"On your right is the residence of Miss Elaine Dodge, the heiress, who is pursuing the famous master criminal known as the Clutching Hand."
The barker had been grandiloquently pointing out the residences of noted New Yorkers as the big sightseeing car lumbered along through the streets. The car was filled with people and he plied his megaphone as though he were on intimate terms with all the city's notables.
No one paid any attention to the unobtrusive Chinaman who sat inconspicuously in the middle of the car. He was Mr. Long Sin, but no one saw anything particularly mysterious about an oriental visitor more or less viewing New York City.
Long was of the mandarin type, with drooping mustache, well dressed in American clothes, and conforming to the new customs of an occidentalized China.
Anyone, however, who had been watching Long Sin would have seen that he showed much interest whenever any of the wealthy residents of the city were mentioned. The name of Elaine Dodge seemed particularly to strike him. He listened with subtle interest to what the barker said and looked keenly at the Dodge house.
The sight-seeing car had passed the house, when he rose slowly and motioned that he wanted to be let off. The car stopped, he alighted and slowly rambled away, evidently marvelling greatly at the strange customs of these uncouth westerners.
Elaine was going out, when she met Perry Bennett almost on the steps of the house.
"I've brought you the watch," remarked Bennett; "thought I'd like to give it to you myself."
He displayed the watch which he himself had bought a couple of days before for her birthday. He had called for it himself at the jeweller's where it had now been regulated.
"Oh, thank you," exclaimed Elaine. "Won't you come in?"
They had scarcely greeted each other, when Long Sin strolled along. Neither of them, however, had time to notice the quiet Chinaman who passed the house, looking at Elaine sharply out of the corner of his eye. They entered and Long disappeared down the street.
"Isn't it a beauty?" cried Elaine, holding it out from her, as they entered the library and examining it with great appreciation. "And, oh, do you know, the strangest thing happened yesterday? Sometimes Mr. Kennedy acts too queerly for anything."
She related how Craig had burst in on her and Aunt Josephine and had almost torn the other watch off her wrist.
"Another watch?" repeated Bennett, amazed. "It must have been a mistake. Kennedy is crazy."
"I don't understand it, myself," murmured Elaine.
Long Sin had continued his placid way, revolving some dark and devious plan beneath his impassive Oriental countenance. He was no ordinary personage. In fact he was astute enough to have no record. He left that to his tools.
This remarkable criminal had established himself in a hired apartment downtown. It was furnished in rather elegant American style, but he had added to it some most valuable Oriental curios which gave it a fascinating appearance.
Long Sin, now in rich Oriental costume, was reclining on a divan smoking a strange looking pipe and playing with two pet white rats. Each white rat had a gold band around his leg, to which was connected a gold chain about a foot in length, and the chains ended in rings which were slipped over Long's little fingers. Ordinarily, he carried the pets up the capacious sleeve of each arm.
A servant, also in native costume, entered and bowed deferentially.
"A Miss Mary Carson," she lisped in soft English.
"Let the lady enter," waved Long Sin, with a smile of subtle satisfaction.
The girl bowed again and silently left the room, returning with a handsome, very well dressed white woman.
It would be difficult to analyze just what the fascination was thatLong Sin exercised over Mary Carson. But as the servant left the room,Mary bowed almost as deferentially as the little Chinese girl. Longmerely nodded in reply.
After a moment, he slowly rose and took from a drawer a newspaper clipping. Without a word, he handed it to Mary. She looked at it with interest, as one woman always does at the picture of another pretty woman. It was a newspaper cut of Elaine, under which was:
"Now," he began, at last, breaking the silence, "I'll show you just what I want you to do."
He went over to the wall and took down a curious long Chinese knife from a scabbard which hung there conspicuously.
"See that?" he added, holding it up.
Before she could say a word, he had plunged the knife, apparently, into his own breast.
"Oh!" cried Mary, startled.
She expected to see him fall. But nothing happened. Long Sin laughed. It was an Oriental trick knife in which the blade telescoped into the handle.
"Look at it," he added, handing it to her.
Long Sin took a bladder of water from a table nearby and concealed it under his coat. "Now, you stab me," he directed.
Mary hesitated. But he repeated the command and she plunged the knife gingerly at him. It telescoped. He made her try it over and she stabbed more resolutely. The water from the bladder poured out.
"Good!" cried Long Sin, much pleased. "Now," he added, seating himself beside her, "I want you to lure Elaine here."
Mary looked at him inquiringly as he returned the knife to its scabbard on the wall. "Remember where it is," he continued. "Now, if you will come into the other room I will show you how to get her."
I had been amusing myself by rigging up a contrivance by which I could make it possible to see through or rather over, a door. The idea had been suggested to me by the cystoscope which physicians use in order to look down one's throat, and I had calculated that by using three mirrors placed at proper angles, I could easily reflect rays down to the level of my eye.
Kennedy, who had been busy in the other end of the laboratory, happened to look over in my direction. "What's the big idea, Walter?" he asked.
It was, I admit, a rather cumbersome and clumsy affair.
"Well, you see, Craig," I explained, "you put the top mirror through the transom of a door and—"
Kennedy interrupted with a hearty burst of laughter. "But suppose the door has no transom?" he asked, pointing to our own door.
I scratched my head, thoughtfully. I had assumed that the door would have a transom. A moment later, Craig went to the cabinet and drew out a tube about as big around as a putty blower and as long.
"Now, here's what I call my detectascope," he remarked. "None of your mirrors for me."
"I know," I said somewhat nettled, "but what can you see through that putty blower? A key hole is just as good."
"Do you realize how little you can really see through a key hole?" he replied confidently. "Try it over there."
I did and to tell the truth I could see merely a little part of the hall. Then Kennedy inserted the detectascope.
"Look through that," he directed.
I put my eye to the eye-piece and gazed through the bulging lens of the other end. I could see almost the whole hall.
"That," he explained, "is what is known as a fish-eye lens—a lens that looks through an angle of some 180 degrees, almost twice that of the widest angle lens I know of."
