The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Voice on the Wire, by Eustace Hale Ball

Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.

This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  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 Voice on the Wire

Author: Eustace Hale Ball

Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5672]
[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
[This file was first posted on August 7, 2002]
[Date last updated: July 10, 2004]

Edition: 10

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VOICE ON THE WIRE ***








THE VOICE ON THE WIRE





CHAPTER I

WHEN THREE IS A MYSTERY



"Mr. Shirley is waiting for you in the grill-room, sir.  Just
step this way, sir, and down the stairs."

The large man awkwardly followed the servant to the cosey
grill-room on the lower floor of the club house.  He felt that
every man of the little groups about the Flemish tables must be
saying: "What's he doing here?"

"I wish Monty Shirley would meet me once in a while in the back
room of a ginmill, where I'd feel comfortable," muttered the
unhappy visitor.  "This joint is too classy.  But that's his game
to play--"

He reached the sought-for one, however, and exclaimed eagerly:
"By Jiminy, Monty.  I'm glad to find you--it would have been my
luck after this day, to get here too late."

He was greeted with a grip that made even his generous hand
wince, as the other arose to smile a welcome.

"Hello, Captain Cronin.  You're a good sight for a grouchy man's
eyes!  Sit down and confide the brand of your particular favorite
poison to our Japanese Dionysius!"

The Captain sighed with relief, as he obeyed.

"Bar whiskey is good enough for an old timer like me.  Don't
tell me you have the blues--your face isn't built that way!"

"Gospel truth, Captain.  I've been loafing around this club
--nothing to do for a month.  Bridge, handball, highballs, and
yarns!  I'm actually a nervous wreck because my nerves haven't
had any work to do!"

"You're the healthiest invalid I've seen since the hospital days
in the Civil War.  But don't worry about something to do.  I've
some job now.  It's dolled up with all them frills you like:
millions, murders and mysteries!  If this don't keep you awake,
you'll have nightmares for the next six months.  Do you want it?"

"I'm tickled to death.  Spill it!"

"Monty, it's the greatest case my detective agency has had since
I left the police force eleven years ago.  It's too big for me,
and I've come to you to do a stunt as is a stunt.  You will plug
it for me, won't you--just as you've always done?  If I get the
credit, it'll mean a fortune to me in the advertising alone."

"Haven't I handled every case for you in confidence.  I'm not a
fly-cop, Captain Cronin.  I'm a consulting specialist, and
there's no shingle hung out.  Perhaps you had better take it to
some one else."

Shirley pushed away his empty glass impatiently.

"There, Monty, I didn't mean to offend you.  But there's such
swells in this and such a foxey bunch of blacklegs, that I'm as
nervous as a rookie cop on his first arrest.  Don't hold a grudge
against me."

Shirley lit a cigarette and resumed his good nature: "Go on,
Captain.  I'm so stale with dolce far niente, after the Black
Pearl affair last month, that I act like an amateur myself.  Make
it short, though, for I'm going to the opera."

The Captain leaned over the table, his face tense with suppressed
emotion.  He was a grizzled veteran of the New York police force:
a man who sought his quarry with the ferocity of a bull-dog, when
the line of search was definitely assured.  Lacking imagination
and the subtler senses of criminology, Captain Cronin had built
up a reputation for success and honesty in every assignment by
bravery, persistence, and as in this case, the ability to cover
his own deductive weakness by employing the brains of others.

Montague Shirley was as antithetical from the veteran detective
as a man could well be.  A noted athlete in his university, he
possessed a society rating in New York, at Newport and Tuxedo,
and on the Continent which was the envy of many a gilded youth
born to the purple.

On leaving college, despite an ample patrimony, he had curiously
enough entered the lists as a newspaper man.  From the sporting
page he was graduated to police news, then the city desk, at last
closing his career as the genius who invented the weekly Sunday
thriller, in many colors of illustration and vivacious Gallic
style which interpreted into heart throbs and goose-flesh the
real life romances and tragedies of the preceding six days!  He
had conquered the paper-and-ink world--then deep within there
stirred the call for participation in the game itself.

So, dropping quietly into the apparently indolent routine of club
existence, he had devoted his experience and genius to analytical
criminology--a line of endeavor known only to five men in the
world.

He maintained no offices.  He wore no glittering badges: a police
card, a fire badge, and a revolver license, renewed year after
year, were the only instruments of his trade ever in evidence.
Shirley took assignments only from the heads of certain agencies,
by personal arrangement as informal as this from Captain Cronin.
His real clients never knew of his participation, and his prey
never understood that he had been the real head-hunter!

His fees--Montague Shirley, as a master craftsman deemed his
artistry worthy of the hire.  His every case meant a modest
fortune to the detective agency and Shirley's bills were never
rendered, but always paid!

So, here, the hero of the gridiron and the class re-union,
the gallant of a hundred pre-matrimonial and non-maturing
engagements, the veteran of a thousand drolleries and merry
jousts in clubdom--unspoiled by birth, breeding and wealth,
untrammeled by the juggernaut of pot-boiling and the
salary-grind, had drifted into the curious profession of
confidential, consulting criminal chaser.

Shirley unostentatiously signaled for an encore on the
refreshments.

"You're nervous to-night, Captain.  You've been doing things
before you consulted me--which is against our Rule Number One,
isn't it?"

The Captain gulped down his whiskey, and rubbed his forehead.

"Couldn't help it, Monty.  It got too busy for me, before I
realized anything unusual in the case.  See what I got from a
gangster before I landed here."

He turned his close-cropped head, as Montague Shirley leaned
forward to observe an abrasion at the base of his skull.  It
was dressed with a coating of collodion.

"Brass knuckled--I see the mark of the rings.  Tried for the
pneumogastric nerves, to quiet you."

"Whatever he tried for he nearly got.  Kelly's nightstick got
his pneumonia gas jet, or whatever you call it.  He's still
quiet, in the station house--You know old man Van Cleft, who
owns sky-scrapers down town, don't you?--Well, he's the center
of this flying wedge of excitement.  His family are fine people,
I understand.  His daughter was to be married next week.  Monty,
that wedding'll be postponed, and old Van Cleft won't worry over
dispossess papers for his tenants for the rest of the winter.
See?"

"Killed?"

"Correct.  He's done, and I had a hell of a time getting the body
home, before the coroner and the police reporters got on the
trail."

Shirley lowered his high-ball glass, with an earnest stare.

"What was the idea?"

"Robbery, of course.  His son had me on the case--'phoned from
the garage where the chauffeur brought the body; after he saw the
old man unconscious.  Just half an hour before he had left his
office in the same machine, after taking five thousand dollars in
cash from his manager."

"Who was with him?"

"Now, that's getting to brass tacks.  When I gets that C.Q.D.
from Van Cleft, I finds the young fellow inside the ring of
rubbernecks, blubbering over the old man, where he lies on the
floor of the taxi--looking soused."

"He was a notorious old sport about town, Captain."

"Sure--and I thinks, it sorter serves him right.  But, that's his
funeral, not mine.  Van Cleft, junior, says to me: 'There's the
girl that was with him.'"

"Where was the girl?"

"She was sitting on a stool, near the car, a little blonde chorus
chicken, shaking and twitching, while the chauffeur and the
garage boss held her up.  I says, 'What's this?' and Van Cleft
tells me all he knows, which ain't nothing.  Them guys in that
garage was wise, for it meant a cold five hundred apiece before I
left to keep their lids closed.  Van Cleft begs me to hustle the
old man home, so one of my men takes her down to my office, still
a sniffling, and acting like she had the D.T.'s.  The young
fellow shook like a leaf, but we takes him over to Central Park
East, to the family mansion,--carrying him up the steps like he
was drunk.  We gets him into his own bed, and keeps the sister
from touching his clammy hands, while she orders the family
doctor.  When he gets there on the jump, I gives him the wink and
leads him to one side.  'Doc,' I says, 'you know how to write out
a death certificate, to hush this up from your end.  I've done
the rest.'"

Captain Cronin leaned forward, a queer excitement agitating him.

"Do you know what that doctor says to me, Monty?"

Shirley shook his head.

He says; "My God, it's the third!"

Shirley's white hand gripped the edge of the table.  "The Van
Cleft's doctor is one of the greatest surgeons in the country,
Professor MacDonald of the Medical College.  He said that?"

"He did.  I answers, 'Whadd'y mean the third?'  Then he looks me
straight in the eye, and sings back, 'None of your business.'"
Cronin shook his head.  "I never seen a man with a squarer look,
and yet he has me guessing.  I goes back to the garage, over past
Eighth Avenue, you know, where two johns come up along side o'
me.  One rubs me with his elbow and the other applies that brass
knuckle,--then they gets pinched.  I got dressed up in a drug
store, got the chauffeur's license number, and goes on down to my
office to see this girl.  She's hysterical about his family using
all their money to put her in jail.  I looks at her, and says,
'You won't need their money to get to jail.  That old man's
dead!'  Her eyes was as big as saucers.  'I thought old Daddy Van
Cleft was drunk.' I tells her, 'He was dead in that taxi, with a
chorus girl, and a roll of bills gone.  What you got to say?'
She staggers forward and clutches my coat, and what do you think
SHE says to me?"

Shirley made the inquiry only with his eyes, puffing his
cigarette slowly.

"She looks sorter green, and repeats after me: 'Dead, with a
chorus girl, and a roll of bills gone,'--just like a parrot.
Then she springs this on me: 'My God, it's the third!'"

Shirley dropped his cigarette, leaning forward, all nonchalance
gone.

"Where is she now?  Quick, let's go to her."

He rose to his feet.  Just then a door-boy walked through the
grill-room toward him.  "A telephone call for Captain Cronin,
sir; the party said hurry or he would miss something good."

Shirley snapped out, "When has the rule about telephone calls in
this club been changed?  You boys are never to tell any one that
a member or guest are here until the name is announced."

He turned toward the puzzled Captain.

"Did you ask any of your operatives to call you here?  You know
what a risk you are taking, to connect me with this case like
that, don't you?"

"I never even breathed it to myself.  I told no one."

"Follow me up to the telephone room."

Shirley hurried through the grill, to the switchboard, near which
stood the booths for private calls.  He called to one of the
operators.  "Here, let me at that switchboard."  He pushed the
boy aside, and sat down in the vacated chair.

"Which trunk is it on?  Oh, I see, the second.  There Captain,
take the fourth booth against the wall."

Cronin stepped in.  Shirley connected up and listened with the
transmitter of the operator at his ear, holding the line open.

"Go ahead, here's Captain Cronin!"

A pleasant voice came over the wire.  It was musical and sincere.

"Hello, Captain Cronin, is that you?"

"Yes!  What do you want?"

The voice continued, with a jolly laugh, ringing and infectious
in its merriment.

"Well, Captain, the joke's on you.  Ha, ha, ha!  It's a bully
one!  Ho, ho!  Ha, ha!"

