched his arms and +yawned. + +"You might supply the deficiency," he suggested. "Well," he remarked to +Jack, "that settles it. Everything's running like a catboat in a fair +wind. He's in communication with us; he is gaining confidence in his +inflated imaginary importance; we are to have a continuance of his +peculiar activities; and we can put our hands on him at a moment's +notice." + +"What!" shouted Hallowell and Jack Warford, leaping to their feet. + +"Where is he?" demanded the reporter. + +"How do you know?" cried Jack. + +Simmons, his head-piece laid aside, looked up at him in silent curiosity. + +"It is sufficient for now that I do know," smiled Darrow. "As for how I +know, that last wireless proved it to me." + +All three men immediately bent over the message for a detailed perusal. +After a minute's scrutiny, Hallowell looked up in disappointment. + +"Too many for me," he confessed. "What is there in that?" + +But Darrow shook his head. + +"I play my own game," was all the explanation he would vouchsafe. + +"You may as well knock off, old man," he told Simmons. "I don't think +there'll be anything more doing to-night; and it doesn't matter if there +is. Tell your other man to jot down anything from that sending, if any +comes. Now," he turned to Hallowell, "I want to see your managing editor." + +The three took the subway to City Hall Square. The managing editor +received Darrow with much favor as the vehicle of a big scoop brought in +far enough ahead of going to press to permit of ample time for its +development. + +"Now, Mr. Curtis," said Darrow to this man, "this is going to be an +interesting week for you. Here's your last exclusive despatch. From +to-morrow morning every paper in town will naturally get every wireless +that comes in." + +"H'm," observed Curtis, reading the despatch. "What next?" + +"He'll fulfil his threat. To-morrow evening at six o'clock he will stop +the vibrations either of light, of electricity, or of sound--probably of +electricity, as he has appointed the rush hour." + +"Most likely," Curtis agreed. + +"Warn the people to keep out of the subways, and not to get scared. Take +it easy. There's no danger. Explain why in words of one syllable." + +"Sure." + +"Now, this is what I'm here for. Up to now these manifestations have been +harmless in their direct effects. But follow the hypothesis to its logical +conclusion. Suppose this man can arrest the vibrations not only of light +and sound, but also of the third member of the vibratory trinity. Suppose +he should go one step farther; and, even for the barest fraction of time, +should be able to stop the vibrations of heat!" + +The managing editor half rose. As the idea in its full significance gained +hold on their imaginations the three men turned to stare blankly at one +another. + +"That is annihilation!" Curtis whispered. + +"On a wholesale scale," agreed Darrow calmly. "It means the death of every +living thing from the smallest insect to the largest animal, from the +microbe to the very lichens on the stones of Trinity. I agree with the way +you look." He laughed a little. "But the case isn't so bad as it sounds," +he went on. "If the crust of the earth were to collapse, that would be +annihilation, too. But it isn't likely to happen. There are several things +to think of." + +"What, for the love of Pete!" gasped Curtis. "Any small efforts at +muck-racking this refrigerator trust would be thankfully received." + +"In the first place, as you know," explained Darrow," his power seems to +be limited in certain directions. He apparently can stop vibrations only +of certain defined wave-lengths at one time. It may be that he is unable +to stop heat vibrations at all." + +"You'll have to do better than that," growled Curtis. + +"The rest is faith--on your part," replied Darrow. "For I'll guarantee +that even if Monsieur X has this power, I'll stop him before he exercises +it." + +"Guarantee?" inquired Curtis. + +"There's nothing to prevent my moving to California or Mombassa if I +thought myself in any danger here," Darrow pointed out. "It would be very +easy for me quietly to warn my friends and quietly do the grand sneak." + +"True," muttered Curtis, rummaging on his desk for a pipe. + +"The danger isn't the point--_it's the fear of danger_," said Darrow. + +Curtis looked up, arresting the operation of crowding the tobacco into the +pipe bowl. + +"Suppose that throughout the length and breadth of this city the idea +should be spread broadcast that at any given moment it might be destroyed. +Can you imagine the effect?" + +"Immediate exodus," grinned Curtis. "Immediate is a nice dignified word," +he added. + +"Quite so, and then?" + +"Eh?" + +"What in blazes would four million city people without homes or +occupations do? Where would they go? What would happen?" + +"You see what I mean," went on Darrow, after the slight pause necessary to +let this sink in. "The fear would bring about a general catastrophe only +less serious than the fact itself. It's up to you newspaper men to see +that they don't catch this fear. There'll be a hundred letters from foxy +boys with just enough logic or imagination to see the possibility of +cutting off the furnace; but without imagination enough to get the final +effect of telling people about it. Suppress it. Unless I'm mistaken, the +affair will be over in a week." + +Curtis drummed thoughtfully on his desk. + +"It's got to be done, and it will be done," he said at last. "I'll get to +every paper in the city to-night--if it costs us our scoop." + +"But won't the people who write the letters tell about it, anyway?" asked +Jack. "And won't the outside papers have the same stuff?" + +"Sure," agreed Curtis promptly, "but what isn't in the city press +doesn't get to the mass of the public; that's a cinch. There will be +some thousands or even tens of thousands who will leave; there'll be +rumors a-plenty; there'll be the damnedest row since the Crusades--but +the people will stick. I'm taking your word for the danger." + +"Well, I'm the hostage," Darrow reminded him. + +"Correct," said Curtis, reaching for the desk telephone. + +Hallowell followed the visitors to the narrow hall. + +"Now," said Darrow in parting, "remember what I have said. Don't mention +my name nor indicate that there is anywhere an idea that the identity or +whereabouts of Monsieur X is by anybody suspected." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +THE MASTER SPEAKS AGAIN + +Having thus detailed rather minutely the situation in which the city and +the actors in its drama found themselves, it now becomes necessary to move +the action forward to the point where the moneyed interests took a hand in +the game. + +That was brought about in somewhat more than fifty hours. + +In the meantime the facts as to vibrations were published in all the +papers; the despatches and the relations between McCarthy and Monsieur X +exclusively in the _Despatch_--to that organ's vast satisfaction and +credit; and the possibilities of tragedy in none. This latter fact was +greatly to the credit of a maligned class of men. It is common belief +that no cause is too sacred or no consequence too grave to give pause to +the editorial rapacity for news. The present instance disproved that +supposition. No journal, yellow or otherwise, contained a line of +suggestion that anything beyond annoyance was to be feared from these +queer manifestations. + +The consequences on a mixed population like that of New York were very +peculiar. The people naturally divided themselves into three classes. In +the first were those who had received their warning from logic, friends, +or the outside world; and who either promptly left town or, being unable +to do so, lived in fear. In the second were all that numerous body who, +neurasthenically unbalanced or near the overbalance, shut instinctively +the eyes of their reason and glowed with a devastating and fanatical +religious zeal. Among these, so exextraordinarily are we constituted, +almost immediately grew up various sects, uniting only in the belief that +the wrath of God was upon an iniquitous people. + +By far the largest class of all, comprising the every-day busy bulk of +the people, were those who accepted the thing at its face value, read its +own papers, went about its business, and spared time to laugh at the +absurdities or growl at the inconveniences of the phenomena. With true +American adaptability, it speedily accustomed itself to both the +expectation of, and the coping with, unusual conditions. It went forth +about its daily affairs; it started for home a little early in order to +get there in season; it eschewed subways and theaters; it learned to wait +patiently, when one of the three blights struck its world, as a man waits +patiently for a shower to pass. + +This class, as has been said, was preponderantly in the majority, but +its mass was being constantly diminished as a little knowledge of +danger seeped into its substance. News of the possible catastrophe +passed from mouth to mouth; a world outside, waiting aghast at such +fatuity, began to get in its messages. Street corner alarmists talked +to such as would listen. Thousands upon thousands left the city. +Hundreds of thousands more, tied hard and fast by the strings of +necessity, waited in an hourly growing dread. + +The "sign" had been sent promptly at six o'clock, as promised. It proved +Darrow's prediction by turning out to be a stoppage of the electrical +systems. This time it lasted only half an hour-long enough to throw the +traffic and transportation into confusion. It was followed at short +intervals by demonstrations in light and sound; none was of long duration. + +After the first few, their occurrence came freakishly, in flashes, as +though the hidden antagonist delighted in confusing his immense audience. +The messages he sent over the wireless in the Atlas Building grew more and +more threatening and grandiose. They demanded invariably that McCarthy +should be sought out and delivered up to a rather vaguely described +vengeance; and threatened with dire calamities all the inhabitants of +Manhattan if the Unknown's desires were not fulfilled. These threats grew +more definite in character as time went on. + +The effect of all this in the long run was, of course, confusion and +instability. People laughed or cursed; but they also listened and +reasoned. Gradually, throughout the city, dread was extending the +blackness of its terror. A knowledge that would have caused a tremendous +panic if it had been divulged suddenly now gave birth to a deep seated +uneasiness. + +Where the panic would have torn men up by the roots and flung them in +terrorized mobs through the congested ways and out into the inhospitable +country, the uneasiness of dread held them cowering at their accustomed +tasks. They were afraid; but they had had time to think, and they realized +what it would mean to leave their beloved or accustomed or necessary city, +as the case might be. And it must be remembered that the definite +knowledge of what might be feared was not yet disseminated among them. + +But this attitude hurt business, and business struck back. The subways +were practically deserted; the theaters empty; the accustomed careless +life of the Great White Way thinned; the streams of life slackened. +Furthermore, the intelligent criminal immediately discovered that ideal +shields were being provided him gratis behind which to conduct his crimes. +In the silence a man could blow out the