I said nothing, but tossed my own crude invention into the corner, while Craig went back to work.
Elaine was playing with "Rusty" when Jennings brought in a card on which was engraved the name, "Miss Mary Carson," and underneath, in pencil, was written "Belgian Relief Committee."
"How interesting," commented Elaine, rising and accompanying Jennings back into the drawing room. "I wonder what she wants. Very pleased to meet you, Miss Carson," she greeted her visitor.
"You see, Miss Dodge," began Mary, "we're getting up this movement to help the Belgians and we have splendid backing. Just let me show you some of the names on our committee."
She handed Elaine a list which read:
Mrs. Warburton FishMrs. Hamilton BeekmanMrs. C. August IselmMrs. Belmont RivingtonMrs. Rupert Solvay.
"I've just been sent to see if I cannot persuade you to join the committee and attend a meeting at Mrs. Rivington's," she went on.
"Why, er," considered Elaine thoughtfully, "er—yes. It must be all right with such people in it."
"Can you go with me now?"
"Just as well as later," agreed Elaine.
They went out together, and, as they were leaving the house a man who had been loitering outside looked at Elaine, then fixedly at her companion.
No sooner had they gone than he sped off to a car waiting around the corner. In the dark depths was a sinister figure, the master criminal himself. The watcher had been an emissary of the Clutching Hand.
"Chief," he whispered eagerly, "You know Adventuress Mary? Well, she's got Elaine Dodge in tow!"
"The deuce!" cried Clutching Hand. "Then we must teach Mary Carson, or whoever she is working for, a lesson. No one shall interfere with our affairs. Follow them!"
Elaine and Mary had gone downtown, talking animatedly, and walked down the avenue toward Mrs. Rivington's apartment.
Meanwhile, Long Sin, still in his Chinese costume, was explaining to the servant just what he wished done, pointing out the dagger on the wall and replacing the bladder under his jacket. A box of opium was on the table, and he was giving most explicit directions. It was into such a web that Elaine was being unwittingly led by Mary.
Entering the hallway of the apartment, Mary rang the bell.
Long heard it. "Answer it," he directed the servant who hastened to do so, while Long glided like a serpent into a back room.
The servant opened the door and Elaine and Mary entered. He closed the door and almost before they knew locked it and was gone into the back room.
Elaine gazed about in trepidation. But before she could say anything, Mary, with a great show of surprise, exclaimed, "Why, I must have made a mistake. This isn't Mrs. Rivington's apartment. How stupid of me."
They looked at each other a moment. Then each laughed nervously, as together they started to go out of the door. It was locked!
Quickly they ran to another door. It was locked, also.
Then they went to the windows. Behind the curtains they were barred and looked out on a blank brick wall in a little court.
"Oh," cried Mary wringing her hands, stricken in mock panic, "oh, I'm so frightened. This may be the den of Chinese white slavers!"
She had picked up some Chinese articles on a table, including the box that Long had left there. It had a peculiar odor.
"Opium!" she whispered, showing it to Elaine.
The two looked at each other, Elaine genuinely worried now.
Just then, the Chinaman entered and stood a moment gazing at them. They turned and Elaine recoiled from him. Long bowed.
"Oh sir," cried Mary, "We've made a mistake. Can't you tell us how to get out?"
Long's only answer was to spread out his hands in polite deprecation and shrug his suave shoulders.
"No speke Englis," he said, gliding out again from the room and closing the door.
Elaine and Mary looked about in despair.
"What shall we do?" asked Elaine.
Mary said nothing, but with a hasty glance discovered on the wall the knife which Long had already told her about. She took it from its scabbard. As she did so the Chinaman returned with a tray on which were queer drinks and glasses.
At the sight of Mary with the knife he scowled blackly, laid the tray down, and took a few steps in her direction. She brandished the knife threateningly, then, as if her nerve failed her, fainted letting the knife fall carefully on the floor so that it struck on the handle and not on the blade.
Long quickly caught her as she fainted and carried her out of the room, banging shut the door. Elaine followed in a moment, loyally, to protect her supposed friend, but found that the door had a snap lock on the other side.
She looked about wildly and in a moment Long reappeared. As he advanced slowly and insinuatingly, she drew back, pleading. But her words fell on seemingly deaf ears.
She had picked up the knife which Mary had dropped and when at last Long maneuvred to get her cornered and was about to seize her, she nerved herself up and stabbed him resolutely.
Long staggered back—and fell.
As he did so, he pressed the bladder which he had already placed under his coat. A dark red fluid, like blood, oozed out all over him and ran in a pool on the floor.
Elaine, too horror-stricken at what had happened even to scream, dropped the knife and bent over him. He did not move. She staggered back and ran through the now open door. As she did so, Long seemed suddenly to come to life. He raised himself and looked after her, then with a subtle smile sank back into his former assumed posture on the floor.
When Elaine reached the other room, she found Mary there with theChinese servant who was giving her a glass of water. At the sight ofher, the servant paused, then withdrew into another room further back.Mary, now apparently recovering from her faintness, smiled wanly atElaine.
"It's all right," she murmured. "He is a Chinese prince who thought we were callers."
At the reassuring nod of Mary toward the front room, Elaine was overcome.
"I—I killed him!" she managed to gasp.
"What?" cried Mary, starting up and trembling violently. "You killed him?"
"Yes," sobbed Elaine, "he came at me—I had the knife—I struck at him—"
The two girls ran into the other room. There Mary looked at the motionless body on the floor and recoiled, horrified.
Elaine noticing some spots on her hands and seeing that they were stained by the blood of Long Sin, wiped the spots off on her hankerchief, dropping it on the floor.
"Ugh!" exclaimed a guttural voice behind them.
It was the servant who had come in. Even his ordinarily impassive Oriental face could not conceal the horror and fear at the sight of his master lying on the floor in a pool of gore. Elaine was now more frightened than ever, if that were possible.
"You—kill him—with knife?" insinuated the Chinese.
Elaine was dumb. The servant did not wait for an answer, but hastily opened the hall door.