"What joke?"

"You're working on the Van Cleft case.  Oh, sure, you are, don't
kid me back.  Well, Captain, you've missed two other perfectly
good grafts.  This is the third one!"

There was a click and the speaker, with another merry gurgle,
rang off.

"Quick, manager's desk," cried Shirley, jiggling the metal key.
"What call was that?  Where did it come from?"

After a little wait, a languid voice answered: "Brooklyn, Main
6969, Party C."

"Give me the number again--I want to speak on the wire."

After another delay, the voice replied "The line has been
discontinued."

"I just had it!  What is the name of the subscriber.  Hurry, this
is a matter of life and death."

"It's against the rules to give any further information.  But our
record shows that the house burned down about two weeks ago.  No
one else has been given the number.  There's no instrument
there!"




CHAPTER II

THE FLEETING PROMPTER


Monty's puzzled smile was in no wise reciprocated by the Captain,
whose red face evidenced a growing resentment.

He began a tirade, but a wink from the club man warned him.
Shirley replaced the receiver, and the regular attendant resumed
his place at the switchboard.  The lad was curious at the unusual
ability of the wealthy Mr. Shirley to handle the bewildering maze
of telephone attachments.  Monty explained, as he turned to go
upstairs.

"Son, that was one of my smart friends trying to play a practical
joke on my guest.  I fooled him.  Don't let it happen again,
until you send in the party's name first."

"Yes, sir," meekly promised the boy.

"Well, Captain Cronin, as the old paperback novels used to say at
the end of the first instalment, 'The Plot thickens!'  At first
I thought this case of stupid badger game--"

"You aren't going to back out, Monty?  Here's a whole gang of
crooks which would give you some sport rounding up, and as for
money--"

"Money is easy, from both sides of a criminal matter.  What
interests me is that ghostly telephone call from a house that
burned down, and the caller's knowledge of Number Three.  I'm in
this case, have no fear of that."

Shirley led his guest to the coat room.

"I'll get a taxicab, Monty.  We'd better see that girl first and
then have a look at the body."

The Captain turned to the door, as the attendant helped Monty
with his overcoat.  The waiter from the grill-room approached.
"Excuse me, sir, but the gentleman dropped his handkerchief in
his chair opposite you."

"Thank you, Gordon," he said, as he faced the servant for an
instant.  When he turned again, toward the front hall, the
Captain had passed out of view through the front door.

Shirley received a surprise when he reached the pavement on
Forty-fourth Street, for Captain Cronin was not in sight.  Two
club men descended the steps of the neighboring house.  Others
strolled along toward the Avenue, but not a sign of a vehicle of
any description could be seen, nor was there anything suspicious
in view.  Cronin had disappeared as effectually as though he had
taken a passing Zeppelin!

"I'm glad this affair will not bore me," murmured the
criminologist, as he evolved and promptly discarded a dozen vain
theories to explain the disappearance of his companion.

Twenty minutes were wasted along the block, as he waited for some
sight or sign.  Then he decided to go on up to Van Cleft's
residence.  But, realizing the probability of "shadow" work upon
all who came from the door of the club, after the curious message
on the wire, Shirley did not propose to expose his hand.  Walking
leisurely to the Avenue, he hailed a passing hansom.  He directed
the driver to carry him to an address on Central Park West.  His
shrewdness was not wasted, for as he stepped into the vehicle, he
espied a slinking figure crossing the street diagonally before
him, to disappear into the shadow of an adjacent doorway.  This
was the house of Reginald Van Der Voor, as Shirley knew.  It was
closed because its master, a social acquaintance of the club
man's, was at this time touring the Orient in his steam yacht.
No man should have entered that doorway.  So, as the horse
started under the flick of the long whip, Shirley peered
unobserved through the glass window at his side.

A big machine swung up behind the hansom, at some unseen hail,
and the figure came from the doorway, leaping into the car, as it
followed Shirley up the Avenue, a block or so behind.

"It is not always so easy to follow, when the leader knows his
chase," thought Shirley.  "I'm glad I'm only a simple club man."

The automobile was unmistakably trailing him, as the hansom
crossed the Plaza, then sped through the Park drive, to the
address he had given his driver.

As Shirley had remembered, this was a large apartment house, in
which one of his bachelor friends lived.  He knew the lay of the
building well: next door, with an entrance facing on the side
street was another just like it, and of equal height.

"Wait for me, here," said Shirley.  "I'll pay you now, but want
to go to an address down town in five minutes."

He gave the driver a bill, then entered and told the elevator man
to take him to the ninth floor.

"There's nobody in, boss," began the boy.  But Shirley shook his
head.

"My friend is expecting me for a little card game, that's why you
think he is out.  Just take me up."

He handed the negro a quarter, which was complete in its logic.

As he reached the floor, he waved to the elevator operator.  "Go
on down, and don't let any one else come up, for Mr. Greenough
doesn't want company."

As the car slid down, Shirley fumbled along the familiar hall to
the iron stairs which led to the roof of the building.  Up these
he hurried, thence out upon the roof.  It was a matter of only
four minutes before he had crossed to the next apartment
building, opened the door of the roof-entry, found the stairs to
the ninth floor, and taken this elevator to the street.

He walked out of the building, and turned toward Central Park
West, to slyly observe the entrance of the building where waited
the faithful hansom Jehu.  A young man was in conversation with
the driver, and the big automobile could be seen on the other
side of the street awaiting further developments.

"He has a long vigil there," laughed Shirley.  "Now, for the real
address.  I think I lost the hounds for this time."

Another vehicle took him through the Park to the darkened mansion
of the Van Clefts'.  Here, Shirley's card brought a quick
response from the surprised son of the dead millionaire.

"Why--why--I'm glad to see you, Mr. Shirley--Who sent you?" he
began.

Shirley registered complete surprise.  "Sent me, my dear Van
Cleft?  Who should send me?  For what?  It just happened that I
was walking up the Avenue, and to-morrow night I plan to give a
little farewell supper to Hal Bingley, class of '03, at the club
You knew him in College?  I thought you might like to come."

"Step in the library," requested Van Cleft, weakly.  "Sit down,
Mr. Shirley--I'm upset to-night."

He mopped his brow with a damp handkerchief, and Shirley's big
heart went out to the young chap, as he saw the haggard lines
of horror and grief on his usually pleasant face.

"What's the trouble, old man?  Anything I can do?"

"My father just died this evening, and I'm in awful trouble--I
thought it was the Coroner, or the police--" he bit his tongue as
the last words escaped him.  Shirley put his hand on Van Cleft's
shoulder, with an inspiring firmness.

"Tell me how I can help.  You've had a big shock.  Confide in me,
and I pledge you my word, I'll keep it safer than any one you
could go to."

Van Cleft groped as a drowning man, at this opportunity.  He
caught Shirley's hand and wrung it tensely.

"Sit down.  The doctor is still upstairs with mother and sister.
When the Coroner comes, I would like to have you be here as a
witness.  It's an ordeal--I'll tell you everything."

Shirley listened attentively, without betraying his own
knowledge.  Soothing in manner, he questioned the son about any
possible enemy of the murdered man.

"There's not one I know.  Dad is popular--he's been too gay,
lately, but just foolish like a lot of rich men.  He wouldn't
harm any one.  He inherited his money, you know.  Didn't have to
crush the working people.  Like me, he's been endeavoring to
spend it ever since he was born, but it comes in too fast from
our estates."

He looked up apprehensively, at the sympathetic face of his
companion.

"It's very unwise to tell this.  I suppose it's a State's prison
offence to deceive about murder.  But you understand our
position: we can't afford to let it become gossip.  I'll pay this
girl anything to go to Europe or the Antipodes!"

"I wouldn't do that," suggested Shirley, thoughtfully.  "Let her
stay.  You would like to bring the culprit to justice, if it can
be done without dragging your name into it.  If he has planned
this, he has executed other schemes.  She certainly would not
remain the machine if she were the guilty one.  Why not employ a
good detective?"

"I did, but hesitated to tell you.  I secured Captain Cronin, of
the Holland Agency.  He's managed everything so far--I was too
rattled myself.  But, I wonder why he isn't here now?  He was to
return as soon as he visited the garage."

As Van Cleft spoke, the butler approached with hesitation.

"Beg pardon, sir.  But you are wanted on the telephone, sir."

"All right, Hoskins.  Connect it with the library instrument."

Van Cleft lifted the receiver nervously, and answered in an
unsteady voice.

"Yes--This is Van Cleft's residence."

Silence for a bit, then the wire was busy.

"What's that?  Captain Cronin?  What about him?  Let me speak to
him."

Shirley was alert as a cat.  Van Cleft was too dazed to
understand his sudden move, as the criminologist caught up the
receiver, and placed his palm for an instant over the mouthpiece.

"Ask him to say it again--that you didn't understand."  Shirley
removed his hand, and obeyed.  Shirley held the receiver to his
ear, as the young man spoke.  Then he heard these curious words:
"You poor simp, you'd better get that family doctor of yours to
give you some ear medicine, and stop wasting time with the death
certificate.  I told you that Cronin was over in Bellevue
Hospital with a fractured skull.  Unless you drop this
investigating, you'll get one, too.  Ta, ta! Old top!"

The receiver was hung up quickly at the other end of the line.

Shirley gave a quick call for "Information," and after several
minutes learned that the call came from a drug store pay-station
in Jersey City!

The melodious tones were unmistakably those of the speaker who
had used the wire from faraway Brooklyn where the house had been
burned down!  It was a human impossibility for any one to have
covered the distance between the two points in this brief time,
except in an aeroplane!

Van Cleft wondered dumbly at his companion's excitement.  Shirley
caught up the telephone again.

"Some one says that Cronin is at Bellevue Hospital, injured.
I'll find out."

It was true.  Captain Cronin was lying at point of death, the
ward nurse said, in answer to his eager query.  At first the
ambulance surgeon had supposed him to be drunk, for a patrolman
had pulled him out of a dark doorway, unconscious.

"Where was the doorway?  This is his son speaking, so tell me
all."

"Just a minute.  Oh!  Here is the report slip.  He was taken from
the corner of Avenue A and East Eleventh Street.  You'd better
come down right away, for he is apt to die tonight.  He's only
been here ten minutes."

"Has any one else telephoned to find out about him?"

"No.  We didn't even know his name until just as you called up,
when we found his papers and some warrants in a pocketbook.  How
did you know?"

But Shirley disconnected curtly, this time.  He bowed his head in
thought, and then, with his usual nervous custom, fumbled for a
cigarette. Here was the Captain, whom he had left on Forty-fourth
Street, near Fifth Avenue, a short time before, discovered fully
three miles away.

And the news telephoned from Jersey City, by the fleeting magic
voice on the wire.  Even his iron composure was stirred by this
weird complication.

"I wonder!" he murmured.  He had ample reason to wonder.