side of a bank building with +impunity, provided only he kept out of sight. In the darkness he could +pilfer at will, with only the proviso that he forget not his gum shoes. +The possibilities of night crime when electricity lacks have already been +touched upon. + +To meet unusual conditions the people individually and collectively rose +to heights of forgotten ingenuity. The physical life of a city is so well +established that the average city dweller grows out of the pioneer virtue +of adaptability. Now once more these people were forced to meet new and +untried conditions, to guard against new dangers, new opposing forces. In +an incredibly short space of time they grew out of aimless panic. They +learned to sit tight; to guard adequately their lives, their treasure, and +even to a certain extent their time against undue loss. + +In the meantime the moneyed powers had been prompt to act. They did not +intend to stand idly while their pockets were being picked by untoward +circumstances; nor did they intend to continue indefinitely the unusual +expenditures necessary to guard themselves against even a greater loss. As +there seemed to be two men to find, they employed the best of detectives +to search for McCarthy; and professor Eldridge, as the greatest living +expert, to hunt down the Unknown. Thus unexpectedly Eldridge found himself +with definite backing in his strange duel with Darrow. + +It is now desirable to place before the reader samples of the messages +sent by Monsieur X and received in the wireless office of the Atlas +Building, after which we can proceed once more to follow out the sequence +of events. + + "TO THE PEOPLE: The sign has been sent you. You must now believe. + The traitor is among you, and you must hunt him down. This is your + sacred duty, for I, your master, have laid it upon you." + +That was one of the first. After a round dozen of similar import, there +came this: + + "TO THE PEOPLE: I, your master, am displeased with you. The + visitations of darkness and of silence have been sent, but you have + heeded little. I doubt not that ye search, as I have commanded, but + you do not realize to the full your sacred obligation. You go about + your business and you carry on your affairs. Your business and your + affairs are not so important as these, my commands. Beware lest you + draw down the wrath of the Lord's Anointed. I am patient with your + ignorance; but give heed." + +The last at present to which your attention is called came just before the +events to be detailed: + + "TO THE PEOPLE: Your time is drawing short. You are a stubborn and a + stiff-necked generation. My patience is ebbing away. You have been + shown the power of my right hand, and you have gone your accustomed + ways. You have defied the might of the Right Hand of God. Now I will + lay on you my commands. + + "You must seek out Apollyon and deliver him even into my hands, and + that shortly. I shall be patient yet a little while longer, for I + know that you grope in darkness and have not the light that shines + upon me. But soon I shall strike." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +THE PROFESSOR'S EXPERIMENT + +Throughout all this excitement Percy Darrow did absolutely nothing. He +spent all his time, save that required for meals and the shortest +necessary sleep, in a round-armed wooden chair in the wireless station of +the Atlas Building. Jack Warford sat with him. Darrow rarely opened his +mouth for speech, but smoked slowly a few cigarettes, and rolled many +more, which he held unlighted in the corner of his mouth until they +dropped to pieces. He watched quietly all that went on; glanced through +such messages as came in from Monsieur X, read the papers, and dozed. To +reporters he was affable enough in his drawling slow fashion, but had +nothing to say. + +"Eldridge is doing this," he said to them; "I'm only in the position of an +interested spectator." + +Eldridge had taken hold in a thoroughly competent way. Back of the cold +precision of his undoubted scientific attainments lurked, unexpected by +most, a strong ambition and a less admirable hankering for the lime-light. +His opportunity to gratify all these appetites--science, advancement, and +fame--was too good not to cause him the deepest satisfaction. + +"I have determined," he told the reporters, "that this particular +instrument alone receives the messages from the unknown perpetrator. Our +investigations must be initiated, therefore, in this apartment." + +"How do you explain it?" asked one of the reporters. + +"I can not explain it scientifically," admitted Eldridge, "but I can +surmise that the fact either purposely or accidentally has to do either +with this instrument's location or with some slight and undetermined +peculiarity of its tuning." + +"You could easily tell which by moving the instrument to another station +where they aren't getting the messages now," suggested Darrow lazily. + +"Certainly," snapped Eldridge, "any child could deduce that. But I fail to +see the use or necessity for the determination at all unless in a spirit +of frivolous play. Our task is not to discover where the messages can be +received, but whence they are sent." + +He gazed frostily at the man who had interrupted him. Darrow smiled softly +back. + +"How far will your instrument carry in sending?" Eldridge asked Simmons. + +"Its extreme is about two hundred miles." + +"Then we can safely assume that a circle drawn with a two-hundred-mile +radius would contain this man you call Monsieur X"--the newspapers had +adopted Darrow's nickname for the Unknown--"since you have succeeded in +communicating with him." + +"Marvelous," said Darrow to Jack--but under his breath. + +"As the sending of Monsieur X is faint, it follows that he is somewhere +near the periphery of this circle, or that he is possessed of a primitive +or weak instrument. By the doctrine of probabilities we should be +justified in concluding against the latter supposition." + +"How's that, Professor?" asked the _Morning Register_ man. "It doesn't get +to me." + +"He is evidently a man not only of scientific attainments, but of immense +scientific possessions--as is evidenced by these phenomenal results he is +able to accomplish. But we are not justified in reasoning according to the +doctrine of probabilities. Therefore, we shall proceed methodically. I +have already made my preparations." + +Eldridge looked about him with an air of triumph. + +"I am fortunate enough to have, in the present crisis, unlimited financial +backing," he said. "Therefore, I am in a position to carry out the most +exhaustive of experiments." + +He stretched his hand out for a long roll, which he laid flat upon the +table, pinning down the corners. + +"Here is a map of the Eastern States," said he. "I have drawn a circle on +it with a two-hundred-miles radius. At this moment a private instrument +with a full crew to string sending and receiving wires is two hundred +miles from here on the New York Central Railroad. It has for its +transportation a private train, and it will be given a clear right of +way." He turned to Simmons. "Have you found yourself able to communicate +with this Monsieur X at any time?" + +"Communicate!" echoed Simmons. "Why, he's easier to talk to than a girl +who wants an ice-cream soda!" + +"Then send this: 'Your messages have been communicated to the people. Be +patient.'" + +Simmons touched the key. The spark leaped crashing. + +"What do you get?" asked Eldridge, after a moment. + +"Oh, a lot of the same sort of dope," answered Simmons wearily. "Do you +want it?" + +"No, it is not necessary," replied Eldridge. "But listen for another +message from about the same distance when he has finished." + +Silence fell on the room. At the end of ten minutes Simmons raised his +head. + +"I get 'O K Q' over and over," said he. "Want that?" + +"That," replied Eldridge with satisfaction, "indicates that my crew on the +special train in the Adirondacks two hundred miles away has heard your +message to Monsieur X." He glanced at his watch. "Now, if you would be so +good as to afford me a moment's assistance," he requested Simmons, "I wish +to disconnect from your battery one of your powerful Leyden jars, and to +substitute for it one of weaker voltage. I ventured to instruct my +delivery man to leave a few in the outer hall." + +"That will weaken the sending power of my instrument," objected Simmons. + +"Exactly what I wish to do," replied Eldridge. + +"He's clever all right," Darrow murmured admiringly to Jack. "See what +he's up to?" + +"Not yet," muttered Jack. + +The substitution completed, Eldridge again glanced at his watch. + +"Now," he instructed Simmons, "send the letters 'Q E D,' and continue to +do so until you again hear the letters 'O K Q.'" + +Simmons set himself to the task. It was a long one. At last he reported +his answer. + +"He sends 'O K Q ten,'" he said. + +Eldridge turned to the reporters. + +"That means that the substitution of the smaller Leyden jar for one of the +larger reduced the sending power of this instrument just ten miles," said +he. "My crew has quite simply moved slowly forward until it caught our +sending here." + +"Next," he instructed Simmons, "see if you can communicate with Monsieur +X." + +The operator speedily reported his success at that. Eldridge removed his +glasses and polished their lenses. + +"Thus, gentlemen," said he, "from our circle of two-hundred-mile radius we +have eliminated a strip ten miles wide. Naturally if this weakened sending +reaches only one hundred and ninety miles, and our antagonist receives our +messages, he must be nearer than one hundred and ninety miles. We will now +further reduce the strength of our sending and try again." + +The younger men present broke into a shout, + +"Good work!" somebody cried. They crowded about, keenly interested in this +new method of man-hunting. Only Darrow, tipped back in his chair against +the wall, seemed unexcited. + +To Jack's whispered question he shook his head. + +"It's ingenious," he acknowledged, "but he's on the wrong track." That was +as far as he would explain, and soon dropped into a slight doze. + +Throughout the greater part of the night the experiment continued. Battery +by battery the sending power of the instrument was weakened. Mile by mile +the special train drew nearer until, by catching the prearranged signal, +it determined just how far the new sending reached. Then Simmons tried +Monsieur X. As the latter invariably answered, it was, of course, evident +that he remained still in the narrowing zone of communication. It was +fascinating work, like the drawing of a huge invisible net. + +The reporters on the morning papers mastered only with difficulty their +inclination to stay. They had to leave before their papers went to press, +but were back again in an hour, unwilling to lose a moment of the game. A +tension vibrated the little office. Only Percy Darrow dozed alone in the +corner, leaning back in his wooden armchair. + +At near four o'clock in the morning Simmons raised his head after a long +bout of calling to announce that he could get no reply from Monsieur X. + +"He's got tired of your fool messages," remarked the _Register_ man. "And +I don't wonder! Guess he's gone to bed." + +Eldridge said nothing, but replaced the Leyden jar he had but just +removed. + +"Try one," said he. + +"I get him," reported Simmons, after a moment. + +"Send him anything plausible and reassuring," commanded Eldridge hastily. +He turned to his