To Elaine it seemed that something must be done quickly. A moment and all the house would be in uproar.
Instead, he placed his finger on his lips. "Quick—no word," he said, leading the way to the hall door, "and—you must not leave that—it will be a clue," he added, picking up the bloody handkerchief and pressing it into Elaine's hand.
They quickly ran out into the hall.
"Go—quick!" he urged again, "and hide the handkerchief in the bag. Let no one see it!"
He shut the door. As they hurried away, Elaine breathed a sigh of relief.
"Why did he let us go, though?" she whispered, her head in a whirl.
"I don't know," panted Mary, "but anyhow, thank heaven, we are out of it. Come," she added, taking Elaine's arm, "not a soul has seen us except the servant. Let us get away as quietly as we can."
They had reached the street. Afraid to run, they hurried as fast as they could until they turned the first corner.
Elaine looked back. No one was pursuing.
"We must separate," added Mary. "Let us go different ways. I will see you later. Perhaps they will think some enemy has murdered him."
They pressed each other's hands and parted.
Meanwhile in the front room, Long Sin was on his feet again brushing himself off and mopping up the blood.
"It worked very well, Sam," he said to the servant.
They were conversing eagerly and laughing and did not hear a noise in the back room.
A sinister figure had made its way by means of a fire-escape to a rear window that was not barred, and silently he had stolen in on them.
Cat-like, he advanced, but instead of striking at them, he quietly took a seat in a chair close behind them, a magazine revolver in his hand.
They turned at a slight noise and saw him. Genuine fright was now on their faces as they looked at him, open mouthed.
"What's all this?" he growled. "I am known as the Clutching Hand. I allow no interferences with my affairs. Tell me what you are doing here with Elaine Dodge."
Their beady almond eyes flashed fear. Clutching Hand moved menacingly. There was nothing for the astute Long Sin to do but to submit. Cowed by the well-known power of the master criminal, he took Clutching Hand into his confidence.
With a low bow, Long Sin spread out his hands in surrender and submission.
"I will tell you, honorable sir," he said at length.
"Go on!" growled the criminal.
Quickly Long rehearsed what had happened, from the moment the idea of blackmail had entered his head.
"How about Mary Carson?" asked Clutching Hand. "I saw her here."
Long gave a glance of almost superstitious dread at the man, as if he had an evil eye.
"She will be back—is here now," he added, opening the door at a knock and admitting her.
Adventuress Mary had hurried back to see that all was right. This time Mary was genuinely scared at the forbidding figure of which she had heard.
"It is all right," pacified Long. "Henceforth we work with the honorable Clutching Hand."
Clutching Hand continued to emphasize his demands on them, punctuating his sentences by flourishes of the gun as he gave them the signs and passwords which would enable them to work with his own emissaries.
It was a strange initiation.
At home at last, Elaine sank down into a deep library chair and stared straight ahead. She saw visions of arrest and trial, of the terrible electric chair with herself in it, bound, and of the giving of the fatal signal for turning on the current.
Were such things as these going to happen to her, without Kennedy's help? Why had they quarreled? She buried her face in her hands and wept.
Then she could stand it no longer. She had not taken off her street clothes. She rose and almost fled from the house.
Kennedy and I were still in the laboratory when a knock sounded at the door. I went to the door and opened it. There stood Elaine Dodge.
It was a complete surprise to Craig. There was silence between them for a moment and they merely looked at each other. Elaine was pale and woebegone.
At last Kennedy took a quick step toward her and led her to a chair.Still he felt a sort of constraint.
"What IS the matter?" he asked at length.
She hesitated, then suddenly burst out, "Craig—I—I am—a murderess!"
I have never seen such a look on Craig's face. I know he wanted to laugh and say, "YOU—a murderess?" yet he would not have offended even her self accusation for the world. He managed to do the right thing and say nothing.
Then she poured forth the story substantially as I have set it down, but without the explanation which at that time was not known to any of us.
"Oh," expostulated Craig, "there must be some mistake. It's impossible—impossible."
"No," she asserted. "Look—here's my handkerchief all spotted with blood."
She opened the bag and displayed the blood-spotted handkerchief. He took it and examined it carefully.
"Elaine," he said earnestly, not at all displeased, I could see that something had come up that might blot out the past unfortunate misunderstanding, "there simply must be something wrong here. Leave this handkerchief with me. I'll do my best."
There was still a little restraint between them. She was almost ready to beg his pardon, for all the coolness there had been between them, yet still hesitated.
"Thank you," she said simply as she left the laboratory.
Craig went to work abruptly without a word. On the laboratory table he placed his splendid microscope and several cases of slides as well as innumerable micro-photographs. He had been working for some time when he looked up.
"Ever hear of Dr. Edward Reichert of the University of Pennsylvania and his wonderful discoveries of how blood crystals vary in different species?" he asked.
I had not, but did not admit it.
"Well," he went on, "there is a blood test so delicate that one might almost say that he could identify a criminal by the finger prints, so to speak, of his blood crystals. The hemoglobin or red coloring matter forms crystals and the variations of these crystals both in form and molecular construction are such that they set apart every species of animal from every other, and even the races of men—perhaps may even set apart individuals. Here, Walter, we have sample of human blood crystals."
I looked through the microscope as he directed. There I could see the crystals sharply defined.
"And here," he added, "are the crystals of the blood on Elaine's handkerchief."
I looked again as he changed the slides. There was a marked difference and I looked up at him quickly.
"It is dog's blood—not human blood," he said simply.
I looked again at the two sets of slides. There could be no doubt that there was a plain difference.
"Wonderful!" I exclaimed.
"Yes—wonderful," he agreed, "but what's the game back of all this—that's the main question now."
Long after Clutching Hand had left, Long Sin was giving instructions to his servant and Adventuress Mary just how he had had to change his plans as a result of the unexpected visit.
"Very well," nodded Mary as she left him, "I will do as you say—trust me."
It was not much later, then, that Elaine received a second visit fromMary.