CHAPTER III

THE INNOCENT BYSTANDER


"Well, Mr. Shirley, your coming here was a Godsend!  I don't know
what to do now.  The newspapers will get this surely.  I depended
on Cronin: he must have been drinking."

Shirley shook his head, as he explained, "I know Cronin's
reputation, for I was a police reporter.  He is a sterling man.
There's foul work here which extends beyond your father's case.
But we are wasting time.  Why don't you introduce me to your
physician?  Just tell him about Cronin, and that you have
confided in me completely."

Van Cleft went upstairs without a word.  Unused to any worry,
always able to pay others for the execution of necessary details,
this young man was a victim of the system which had engulfed his
unfortunate sire in the maelstrom of reckless pleasure.

By his ingenuous adroitness, it may be seen, Shirley was
inveigling himself into the heart of the affair, in his favorite
disguise as that of the "innocent bystander."  His innate
dramatic ability assisted him in maintaining his friendly and
almost impersonal role, with a success which had in the past kept
the secret of his system from even the evildoers themselves.

"A little investigation of the telephone exchanges during the
next day or two will not be wasted time," he mused.  "I'll get
Sam Grindle, their assistant advertising manager to show me the
way the wheels go 'round.  No man can ride a Magic Carpet of
Bagdad over the skyscrapers in these days of shattered folklore."

Howard Van Cleft returned with the famous surgeon, Professor
MacDonald.  He was elderly, with the broad high forehead, dignity
of poise, and sharpness of glance which bespeaks the successful
scientist.  His face, to-night, was chalky and the firm, full
mouth twitched with nervousness.  He greeted Shirley abstractedly.
The criminologist's manner was that of friendly anxiety.

"You are here, sir, as a friend of the family?"

"Yes.  Howard has told me of the terrible mystery of this case.
As an ex-newspaper man I imagine that my influence and
friendships may keep the unpleasant details from the press."

"That is good," sighed the doctor, with relief.  "How soon will
you do it?"

"Now, using this telephone.  No, for certain reasons, I had
better use an outside instrument.  I will call up men I know on
each paper, as though this were a 'scoop,' so that knowing me,
they will be confident that I tell them the truth as a favor.
Such deceit is excusable under the circumstances.  It may
eventually bring the murderer to justice."

Professor MacDonald winced at the word.  He turned toward Van
Cleft, on sudden thought, remarking: "Howard your mother and
sister may need the comfort of your presence.  I will chat with
your friend until the Coroner comes."

The physician sank into a library chair.  The criminologist
quietly awaited his cue.  He lit a cigarette and the minutes
drifted past with no word between them.  The doctor's gaze
lowered to the vellum-bound books on the carven table, then to
the gorgeous pattern of the Kermansha at his feet.  Once more he
studied the face of his companion, with the keen, soul-gripping
scrutiny of the skilled physician.  As last he arrived at a
definite conclusion.  He cleared his throat, and fumbled in his
waistcoat pocket for a cigar.  A swiftly struck match in Monty's
hand was held up so promptly to the end of the cigar, that the
doctor's lips had not closed about it.  This deftness, simple in
itself, did not escape the observation of the scientist.  He
smiled for the first time during their interview.

"Your reflex nerves are very wide awake for a quiet man.  I
believe I can depend upon those nerves, and your quietude.  May I
ask what occupation you follow, if any?  Most of Howard's friends
follow butterflies."

"I am one of them, then.  Some opera, more theatricals, much art
gallery touring.  A little regular reading in my rooms, and there
you are!  My great grandfather was too poor a trader to succeed
in pelts, so he invested a little money in rocky pastures around
upper Manhattan: this has kept the clerks of the family bankers
busy ever since.  I am an optimistic vagabond, enjoying life in
the observation of the rather ludicrous busyness of other folk.
In short, Doctor, I am a corpulent Hamlet, essentially modern in
my cultivation of a joy in life, debating the eternal question
with myself, but lazily leaving it to others to solve.  Therein I
am true to my type."

"Pardon my bluntness," observed MacDonald, watching him through
partially closed eyes.  "You are not telling the truth.  You are
a busy man, with definite work, but that is no affair of mine.  I
recognize in you a different calibre from that of these rich
young idlers in Howard's class.  I am going to take you into my
confidence, for you understand the need for secrecy, and will
surely help in every way--noblesse oblige.  This man Cronin, the
detective, was rather crude."

"He is honest and dependable," replied Shirley, loyally.

"Yes, but I wonder why professional detectives are so primitive.
They wear their calling cards and their business shingles on
their figures and faces.  Surely the crooks must know them all
personally.  I read detective stories, in rest moments, and every
one of the sleuths lives in some well-known apartment, or on a
prominent street.  Some day we may read of one who is truly in
secret service, but not until after his death notice.  But there,
I am talking to quiet my own nerves a bit,--now we will get to
cases."

The doctor dropped his cigar into the bronze tray on the table,
leaning forward with intense earnestness, as he continued.

"This, Mr. Shirley, is the third murder of the sort within a
week.  Wellington Serral, the wealthy broker, came to a sudden
death in a private dining room last Monday, in the company of a
young show girl.  He was a patient of mine, and I signed the
death certificate as heart failure, to save the honorable family
name for his two orphaned daughters.

"Herbert de Cleyster, the railroad magnate, died similarly in a
taxicab on Thursday. He was also one of my patients. There, too, was
concerned another of these wretched chorus girls. To-night the fatal
number of the triad was consummated in this cycle of crime. To
maintain my loyalty to my patients I have risked my professional
reputation. Have I done wrong?"

"No!  The criminal shall be brought to justice," replied Shirley
in a voice vibrant with a profound determination which was not
lost upon his companion.

"Are you powerful enough to bring this about, without disgracing
me or betraying this sordid tragedy to the morbid scandal-rakers
of the papers?"

"I will devote every waking hour to it.  But, like you, my
efforts must remain entirely secret.  I vow to find this man
before I sleep again!"

"You are determined--yet it cannot be one single man.  It must be
an organized gang, for all the crimes have been so strangely
similar, occurring to three men who are friends, and entrez nous,
notorious for their peccadilloes.  The girls must be in the
vicious circle, and ably assisted.  But there is one thing I
forgot to tell you, which you forgot to ask."

"And this is?"

"How they died.  It was by some curious method of sudden arterial
stoppage.  Old as they were, some fiendish trick was employed so
skilfully that the result was actual heart failure.  There was no
trace of drugs in lungs or blood.  On each man's breast, beneath
the sternum bone I found a dull, barely discernible bruise mark,
which I later removed by a simple massage of the spot!"

Shirley closed his eyes, and passed his hand over his own chest
--along the armpits--behind his ears--he seemed to be mentally
enumerating some list of nerve centers.  The physician observed
him curiously.

"I have it, doctor!  The sen-si-yao!"

"What do you mean?"

"The most powerful and secret of all the death-strokes of the
Japanese art of jiu-jitsu fighting.  I paid two thousand dollars
to learn the course from a visiting instructor when I was in
college.  It was worth it for this one occasion."

Shirley arose to his feet, and approached the other, touching his
shoulder.

"Stand up, if you please.  Let me ask if this was the location of
the mark?"

The physician, interested in this new professional phase, readily
obeyed.  One quick movement of Shirley's muscular hand, the thumb
oddly twisted and stiffened, and a sudden jab in the doctor's
abdomen made that gentleman gasp with pain.  Shirley's expression
was triumphant, but the professor regarded him with an expression
of terror.

"Oh!  Ugh!--What-did-you-do-to me?" he murmured thickly, when he
was at last able to speak.

"Merely demonstrated the beginning of the death punch which I
named.  That pressure if continued for half a minute would have
been fatal."

"I wish you would teach me that," was the physician's natural
request, as he nodded with a wry face.

"Impossible, my dear sir, for I learned it, according to the
Oriental custom under the most sacred obligations of secrecy.
One must advance through the whole course, by initiatory
degrees, before learning the final mysteries of the samurais.
Now, we have a working hypothesis.  The girls could never have
accomplished this.  One man and one alone must have killed the
three, although doubtless with confederates.  Yamashino assured
me that there were only six men in this country who knew it
beside myself.  We must find an Orientalist!"

Shirley paced the floor, but his meditations were interrupted by
the arrival of the Coroner and his physician.  Van Cleft hurried
into the room with them, to present the doctor, who exchanged a
formal greeting with the men he had met twice before that week.

"A sad affair, Professor," observed the Coroner nervously,
drinking in with profound respect the magnificent surroundings
which symbolized the great wealth of which he secretly hoped to
gain a tithing.  "I trust that, as usual, in such cases, I may
suggest an undertaker?"

"Why--talk about that at once, sir?" asked Howard with a shudder.

The physician, familiar with the subtleties of coroners, gently
placed an arm about the young man's shoulder.  He nodded,
understandingly, to the Coroner, as he turned toward Shirley.

"I must be going now," the latter interposed.  "Just a word with
you, Howard, that I may send a message to your mother and
sister."

The physician led away the two officials as Shirley continued: "I
must go to see Cronin--deserted there like a run-over mongrel on
the street.  Can I leave this house by the rear, so that none
shall know of my assistance in the case, or follow me to the
hospital?  If you can secure an old hat and coat, I will leave my
own, with my stick, to get them some other time."

"I will get some from the butler, if you wait just a moment.  You
can leave by the rear yard, if you don't mind climbing a high
board fence."

Van Cleft hurried downstairs, in a few minutes, bearing a
weather-beaten overcoat and an English cap, which Shirley drew
down over his ears.  With the coat on, he looked very unlike the
well-groomed club man who had entered.  Unseen by Van Cleft he
shifted an automatic revolver into the coat pocket from the
discarded garment.

"Now, Mr. Shirley, come this way.  Follow the rear area-way,
across to the next yard, where after another climb you find a
vacant lot where the Schuylers are preparing to erect their new
city house.  Will you attend to everything?"

"Everything.  I'll start sooner than you expect."

Truly he did!  For no sooner had he descended the second fence
into the empty lot than a stinging blow sent him at full length
on the rocky ground, where the excavations were already being
started.  Two men pounced upon him in a twinkling--only his great
strength, acquired through the football years, saved him from
immediate defeat.  His head throbbed, and he was dizzy as he
caught the wrist of the nearest assailant with a quick twist
which resulted in a sudden, sickening crunch.  The man groaned in
agony, but his companion kicked with heavy-shod feet at the
prostrate man.  Shirley's left hand duplicated the vice-like grip
upon the ankle of the standing assailant, and his deftness caused
another tendon strain!  Both men toppled to the ground, now, and
before they realized it Shirley had reversed the advantage.  His
automatic emphasized his superiority of tactics.  He understood
their silence, broken only by muted groans: they feared the
police, even as did he, although for different reasons.  He
"frisked" the man nearest him upon the ground, and captured
deftly the rascal's weapon: then he sprang up covering the twain.