small and attentive audience in triumph. "Thus, +gentlemen," he announced, "we have proven conclusively that our man is +located between forty and fifty miles from New York. If we draw two +circles, with this building as center, the circumference of one of which +is fifty, the other forty miles away, we define the territory within which +the malefactor in question is to be found." + +The people in the room crowded close about the table to examine the map +upon which Professor Eldridge had drawn the circles. + +"There's an awful lot of country--some of it pretty wild," objected the +_Bulletin_ man. "It will be a long job to hunt a man down in that +territory." + +"Even if it were as extensive a task as a hasty review of the facts might +indicate," stated Eldridge, "I venture to assert that enough men would be +forthcoming to expedite such a search. But modifying circumstances will +lighten the task." + +"How's that?" asked the _Banner_ man, speaking for the others' evident +interest. + +"We have no means of surmising the method by which this man succeeds in +arresting vibratory motions of certain wave-lengths," said Eldridge +didactically, "any more than we are able to define the precise nature of +electricity. But, as in the case of electricity, we can observe the action +of its phenomena. Two salient features leap out at us: one is that these +phenomena are limited in time; the other that they are limited in space. +The latter aspect we will examine, if you please, gentlemen. + +"The phenomena have been directed with great accuracy (a) at the Atlas +Building; (b) at this city and some of its immediate suburbs. The +peculiarity of this can not but strike an observant mind. How is this man +able, at forty or fifty miles distance, to concentrate his efforts on one +comparatively small objective? We can only surmise some system of +insulating screens or focal mirrors. I might remark in passing that the +existence of this power to direct or focus the more rapid ethereal +vibrations would be a discovery of considerable scientific moment. But if +this is the method employed, why do we not cut a band of vibratory +nullifications, rather than touch upon a focal point?" + +"Repeat softly," murmured the irrepressible _Register_ man. + +"Why," explained Eldridge patiently, "are not the people and buildings +between here and the unknown operator affected? The only hypothesis we are +justified in working upon is that the man's apparatus is at a height +sufficient to carry over intervening obstacles. This hypothesis is +strengthened by the collateral fact that the territory we have just +determined as that within which he must be found lies in the highlands of +our own and neighboring states. We may, therefore, eliminate the low-lying +districts within our radius." + +Percy Darrow opened one eye. + +"Perhaps he's up in a balloon," he drawled languidly; "better take along +an aeroplane." + +Eldridge cast on him a look of cold scorn. Darrow closed the eye. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +DRAWING THE NET + +The "zone of danger", as the _Bulletin_ named it, was immediately the +scene of swarming activities. Besides the expedition immediately +despatched by the interests backing the investigation, several +enterprising newspapers saw a fine chance for a big scoop, and sent out +much-heralded parties of their own. The activities of these were well +reported, you may be sure. Public interest was at once focused +reassuringly on the chances of finding the annoying malefactor to-day or +to-morrow; there no longer existed a doubt that he would be found. The +weight of dread was lifted, and in the reaction people made light of the +inconveniences and fun of the menacing messages that now came in by the +dozen. + +[Illustration: "Let Eldridge do his best."] + +It was necessary to take extraordinary precautions against thieves and +fire; the people took them. It was needful to slacken business in order +that the congestion of the rush hour might not again prove tragic; +business was slackened. People were willing to undergo many things, +because, after all, they were but temporary. The madman of the Catskills +would sooner or later be found; his pernicious activities brought to a +conclusion. The country to be searched was tremendous, of course, but the +search was thorough. + +The public delivered itself joyously to a debauch of rumors and of +"extras". The insistent alarms of danger, trickling in slowly from the +outside world, dried up in the warmth of optimism. Only the more +thoughtful, to a few of whom these warnings came, coupled them with +Monsieur X's repeated threats, and walked uncertain and in humility. + +Percy Darrow did not interest himself in the search, nor did he desert his +post in the wireless office. There he did nothing whatever. Jack Warford +stayed with him, but immensely bored, it must be confessed. Once he +suggested that if Darrow had nothing for him to do that afternoon, he +thought he would like to go out for a little exercise. + +Darrow shook his head. + +"You may go, if you want to, Jack," said he, "but if you do I'll have to +get some one else. This isn't much of a job, but I may need you any +moment." + +"All right," agreed Jack cheerfully. "Only I wish you'd let a fellow know +what to expect." + +Darrow shook his head. The two now practically lived in the office. +Neither had taken his clothes off for several days. They slept in their +chairs or on the lounge. Darrow read the various messages from the +Unknown, glanced over the newspapers, and dozed. + +Thus there passed two days of the search. On the third day the +intermittent phenomena and the messages suddenly ceased. This fact was +hailed jubilantly by all the papers as indicating that at last the quarry +had become alarmed by the near-coming search. From the contracted district +still remaining to be combed over, nobody was permitted to depart; and so +closely was the cordon drawn by so large a posse that it was physically +impossible for any living being to slip by the line. + +Thus even if Monsieur X, convinced that at last his discovery was +imminent, should destroy his apparatus or attempt to move it and himself +to a place of safety, he would find his escape cut off. Thousands of men +were employed, and thousands more drafted in as volunteers to render this +outcome assured. + +It was an army deployed in an irregular circle and moving inward toward +its center. Men of the highest executive ability commanded it, saw to its +necessary deliberation, eliminated all possibility of a confusion through +which any man could slip. The occasion was serious, and it was taken +seriously. + +Of the outcome no one in touch with the situation had a moment's doubt. +The messages and the phenomena had continued to come from the danger zone. +It was of course evident that they could not have been sent from any +portion of the zone actually searched and occupied by the searchers. The +remaining portion of the zone, from which they were still coming, had been +completely surrounded. After that the manifestations had ceased. +Therefore, Monsieur X must be within the beleaguered circle. To add to the +probabilities, as Eldridge pointed out, the remaining district compassed +the highest hills in the zone--a fact on all fours with his hypothesis. + +On the appointed morning the army moved toward the center. Men beat the +ground carefully, so close to one another that they could touch hands. As +they closed in, the ranks became thicker. Animals of many kinds, confused +as the ranks closed in on them, tried to break through the cordon and were +killed. Captains held order in the front row, that the army might not +become a crowd. Birds, alarmed by the shouting, rose and wheeled. + +In the city immense crowds watched the bulletins sent momently from the +very field itself by private wires strung hastily for the occasion. +Enterprising journals had prepared huge rough maps, on which the +contracting circle was indicated by red lines, constantly redrawn. It was +discovery before a multitude. The imagination of the public, fired by its +realization of this fact, stretched itself ahead of the distant beaters, +bodying forth what they might find. + +As the circle narrowed excitement grew. All business ceased. The streets +were crowded; the windows of the buildings looking out on the numerous +bulletin-boards were black with heads. Those who could not see demanded +eagerly of those who could. + +In the Atlas Building the wireless operator hung out of his window. Beside +him was Jack Warford. + +Darrow declined to join them. "You tell me," said he. + +Jack therefore reported back over his shoulder the bulletins as they +appeared. The crowds below read them, their faces upturned. One ran: + + "Cordon now has surrounded the crest of the Knob. Station of + Monsieur X determined among oak-trees. Men halted. Picket company + surrounds." + +The crowd roared its appreciation and impatience. A long pause followed. +Then came the next bulletin: + + "Search discovers nothing." + +A puzzled angry murmur arose, confused and chopped, like cross currents in +a tideway. Finally this was hung out: + + "No traces of human occupancy." + +A moment's astonished pause ensued. Then, over the vast multitude, its +faces upturned in incredulous amazement; over the city lying sparkling in +the noonday sun fell the pall of absolute darkness. + +In the wireless office of the Atlas Building Percy Darrow laughed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +CONFUSION WORSE CONFOUNDED + +The absolute failure of Eldridge's hypothesis immediately threw public +confidence into a profound reaction. Certainty gave place to complete +distrust. Rumor gained ground. The exodus increased. Where formerly only +those who could do so without great sacrifice or inconvenience had left +town, now people were beginning to cut loose at any cost. Men resigned +their positions in order to get their families away; others began to +arrange their affairs as best they might, as though for a long vacation. +As yet panic had not appeared openly in the light of day, but she lurked +in the shadows of men's hearts. + +The railroads and steamboats were crowded beyond their capacity. Extra +trains followed one another as close together as the block signals would +allow them to run. Humanity packed the cars. It was like a continual +series of football days. In three of them it was estimated that two +hundred thousand people had left Manhattan. It would have been physically +impossible for the transportation lines to have carried a thousand more. +They had reached their capacity; the spigot was wide open. + +Percy Darrow showed Jack the head-lines to this effect. + +"Cheerful thought," he suggested. "Suppose the whole four million should +want to get out at the same time!" + +Eldridge had come back to the wireless office thoroughly bewildered. It is +a well-known fact that the exact scientist is the hardest man to fool, but +the most fooled if fooled at all. Witness the extent to which noted +scientists have been taken in by faking spiritualist mediums. So with +Eldridge. His hypothesis had been so carefully worked out that the failure +of its logic threw his mind into confusion. Until he could discover the +weak link in his chain of reasoning, that confusion must continue. + +An hour and a half after the bulletin announcing the failure of the search +had been posted, Eldridge rushed into the wireless office. The plague of +darkness had lifted after fifteen