"Show her in, Jennings," she said to the butler nervously.
Indeed, she felt that every eye must be upon her. Even Jennings would know of her guilt soon.
Anxiously, therefore, Elaine looked at her visitor.
"Do you know why the servant allowed us to leave the apartment?" whispered Mary with a glance about fearfully, as if the walls had ears.
"No—why?" inquired Elaine anxiously.
"He's a tong man who has been chosen to do away with the Prince. He followed me, and says you have done his work for him. If you will give him ten thousand dollars for expenses, he will attend to hiding the body."
Here at least was a way out.
"But do you think that is all right? Can he do it?" asked Elaine eagerly.
"Do it? Why those tong men can do anything for money. Only one must be careful not to offend them."
Mary was very convincing.
"Yes, I suppose you are right," agreed Elaine, finally. "I had better do as you say. It is the safest way out of the trouble. Yes, I'll do it. I'll stop at the bank now and get the money."
They rose and Mary preceded her, eager to get away from the house. At the door, however, Elaine asked her to wait while she ran back on some pretext. In the library she took off the receiver of the telephone and quickly called a number.
Our telephone rang in the middle of our conversation on blood crystals and Kennedy himself answered it.
It was Elaine asking Craig's advice.
"They have offered to hush the thing up for ten thousand dollars," she said, in a muffled voice.
She seemed bent on doing it and no amount of argument from him could stop her. She simply refused to accept the evidence of the blood crystals as better than what her own eyes told her she had seen and done.
"Then wait for half an hour," he answered, without arguing further. "You can do that without exciting suspicion. Go with her to her hotel and hand her over the money."
"All right—I'll do it," she agreed.
"What is the hotel?"
Craig wrote on a slip of paper what she told him—"Room 509, Hotel LaCoste."
"Good—I'm glad you called me. Count on me," he finished as he hung up the receiver.
Hastily he threw on his street coat. "Go into the back room and get me that brace and bit, Walter," he asked.
I did so. When I returned, I saw that he had placed the detectascope and some other stuff in a bag. He shoved in the brace and bit also.
"Come on—hurry!" he urged.
We must have made record time in getting to the Coste. It was an ornate place, where merely to breathe was expensive. We entered and by some excuse Kennedy contrived to get past the vigilant bellhops. We passed the telephone switchboard and entered the elevator, getting off at the fifth floor.
With a hasty glance up and down the corridor, to make sure no one was about, Kennedy came to room 509, then passed to the next, 511, opening the door with a skeleton key. We entered and Craig locked the door behind us. It was an ordinary hotel room, but well-furnished. Fortunately it was unoccupied.
Quietly Craig went to the door which led to the next room. It was, of course, locked also. He listened a moment carefully. Not a sound. Quickly, with an exclamation of satisfaction, he opened that door also and went into 509.
This room was much like that in which we had already been. He opened the hall door.
"Watch here, Walter," he directed, "Let me know at the slightest alarm."
Craig had already taken the brace and bit from the bag and started to bore through the wall into room 511, selecting a spot behind a picture of a Spanish dancer—a spot directly back of her snapping black eyes. He finished quickly and inserted the detectascope so that the lens fitted as an eye in the picture. The eye piece was in Room 511. Then he started to brush up the pieces of plaster on the floor.
"Craig," I whispered hastily as I heard an elevator door, "someone's coming!"
He hurried to the door and looked. "There they are," he said, as we sawElaine and Mary rounding the corner of the hall.
Across the hall, although we did not know it at the time, in room 540, already, Long Sin had taken up his station, just to be handy. There he had been with his servant, playing with his two trained white rats.
Long placed them up his capacious sleeves and carefully opened the door to look out. Unfortunately he, was just in time to see the door of 509 open and disclose us.
His subtle glance detected our presence without our knowing it.
Hastily picking up the brace and bit and the rest of the debris, and with a last look at the detectascope, which was hardly noticeable, even if one already knew it was there, we hurried into 511 and shut the door.
Kennedy mounted a chair and applied his eye to the detectascope. Just then Mary and Elaine entered the next room, Mary opening the door with a regular key.
"Won't you step in?" she asked.
Elaine did so and Mary hesitated in the hall. Long Sin had slipped out on noiseless feet and taken refuge behind some curtains. As he saw her alone, he beckoned to Mary.
"There's a stranger in the next room," he whispered. "I don't like him. Take the money and as quickly as possible get out and go to my apartment."
At the news that there was a suspicious stranger about, Mary showed great alarm. Everything was so rapid, now, that the slightest hesitation meant disaster. Perhaps, by quickness, even a suspicious stranger could be fooled, she reasoned. At any rate, Long Sin was resourceful. She had better trust him.
Mary followed Elaine into the room, where she had seated herself already, and locked the door.
"Have you the money there?" she asked.
"Yes," nodded Elaine, taking out the package of bills which she had got from the bank during the half hour delay.
All this we could see by gazing alternately through the detectascope.
Elaine handed Mary the money. Mary counted it slowly. At last she looked up.
"It's all right," she said. "Now, I'll take this to that tong leader—he's in a room only just across the hall."
She went out.
Kennedy at the detectascope was very excited as this went on. He now jumped off the chair on which he had been standing and rushed to the door to head her off.
To our surprise, in spite of the fact that we could turn the key in the lock, it was impossible to open it!
It was only a moment that Craig paused at the door. The next moment he burst into 509, followed closely by me.
With a scream, Elaine was on her feet in an instant.
There was no time for explanations, however.
He rushed to the door to go out, but it was locked—somehow, on the outside. The skeleton key would not work, at any rate.
He shot the lock, and dashed out, calling back, "Walter, stay there—with Elaine."
Mary had just succeeded in getting on the elevator as Kennedy hurried down the hall. The door was closed and the car descended. He rang the push bell furiously, but there was no answer.
Had he got so far in the chase, only to be outwitted?
He dashed back to the room, with us, and jerked down the telephone receiver.
"Hello—hello—hello!" he called.
No answer.
There seemed to be no way to get a connection. What was the matter?