"Get up! Youse guys is poachin' in de wrong district--dis belongs
to de Muggins gang.  I'll fix youse guys fer buttin' in.  Up,
dere!"  His hands went into his coat pockets, but the men knew
that they were still pointing at them, the gunman's "cover" as it
is called.  They staggered sullenly to their feet.  He beckoned
with his head, toward the front of the lot.  They followed the
silent instructions, one limping while his mate wrung the injured
wrist in agony.

Directly before the lot stood a throbbing, empty automobile.
Shirley decided to take another car--he could not guard them and
drive at the same time.

"Down to Fift' Avnoo," he ordered.  "I got two guns--not a woid
from youse!"  His erstwhile amiable physiognomy, now gnarled into
an unrecognizable mask of low villainy bespoke his desperate
earnestness.  The men obeyed.  This was apparently a gangster, of
gangsters--their fear of the dire vengeance of a rival
organization of cut-throats instilled an obedience more humble
than any other threats.

Toward the Park side they advance, one leaning heavily upon the
other.  Shirley, his broad shoulders hunched up; with the collar
drawn high about his neck, the murderous looking cap down over
his eyes, followed them doggedly.

A big limousine was speeding down the Avenue from some homing
theater party.  Shirley hailed it with an authoritive yell which
caused the chauffeur to put on a quick brake.

"Git out dere,--no gun play.  Up inter dat car!" he added, as
they approached the machine.

"Say, what you drivin' at?" cried the driver, queruously.  "Is
this a hold-up?"  It was a puzzling moment, but the
criminologist's calm bravado saved the situation: as luck would
have it no policemen were in sight, to spoil the maneuver.

"No," and he assumed a more natural voice and dialect.  "I'm a
detective.  These men were just house-breaking, and I got them.
There's twenty-five dollars in it for you, if you take us down to
the Holland Detective Agency, in ten minutes."

"He's kiddin' ye, feller," snapped out one man.

"Don't fall fen him, yen boob!" sung out the other.

But Shirley's automatic now appeared outside the coat pocket.
The chauffeur realized that here was serious gaming.  With his
left hand Shirley jerked out the ever ready police card and fire
badge, which seemed official enough to satisfy the driver.

"Quick now, or I'll run you in, too, for refusing to obey an
officer.  You men climb into that back seat.  Driver, beat it now
to Thirty-nine West Forty Street, if you need that twenty-five
dollars.  I'll sit with them.  I don't want any interference so I
can come back and nab the rest of their gang."

His authoritative manner convinced this new ally, and he climbed
into the car, facing his prisoners, with the two weapons held
down below the level of the windows.  Pedestrians and other
motorists little recked what strange cargo was borne as the car
raced down the broad thoroughfare.

In nine minutes they drew up before the Holland Agency, a
darkened, brown front house of ancient architecture.  The
chauffeur sprang out to swing back the door.

"Go up the steps, and tell the doorman that Captain Cronin wants
two men to bring down their guns and handcuffs and get two
prisoners.  Quick!"

The street was not empty, even at this hour.  Yet the passersby
did not realize the grim drama enacted inside the waiting
machine.  Hours seemed to pass before Cronin's men returned with
the driver, as much surprised by the three strange faces within
the machine, as he had been.

"You take these men upstairs and keep them locked up," bluntly
commanded the criminologist.  "They're nabbed on the new case of
the Captain's which started to-night, I'm going over to Bellevue
to see him."  His voice was still disguised, his features twisted
even yet.

The men gave him a curious glance, and then obeyed.  As they
disappeared behind the heavy wooden door, Shirley stepped into a
dark hallway, close by.  He lit a wax match to give him light for
the choosing of the right amount, from the roll of bills which he
drew forth.  The chauffeur whistled with surprise at the size of
the denominations.  The twenty-five were handed over.

"Thanks very much, my friend," and the face unsnarled itself,
into the amiable lines of the normal.  The voice was agreeable
and smooth, which surprised the man the more.  "You took me out
of a ticklish situation tonight.  I don't want any mere policemen
to spoil my little game.  Please oil up your forgettery with
these, and then--forget!"

"Say, gov'nor," retorted the driver, as he put the money into the
band of his leather cap.  "I ain't seen so much real change since
my boss got stung on the war.  I ain't so certain but what you
was the gink robbin' that house, at that.  But that's them guys
funeral if you beat 'em to it.  Good-night--much obliged.  But I
got to slip it to you, gov'nor--you ain't none of them Central
Office flat-feet, sure 'nuff!  If you are a detective, you're
some fly cop!"




CHAPTER IV

A SCIENTIFIC NOVELTY


In a private ward room at Bellevue Hospital, Captain Cronin was
just returning to memory of himself and things that had been.
Shirley arrived at his cot-side as he was being propped up more
comfortably.  The older man's face broke into game smiles, as the
criminologist took the chair provided by the pretty nurse.

"Thanks, I'll have a little chat with my friend, if you don't
think it will do him any harm."

"He is better now, sir.  We feared he was fatally injured when
they brought him in.  I'll be outside in the corridor if you need
anything."

She left not without an admiring look at the big chap, wondering
why he wore such disreputable superstructure with patent leather
pumps and silk hose showing below the ragged overcoat.  Strange
sights come to hospitals, curiosity frequently leading to
unprofitable knowledge: so she was silently discreet.  Shirley's
garb was not unobserved by the detective chief.  Monty laughed
reminiscently at the questioning glance.

"These are my working clothes--a fine combination.  I nabbed two
of the gang.  But what became of you?"

"Outside that club door, I wanted to save time for us both.  I
took the first taxi in sight.  Before I could even call out to
you, the door slammed on me, the shades flopped down, the car
started up--the next thing I knew this here nurse was sticking a
spoon in my mouth, a-saying: 'Take this--it's fine for what ails
you!'"

"I wonder if it could have been the same machine they left at Van
Cleft's?  I will tell you how things progressed."  So he did,
leaving out only the confidence of Professor MacDonald.  The
Captain became feverishly excited, until Shirley abjured him to
beware of a relapse.  "You must be calm, for the next twenty-four
hours: there will be much for you to do, even then.  Meanwhile,
let me call up your agency; then you give them instructions over
this table telephone to let Howard Van Cleft interview the little
chorus girl, with his friend.  I'll be the friend."

"I'm afraid I'm going to be snowed under in this case, Monty.
The finest job I've had these dozen years.  But you're square,
and will do all you can."

"Old friend, I'll do what I can to make Van Cleft and the
newspapers sure that you are the most wonderful sleuth inside or
outside the public library.  Here's your office--speak up.  Let
me lift you."

"Hello Pat!" called Cronin, as his superintendent came to the
'phone.  "I am detained at Bellevue, so that I can't be there
when Van Cleft comes down.  Let him Third Degree that little Jane
from the garage.  Keep them two men apart, too--oh, that's all
right, the fellow is a friend of mine on the 'Frisco police
force.  He won't butt in."  Silence for a moment, then: "Oh,
shucks, let 'em yowl!  They've got more than kidnapping to worry
about for the next twenty-five years."

He hung up the receiver, sinking back on his pillows wan from the
strain.  Monty handed him a glass of water, and adjusted the
bandages with a hand as tender as a woman's.  He lifted the
instrument again.

"You are sterling, twenty-two carat and a yard wide, Captain!
Now, get to sleep while I find out who the ring-master is.  I've
sworn to keep awake until I do.  I think it well to telephone Van
Cleft, and arrange for a better get-a-way for us both."

He was soon talking with the son of the murdered man.  "Meet me
down at the Vanderbilt Hotel--ask for Mr. Hepburn's room, and
send up the name of Williams.  See you in an hour.  Good-bye."

Hanging up the receiver, he turned toward the door, after a
friendly pat on Cronin's shoulder.  The bell rang, and the
Captain reached for it, to sink back exhausted upon the bed.
Shirley answered, to be greeted by a pleasant feminine voice.

"Is this Captain Cronin?"

Instantly the criminologist replied affirmatively, suiting his
tones as best he could to the gruff voice of the detective chief,
with a wink at that worthy.

"I just called up, Captain, to ask about you--Oh, you don't
recognize my voice.  I'm Miss Wilberforce, private secretary to
Mr. Van Cleft.  Has any one been to see you yet?  I understand
that you are very busy, and have already missed two other good
cases, this one being the THIRD!  Well, don't hurry, Captain.
You may get the rest to come--if you live long enough.
Good-bye!"

Shirley looked at Cronin, startled.  Another mention of the
mystic number.  He called for information about the origin of the
call.

"Lordee, son!  Are they at it again?" asked Cronin in disgust.

"Yes--overdoing it.  One thing is clear, that whoever is behind
this telephone trickery is very clever, and very conceited over
that cleverness.  It may be a costly vanity.  Yes, information?"

"The call was from Rector 2190-D.  The American Sunday School
Organization, sir--It doesn't answer now; the office must be
closed."

Shirley put the instrument down, with a smile on his pursed lips.
He waved a good natured farewell to his friend, as he drew the
cap down over his eyes.

"Look a little happier, Captain.  I'll send down some fruit and
a special vintage from our club which has bottled up in it the
sunlight of a dozen years in Southern France.  I hope they keep
the telephone wires busy--they may tangle themselves up in their
own spider-web!"

Leaving the hospital, he hurried to the hotel.  One of his secret
idiosyncracies was a custom of "living around" at a number of
hotels, under aliases.  Maintaining pleasant suites in each, he
kept full supplies of linen and garments, while effectively
blotting out his own identity for "doubling" work.

He was known as "Mr. Hepburn" here, and entering the side door he
was subjected to the curious gaze of only one servant, the operator
of the small elevator. Once in the shelter of his quarters he
rummaged through some scrap-books for data--he found it in a Sunday
feature story published a month before in a semi-theatrical paper.
It described with rollicking sarcasm, a gay "millionaire" party
which had been given in Rector's private dining rooms. Among the
ridiculed hosts were Van Cleft, Wellington Serral and Herbert De
Cleyster! Here, in some elusive manner, ran the skein of truth which
if followed would lead to the solution of mystery. He must carve out
of this mass of pregnant clues the essentials upon which to act, as
the sculptor chisels the marble of a huge block to expose the figure
of his inspiration, encased there all the time!

"To find out the source of their golden-haired nymphs for this
merry-merry, that is the question!  Some stage doorkeeper might
be persuaded to unburden what soul he has left!"

He jotted in his memorandum book the names of the other eight
wealthy men who were pilloried by the journalist.  The younger
men, Shirley felt sure, were of that peculiarly Manhattanse type
of hanger-on--well-groomed, happy-go-hellward youths who danced,
laughed and drank well,--so essential to the philanderings of
these rich old Harlequins and their gilded Columbines.  As he
scribbled, the telephone of the room tinkled its summons.