minutes' duration. + +"Call Monsieur X," he gasped to the day operator. In fifteen minutes, by +rapid substitutions of batteries to weaken or strengthen the sending +current, he had redetermined his previous data. Apparently, without the +shadow of a doubt, Monsieur X was within the circle. + +"He may be at sea," suggested the operator. + +But Eldridge shook his head. The circle of the sea had been well +patrolled, and for days. + +"Begin over again," drawled Darrow. "I told you that you were on the wrong +track." + +Eldridge glanced at him. + +"I can't say that you've done much!" said he tartly. + +"No?" queried Darrow, with one of his slow and exasperating smiles. +"Perhaps not. But you'd better get to thinking. You won't be able always +to take things easy. You may have to hustle before long." + +"There has been, I admit," said Eldridge stiffly, repeating in substance +the interview he had already given out, "some flaw in our chain of +reasoning. This it will be necessary to review with the object of +revision. Every physical manifestation must have some physical and +definite cause; and this can be found if time enough is bestowed on it. +Often the process of elimination is the only method by which the truth can +be determined." + +Darrow chuckled. + +"Look out the process of elimination doesn't overtake you," he remarked. + +Eldridge detailed the same reasoning, at greater length, to the men who +had employed him. These were very impatient. Business was being not merely +impeded, but destroyed. Their customers had no time for them; their +employees were in many cases leaving their jobs. They called in all the +help they could to assist Eldridge's speculations, but in the end they had +to fall back on the scientist as the best on the market. The case was not +left in his hands alone, however. After a meeting they offered a reward to +any one discovering and putting to an end the disconcerting phenomena. + +"Here's where we make money, Jack, big money," observed Darrow when he +read this offer. "It'll be bigger before we get through. You and I can +have the little expedition to Volcano Island." + +"Nothing suits me better," said Jack. "Are you sure we'll get it?" + +"Sure," said Darrow. + +Monsieur X had of course honored the waiting world with a message. It +followed the fifteen minutes of darkness: + + "TO THE PEOPLE: I have been patient and have stayed my hand in order + that you may learn the vanity of your endeavor. Who are ye that ye + shall strive to take me? Vanity and foolishness is your portion. Now + ye know my power and ye will listen unto my words as to the words of + the Master. Ye must hunt down this man McCarthy and deliver him over + unto me. If every one of you gives himself to the task, lo! it is + quickly done. Bestir yourselves against the wrath to come!" + +These events occupied the three days of the ordered exodus. The time was +further filled with rumor that ever grew more dire. Gradually business was +suspended entirely. Those who could not or would not go away stood about +talking matters over, and, as is always the case, matters did not improve +in the telling. The only activity in the city was that bent on seeking out +the abiding-place of Monsieur X. + +Eldridge had now come to the conclusion that he had perhaps been mistaken +in confining his efforts to so small an area. In fact, further experiments +rendered hazy the arbitrary outlines formerly determined for the zone of +danger. At times Monsieur X answered well within the forty-five-mile mark; +at times somewhat beyond the end of the fifty-mile radius. Eldridge +immediately undertook a series of more delicate experiments by means of +indicators especially designed by him for the occasion. Once more the +little wireless office became the focus of repertorial attention. + +"Our major premises we find still to be correct," announced Eldridge in +the coldly didactic manner characteristic of the man. "This unknown +operator is at a distance; and probably at a height. One indication we did +not take sufficiently into consideration--the fact that this instrument +alone is capable of communication with the instrument of this individual." + +Percy Darrow for the first time began to show signs of attention. He +dropped the legs of his chair to the floor and leaned forward. + +"That would indicate, gentlemen, that the instrument whose location we are +desirous of determining is of a peculiar nature. What that nature is we +have no means of determining accurately; but in conjunction with the fact +that our previous experiments failed to locate Monsieur X, we may adopt +the hypothesis that the wireless apparatus of that individual is not so +delicately responsive as the average. In other words, the zone within +which he may be found is in fact wider than we had supposed." + +Darrow leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. Eldridge +continued, explaining the means he had taken to determine more accurately +the exact location of Monsieur X. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +PERCY KEEPS VIGIL + +The morning of the third day after the failure of the search, and of the +sixth since McCarthy's disappearance, had arrived. During that time Percy +Darrow, apparently insensible to fatigue, had maintained an almost +sleepless vigil. His meals Jack Warford brought in to him; he dozed in his +chair or on the couch. Never did he appear to do anything. + +The very persistent quietude of the man ended by making its impression. To +all questions, however, Darrow returned but the one reply, delivered +always in a voice full of raillery: + +"I couldn't bear to miss a single step of Eldridge's masterly work." + +About half past nine of the morning in question, through the door to the +wireless office, always half opened, somebody looked hesitatingly into the +room. Instantly Darrow and Jack were on their feet and in the hallway. + +"Helen!" cried Jack. + +"What is it? Anything happened?" demanded Darrow. + +She surveyed them both amusedly. + +"You certainly look like a frowzy tramp, Jack," she told her brother +judiciously, "and you need sleep," she informed Darrow. + +The young scientist bowed ironically, his long lashes drooping over his +eyes in his accustomed lazy fashion as he realized that the occasion was +not urgent. Helen turned directly to him. + +"When are you going to stop this?" she demanded. + +Darrow raised his eyebrows. + +"You needn't look at me like that. You said you could lay your hands on +Monsieur X at any moment; why don't you do it?" + +"Eldridge is too amusing." + +"Too amusing!" echoed the girl. "All you think of is yourself." + +"Is it?" drawled Darrow. + +"Have you been out in the city? Have you seen the people? Have you seen +men out of work? Families leaving their homes? Panic spreading slowly but +surely over a whole city?" + +"Those pleasures have been denied me," said Darrow blandly. + +The girl looked at him with bright angry eyes. Her cheeks were glowing, +and her whole figure expressed a tense vibrant life in singular contrast +to the apparent indolence of the men at whom she was talking. + +"You are insufferable!" She fairly stamped her foot in vexation. "You are +an egoist! You would play with the welfare of four million people to +gratify your little personal desire for getting even!" + +"Steady, sis!" warned Jack. + +Darrow had straightened, and his indolent manner had fallen from him. + +"I have said I would permit no harm to come to these people, and I mean +it," said he. + +"No harm!" cried Helen. "What do you call this--" + +Darrow turned to the window looking out over the city. + +"This!" he said. "Why, this isn't harm! There isn't a man out there who is +not better off for what has happened to him. He has lost a little time, a +little money, a little sleep, and he has been given a new point of view, a +new manhood. As a city dweller he was becoming a mollusk, a creature that +could not exist without its shell. The city transported him, warmed him, +fed him, amused him, protected him. He had nothing to do with it in any +way; he didn't even know how it was done. Deprived of his push-buttons, he +was as helpless as a baby. Beyond the little stunt he did in his office or +his store, and beyond the ability to cross a crowded street, he was no +good. He not only didn't know how to do things, but he was rapidly losing, +through disuse, the power to learn how to do things. The modern city +dweller, bred, born, brought up on this island, is about as helpless and +useless a man, considered as a four-square, self-reliant individual, as +you can find on the broad expanse of the globe. I've got no use for a man +who can't take care of himself, who's got to have somebody else to do it +for him, whenever something to which he hasn't been accustomed rises up in +front of him!" + +His eye was fixed somberly on the city stretching away into the haze of +the autumn day. + +"You blame me for letting this thing run!" he went on. "Of course it +tickles me to death to see Eldridge flounder; but that isn't all. This is +the best thing that could happen to them out there! I'm just patriotic +enough to wish them more of it. It's good medicine! At last every man jack +of them is up against something he's got to decide for himself. The police +are useless; the fire department is useless; the railroads and street-cars +are crippled. If a man is going to take care of his life and property, he +must do it himself. He's buying back his self-reliance. Self-reliance is a +valuable property. He ought to pay something for it. Generally he has to +pay war or insurrection or bloody riot. In the present instance he's +getting off cheap." + +He turned back from the open window. His eye traveled beyond Helen's trim +figure down the empty hall. "Wait right here, Jack," he shot over his +shoulder, and rushed along the hall and down the stairway before either +the young man or his sister could recover from their astonishment. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +THE PLAGUE OF COLD + +Without pause, and three steps at a time, Darrow ran down three flights of +stairs. Then, recovering from his initial excitement somewhat, he caught +the elevator and shot to the street. There he walked rapidly to the +subway, which he took as far as City Hall Square. On emerging from the +subway station he started across for the _Despatch_ office as fast as he +could walk. By the entrance to the City Hall, however, he came to an +abrupt halt. From the open doorway rushed his friend, Officer Burns, of +the City Hall Station. The policeman's face was chalky white; his eyes +were staring, his cap was over one side, he staggered uncertainly. As he +caught sight of Darrow he stumbled to the young man and clung to his neck, +muttering incoherently. People passing in and out looked at him curiously +and smiled. + +"My God!" gasped Burns, his eyes roving. "I says to him, 'Mike, I don't +wonder you've got cold feet.' And there he was, and the mayor--Heaven +save--and his secretary! My God!" + +Darrow shook his shoulder. + +"Here," he said decisively, "what are you talking about? Get yourself +together! Remember you're an officer; don't lose your nerve this way!" + +At the touch to his pride Burns did pull himself together somewhat, but +went on under evident strong excitement. + +"I went in just now to the mayor's office a minute," said he, "and saw my +friend Mike Mallory, the doorkeeper, settin' in his chair, as usual. It +was cold-like, and I went up to him and says, 'Mike, no wonder you get +cold feet down here,' just by way of a joke; and when he didn't answer, I +went up to him, and he was dead, there in his chair!" + +"Well, you've seen dead men before. There's no occasion to lose your +nerve, even if you did know him," said Darrow. + +The brutality of the speech had its intended effect. Burns straightened. + +"That's all very well," said he more collectively. "_But the man was +froze_!" + +"Frozen!" muttered Darrow, and whistled. + +"Yes, and what's more, his little dog, setting by the chair, was froze, +too; so when I stepped back sudden and hit against him, he tumbled over +_bang_, like a cast-iron dog! That got my goat! I ran!" + +"Come with me," ordered Darrow decisively. + +They entered the building and ran up the single flight of stairs to the +second-story room which the mayor of that term had fitted up as a sort of +private office of his own. A sharp chill hung in the hallways; this +increased as they neared the executive's office. Outside the door sat the +doorkeeper in his armchair. Beside him was a dog, in the attitude of an +animal seated on its haunches, but lying on its side, one fore leg +sticking straight out. Darrow touched the man and stooped over to peer in +his face. The attitude was most lifelike; the color was good. A deadly +chill ran from Darrow's finger tips up his arm. + +He pushed open the door cautiously and looked in. + +"All right, Burns," said he. "The atmosphere has become gaseous again. We +can go in." With which strange remark he entered the room, followed +closely, but uncertainly by the officer. + +The private office possessed the atmosphere of a cold-storage vault. Four +men occupied it. At the desk was seated the mayor, leaning forward in an +attitude of attention, his triple chin on one clenched fist, his heavy +face scowling in concentration. Opposite him lounged two men, one leaning +against the table, the other against the wall. One had his hand raised in +argument, and his mouth open. The other was watching, an expression of +alertness on his sharp countenance. At a typewriter lolled the clerk, his +hand fumbling among some papers. + +The group was exceedingly lifelike, more so, Darrow thought, than any wax +figures the Eden Musee had ever placed for the mystification of its +country visitors. Indeed, the only indication that the men had not merely +suspended action on the entrance of the visitors was a fine white rime +frost that sparkled across the burly countenance of the mayor. Darrow +remembered that, summer and winter, that dignitary had always perspired! + +Burns stood by the door, rooted to the spot, his jaw dropped, his eye +staring. Darrow quite calmly walked to the desk. He picked up the inkstand +and gazed curiously at its solidified contents, touched the nearest man, +gazed curiously at the papers on the desk, and addressed Burns. + +"These seem to be frozen, too," he remarked almost sleepily, "and about +time, too. This is a sweet gang to be getting together on this sort of a +job!" + +Quite calmly he gathered the papers on the desk and stuffed them into his +pocket. He picked up the desk telephone, giving a number. "Ouch, this +receiver's cold," he remarked to Burns. "Hello, _Despatch_. Is Hallowell +in the office? Just in? Send him over right quick, keen jump, City Hall, +mayor's second-story office. No, right now. Tell him it's Darrow." + +He hung up the receiver. + +"Curious phenomenon," he remarked to Burns, who still stood rooted to the +spot. "You see, their bodies were naturally almost in equilibrium, and, as +they were frozen immediately, that equilibrium was maintained. And the +color. I suppose the blood was congealed in the smaller veins, and did +not, as in more gradual freezing, recede to the larger blood-vessels. I'm +getting frost bitten myself in here. Let's get outside." + +But Officer Burns heard none of this. As Darrow moved toward the door he +crossed himself and bolted. Darrow heard his heels clattering on the +cement of the corridors. He smiled. + +"And now the deluge!" he remarked. + +The crowds, terrified, inquisitive, sceptical, and speculative, gathered. +Officials swept them out and took possession. Hallowell and Darrow +conferred earnestly together. + +"He has the power to stop heat vibrations, you see," Darrow said. "That +makes him really dangerous. His activities here are in line with his other +warnings; but he is not ready to go to extremes yet. The city is yet +safe." + +"Why?" asked Hallowell. + +"I know it. But he has the power. If he gets dangerous we must stop him." + +"You are sure you can do it?" + +"Sure." + +"Then, for God's sake, do it! Don't you realize what will happen when news +of this gets out, and people understand what it means? Don't you feel your +guilt at those men's deaths?" He struck his hand in the direction of the +City Hall. + +"The people will buy a lot of experience, at cost of a little fright and +annoyance," replied Percy Darrow carelessly. "It'll do them good. When +it's over, they'll come back again and be good. As for that bunch in +there--when you look over those papers I think you'll be inclined to agree +with what the religious fanatics will say--that it was a visitation of +God." + +"But the old, the sick--there'll be deaths among them--the responsibility +is something fearful--" + +"Never knew a battle fought yet without some loss," observed Darrow. + +Hallowell was staring at him. + +"I don't understand you," said the reporter. "You have no heart. You are +as bad as this Monsieur X, and between you you hold a city in your +power--one way or the other!" + +"Well, I rather like being a little god," remarked Darrow. + +Hallowell started once more to plead, but Darrow cut him short. + +"You are thinking of the present," he said. "I am thinking of the future. +It's a good thing for people to find out that there's something bigger +than they are, or than anything they can make. That fact is the basis of +the idea of a God. These are getting to be a godless people." He turned on +Hallowell, his sleepy eyes lighting up. "I should be very sorry if I had +not intellect enough and imagination enough to see what this may mean to +my fellow people; and I should despise myself if I should let an +unrestrained compassion lose to four million people the rare opportunity +vouchsafed them." + +He spoke very solemnly. Hallowell looked at him puzzled. + +"Besides," said Darrow whimsically, "I like to devil Eldridge." + +He dove into the subway. Hallowell gazed after him. + +"There goes either a great man or a crazy fool," he remarked to an English +sparrow. He turned over rapidly the papers Darrow had found on the mayor's +desk, and smiled grimly. "Of all the barefaced, bald-headed steals!" he +said. + +Darrow soon mounted once more the elevator of the Atlas Building. He found +Jack and Helen still waiting. Before entering the wireless office Darrow +cast a scrutinizing glance along the empty hall. + +"It's all right," he said. "I'm surer than ever. Everything fits exactly. +Now, Helen," he said, "I want you to go home, and I want you to stay +there. No matter what happens, do not move from the house. This town is +going to have the biggest scare thrown into it that any town ever had +since Sodom and Gomorrah got their little jolt. In the language of the +Western prophet, 'Hell will soon be popping.' Let her pop. Sit tight; tell +your friends to sit tight. If necessary, tell them Monsieur X is captured, +and all his works. Tell them I said so." + +His air of languid indifference had fallen from him. His eye was bright, +and he spoke with authority and vigor. + +"You take her home, Jack," he commanded, "and return here at once. Don't +forget that nice new-blued pop-gun of yours; we're coming to the time when +we may need it." + +Jack rose instantly to his mood. + +"Correct, General!" he saluted. "Where'd you collect the plunder?" he +asked, pointing to a square black bag of some size that Darrow had brought +back with him. + +"That," said Darrow, "is the first fruit of my larcenous tendencies. I +stole that from the mayor's office in the City Hall." + +"What is it?" + +"That," said Darrow, "I do not know." + +He deposited the bag carefully by his chair, and turned, smiling, to +Helen. + +"Good-by," said he. "Sleep tight." + +They went out. Darrow seated himself in his chair, drew his hat over his +eyes, and fell into a doze. In the meantime, outside, all through the +city, hell was getting ready to pop. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +IN THE FACE OF ETERNITY + +Hell popped just as soon as the newspapers could get out their extras. +Monsieur X had at last struck, and both interest and belief urged the +managing editors at last to give publicity to all the theories, the facts, +and the latest message from the fanatic Unknown. + +The latter came about three o'clock: + + "TO THE PEOPLE: You have defied me, and you have doubted my power. + There is no good in you. I, who would have saved you, now must bring + about your death as a stubborn and a stiff-necked generation. In + humanity is no more good, and of this world I desire nothing more. + Prepare within the next three hours to appear before a mightier + throne than mine." + +Percy Darrow, reading this, said to Jack Warford, "It is time to act," +and, accompanied by the younger man, quietly left the room. + +The reader of imagination--and no other will read this tale--must figure +to himself the island of Manhattan during the next two hours. The entire +population, nearly, tried to leave it at once. When only the suburban +dwellers, urged simply by the desire for a hot dinner, attempt to return +home between five and six, the ways are congested enough. Now, stricken +with the fear of death, the human cattle fought frantically to reach the +inadequate exits of the great theater of tragedy. + +There was fighting in the streets, and panic, and stark rumor, of course; +and there was heroism, and coolness, and the taking of thought. To the +little group of men in the top floor of the Atlas Building the roar of +riot came up like the thunder of the orchestra before the rise of the +curtain. Most of the people in the streets fled from a danger they did not +understand. This little group in the wireless office realized clearly what +still and frozen dissolution the rising of the curtain would disclose. +They were not many; and they did not know what they were to do, if +anything; but they had not run away. + +Eldridge was there, looking somewhat flustered for the first time in his +life, and four of the large committee that had employed him. Simmons sat +calmly at his post, and of all the reporters Hallowell alone had stood by. +He had faith in Darrow, and he knew that in the _Despatch_ office a little +handful of men stood in the shadow of death on the off chance of the +biggest scoop since Noah's flood. + +The four solid citizens looked at one another. The oldest turned to +Eldridge. + +"Then your opinion is that the city is doomed?" + +"I can offer no other solution, sir," said the scientist. "It is at last +evident that this man's power over ethereal vibrations extends to those +forming heat-rays. If this is so, it follows that he can cut off all life +by stopping all heat. If his threat is carried out, we can but look +forward to a repetition on a large scale of the City Hall affair." + +The aged financier now spoke to Simmons. + +"And the last report from the searchers?" he asked formally. + +"The search is being pushed, sir," replied the operator, "by twenty +thousand men. There remain some fifty miles of country to go over, Mr. +Lyons." + +Lyons turned his shaggy head toward a younger, slim, keen-eyed man of +fifty. + +"And the city will, in your judgment, Mr. Perkins, take how long to +empty?" + +"Days--in the present confusion," said Perkins shortly. "We can move only +a limited percentage. Thank God, most of our men are standing by. I think +all our rolling stock is moving." + +Lyons nodded twice. + +"And you?" he asked the third of the party, a stout young man of +thirty-eight or so. + +"How many stations are on the job, Simmons?" asked this man. + +"All but two, sir," replied the operator. "D and P don't answer. I guess +they beat it." + +"How do they report the bulletin men?" + +"On the job," replied the wireless man. + +The stout young man turned to Lyons. + +"Well, sir," said he, "I don't know whether we or the hand of death will +be called on to quiet them"--he paused for an instant with uplifted hand; +the roar and crash and wail of the city-wide riot surged into the gap of +his silence--"but if it is we," he went on, "our little arrangements are +made. My men know what to do, and my men are on the job," he concluded +proudly. + +Lyons nodded again. + +"We have all done our best," said he. "Now, gentlemen, I do not see how we +can possibly accomplish anything more by remaining here. My automobile is +in concealment in the old stable in the rear of 127. My yacht is standing +off the Battery awaiting signal to come in. We have," he glanced at his +watch, "over an hour before the threatened catastrophe." + +He looked up expectantly. The men all glanced uneasily at one another, +except Simmons, who stared at his batteries stolidly. + +"Come, gentlemen," urged Lyons, after a moment. "There is really not much +time to lose, for you know the yacht must steam beyond the danger zone." + +"Beat it," spoke up Simmons, at last. "There ain't any good of you here. +If anything comes in, I can handle it. It's just a case of send out orders +to your bulletin men." + +"I think I'd better stay," observed Paige, the stout young man, with an +air of apology. "I know I'm not much use; but I've placed men, and they'll +stick; and if this freeze-out proposition goes through--why, they're in +it, and--" + +"That's how I feel," broke in Perkins. "But you have done your full duty, +Mr. Lyons, and you have no reason to stay. Let me get your car around to +you--" + +"Oh, I'm going to stay," said Lyons. "If you gentlemen feel it your duty, +how much more is it mine! Professor Eldridge"--he bowed to the +scientist--"you have done your best, which is more than any other mortal +man could have done, I am sure; and you, sir--" he said to Hallowell. + +Eldridge and Hallowell shook their heads. + +"I have failed," said Eldridge. + +"I am a reporter," said Hallowell. + +"We are in the hands of God," announced Lyons with great solemnity, and +folded his hands over his white waistcoat. + +At that moment the door slowly swung open and Percy Darrow entered. He was +smoking a cigarette, his hands were thrust deep in his trousers pockets; +he was hatless, and his usually smooth hair was rumpled. A tiny wound +showed just above the middle of his forehead, from which a thin stream of +blood had run down to his eyebrows. He surveyed the room with a humorous +twinkle shining behind his long lashes. + +"Well, well, well, well!" he remarked in a cheerful tone of voice. "This +is a nice, jolly, Quaker meeting! Why don't you get out and make a noise +and celebrate, like your friends outside?" + +"Thought you'd ducked," remarked Hallowell. The others said nothing, but +looked a grave disapproval. + +Darrow laughed. + +"No, I had to come back to see how Eldridge is getting on." He cast a +glance at the scientist. "How goes it, old socks?" he inquired. + +The man's manner, the tone of his voice, seemed as much out of place in +this atmosphere of solemnity as a penny whistle in a death chamber. Darrow +refused to notice the general attitude of disapproval, but planted himself +in front of Eldridge. + +"All in?" he challenged. "Or do you still cherish any delusions that you +will get your man inside of"--he looked at his watch--"eleven minutes?" + +A visible stir ran through the room at these words. "Eleven minutes!" +murmured Lyons, and held his watch to his ear. "It has stopped," he said +aloud. "It seems, gentlemen, that the only possible hope for us lies in +the doubt as to whether or not this Unknown will carry out this threat." + +"He's a first-rate hand to carry out threats," observed Darrow. + +"We have done our best," said Lyons calmly. "Let us compose ourselves to +meet everything--or nothing--as the fates may have decided." + +"That's all right," agreed Darrow, with unabated cheerfulness. "But +Eldridge and I had a little agreement, or bet. He bragged he'd get this +Monsieur X before I did. I'd like to know how he feels about his end of +it. Give it up?" + +Eldridge looked at him rebukingly. + +"I have failed," he acknowledged formally, "from lack of time to carry out +my investigation." + +"From lack of brains," said Darrow brutally, "as I believe you once said +in private conversation about my old master, Doctor Schermerhorn. Those +things are remembered. I am delighted to hand this back to you." He eyed +Eldridge, the brilliant smile still curving his lips. + +"Enough of this!" cried Lyons with authority. "This is unseemly in the +face of eternity." + +Darrow looked again at his watch. + +"We have still six minutes, sir; and this is an affair of long standing, +and on which I feel deeply. The score is settled," he said with entire +respect. "I am now at your command. I had intended," he went on in a +frivolous tone again, "to kick to you on my gas bill. It is too large. +You, as responsible head, know it is. But somehow, you know, the presence +here of you gentlemen has disarmed me. You don't need to be here; you all +have the facilities to get away. Here you are! I guess you can charge a +dollar and a quarter for gas if you want to." He looked from one to the +other, while he carefully wiped back the blood that was flowing from the +little wound in his forehead. "Eldridge acknowledges he has failed," he +repeated. + +"I fail to see how you have improved upon that failure," snapped Eldridge, +stung. + +"No?" queried Darrow. "I call Hallowell to witness that the game has been +fair. We had an even start; the data have been open to both." He raised +his voice a little. "Jack!" he called. + +Immediately through the open door from the hall outside came Jack Warford, +leading by the arm a strange and nondescript figure. It was that of a +small, bent, old-looking man, dressed in a faded suit of brown. His hair +was thin, and long, and white; his face sharp and lean. His gaze was fixed +straight before him, so that every one in the room at the same instant +caught the glare of his eyes. + +They were fixed, those eyes, like an owl's; or, better, a wildcat's, as +though they never winked. From the pupils, which were very small, the +little light-colored lines radiated across very large blue irises. There +was something baleful and compelling in their glare, so that even +Hallowell, cool customer as he was, forgot immediately all about the man's +littleness and shabbiness and bent figure, and was conscious only of the +cruel, clever, watchful, unrelenting, hostile spirit. As Jack dragged him +forward, the others could see that one foot shambled along the floor. + +"Gentlemen," observed Darrow in his most casual tones, "let me present +Monsieur X!" + +Every one exclaimed at once. Above the hubbub came Lyons' voice, clear and +commanding. + +"The proof!" he thundered. "This is too serious a matter for buffoonery. +The proof!" + +Percy Darrow raised his hand. Through the roar of the maddened city the +bell of the Metropolitan tower was beginning its chimes. By the third +stroke the uproar had died almost away. The people were standing still, +awaiting what might come. + +The sweet-toned chimes ceased. There succeeded the pause. Then the great +bell began to boom. + +_One--two--three--four--five--six_ came its spaced and measured strokes. +The last reverberations sank away. Nothing happened. Percy Darrow let his +hand fall. + +"The proof," he repeated, "is that you are still here." + +From the night outside rose a wild shriek of rejoicing, stupendous, +overwhelming, passionate. Paige sprang across the room. "Release!" he +shouted fairly in Simmons' ear. The spark crashed. And at a dozen places +simultaneously bulletins flashed; at a dozen other points placarded +balloons arose, on which the search-lights played; so that the people, +hesitating in their flight in thankfulness over finding themselves still +alive, raised their eyes and read: + + Monsieur X is captured. You are safe. + +At that a tumult arose, a tumult of rejoicing. + +Darrow had sauntered to the window, and was looking out. From the great +height of the Atlas Building he could see abroad over much of the city. +Here and there, like glowing planets, hung the balloons. + +"Clever idea," he observed. "I'm glad you thought of it." + +Hallowell was on his feet, his eyes shining. + +"I've got the only paper on the job!" he fairly shouted. "Darrow, as you +love me, give me the story. Where was he? Where did you get him?" + +Darrow turned from the window, and sardonically surveyed Eldridge. + +"He was in the office next door," said he, after a moment. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +THE MAN NEXT DOOR + +When, three hours previous, Darrow had arisen with the remark before +chronicled, Jack Warford had followed him in the expectation of a long +expedition. To the young man's surprise it lasted just to the hall. There +Darrow stopped before the blank door of an apparently unused office. Into +the lock of this he cautiously fitted a key, manipulated it for a moment, +and turned to Jack with an air of satisfaction. + +"You have your gun with you?" he asked. + +Jack patted his outside pocket. + +"Very well, now listen here: I am going to leave the key in the lock. If +you hear me whistle sharply, get in as quickly as you know how, and get to +shooting. Shoot to kill. If it happens to be dark and you can not make us +out, shoot both. Take no chances. On your quickness and your accuracy may +depend the lives of the whole city. Do you understand?" + +"I understand," said Jack steadily. "Are you sure you can make yourself +heard above all this row?" + +Darrow nodded, and slipped inside the door. + +He found the office chamber unlighted save by the subdued illumination +that came in around the drawn shades of the window. Against the dimness he +could just make out the gleaming of batteries in rows. An ordinary deal +table supported a wireless sender. A figure stood before the darkened +window, the figure of a little, old, bent man facing as though looking +out. Through the closed casement the roar of the panic-stricken city +sounded like a flood. The old man was in the attitude of one looking out +intently. Once he raised both arms, the fists clenched, high above his +head. + +Darrow stole forward as quietly as he could. When he was about half-way +across the room the old man turned and saw him. For the briefest instant +he stared at the intruder; then, with remarkable agility, cast himself +toward the table on which stood the wireless sender. Darrow, too, sprang +forward. They met across the table. Darrow clutched the old man's wrists. + +Immediately began a desperate and silent trial of