He hurried down the hall again.
No sooner had Elaine and Mary actually gone into the room, than Long and his servant stole out of 540, across the hall. Somewhere they had obtained a strong but thin rope.
Quickly and silently Long tied the handle of the door 511 in which we were to the handle of 540 which he was vacating. As both doors opened inward and were opposite, they were virtually locked.
Then Long and his servant hurried down the hallway to the elevator.
Down in the hotel lobby, with his followers, the Chinaman paused before the telephone switchboard where two girls were at work.
"You may go," ordered Long, and, as his man left, he moved over closer to the switchboard.
He was listening eagerly and also watching an indicator that told the numbers of the rooms which called, as they flashed into view.
Just as a call from "509" flashed up, Long slipped the rings off his little fingers and loosened the white rats on the telephone switchboard itself.
With a shriek, the telephone system of the Coste went temporarily out of business.
The operators fled to the nearest chairs, drawing their skirts about them.
There was the greatest excitement among all the women in the corridor. Such a display of hosiery was never contemplated by even the most daring costumers.
Shouts from the bellboys who sought to catch the rats who scampered hither and thither in frightened abandon mingled with the shrieks of the ladies.
Kennedy had succeeded in finding the alcove of the floor clerk in charge of the fifth floor. There on his desk was an instrument having a stylus on the end of two arms, connected to a system of magnets. It was a telautograph.
Unceremoniously, Craig pushed the clerk out of his seat and sat down himself. It was a last chance, now that the telephone was out of commission.
Downstairs, in the hotel office, where the excitement had not spread to everyone, was the other end of the electric long distance writer.
It started to write, as Kennedy wrote, upstairs:
The clerks downstairs saw it and shouted above the din of the rat-baiting.
"McCann—McCann!"
The clerk had torn off the message from the telautograph register, and handed it to the house man who pushed his way to the desk.
Quickly the detective called to the bell-hops. Together they hurried after the well-dressed woman who had just swept out of the elevator. Mary had already passed through the excited lobby and out, and was about to cross the street—safe.
McCann and the bell-hops were now in full cry after her. Flight was useless. She took refuge in indignation and threats.
But McCann was obdurate. She passed quickly to tears and pleadings. It had no effect. They insisted on leading her back. The game was up.
Even an offer of money failed to move their adamantine hearts. Nothing would do but that she must face her accusers.
In the meantime Long Sin had recovered his precious and useful pets. Life in the Coste had assumed something of its normal aspect, and Craig had succeeded in getting an elevator.
It was just as Mary was led in threatening and pleading by turns that he stepped off in the lobby.
There was, however, still just enough excitement to cover a little pantomime. Long Sin had been about to slip out of a side door, thinking all was well, when he caught sight of Mary being led back. She had also seen him, and began to struggle again.
Quickly he shook his head, indicating for her to stop. Then slowly he secretly made the sign of the Clutching Hand at her. It meant that she must not snitch.
She obeyed instantly, and he quietly disappeared.
"Here," cried Kennedy, "take her up in the elevator. I'll prove the case."
With the house detective and Kennedy, Mary was hustled into the elevator and whisked back as she had escaped.
In the meantime I had gathered up what stuff we had in the room we had entered and had returned with Kennedy's bag.
"Wh—what's it all about?" inquired Elaine excitedly.
I tried to explain.
Just then, out in the hall we could hear loud voices, and that of Mary above the rest. Kennedy, a man who looked like a detective, and some bell-boys were leading her toward us.
"Now—not a word of who she is in the papers, McCann," Kennedy was saying, evidently about Elaine. "You know it wouldn't sound well for La Coste. As for that woman—well, I've got the money back. You can take her off—make the charge."
As the house man left with Mary, I handed Craig his bag. We moved toward the door, and as we stood there a moment with Elaine, he quietly handed over to her the big roll of bills.
She took it, with surprise still written in her big blue eyes. "Oh—thank you—I might have known it was only a blackmail scheme," she cried eagerly.
Craig held out his hand and she took it quickly, gazing into his eyes. Craig bowed politely, not quite knowing what to do under the circumstances.
If he had been less of a scientist, he might have understood the look on her face, but, with a nod to me, he turned, and went.
As she looked first at him, then at the paltry ten thousand in her hand, Elaine stamped her little foot in vexation.
"I'm glad I DIDN'T say anything more," she cried. "No—no—he shall beg my pardon first—there!"
Elaine was seated in the drawing room with Aunt Josephine one afternoon, when her lawyer, Perry Bennett, dropped in unexpectedly.
He had hardly greeted them when the butler, Jennings, in his usual impassive manner announced that Aunt Josephine was wanted on the telephone.
No sooner were Elaine and Bennett alone, than Elaine, turning to him, exclaimed impulsively, "I'm so glad you have come. I have been longing to see you and to tell you about a strange dream I have had."
"What was it?" he asked, with instant interest.
Leaning back in her chair and gazing before her tremulously, Elaine continued, "Last night, I dreamed that father came to me and told me that if I would give up Kennedy and put my trust in you, I would find the Clutching Hand. I don't know what to think of it."
Bennett, who had been listening intently, remained silent for a few moments. Then, putting down his tea cup, he moved over nearer to Elaine and bent over her.
"Elaine," he said in a low tone, his remarkable eyes looking straight into her own, "you must know that I love you. Then give me the right to protect you. It was your father's dearest wish, I believe, that we should marry. Let me share your dangers and I swear that sooner or later there will be an end to the Clutching Hand. Give me your answer, Elaine," he urged, "and make me the happiest man in all the world."
Elaine listened, and not unsympathetically, as Bennett continued to plead for her answer.
"Wait a little while—until to-morrow," she replied finally, as if overcome by the recollections of her weird dream and the unexpected sequel of his proposal.
"Let it be as you wish, then," agreed Bennett quietly.
He took her hand and kissed it passionately.
An instant later Aunt Josephine returned. Elaine, unstrung by what had happened, excused herself and went into the library.