He started toward it: then his invaluable intuition prompted him
to walk into the adjoining room, where another instrument stood
on a small table, handy to the bed.  Only two people could
possibly know he was there.  Van Cleft could not have arrived, as
yet.  The other bell jingled impatiently, but Shirley finally
heard the voice of the switch-board girl.

"I'm trying to get you on the other wire, sir.  There's a call."

"Don't connect me," he hurriedly ordered, "except to open the
switch, so I may listen.  If I hang up without a word, tell the
party I will be back in twenty minutes."

With a hotel telephone girl tact is more important than even the
knowledge of wire-knitting.  It was the woman's voice which he
had heard at the hospital.  Captain Cronin was anxious to speak
to Mr. Williams, who was calling on Mr. Hepburn!  With the
biggest jolt of this day of surprises Shirley disconnected and
whistled.  Again he laughed--with that grim chuckle which was so
characteristic of his supreme battling mood!  They had found the
trail even quicker than he had expected.  Fortunate it was that
he had not mentioned his own name in telephoning from the
hospital to Howard.  Not a wire was safe from these mysterious
eaves-droppers now.  He hurried into a business suit, and left
the hotel, to walk over Thirty-fourth Street to the studio of
his friend, Hammond Bell.  Here he was admitted, to find the
portrait-painter finishing a solitary chafing-dish supper.

"Delighted, Monty!  Join me in the encore on this creamed
chicken and mushrooms!"

"Too rich for my primitive blood, Hammond.  I'm in a hurry to get
a favor."

"I've received enough at your hands--say the word."

"Simply this: I want to experiment with sound waves.  I
remembered that once in a while some of these wild Bohemian
friends of yours warbled post-impressionist love-songs into your
phonograph.  It stood the strain, and so must be a good one.  It
is too late now to get one in a shop; will you lend me the whole
outfit, with the recording attachment as well, for to-night and
to-morrow?"

"The easiest thing you know.  Let's slide it into this grip--you
can carry the horn."

Three minutes later Shirley made his exit, and soon was shaking
hands with Van Cleft in his own room at the hotel.  He sketched
his idea hurriedly, as he adjusted the instrument on the
dressing-table near the telephone.

"When the call comes, be sure to say: 'Get closer, I can't hear
you.'  That's the method, and it's so simple it is almost silly."
They were barely ready when the bell warned them.  At Van Cleft's
reply, when the call for "Mr. Williams" Shirley pushed the horn
close to the telephone receiver.  Van Cleft twisted it, so as to
give the best advantage, and demanded that the speaker come
closer to the 'phone.

"Can you hear me now?" asked the feminine voice.  "Do you hear me
now?"

"No, speak louder.  This is Mr. Williams.  Speak up.  I can't
understand you."  The voice was petulant and so distinct that
even Shirley could hear it, as he knelt by the side of the
phonograph.  Again Van Cleft insisted on his deafness.  There
was the suggestion of a break in the voice which brought to
Shirley's eyes the sparkle of a presentiment of success.  At
last Van Cleft admitted that he could hear.

"Well, you fool, I've a message for your friend Mr. Van Cleft."

"Which one?" was the innocent inquiry, as he forgot for an
instant that now he was the sole bearer of that name.

"The one that's left.  Tell him there will be none left if he
continues this gum-shoe work.  He had better let well enough
alone, and let that little girl get out of town as soon as
possible.  The papers will go crazy over a scandal like this, and
some one is apt to grab Van Cleft.  That's all.  Good-bye!"

Silently Shirley shut off the lever of the machine, to catch up
the receiver.  As before his endeavor to locate the call resulted
in a new address: this time in the Bronx!

"Ah, the lady leaps from the business district to the Bronx in
half an hour.  That is what I call some traveling."

Van Cleft studied him with open mouth, as he withdrew the
phonograph record, coating it with the preservative to make the
tiny lines permanent.

"In the name of common sense, who was that?  And what's this
phonograph game?" he demanded.

"The second question may answer the first before sunrise, unless
I am badly mistaken.  I have heard an old adage which declares
that if you give a man long enough rope he will hang himself.  My
new application is that you let him talk enough he is apt to sing
his own swan song, for a farewell perch on the electric chair at
Sing Sing!"

Then he lit a cigarette and packed up the phonograph.




CHAPTER V

THE MISBEHAVIOR OF THE 'PHONE


Still befuddled by the unusual events of the day, Howard Van
Cleft was unable to delight in a theoretical discovery.  Personal
fear began to manifest itself.

"Mr. Shirley, you're going at this too strong.  We know the
guilty party--this miserable girl in the machine.  We want to
hush it up and let things go at that."

"We're hushing it, aren't we?" demanded Shirley, as he placed the
record in the grip.  "Don't you see the wisdom of knowing who may
systematically blackmail you after secrecy is obtained.  This is
a matter of the future, as well as the present."

"But I don't want to lose my own life--I am young, with life
before me, and I want to let well enough alone, after these
threats."

"I am afraid that you have a yellow streak."  His lip curled as
he studied the pallid features of the heir to the Van Cleft
millions.  Fearless himself, he could still understand the
tremors of this care-free butterfly: yet he knew he must crush
the dangerous thoughts which were developing.  "If you mistrust
me, hustle for yourself.  You have the death-certificate, the
services will be over in a few days, and then you will have
enough money to live on your father's yacht or terra firma for
the rest of your life, in the China Sea, or India, as far away
from Broadway chorus girls as you want.  That might be safe."

He gazed out of the window, toward the twinkling lights far away
across the East River.  His sarcasm made Van Cleft wince as
though from a whip lash.  The latter mopped his forehead and
tried to steady his voice, as he replied with all humility.

"You're a brick, and I don't mean to offend you.  Today has been
terrible, you know: this tornado has swept me from my moorings.
I don't know where to turn."

"I am thoughtless," and Shirley's warm hand grasped the flaccid
fingers of the young man.  "Forgive me for letting my interest
run away with my sympathies.  I'm thinking of the future, more
than mere protection from newspaper scandal.  This crime is so
ingenious that I believe it has a more powerful motive than mere
robbery.  You are now at the head of a great house of finance
and society.  You must guard your mother and your sister, and
those yet to come.  A deadly snake is writhing its slimy trail
somewhere: here--there--'round about us!  Who knows where it will
strike next?  Who knows how far that blow may reach--even unto
China, or wherever you run?"

He hesitated, studying the effect upon Van Cleft, who dropped
limply into a chair, his eyes dark with terror.  The
psychological
ruse had won.  Selfish cowardice, which temporarily threatened to
ruin his campaign, now gave way to the instinct of a fighting
defense.

"There, Van Cleft, it is ghastly.  You have the significance now:
we must scotch the snake.  That girl is over at the Holland
Agency, and we should see her at once, to learn what she knows.
Cronin has arranged for my coming with you, so introduce me under
my real name.

"Wait here fifteen minutes after I leave, so that I may get the
phonograph in readiness, for you will undoubtedly be shadowed,
and that may mean another telephone call.  You were not a coward
in college--I do not believe you are one now!"

Van Cleft straightened up proudly.

"No, I will fight them with all I have.  But why these phonograph
records: isn't one enough?"

"No, I want autographs of all the voices.  I will go now.  Don't
hurry in following me.  Do not fear to let any shadowers see you
--it will help us along."

Before many minutes he had been admitted to the corridor of the
Holland Agency by a sharp-nosed individual who regarded him with
suspicion.  The operatives were undoubtedly expecting trouble
from all quarters, for three other large men of the "bull" type,
heavy-jowled, ponderous men, surrounded him as he presented his
card.

"I am the friend of Howard Van Cleft, about whom Captain Cronin
telephoned you from Bellevue.  I am to help him interview the
girl: may I wait until he arrives?"

"Oh, you're wise to the case?  Sure then, come into the reception
room on the right.  What's that in your grip?" asked the apparent
leader of the men.

"Just an idea of Van Cleft's," said Shirley, as he followed into
the adjoining compartment.  "It's a phonograph.  Have you
received any phoney 'phone calls to-night?  Queer ones that you
didn't expect and couldn't explain?  Van Cleft has, and he
decided to take records of them on this machine."

The superintendent nodded.  Shirley opened the grip and drew out
the instrument, and made ready on the small table, near which was
the desk telephone.

"Let's get this in readiness then, and if you get any calls have
them switched up to this instrument, so that when you talk, you
can hold the receiver handy to the horn."

"Young feller, I think you must know more about this business
than you've a right to.  Just keep your hands above the table--I
think I'll frisk you!"

"No need," snapped Shirley with a smile in his eyes, and the
automatic revolver was drawn and covering the detective before he
could reach forward.  "But I have no designs on you.  You will
have to work quicker than that with some people in this case."

He slid the weapon across the table to the other who snatched it
anxiously.

"If a call comes and you don't recognize the voice at once,
please ask the party to come closer to the 'phone, to speak
louder--listen, there is the bell now!  Get it connected here at
once!"

The surprised superintendent, fearing that after all he might
miss some good lead, yielded to his professional curiosity
against his professional prejudices.  He bawled down the hall.

"Switch on up here, Mike.  I'll talk."  He caught up the
instrument, as Shirley dropped to his knees beside him, to
swing the horn into place.

"What's that?" he shouted over the wire.  "Yes, shure it is--
What's that you say?--I don't get you, cull--You want to speak
to the girl?--What girl?--Talk louder.  Hire a hall!--Say, I
ain't no mind reader!  Speak up."

Over the instrument came the phrase once more: "Can you hear me
now?"

It was the man's voice!  Shirley was exultant.

"Yes, I hear you.  What do you want?"

"I want to call for my sister, if you're going to let her go.  I
want--"

An inspiration prompted Shirley to press down the prongs of the
receiver.  The connection was stopped, and the superintendent
turned upon him angrily.

"You spoiled that, you nut!  We was just about to find out who
her brother was--say, who are you, anyway?"

"There, don't you worry.  That makes another call certain.  Don't
you see?  That's what I'm playing for.  But here comes Van Cleft,
who will tell you I am all right."

The millionaire entered the hallway before any serious
altercation could arise.  He greeted Shirley warmly and
introduced him to Pat Cleary.  The man was mollified.

"Well, I'm Captain Cronin's right bower, and I thinks as how this
guy is the joker of the deck trying to make a dirty deuce out of
me.  But, if you want to see the girl, she's right upstairs.  His
work was a little speedy on first acquaintance.  Nick, keep your
eyes on this machine, for we may get another call on this floor
--This way gentlemen.  Watch your step, for the hallway's dark."

The girl was imprisoned in a windowless room on the second floor.
As the door opened, Shirley beheld a pitiful sight.  Attired in
the finery of the Rialto, she lay prone upon a couch in the
center of the dingy room, sobbing hysterically.  Her blonde hair
was disheveled, her features wan and distorted from her paroxysms
of fear and grief.  Like a frightened animal, she sprang to her
feet as they entered the room, retreating to the wall, her
trembling hands spread as though to brace her from falling.