strength. The old man +developed an unexpected power. The table lay between them, prohibiting a +closer grip. Inch by inch, impelled by the man's iron will, his hand +forced his way toward the sending key. Darrow put forth all his strength +to prevent. There was no violent struggle, no noise; simply the pressure +of opposing forces. Gradually the scientist's youth prevailed against the +older man's desperation. The hand creeping toward the sender came to a +stop. Then, all at once, the older man's resistance collapsed entirely. +Darrow swept his arm back, stepped around the table, and drew his +opponent, almost unresisting, back to the window. + +"Jack!" he called. + +At the sound of his voice the old man gathered his last vitality in a +tremendous effort to jerk loose from his captor. Catching Darrow unawares, +he almost succeeded in getting free. The flash was too brief. He managed +only to rap the young man's head rather sharply against a shade-fitting of +the window. + +The outer door jerked open, and Jack Warford leaped into the room, +revolver in hand. Darrow called an instant warning. + +"All right!" he shouted. "Turn on the light, next to you somewhere. Shut +the door." + +These orders were obeyed. The electric flared. By its light the office was +seen to be quite empty save for a cabinet full of books and papers; rows +and rows of battery jars; the receiving and sending apparatus of a +wireless outfit; the deal table, and one wooden chair. Darrow looked +around keenly. + +"That's all right, Jack," said he. "Just get around here cautiously and +raise the window shade. Look out you don't get near that table. That's it. +Now just help me get this man a little away from the table! Good! Now, tie +him up. No, bring over the chair. Tie him in that chair. Gently. That's +all right. Whew!" + +"You're hurt," said Jack. + +Darrow touched his forehead. + +"A bump," he said briefly. "Well, Jack, my son, we've done it!" + +"You don't mean to say--" cried Jack. + +Darrow nodded. + +"Now, my friend," he addressed the huddled figure in the chair, "the game +is up. You are caught, and you must realize it." He surveyed the captive +thoughtfully. "Tell me, who are you?" he added. "I should know you, for +you are a great discoverer." + +The old man stared straight at his interlocutor with his expressionless +eyes, behind which no soul, no mind, no vitality even seemed to lie. + +Darrow asked him several more questions, to which he received no replies. +The man sat like a captured beast. + +"I'm sorry," said Darrow to Jack. "I should like to have talked with him. +Such a man is worth knowing; he has delved deep." + +"He'll talk yet, when he gets over his grouch," Jack surmised. + +But Darrow shook his head. + +"The man is imbecile," he said. "He has been mentally unbalanced; and his +disorder has grown on him lately. When I drove back his wrist just now the +cord snapped in his brain." + +Jack turned to stare at the captive. + +"By Jove, I believe you're right!" said he at last. + +Darrow was standing looking down on the deal table. + +"Come here, Jack," said he. "I want you to look at the deadliest engine of +destruction ever invented or wielded by mortal man. I suspect that if you +were to reach out your hand and hold down the innocent-looking telegraph +key there you would instantly destroy every living creature in this city." + +Jack turned a little pale, and put both hands behind him. + +Darrow laughed. "Feel tempted?" he inquired. + +"Makes me a little dizzy, like being on a height," confessed Jack. "How's +the trick turned?" + +"I don't know," said Darrow. "I'm going to find out if I can." + +Without attempting to touch anything, he proceeded to examine carefully +every detail of the apparatus. + +"The batteries are nothing extraordinary, except in strength," he told +Jack, "and as near as I can make out the instrument is like any other. It +must be some modification in the sending apparatus, some system of +'tuning', perhaps--it's only a surmise. We'll just disconnect the +batteries," he concluded, "before we go to monkeying." + +He proceeded carefully and methodically to carry out his expressed +intention. When he had finished the task he heaved a deep sigh of relief. + +"I'm glad you feel that way, too," said Jack. "I didn't know what might +not happen." + +"Me, either," confessed Darrow. "But now I think we're safe." + +He proceeded on a methodical search through the intricacies of the +apparatus. For a time Jack followed him about, but after a while wearied +of so profitless an occupation, and so took to smoking on the +window-ledge. Darrow extended his investigations to the bookcase, and to a +drawer in the deal table. For over two hours he sorted notes, compared, +and ruminated, his brows knit in concentration. Jack did not try to +interrupt him. At the end of the time indicated, the scientist looked up +and made some trivial remark. + +"Got it?" asked Jack. + +"Yes," replied Darrow soberly. He reflected for several minutes longer; +then moved to the window and looked out over the city. Absolutely +motionless there he stood while the night fell, oblivious alike to the +roar and crash of the increasing panic and to the silent figures in the +darkened room behind him. At last he gave a sigh, walked quietly to the +electric light, and turned it on. + +"It's the biggest thing--and the simplest--the world has ever known in +physics, Jack" said he, "but it's got to go." + +"What?" asked Jack, rousing from the mood of waiting into which he had +loyally forced himself in spite of the turmoil outside. + +"The man has perfected a combined system of special tuning and definite +electrical energy," said Darrow, "by which through an ordinary wireless +sender he can send forth into the ether what might be called deadening or +nullifying waves. You are no doubt familiar with the common experiment by +which two sounds will produce a silence. This is just like that. By means +of this, within the radius of his sending instrument and for a period of +time up to the capacity of his batteries, a man can absolutely stop +vibration of either heat, sound, light, or electricity length. It is +entirely a question of simple formulas. Here they are." + +He held out four closely written pages bound together with manuscript +fasteners. + +"No man has ever before attained this knowledge or this power," went on +Darrow, after a moment; "and probably never again in the history of the +race will exactly this combination of luck and special talent occur. These +four pages are unique." + +He laid them on the edge of the table, produced a cigarette, lighted it, +picked up the four pages of formulas, and held the burning match to their +edges. The flame caught, flared up the flimsy paper. Darrow dropped the +burning corners as it scorched his fingers. It fell to the floor, +flickered, and was gone. + +Jack leaped forward with an exclamation of dismay. The old man bound to +the chair did not wink, but stared straight in front of him, his eyes +fixed like those of an owl or a wildcat. + +"For God's sake, Darrow!" cried Jack Warford. "Do you know what you have +done?" + +"Perfectly," replied Darrow calmly. "This is probably the greatest +achievement of the scientific intellect; but it must go. It would give to +men an unchecked power that belongs only to the gods." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +HOW IT ALL WAS + +For his share in the foregoing Percy Darrow was extensively blamed. It was +universally conceded that his action in permitting Monsieur X to continue +his activities up to the danger point was inexcusable. The public mind +should have been reassured long before. Much terror and physical suffering +might thus have been avoided--not to speak of financial loss. Scientific +men, furthermore, went frantic over his unwarranted destruction of the +formulas. Percy Darrow was variously described as a heartless monster and +a scientific vandal. To these aspersions he paid no attention whatever. + +Helen Warford, however, became vastly indignant and partisan, and in +consequence Percy Darrow's course in the matter received from her its full +credit for a genuine altruism. Hallowell, also, held persistently to this +point, as far as his editors would permit him, until at last, the public +mind somewhat calmed, attention was more focused on the means by which the +man had reached his conclusions rather than on the use of them he had +made. + +The story was told three times by its chief actor: once to the newspapers, +once to the capitalists from whom he demanded the promised reward, and +once to the Warfords. This last account was the more detailed and +interesting. + +It was of a late afternoon again. The lamps were lighted, and tea was +forward. Helen was manipulating the cups, Jack was standing ready to pass +them, Mr. and Mrs. Warford sat in the background listening, and Darrow +lounged gracefully in front of the fire. + +"From the beginning!" Helen was commanding him, "and expect +interruptions." + +"Well," began Darrow, "it's a little difficult to get started. But let's +begin with the phenomena themselves. I've told you before, how, when I was +in jail, I worked out their nature and the fact that they must draw their +power from some source that could be exhausted or emptied. You have read +Eldridge's reasoning as to why he thought Monsieur X was at a distance and +on a height. He took as the basis of his reasoning one fact in connection +with the wireless messages we were receiving--that they were faint, and +therefore presumably far distant or sent by a weak battery. He neglected, +or passed over as an important item of tuning, the further fact that the +instrument in the Atlas Building was the only instrument to receive +Monsieur X's messages. + +"Now, that fact might be explained either on the very probable supposition +that our receiving instrument happened in what we may call its undertones +to be the only one tuned to the sending instrument of Monsieur X; or it +might be because our instrument was nearer Monsieur X's instrument than +any other. This was unlikely because of the quality of the sound--it +sounded to the expert operator as though it came from a distance. +Nevertheless, it was a possibility. Taken by itself, it was not nearly so +good a possibility as the other. Therefore, Eldridge chose the other. + +"There were a number of other strictly scientific considerations of equal +importance. I do not hesitate to say that if I had been influenced only by +the scientific considerations, I should have followed Eldridge's lead +without the slightest hesitation. But as I told him at the time, a man +must have imagination and human sympathy to get next to this sort of +thing. + +"Leaving all science aside, for the moment, what do we find in the +messages to McCarthy? First, a command to leave within a specified and +brief period; second, a threat in case of disobedience. That threat was +always carried out." + +Darrow turned to Mrs. Warford. + +"With your permission, I should like to smoke," said he. "I can follow my +thought better." + +"By all means," accorded the lady. + +Darrow lighted his cigarette, puffed a moment, and continued: + +"For instance, at three o'clock he threatens to send a 'sign' unless +McCarthy leaves town by six. McCarthy does not leave town. Promptly at six +the 'sign' comes. What do you make of it?" + +Nobody stirred. + +"Why," resumed Darrow, "how, if Monsieur X was a hundred miles or so away, +as Eldridge figured, did he know that McCarthy