She sank into one of the capacious arm chairs, and passing her hand wearily over her throbbing forehead, closed her eyes in deep thought. Involuntarily, her mind travelled back over the rapid succession of events of the past few weeks and the part that she had thought, at least, Kennedy had come to play in her life.
Then she thought of their recent misunderstanding. Might there not be some simple explanation of it, after all, which she had missed? What should she do?
She solved the problem by taking up the telephone and asking forKennedy's number.
I was chatting with Craig in his laboratory, and, at the same time, was watching him in his experimental work. Just as a call came on the telephone, he was pouring some nitro-hydrochloric acid into a test tube to complete a reaction.
The telephone tinkled and he laid down the bottle of acid on his desk, while he moved a few steps to answer the call.
Whoever the speaker was, Craig seemed deeply interested, and, not knowing who was talking on the wire, I was eager to learn whether it was anyone connected with the case of the Clutching Hand.
"Yes, this is Mr. Kennedy," I heard Craig say.
I moved over toward him and whispered eagerly, "Is there anything new?"
A little impatient at being interrupted, Kennedy waved me off. It occurred to me that he might need a pad and pencil to make a note of some information and I reached over the desk for them.
As I did so my arm inadvertently struck the bottle of acid, knocking it over on the top of the desk. Its contents streamed out saturating the telephone wires before I could prevent it. In trying to right the bottle my hand came in contact with the acid which burned like liquid fire, and I cried out in pain.
Craig hastily laid down the receiver, seized me and rushed me to the back of the laboratory where he drenched my hand with a neutralizing liquid.
He bound up the wounds caused by the acid, which proved to be slight, after all, and then returned to the telephone.
To his evident annoyance, he discovered that the acid had burned through the wires and cut off all connection.
Though I did not know it, my hand was, in a sense at least, the hand of fate.
At the other end of the line, Elaine was listening impatiently for a response to her first eager words of inquiry. She was astounded to find, at last, that Kennedy had apparently left the telephone without any explanation or apology.
"Why—he rang off," she exclaimed angrily to herself, as she hung up the receiver and left the room.
She rejoined her Aunt Josephine and Bennett who had been chatting together in the drawing room, still wondering at the queer rebuff she had, seemingly, experienced.
Bennett rose to go, and, as he parted from Elaine, found an opportunity to whisper a few words reminding her of her promised reply on the morrow.
Piqued, at Kennedy, she flashed Bennett a meaning glance which gave him to understand that his suit was not hopeless.
In the center of a devious and winding way, quite unknown to all except those who knew the innermost secrets of the Chinese quarter and even unknown to the police, there was a dingy tenement house, apparently inhabited by hardworking Chinamen, but in reality the headquarters of the notorious devil worshippers, a sect of Satanists, banned even in the Celestial Empire.
The followers of the cult comprised some of the most dangerous Chinese criminals, thugs, and assassins, besides a number of dangerous characters who belonged to various Chinese secret societies. At the head of this formidable organization was Long Sin, the high priest of the Devil God, and Long Sin had, as we knew, already joined forces with the notorious Clutching Hand.
The room in which the uncanny rites of the devil worshippers were conducted was a large apartment decorated in Chinese style, with highly colored portraits of some of the devil deities and costly silken hangings. Beside a large dais depended a huge Chinese gong.
On the dais itself stood, or rather sat, an ugly looking figure covered with some sort of metallic plating. It almost seemed to be the mummy of a Chinaman covered with gold leaf. It was thin and shrunken, entirely nude.
Into this room came Long Sin attired in an elaborate silken robe. He advanced and kowtowed before the dais with its strange figure, and laid down an offering before it, consisting of punk sticks, little dishes of Chinese cakes, rice, a jar of oil, and some cooked chicken and pork. Then he bowed and kowtowed again.
This performance was witnessed by twenty or thirty Chinamen who knelt in the rear of the room. As Long Sin finished his devotions they filed past the dais, bowing and scraping with every sign of abject reverence both for the devil deity and his high priest.
At the same time an aged Chinaman carrying a prayer wheel entered the place and after prostrating himself devoutedly placed the machine on a sort of low stool or tabourette and began turning it slowly, muttering. Each revolution of this curious wheel was supposed to offer a prayer to the god of the netherworld.
A few moments later, Long Sin, who had been bowing before the metallic figure in deepest reverence, suddenly sprang to his feet. His glazed eye and excited manner indicated that he had received a message from the lips of the strange idol.
The worshippers who had prostrated themselves in awe at the sight of their high priest in the unholy frenzy, all rose to their feet and crowded forward. At the same time Long Sin advanced a step to meet them, holding his arms outstretched as if to compel silence while he delivered his message.
Long Sin struck several blows on the resounding gong and then raised his voice in solemn tones.
"Ksing Chau, the Terrible, demands a consort. She is to be foreign—fair of face and with golden hair."
Amazed at this unexpected message, the Chinamen prostrated themselves again and their unhallowed devotions terminated a few moments later amid suppressed excitement as they filed out.
At the same time, in a room of the adjoining house, the Clutching Hand himself was busily engaged making the most elaborate preparations for some nefarious scheme which his fertile mind had evolved.
The room had been fitted up as a medium's seance parlor, with black hangings on the walls, while at one side there was a square cabinet of black cloth, with a guitar lying before it.
Two of the Clutching Hand's most trusted confederates and a hard-faced woman of middle age, dressed in plain black, were putting the finishing touches to this apartment, when their Chief entered.
Clutching Hand gazed about the room, now and then giving an order or two to make more effective the setting for the purpose which he had in mind.
Finally he nodded in approval and stepped over to the fire place where logs were burning brightly in a grate.
Pressing a spring in the mantelpiece, the master criminal effected an instant transformation. The logs in the fireplace, still burning, disappeared immediately through the side of the brick tiling and a metal sheet covered them. An aperture opened at the back, as if by magic.
Through this opening Clutching Hand made his way quickly and disappeared.