"I didn't do it!  I swear!  The old fool was soused and I don't
know what was the matter with me.  But I didn't kill any one in
the world!"

"There, sit down, little girl, and don't get frightened.  This
gentleman and I have come to learn the truth--not to punish you
for something you didn't do.  Start with the beginning and tell
all you remember."

Shirley's gentle manner was so unexpected, his voice so inspiring
that she relaxed, sinking to the floor, as Shirley caught her
limp girlish form in his arms.  He placed her on the couch again,
and she regained her composure under his calm urging.  Little by
little she visualized the details of the gruesome evening and
narrated them under the magnetic cross-questions of the
criminologist.

She had met the elder Van Cleft in the tea-room of a Broadway
hostelry, by appointment made the evening before at Pinkie
Taylor's birthday party.  After several drinks together they took
a taxicab to ride uptown to a little chop house.  Did she see any
one she knew in the tea-room?  Of course, several of the fellows
and girls whom she couldn't remember just now, buzzed about, for
Van Cleft was a liberal entertainer around the youngsters.  She
had five varieties of cocktails in succession, and she became
dizzy.  In the taxicab she became dizzier and when next she
remembered anything definite she was sitting on the stool in the
garage where she had been arrested.  That was all.  As she
reached this point there came a knock on the door with a call for
Van Cleft.

"You Van's son!" she screamed.  Then she fainted, while Shirley
caught her, calling an assistant to care for her, as he followed
Van Cleft downstairs to answer the telephone.  "You know your
cues?"

The millionaire nodded, as with trembling fingers he caught up
the instrument and knelt on the bare floor to hold it close to
the phonograph, which Shirley was engineering, with a fresh
record in place.

"Hello!  Hello, there, I say.  Hello!"

Shirley strained his ears, to hear this time a rough, wheezy
voice which caused the two men to exchange startled glances, as
it proceeded: "Is this you, Howard, my boy?"

"What do you want?  I can't hear you.  The telephone is buzzing.
Louder please!"

Shirley nodded approbation, as the machine ran along merrily.

"Now, can you hear me.  Ahem!  Can you hear me now?  Is this
Howard Van Cleft?"

"Yes, go ahead, but louder still."

"Now, can you hear me?  This is your father's dearest friend,
Howard,--this is William Grimsby speaking.  I am fearfully
distressed and shocked to learn of his death, my poor boy.  And
Howard, I am grieved to learn that there is some little scandal
about it.  As your father's confidential adviser, I urge you to
hush it up at all cost.  I was told at your home just now by one
of the servants that you had gone to this vulgar detective
agency."

Here Shirley shut off the phonograph, addressing Van Cleft with
his hand over the mouthpiece of the telephone for the minute.

"Keep on talking until I return.  Get his advice about flowers
and everything else you can think of."

Then he ran from the room, into the hallway, out of the door, and
down the stoop to Fortieth Street.  He looked about uncertainly,
then espied across the way a tailor shop, where the light of the
late workman still burned.  Monty hurried thither and asked the
use of the telephone upon the wall.

"Shuair, mister, but it will cost you a dime, for I have to pay
the gas and the rent."

From the telephone directory he obtained the address and number
of William Grimsby, the banker.  He received an answer promptly.
The servant, after learning his name promised to call the master.
A gruff voice answered soon.  Mr. Grimsby declared that he had
been reading in his library for the last two hours, undisturbed
by any telephone calls.  Shirley expressed a doubt.

"How dare you doubt my word, sir.  The telephone is in my
reception room where I heard it ring just now, for the first
time.  What do you want?"

"An interview with you to-morrow morning at nine on a life and
death matter.  I can merely remind you, sir, that two of your
friends, Wellington Serral and Herbert de Cleyster have met
mysterious deaths during the past week.  Mr. Van Cleft died of
heart failure to-night.  I will be there at nine.  As you value
your own life do not leave your residence or even answer any
telephone messages again until I see you."

"Well, I'll be--"  Shirley disconnected, before the verb was
reached.  He tossed the coin to the tailor, and speedily returned
to the waiting room where he signaled Van Cleft to end the
conversation.

"Quick now, find out what wire called you up."  The answer was
"William Grimsby, 97 Fifth Avenue."

"You had the wrong tip that time, Mr. Shirley," said Van Cleft.
"But how could he have found out where I was, for none of the
servants know about Captain Cronin, or even my family that I was
coming down here.  He gave me some good advice however.  I want
to pay the hush money and end it all forever."

Shirley had preserved the record and put it away with the others
in the grip.  Now he lit a cigarette and puffed several rings of
smoke before answering.

"Van, it must be wonderful to be twins."

"This is no night for joking," petulantly, observed the nervous
young man.  "I want the girl silenced--"

"She won't open her mouth after I tell her some things.  It may
entertain you to know, Van, that while you were getting such good
advice from Mr. Grimsby on this wire, I was talking to the real
Mr. Grimsby on his own wire: he said I was his first caller in
more than an hour.  So, I gave him some good advice, which
wouldn't interest you.  After this don't believe what the
telephone tells."

"Who was I speaking with?"

"The most brilliant criminal it has ever been my pleasure to run
across," and his eyes snapped with joy, the huntsman instinct
rising to the surface at last, "I will call him the voice until
I know his better name.  He is the most scientific crook of the
age."

"What do you know about criminals?" was the incredulous question.

"I'll know a hundred times as much as I do now, when I know all
about this one, Van.  You'd better have Cleary send an armed
guard along with you, and get home for a good rest.  Get a man
who can drive a car, and bring back the empty auto three houses
away from your residence: it will bear looking into!  I'm going
up to have a revival meeting with that girl now, for I am
convinced that she is not a whit more implicated in the
conception or execution of this crime than you are.  Good-night."

Van Cleft left the house, with a pitying shake of the head.  He
was not quite certain that he had done wisely, after all, in
bringing his eccentric friend into the affair.  He little
reckoned how much more peculiarly Montague Shirley was to act for
the remainder of the night.




CHAPTER VI

AN EXPERIMENT WITH THE "MOVIES"


The cross-examination of Polly Marion resulted in little
advantage.  She had known of the sudden departure of two other
songbirds, well equipped with funds for the land of Somewhere
Else.  Their absence had been the subject of some quiet jesting
among the dragon flies who flitted over the pond of pleasure.  A
suggestion, from some unrecalled source, that their disappearance
had been connected with the deaths of the two aged suitors was
revitalized in her memory by the words of the elderly detective.
Familiar with the strange life of this jeweled half-world
Shirley's keenness brought forth nothing to convince him that the
girl had been more culpable than in the following of her class,
known to the initiate as the "gentle art of gold digging."

"Polly, go home now, and stay away from these parties: that's my
honest advice, if you want to be on the 'outside looking in,'
when some one is sent to prison for this.  I am in favor of
hushing up this affair, and want to ease it up for you.  Are you
wise?"

Polly was wise, beyond her years.  Her equipoise was regained,
and with a coquettish interest in this handsome interviewer--such
girls always have an eye for future business--he returned to her
theatrical lodging house, in which at least dwelt her wardrobe
and makeup box when she was "trouping" in some spangled chorus.
Of recent months she had not been subjected to the Hurculean
rigors of bearing the spear, thanks to the gratuities of the
open-handed Van Cleft, Senior.  She pleaded to remain out of the
white lights, meaning it as she spoke.  But Shirley wisely felt
that the butterfly would emerge from the chrysalis, shortly, to
flutter into certain gardens where he would fain cull rare
blossoms!  Pat Cleary deputized a "shadow" to diarize her exits
and entrances.

"The hooks are cleaned, with fresh bait upon them," soliloquized
Shirley, as he went down the dark stoop.  "Now for a little
laboratory work on the wherefore of the why!"

Although long after midnight, he numbered among his
acquaintanceship, many whom he could find far from Slumber-land. His
steps led to the apartment of a certain theatrical manager, whom he
found engaged in a lively tournament of the chips, jousting with two
leading men, one playwright, a composer and a merchant prince. The
latter, of course, was winning. The host, contributing both chips
and bottled cheer, was far from optimistic until the arrival of the
club man.

"A live one abaft the mizzen!" exclaimed Dick Holloway, "Here's
Shirley sent by Heaven to join us.  After all I hope to pay my
next month's rent."

Noisily welcomed by the victims of mercantile prowess, he
apologetically declined to flirt with Dame Fortune, pleading a
business purpose.

"Business, Monty!  By the shade of Shakspeare!  I never knew you
to look at business, except to prevent it running you down like a
Fourth Avenue mail bus."

"It is in the interest of science," said Shirley, drawing the
manager aside, "an experiment--"

"Fudge on science.  You interrupt a game at this time of night!"

"But it means money.  I am willing to pay."

"Ah, Monty, money should never come between friends, and so I
retract: with three failures this season, because the public
doesn't appreciate art."

"It's about moving pictures.  I know that you have floated a
syndicate for big productions.  Do you work night and day?"

"An investment?  Heaven bless you!  Come into my bedroom and
we'll arrange things of course, we work at night.  Just this
minute they are producing the 'Bartered Bride' in six reels and
eighteen thrills a foot.  A magnificently equipped studio, the
public yelling for more how much have you?"

"Not so fast, Dick.  It's merely some special work tonight, what
you would call trick photography.  I need a photographer, some
lights, a little space, a microscopic lens and the complete
developing during the night.  And, I'll pay cash, as I have done
with some suspicious poker losses in this temple of the muses on
bygone evenings.  Which, I may urge with gentle sarcasm is more
than I have frequently received at your hands."

"Touche!" laughed Holloway.  "I'll write a note to the studio
manager--he's there now, and will do what you want.  You could
have your picture completed by morning with a little financial
coaxing applied in the right place.  Come to the library table.
Go on with the game, boys, it will save me a little."

The potentate of dry goods was drawing in his winnings, as
Shirley leaned over Holloway's shoulder to dictate the missive.
Suddenly a revolver shot rang out from the window, and a bullet
crashed into the wall behind Shirley's head.

His hand, idly dropped into his overcoat pocket, intuitively
closed around his automatic revolver.  A dark silhouette was
outlined against the gray luminosity cast up by the lights of
Broadway, half a block from the window.  Through the opening
another belching flame shot forth, to be answered by the
criminologist's weapon, barking like a miltraileuse.  They
heard a stifled cry, and as Shirley ran forward, he exclaimed
with disappointment.

"He's escaped down the fire-escape and through that skylight."

He faced about to smile grimly at the curious scene within.  The
playwright had taken refuge among the brass andirons of the big
empty fireplace.  The matinee heroes were under chairs, and
Holloway behind the mahogany buffet.  From the direction of the
stairway came shrill cries from the speeding merchant, softening
in intensity as he neared the street level.

"The battle's over!" exclaimed Holloway.  "I don't know whether
it was my chorus men wishing the gipsy curse on me, or the
stage-carpenters going on a strike.  But look!  See the swag that
Jerry left behind!  What shall we do with it?"