had not obeyed him? We must +suppose, from the probable fact of that knowledge, that either Monsieur X +had an accomplice who was keeping him informed, or he must be near enough +to get the information himself." + +"There is a third possibility," broke in Jack. "Monsieur X might have sent +along his 'sign' at six o'clock, anyhow, just for general results." + +Darrow nodded his approval. + +"Good boy, Jack," said he. "That is just the point I could not be sure +about. But finally, at the time, you will remember, when I predicted +McCarthy's disappearance, Monsieur X made a definite threat. He said," +observed Darrow, consulting one of the bundle of papers he held in his +hand: + +"'My patience is at an end. Your last warning will be sent you at +nine-thirty this morning. If you do not sail on the _Celtic_ at noon, I +shall strike,' and so forth. The _Celtic_ sailed at noon, without +McCarthy. At twelve thirty came the first message to the people calling on +them to deliver up the traitor that is among you.' How did Monsieur X know +that McCarthy had not sailed on the _Celtic_? The answer is now +unavoidable: either an accomplice must have sent him word to that effect, +or he must have determined the fact for himself. + +"I eliminated the hypothesis of an accomplice on the arbitrary grounds of +plain common sense. They don't grow two such crazy men at once; and one +crazy man is naturally too suspicious to hire help. I took it for granted. +Had to make a guess somewhere; but, contrary to our legal friends, I +believe that enough coincidences indicate a certainty. But if Monsieur X +himself saw the _Celtic_ sail without McCarthy, and got back to his +instrument within a half-hour, it was evident he could not be quite so far +away as Eldridge and the rest of them thought." + +"One thing," spoke up Jack, "I often wondered what you whispered to +Simmons to induce him to pass those messages over to you. Mind telling?" + +"Not a bit. Simmons is an exceptional man. He has nerve and intelligence. +I just pointed out to him the possibility that Monsieur X might have +control over heat vibrations. He saw the public danger at once, and +realized that McCarthy's private rights in those messages had suddenly +become very small." + +Jack nodded. "Go ahead," said he. + +"I had already," proceeded Darrow, "found out where the next wireless +station is located. Monsieur X must be nearer the Atlas station than to +this other. It was, therefore, easy to draw a comparatively small circle +within which he must be located." + +"So far, so good," said Helen. "How did you finally come to the conclusion +that Monsieur X was in the next office?" + +"Do you remember," Darrow asked Jack, "how the curtain of darkness hung +about ten or twelve feet inside the corridor of the Atlas Building?" + +"Sure," replied Jack. + +"And do you remember that while the rest of you, including Eldridge, were +occupied rather childishly with the spectacular side of it, I had +disappeared inside the blackness?" + +"Certainly." + +"Well, in that time I determined the exact extent of the phenomena. I +found that it extended in a rough circle. And when I went outside and +looked up--something every one else was apparently too busy to do--I saw +that this phenomenon of darkness also extended above the building, out +into open space. At the moment I noted the fact merely, and tried to fix +in my own mind approximately the dimensions. Then here is another point: +when the city-wide phenomena took place, I again determined their extent. +To do so I did not have to leave my chair. The papers did it for me. They +took pains to establish the farthest points to which these modern plagues +of Manhattan reached." + +Darrow selected several clippings from his bundle of papers. + +"Here are reports indicating Highbridge, Corona, Flatbush, Morrisania, +Fort Lee, Bay Ridge as the farthest points at which the phenomena were +manifested. It occurred to nobody to connect these points with a pencil +line. If that line is made curved, instead of straight, it will be found +to constitute a complete circle _whose center is the Atlas Building_!" + +The audience broke into exclamations. + +"Going back to my former impressions, I remembered that the pall of +blackness extended this far and that far in the various directions, so +that it required not much imagination to visualize it as a sphere of +darkness. And strangely enough the center of that sphere seemed to be +located somewhere near the floor on which were installed the United +Wireless instruments. It at once became probable that what we may call the +nullifying impulses radiated in all directions through the ether from +their sending instrument. + +"Next I called upon the janitor of the Atlas Building, representing myself +as looking for a suitable office from which to conduct my investigations. +In this manner I gained admission to all unrented offices. All were empty. +I then asked after the one next door, but was told it was rented as a +storeroom by an eccentric gentleman now away on his travels. That was +enough. I now knew that we had to do with a man next door, and not miles +distant, as purely scientific reasoning would seem to prove." + +"But Professor Eldridge's experiments--" began Jack. + +"I am coming to that," interrupted Darrow. "When Eldridge began to call up +Monsieur X, that gentleman answered without a thought of suspicion; nor +was he even aware of the very ingenious successive weakenings of the +current. In fact, as merely the thickness of a roof separated his +receiving instrument from the wires from which the messages were sent, it +is probable that Eldridge might have weakened his current down practically +to nihil, and still Monsieur X would have continued to get his message." + +"Wouldn't he have noticed the sending getting weaker?" asked Jack +shrewdly. + +"Not until the very last. Our sending must have made a tremendous crash, +anyway, and he probably read it by sound through the wall." + +"But at about the fifty-mile limit of sending we lost him," objected Jack. + +"You mean at about two o'clock in the morning," amended Darrow. + +"Eh? Yes, it was about two. But how did he get on to what Eldridge was +doing?" + +"He read it in the paper," replied Darrow. "At twelve the reporters left. +At a little before two our enterprising friend, the _Despatch_, issued an +extra in its usual praiseworthy effort to enlighten the late Broadway jag. +Monsieur X read it, and knew exactly what was up." + +"How do you know?" + +"Because I read the extra myself." + +"But even then?" + +"Then he began to pay more attention. It was easy enough to fake when he +knew what was doing. For all I know, he could hear Eldridge giving his +directions." + +The company present ruminated over the disclosures thus far made. + +"About the City Hall affair?" asked Helen finally. + +"I used to sit where I could command the hall," said Darrow, "and, +therefore, I was aware that Monsieur X never left his room. To make the +matter certain, I powdered the sill of the door with talcum, which I +renewed every day after the cleaners. You remember we got to talking very +earnestly in the hall, so earnestly that I, for one, forgot to watch. When +I realized my remissness, I saw that the powder on the sill had been +disturbed, that Monsieur X had gone out. + +"My first thought then was to warn the people. To that end I was on my way +to the _Despatch_ office when sheer chance switched me into the City Hall +tragedy. I possessed myself of the apparatus--" + +"That was the square black bag!" cried Jack. + +"Of course--and hustled back to the Atlas Building. You can bet I was +relieved when I found that Monsieur X had returned to his lair." + +"Talcum disturbed again?" asked Jack. + +"Precisely." + +"And the black bag?" + +"Contained merely a model wireless apparatus with a clockwork arrangement +set to close the circuit at a certain time. That is why Monsieur X was not +involved in his own catastrophe." + +"I see!" + +"Then all I had to do was to sit still and wait for him to become +dangerous." + +"How did you dare to take such chances?" cried Helen. + +"I took no chances," answered Darrow. "Don't you see? If he were to +attempt to destroy the city, he must either involve himself in the +destruction, or he must set another bit of clockwork. If he had left his +office again I should have seized him, broken into the office, and smashed +the apparatus." + +"But he was crazy," spoke up Mrs. Warford. "How could you rely on his not +involving himself in the general destruction?" + +"Yes, why did you act when you did?" seconded Helen. + +"As long as he held to his notion of getting hold of McCarthy," explained +Darrow, "he had a definite object in life, his madness had a definite +outlet--he was harmless. But the last message showed that his disease had +progressed to the point where McCarthy was forgotten. His mind had risen +to a genuine frenzy. He talked of general punishments, great things. At +last he was in the state of mind of the religious fanatic who lacerates +his flesh and does not feel the wound. When he forgot McCarthy, I knew it +was time to act. Long since I had provided myself with the requisite key. +You know the rest." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +WHAT HAPPENED AFTERWARD + +There remains only to tell what became of the various characters of the +tale. + +McCarthy, on whom the action started, returned, but never regained his +political hold. Darrow always maintained that this was only the most +obvious result of his policy of delaying the denouement. People had been +forced to think seriously of such matters; and, when aroused, the public +conscience is right. + +Darrow demanded, and received, the large money reward for his services in +the matter. Pocketing whatever blame the public and his fellow scientists +saw fit to hand out to him, he and Jack Warford disappeared in command of +a small schooner. The purpose of the expedition was kept secret; its +direction was known only to those most intimately concerned. If it ever +returns, we may know more of it. + +Eldridge went on being a scientist, exactly as before. + +Simmons received a gold medal, a large cash sum, any amount of newspaper +space, and an excellent opportunity to go on a vaudeville circuit. + +Hallowell had his salary raised; and received in addition that rather +vague brevet title of "star reporter". + +Helen Warford is still attractive and unmarried. Whether the latter +condition is only pending the return of the expedition is not known. + +As for the city, it has gone back to its everyday life, and the riffles on +the surface have smoothed themselves away. In outside appearances +everything is as before. Yet for the present generation, at least, the +persistence of the old independent self-reliance of the people is assured. +They have been tested, and they have been made to think of elemental +things seriously. For some time to come the slow process of +standardization has been arrested. + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sign at Six, by Stewart Edward White + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SIGN AT SIX *** + +This file should be named sign610.txt or sign610.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, sign611.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, sign610a.txt + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Beth Trapaga +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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