Emerging on the other side of the peculiar fireplace, Clutching Hand pushed aside a curtain which barred the way and looked into the Chinese temple, taking up a position behind the metallic figure on the dais.
The Chinamen had by this time finished their devotions, if such they might be called, and the last one was leaving, while Long Sin stood alone on the dais.
The noise of the departing Satanists had scarcely died away whenClutching Hand stepped out.
"Follow me," he ordered hoarsely seizing Long Sin by the arm and leading him away.
They passed through the passageway of the fireplace and, having entered the seance room, Clutching Hand began briefly explaining the purpose of the preparations that had been made. Long Sin wagged his head in voluble approval.
As Clutching Hand finished, the Chinaman turned to the hard-faced woman who was to act the part of medium and added some directions to those Clutching Hand had already given.
The medium nodded acquiescence, and a moment later, left the room to carry out some ingenious plot framed by the master mind of the criminal world.
. . . . . . . .
Elaine was standing in the library gazing sadly at Kennedy's portrait, thinking over recent events and above all the rebuff over the telephone which she supposed she had received.
It all seemed so unreal to her. Surely, she felt in her heart, she could not have been so mistaken in the man. Yet the facts seemed to speak for themselves.
In spite of it all, she was almost about to kiss the portrait when something seemed to stay her hands. Instead she laid the picture down, with a sigh.
A moment later, Jennings entered with a card on a salver. Elaine took it and saw with surprise the name of her caller:
Beneath the engraved name were the words written in ink, "I have a message from the spirit of your father."
"Yes, I will see her," cried Elaine eagerly, in response to the butler's inquiry.
She followed Jennings into the adjoining room and there found herself face to face with the hard-featured woman who had only a few moments before left the Clutching Hand.
Elaine looked rather than spoke her inquiry.
"Your father, my dear," purred the medium with a great pretence of suppressed excitement, "appeared to me, the other night, from the spirit world. I was in a trance and he asked me to deliver a message to you."
"What was the message?" asked Elaine breathlessly, now aroused to intense interest.
"I must go into a trance again to get it," replied the insinuating Savetsky, "and if you like I can try it at once, provided we can be left alone long enough."
"Please—don't wait," urged Elaine, pulling the portieres of the doors closer, as if that might insure privacy.
Seated in her chair, the medium muttered wildly for a few moments, rolled her eyes and with some convulsive movements pretended to go into a trance.
Savetsky seemed about to speak and Elaine, in the highest state of nervous tension, listened, trying to make something of the gibberish mutterings.
Suddenly the curtains were pushed aside and Aunt Josephine and Bennett, who had just come in, entered.
"I can do nothing here," exclaimed Savetsky, starting up and looking about severely. "You must come to my seance chamber where we shall not be interrupted."
"I will," cried Elaine, vexed at the intrusion at that moment. "I must have that message—I must."
"What's all this, Elaine?" demanded Aunt Josephine.
Hurriedly, Elaine poured forth to her aunt and Bennett the story of the medium's visit and the promised message from her father in the other world.
Aunt Josephine, who was not one easily to be imposed on, strongly objected to Elaine's proposal to accompany Savetsky to the seance chamber, but Elaine would not be denied. She pleaded with her aunt, urging that she be allowed to go.
"It might be safe for Elaine to go," Bennett finally suggested to AuntJosephine, "if you and I accompanied her."
All this time the medium was listening closely to the conversation. Elaine looked at her inquiringly. With a shrug, she indicated that she had no objection to having Elaine escorted to the parlor by her friends.
At last Aunt Josephine, influenced by Elaine's pleadings and Bennett's suggestion, gave in and agreed to join in the visit.
A few moments later, in the Dodge car, Elaine, the medium, and her two escorts started for the Chinese quarter.
. . . . . . . .
At the house, the medium opened the door with her key and ushered in her three visitors.
Long Sin who had been watching for their arrival from the window now hastily withdrew from the seance room and disappeared behind the black curtains.
Entering the room the medium at once prepared for the seance by pulling down the window shades. Then she seated herself in a chair beside the cabinet, and appeared to fall off slowly into a trance.
Her strange proceedings were watched with the greatest curiosity by Elaine as well as Aunt Josephine and Bennett, who had taken seats placed at one side of the room.
The room itself was dimly lighted, and the curtains of the cabinet seemed, in the obscurity, to sway back and forth as if stirred by some ghostly breeze.
All of them were now quite on edge with excitement.
Suddenly an indistinct face was seen to be peering through the black curtains, as it were.
The guitar, as if lifted by an invisible hand, left the cabinet, floated about close to the ceiling, and returned again. It was eerie.
At last a voice, deep, sepulchral, was heard in slow and solemn tones.
"I am Eeko—the spirit of Taylor Dodge. I will give no message until one named Josephine leaves the room."
No sooner had the words been uttered than the medium came writhing out of her trance.
"What happened?" she asked, looking at Elaine.
Elaine reported the spirit's words.
"We can get nothing if your Aunt stays here," Savetsky added, insisting that Aunt Josephine must go. "Your father cannot speak while she is present."
Aunt Josephine, annoyed by what she had heard, indignantly refused to go and was deaf to all Elaine's pleadings.
"I think it will be all right," finally acquiesced Bennett, seeing how bent Elaine was on securing the message. "I'll stay and protect her."
Aunt Josephine finally agreed. "Very well, then," she protested, marching out of the room in a high state of indignation.
She had scarcely left the house, however, when she began to suspect that all was not as it ought to be. In fact, the idea had no sooner occurred to her than she decided to call on Kennedy and she ordered the chauffeur to take her as quickly as possible to the laboratory.
. . . . . . . .
Kennedy had not been in the laboratory all the day, after my experience with the acid and I was impatiently awaiting his arrival. At last there came a knock at the door and I opened it hurriedly. There was a messenger boy who handed me a note. I tore it open. It was from Kennedy and read, "I shall probably be away for two or three days. Call up Elaine and tell her to beware of a certain Madame Savetsky."
I was still puzzling over the note and was just about to call up Elaine when the speaking tube was blown and to my surprise I found it was Aunt Josephine who had called.