"Loot!" suggested the playwright, with rare discrimination, as he
dusted off the wood ashes, and approached the table with
glistening eyes.  "We'll divide share and share alike.  It's the
only way to win from Jerry."

Temperament was asserting its gameness.  Shirley put back into
position a shattered portrait of Sarah Bernhardt, and his eyes
twinkled as the apostles of the muses hastened to divide the
chips of the departed one into five generous piles.  Holloway
completed the letter, albeit with a nervous chirography, and
handed him the envelope.

"Go now, before a submarine war zone is declared.  I'm going to
close up shop before the police come visiting.  Good luck, Monty,
in the cause of science."

Although his conscience was clear about the game having created
five surprised winners by his interruption, he was disturbed over
the certainty that the voice was aware of his personal work in
the case.  The difficulties were now trebled!  Before any
policemen appeared Shirley had passed Broadway on his way to the
motion picture studio, on the West side of Tenth Avenue. Whatever
secret observers may have been on his tracks, nothing untoward
occurred: still, his senses were quickened into caution by the
attempt on his life.

A parley with a grumpy gateman, the presentation of his letter
and he was admitted to the presence of the manager, a man
exhausted with the strenuosity of night and day work.  Shirley
understood the antidote for his sullenness.

"Here, old man, send out for a little luncheon for the two of us.
I have some unusual experimental work, and need the assistance of
a well-known expert like yourself."  The flattery, embellished by
a ten-dollar bill, opened a flood-gate of optimism.

A camera man was summoned, and the apparatus prepared for some
"close-up" motion pictures. Under the weird green lights of the
mercury vapor lamps, a director and company of players were busily
enacting a dramatic scene, before a studio set. They gave little
heed to the newcomer: boredom is a prime requisite of poise in the
motion picture art.

"I have here three phonograph records, which I want
photographed."

"But they don't move--you want a still camera," exclaimed the
dumfounded manager.

"Yes, they do move as the picture is taken.  I want a microscopic
lens used in the camera in such a way that we take a motion
picture of the twinings and twistings of one little thread on the
wax cylinder, as it records the sound waves around the cylinder."

The photographer sniffed with scorn, being familiar with
eccentric uplifters of the "movies," but responded to the command
of the manager to adjust his delicate camera mechanism for the
task.

"There is a certain phrase of words on each cylinder which I want
recorded this way.  Can all three be taken parallel with each
other on the same film?"

"Sure, easiest thing to do--just a triple exposure.  We take it
on one edge of the film, through a little slit just a bit wider
than the space of the thread, cut in a screen.  Then we rewind
that film, and slide the slit to the middle of the lens, take
your second wax record, and do the same on the right edge of the
film for the third.  But what's the idea?"

The camera man began to show interest: he was a skilled
mechanician and he caught the drift of a sensible purpose, at
last.

Shirley did not answer.  He placed the first record in the
phonograph, running it until the feminine voice could be
distinguished asking: "Can you hear me now?"  He marked the
beginning and end of this phrase with his pocket knife.  So with
the merry masculine and the aged, disagreeable voice, he located
the same order of words: "Can you hear me now?"  The operation
seems easy, in the telling, or again perhaps it appears intensely
involved and hardly worth the trouble.  A motto of Shirley's was:
"Nothing is too much trouble if it's worth while."  So, with
this.  To the cynical camera man its general nature was expressed
in his whispered phrase to the manager:

"You better not leave them property butcher knives on that there
table, Mr. Harrison.  This gink is nuts: he thinks's he's Mike
Angelo or some other sculpture.  He'll start sculpin' the crowd
in a minute!"

"You take the picture and keep your opinions to yourself,"
snapped Shirley whose hearing was highly trained.

The man lapsed into silence.  For two hours they fumed and
perspired and swore, under the intense heat of the low-hung
mercury lamps, until at last a test proved they had the right
combination.  Shirley greased the skill of the camera man with a
well-directed gratuity, and ordered speedy development of the
film.  Before this was done, however, he took six other records
of voices from the folk in the studio, using the same words: "Can
you hear me now?"

The three strips of triple exposures were taken to the dark
room and developed by the camera man.  They were dried on the
revolving electric drums, near a battery of fans.  Shirley
studied every step of the work, with this and that question
--this had been his method of acquiring a curiously catholic
knowledge of scientific methods since leaving the university,
where sporting proclivities had prompted him to slide through
courses with as little toil as possible.

A print upon "positive" film was made from each: every strip
was duplicated twenty-five times, at Shirley's suggestion.
Then after two hours of effort the material was ready to be run
through the projecting machine, for viewing upon the screen.

The manager led Shirley to the small exhibition theatre in which
every film was studied, changed and cut from twenty to fifty
times before being released for the theatres.  The camera man
went into the little fire-proof booth, to operate the machine.

"Which one first, chief?"

"Take one by chance," said Shirley, "and I will guess its number.
Start away."

There was a flare of light upon the screen, as the operator
fussed with the lamp for better lumination.  He slowly began to
turn the crank, and the criminologist watched the screen with no
little excitement.  The picture thrown up resembled nothing so
much as three endless snakes twisting in the same general rhythm
from top to bottom of the frame.  The twenty-five duplicates were
all joined to the original, so that there was ample opportunity
to compare the movements.

"Well, gov'nor, which film was that?" asked the operator.

"Not A--it was B or C!"

"Correct.  How'd you guess it?  Which is this one?"

As he adjusted another roll of film in the projector, Shirley
turned to the manager sitting at his side.  "Mr. Harrison, were
those snakes all exactly alike?"

"No.  They all wriggled in the same direction, at the same time.
But little rough angles in some movements and queer curves in
others made each individually different."

"Just what I thought.  There goes another.--That is not film A,
either!"

"Righto!" confirmed the camera man.  As the detailed divergence
between the lines became more evident in the repetitions, Shirley
slapped his knee.

"Now for the finish.  Try reel A."

This time the three snakey lines moved along in almost identical
synchronism.  The only difference was that the first was thin,
the second heavier, the third the darkest and most ragged of all.
The relationship was unmistakable!

"I got you gov'nor," cried the operator.  "Some dope, all right,
all right."

"Why, what is all this?" asked the manager, nonplussed.  "The
last three are alike, but what good does it do?"

"It is known that the human voice in its inflections is like
handwriting--with a distinct personality.  Certain words, when
pronounced naturally, without the alterations of dialect, are
always in the same rhythm.  The records taken in the studio of
those five words, 'Can you hear me now?' are in the same general
rhythm, but only the last three snakes show exact similarity, to
each little quaver and turn.  There was only the difference in
shading: one was the voice of a women.  The second of a man of
perhaps forty, the third of an old man--all three taken at
different times, and I thought from different people.  But they
all came from one throat, and my work is completed along this
line--Will you please lock up the films, the phonograph, and my
records in your film vault, until I send for them; through Mr.
Holloway?"

The criminologist arose and walked into the deserted studio, from
whence the company had long since departed for belated slumbers. He
picked up three bricks which lay in a corner of the big studio, and
placed them gently into his grip. The manager and the camera man
observed this with blank amazement, as he locked it and put the key
into his pocket. Then he handed each of them a large-sized bill.

"I'm very grateful, gentlemen, for your assistance.  Pleasant
dreams."

Shirley abstractedly walked out of the studio, one hand
comfortably in his overcoat pocket, swinging the grip in the
other.

"Say, Lou," confided the manager, "he's the craziest guy I've
ever seen in the movies.  And that's going some, after ten years
of it."

Lou treated himself to a generous bite of plug tobacco, and spat
philosophically, before replying.

"Sure, he's crazy.  Crazy, like the grandfather of all foxes!"




CHAPTER VII

ENTER A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN


A reddening zone in the East silhouetted the serrated line of the
distant elevated structure, as Shirley walked along the gray
street, his thoughts busy with the possibilities of applying his
new certainty.

He had reached Sixth Avenue, and was just passing one of the
elevated pillars when a black touring car crept up behind him.
The clanging bell and the grinding motors of an early surface car
drowned the sound of the automobile in his rear.  Suddenly the
big machine sprang forward at highest speed.  A man leaned from
the driver's seat, and snatched the grip from his hand.

The motorman, cursing, threw on the emergency brake, in time to
barely graze the machine with his fender as it shot across the
street before him.

Shirley's view was cut off, until he had run around the
street-car--then he beheld the big automobile skidding in
a half-circle, as it turned down Fifth Avenue.  It was too
far away to distinguish the number of the singing license tag.

"Much good may the bricks do them!  Perhaps they will help to
build the annex necessary up the river, when these gentry go
there for a long visit."

Shirley laughed at the joke on his pursuers, and turned into a
little all-night grill for a comforting mutton chop of gargantuan
proportions, with an equally huge baked potato.  He was a healthy
brute, after all his morbid line of activities!  Later, at the
Club, he submitted to the amenities of the barber, whose fine
Italian hand smoothed away, in a skilful massage, the haggard
lines of his long vigil.  As he left the club house for William
Grimsby's residence he looked as fresh and bouyant as though he
had enjoyed the conventional eight hours' sleep.

"You are this Montague Shirley?" was the querulous greeting from
the old gentleman, when he was admitted to the drawing-room.
"You kept me in anguish the entire night, with your silly words.
The telephone bell rang at intervals of half an hour until dawn:
I may have missed some important business deal by not replying
What do you mean?  Is this some blackmail game?"

"No, sir.  It has to deal with blackmailing, however--but not for
my profit."

"Explain quickly.  I am a busy man.  My motor is waiting now to
take me to my office."

"Look here, Mr. Grimsby, at this memorandum book," said Shirley,
holding forward the list which he had copied from the joy-party
article in the theatrical paper.  "With some friends of yours,
you held merry carnival to Venus and Bacchus at an all-night
lobster palace not long ago.  Have I the right names?"

"This is rank impertinence.  How dare you?  Get out of my house."

"Not so fast, my dear sir, until you understand my drift.
Throughout Club circles you and Mr. Van Cleft, with these other
cronies are sarcastically referred to as the Lobster Club.  Did
you know that?"

Grimsby's face was purple with angry mortification, but Shirley
would not be gainsaid.  "I am acting in this matter as a friend
of Howard Van Cleft," he continued.  "Your three friends have met
their deaths at the hand of a cunning conspirator.  Last night,
white I talked with you on the telephone, young Van Cleft was
receiving advice over another wire from a person who pretended to
be William Grimsby--advising him to hush the matter up and drop
the investigation.  But--Captain Cronin the famous detective--has
received a tip that the number of victims would be increased very
soon--frankly, now: do you want to be the fourth?"

Grimsby's face changed to ashen gray, as he timidly clutched
Shirley's sleeve.