"Where is Mr. Kennedy?" she asked, greatly agitated.
"He has gone away for a few days," I replied blankly. "Is there anything I can do?"
She was very excited and hastily related what had happened at the parlor of the medium.
"What was her name?" I asked anxiously.
"Madame Savetsky," she replied, to my surprise.
Astounded, I picked up Craig's note from the desk and handed it to her without a word. She read it with breathless eagerness.
"Come back there with me, please," she begged, almost frantic with fear now. "Something terrible may have happened."
. . . . . . . .
Aunt Josephine had hardly left Savetsky when the trance was resumed and, in a few minutes, there came all sorts of supernatural manifestations. The table beside Elaine began to turn and articles on it dropped to the floor. Violent rappings followed in various parts of the room. Both Elaine and Bennett who sat together in silence were much impressed by the marvellous phenomena—not being able to see, in the darkness, the concealed wires that made them possible.
Suddenly, from the mysterious shadows of the cabinet, there appeared the spirit of Long Sin, whose death Elaine still believed she had caused when Adventuress Mary had lured her to the apartment.
Elaine was trembling with fear at the apparition.
As before, a strange voice sounded in the depths of the cabinet and again a message was heard, in low, solemn tones.
"I am Keka, and I have with me Long Sin. His blood cries for vengeance."
Elaine was overcome with horror at the words.
From the cabinet ran a thick stream of red, like blood, from which she recoiled, shuddering.
Then a dim, ghostly figure, apparently that of Long Sin, appeared. The face was horribly distorted. It seemed to breathe the very odor of the grave.
With arms outstretched, the figure glided from the cabinet and approached Elaine. She shrank back further in fright, too horrified even to scream.
At the same moment, the medium drew a vapor pistol from her dress, and, as the ghost of Long Sin leaped at Elaine, Savetsky darted forward and shot a stream of vapor full in Bennett's face.
Bennett dropped unconscious, the lights in the darkened room flashed up, and several of the men of the Clutching Hand rushed in.
Quickly the fireplace was turned on its cleverly constructed hinges, revealing the hidden passage.
Before any effective resistance could be made, Elaine and Bennett were hustled through the passage, securely bound, and placed on a divan in a curtained chamber back of the altar of the devil worshippers.
There they lay when Long Sin, now in his priestly robes, entered. He looked at them a moment. Then he left the room with a sinister laugh.
. . . . . . . .
It was at that moment that I, little dreaming of what had been taking place, arrived with Aunt Josephine at the house of the medium.
She answered my ring and admitted us. To our surprise, the seance room was empty.
"Where is the young lady who was here?" I asked.
"Miss Dodge and the gentleman just left a few minutes ago," the medium explained, as we looked about.
She seemed eager to satisfy us that Elaine was not there. Apparently there was no excuse for disputing her word, but, as we turned to leave, I happened to notice a torn handkerchief lying on the floor near the fireplace. It flashed over me that perhaps it might afford a clue.
As I passed it, I purposely dropped my soft hat over it and picked up the hat, securing the handkerchief without attracting Savetsky's attention.
Aunt Josephine was keen now for returning home to find out whether Elaine was there or not. No sooner had she entered the car and driven off, than I examined the handkerchief. It was torn, as if it had been crushed in the hand during a struggle and wrenched away. I looked closer. In the corner was the initial, "E."
That was enough. Without losing another precious moment I hurried around to the nearest police station, where I happened to be known, having had several assignments for the Star in that part of the city, and gave an alarm.
The sergeant detailed several roundsmen, and a man in plainclothes, and together we returned to the house, laying a careful plan to surround it secretly, while the plainclothesman and I obtained admittance.
. . . . . . . .
Meanwhile, the Chinese devil worshippers had again gathered in their cursed temple and Long Sin, in his priestly robe, appeared on the dais.
The worshippers kowtowed reverently to him, while at the back again stood the aged Chinaman patiently turning his prayer wheel.
Two braziers, or smoke pots, had been placed on the dais, one of whichLong Sin touched with a stick causing it to burst out into dense fumes.
Standing before them, he chanted in nasal tones, "The white consort of the great Ksing Chau has been found. It is his will that she now be made his."
As he finished intoning the message, Long Sin signaled to two youngChinamen to go into the anteroom. A moment later they returned withElaine.
Frightened though she was, Elaine made no attempt to struggle, even when they had cut her bonds. She was busily engaged in seeking some method of escape. Her eyes travelled ever the place quickly. Apparently, there was no means of exit that was not guarded. Long Sin saw her look, and smiled quietly.
They had carried her up to the dais, and now Long Sin faced her and sternly ordered her to kowtow to the gruesome metallic figure.
She refused, but instantly the Chinamen seized her arm and twisted it, until they had compelled her to fall to her knees.
Having forced her to kowtow, Long Sin turned to the assembled devil dancers.
"With magic and rare drugs," he chanted, "she shall be made to pass beyond and her body encased in precious gold shall be the consort of Ksing Chau—forever and ever."
He made another sign and several pots and braziers were brought out and placed on the dais beside Elaine. She was, by this time, completely overcome by the horror of the situation. There was apparently no escape.
With callous deviltry, the oriental satanists had made every arrangement for embalming and preserving the body of Elaine. Pots filled with sticky black material were slowly heated, amid weird incantations, while other Chinamen laid out innumerable sheets of gold leaf.
At last all seemed to be in readiness to proceed.
"Hold her," ordered Long Sin in guttural Chinese to the two attendants, as he approached her.
Long Sin held in his hand a small, profusely decorated pot from which smoke was escaping. As he approached he passed this receptacle under her nose once, twice, three times.
Gradually Elaine fell into unconsciousness.
. . . . . . . .
While Elaine was facing death in the power of the devil worshippers, I had reached the house of Savetsky next door with the police, and the place had been quietly surrounded.
With the plainclothesman, a daring and intelligent fellow, I went to the door and rang the bell.
"What can I do for you?" asked the medium, admitting us.