"Then cooperate with me.  You understand now the nature of this
villain's work: to rob and assassinate his victim in the company
of a girl, so that this would endeavor to hush the scandal,
without reporting it to the police.  His progress is unchecked,
and afterwards he would have untold opportunity for continuing a
demand for hush money on the surviving relatives.  May I count on
you to help?"

"You may count on me to leave the city within the next two
hours."

"Good!  But I want to have you disappear so quietly that this
cunning unknown will not know of it.  He is watching your house
now, without a doubt."

Grimsby strode to the window, with his characteristic limp, and
drew the heavy curtains aside, to peer out nervously.

"No one is in sight."

"The man is as unseen in his work as a germ.  But he is not
unheard: he uses the telephone to locate his victims, that is why
I advised you to let your instrument ring unanswered."

"I'll do what I can, if I can keep out of more danger.  An old
man craves life more than a young one.  I fought through the
Civil War and brought a medal from Congress and this wounded knee
out of it, Mr. Shirley.  I didn't fear anything then, but times
have changed!"

"Here is my plan, then," continued Shirley, his lips twitching with
sub-strata amusement, "I want to impersonate you, when you leave, so
that this man tries to send me after the other three.  Don't
interrupt, let me finish--You will say that it is impossible to
deceive any one at close range. Surely, it does sound melodramatic,
like a lurid tale of a paper back novel. But I have studied the
photographs of your friends. You and I bear the closest resemblance
of any in the group. Your weight is about the same as mine--your
shoulders are a trifle stooped and you walk with a curious drag of
your left foot. Your hair is white but thick: the contour of our
faces is quite similar, and so with dry cosmetics, some physical
mimicry, and the use of a pair of horn-rimmed glasses like yours I
can make a comparatively good double. The only exposure to the sharp
eyes of your enemies will be, first, when I substitute myself for
you and take your automobile back home; second, when I go down to
the theatrical district, to visit a well-known tearoom where I learn
you are a frequent guest. There the wall tables are shrouded by
decorations, and I shall keep in the shadow and talk as little as
possible. Behind those dark glasses, and entering the place with
your peculiarly spotted fur coat, I will resemble you more than you
believe. If to add to the illusion, I show hospitable prodigality
with drinks for the others, it is probable that their observation
will be less analytical. Then, third in the line of activities, I
will go to the theatre, sit in a darkened box, and let them take me
where they will in whatever automobile turns up. Thus you see my
campaign."

"How much do I have to pay you?"

"I might have expected that," was the laughing retort.  "You are
noted for the fortunes you waste on stupid show girls, while
times are hard with you in your offices where young and old men
struggle along to support honest families.  Have no fear, Mr.
Grimsby, my income is enough for my simple wants.  I am entering
this hunt for big game, just as I have gone to India and East
Africa, for jungle trophies.  It will not cost you a nickel."

"I had better contribute a little," began Grimsby, embarrassed,
as he drew out a check-book.  But Shirley negatived with
emphasis.

"How about your servants?  Can you trust them with the secret?"

"They have been with me for twenty-five years or more.  My wife
is in California, and the rest of the servants, except two maids
and a butler, up at my country home on the Hudson."

"Fine: then, in two hours from now, meet me at the Hotel Astor,
where I have rooms, in the name of Madden.  Bring down an extra
suit of clothes, and an extra overcoat, for I want to wear your
fur one, which I see there on the davenport.  On the downward
trip instruct your chauffeur to drive your car up to your country
place, as soon as he has made the return trip from the hotel.
You will be there before he gets up, on the country roads and he
will be none the wiser.  Goodbye, Mr. Grimsby."

At the club Shirley made some necessary disposition of his
private matters, for he knew this case would run longer than
a day.  From his rooms he sent a note by messenger to his
theatrical friend, Dick Holloway, which read simply.

"Dear Holloway:--The experiment with the movies won the blue
ribbon.  I have a new plan on foot.  You can help me in this, as
well.  I want you to engage for me a beautiful, clever and daring
actress, afraid of nothing under the sun or moon, and absolutely
unknown on Broadway.  No amateurs or stage-struck heiresses or
manicurists: you are the one impresario who can fill my bill.  I
will call at your office in fifteen minutes, so have the compact
sealed by then.  Who finally won the loot, last night?

                             Your friend, Montague Shirley."

The manager was forced to go through the note twice, to make sure
that his senses were not leaving him. Then he turned in the chair,
toward the unusual young woman who sat in his private office,
observing with mingled amusement and curiosity the fleeting
expressions upon his face.

"In view of your mission in America, this may interest you," was
his amused comment, as he handed her the missive.  "It is from
the most curious man in New York."

He studied the downcast lashes, as she read the letter.  Hers was
a face which had stirred a continent, yet he had never met her
until this memorable day.  She might have been twenty-three years
old--and again, might have been three years younger or older.
Rippling red-gold waves of hair separated in the center of her
smooth brow to caress with a soft wave on either side the
blooming cheeks, whose Nature-grown roses were unusual in this
world-weary vicinity of Broadway.  A sweet mouth with a sensuous
smile at one corner, and a barely perceptible droop of pathos at
the other, lent an indescribable piquance to her dimpled smile.
The blue orbs which raised to his own with a Sphinxian laugh in
their azure depths thrilled him--Holloway, the blase, the
hardened theatrical manager, flattered and cajoled by hundreds of
beautiful women on the quest of stage success!

Adroitly veiled beneath the silken folds of the clinging gown,
redolent with the bizarre artistry of a Parisian atelier, was the
shapely suggestion of exquisite physical perfection which did not
escape the connoisseur glance of Holloway.

"He is a literary man: I know that from the small, yet fluent
writing, and the cross marks for periods show that he has written
for newspapers and corrected his own proofs--He is unusually
definite in what he desires  and accustomed to having his
imperious way about most things.  In this case, he is easily
pleased--merely perfection is his desire."

"Shirley is generally prompt, and is apt to breeze in here any
second now, with his two hundred pounds and six feet of brawn and
ginger.  I wonder--"

"Why do you suppose such a paragon is desired by your friend?
Who is he?  What is he like, not an ordinary actor--" and the
wondrous eyes darkened with a curious thought.

"My dear lady, no one has discovered the mental secrets of
Montague Shirley.  He apparently wastes his life as do other
popular society men with much money and more time on their hands.
Yet, somehow, I always feel in his presence as one does when
standing on the bow of an ocean liner, with the salt breeze
whizzing into your heart.  He is a force of nature, yet he
explains nothing: a thorough man of the world; droll, sarcastic,
generous and I believe for democracy he is unequaled by any
Tammany politician: he knows more policemen, dopes, conductors,
beggars, chauffeurs, gangsters, bartenders, jobless actors,
painters, preachers, anarchists, and all the rest of New York's
flotsam and jetsam than any one in the world.  He is always the
polished gentleman, and yet they take him man for man."

"What does this unusual person do for a living?"

"Nothing but living!"

Her interest was naturally undiminshed by this perfervid tribute,
and she clapped her dainty hands together with sudden mirth.

"You know why I came here, and why to you, Mr. Holloway.  You
know who I am, and although I answer none of those exorbitant
terms except that I am not known by sight along your big street
Broadway, why not recommend me for the position?"

"But you, of all people!" Holloway's face was a study in
amazement.  "You can't tell what wild project he has in view.
Shirley is a wild Indian, in many things you know--just when
you least expect it.  I have known him a dozen years."

He paused to weigh the matter, and his sense of humor conquered.
He roared with mirth, which was joined in more sedately by the
unknown girl.  "That settles it.  You couldn't start on your
campaign in a better way.  You shall be the Lady of Mystery in
this story!  I will not breathe a hint of your identity to
Shirley, and no one else knows, of course.  What a ripping good
joke: I'm glad you came here the first hour after your landing in
New York."

"What shall I call myself?  I have it--a romantic name, which
will be worth laughing over later--let me see--Helene Marigold.
Is that flowery enough?"

"Shirley will be sure you are an actress when he hears that.  Mum
is the word, may you never have stage fright and never miss a
cue--Here he comes now!"

The criminologist rushed into the office impetuously, dropping
his bag on the floor, and doffing his hat as he beheld the pretty
companion of Holloway.

"On time to the minute, as usual, Shirley.  Your note came, and I
followed your instructions.  Let me present to you your new star,
Miss Helene Marigold, who just disembarked on the steamer from
England this morning.  You have secured a young lady who is
making all Europe sit up and rub its eyes.  I believe I have at
last found a match for you, Prince of the Unexpected!"

Shirley held forth his fervent hand, and was surprised at the
almost masculine sincerity with which the delicately gloved
fingers returned the pressure.  He looked into the blue eyes with
a challenging scrutiny, and received as frank an answer!

Dick Holloway indulged in an unobserved smile, as he turned to
look out of the window, lost for the nonce in mirthful
speculation.




CHAPTER VIII

WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK


"Dick, you can help me further, with your dramatic knowledge.  I
feel in duty bound to tell Miss Marigold that she is risking her
life, if she takes up this task."

Instead of hesitancy, which Shirley half expected, the girl's
face flushed with quickened interest, and her eyes sparkled with
enjoyment as he unfolded the situation.  At the mention of
Grimsby, Holloway grunted with disgust--it may have been a
variety of professional jealousy.  Who knows?  However, the
problem fascinated the mysterious young woman, who blushed, in
spite of herself, when Shirley put his blunt question to her.

"And you are willing to assume for a time the character of one of
these stage moths, whom rich men of this type pursue and woo,
wine, dine and boast about?  Will it interfere with your own
work?  Any salary arranged by Mr. Holloway is agreeable, for this
unusual task."

"The game, not the money, is the attraction.  I will be ready
when you pronounce my cue."

"Splendid.  Dick, will you assist Miss Marigold in selecting an
attractive apartment in a theatrical hotel this afternoon.  I
will call for her at four-thirty, to take her to tea.  She may
not know me, at first glance: that depends upon the help you give
me at the Astor.  I will expect you there in an hour.  I haven't
acted since I left the college shows: with a hundred chances to
one against my success, even I am not bored."

He hurried from the office, and Holloway noted the glow in the
girl's glance which followed his stalwart figure.  Holloway was a
good tactician: there were reasons why he enjoyed this new role
of match-maker de luxe, yet he played his hand far more subtly
than at poker.  Which was well!

Ensconced in the Astor, Shirley was soon busy before the cheval
glass, from which were suspended three photographs of William
Grimsby, obtained from a photographic news syndicate.

Coat and waistcoat had been removed, as he discriminatingly
applied the dry cosmetics with skill which suggested that he had
disguised himself for daylight purposes far more than he would
admit.  By the time he had powdered his thick locks with the
white pulverized chalk, and donned a pair of horn-rim glasses of
amber tint, his whole personality had changed.  The similarity
was startling to the prototype who was admitted to the room a few
minutes later.

"Why, I beg pardon--I have come to the wrong suite," were
Grimsby's apologetic words, as he essayed to retreat.

"You are the first victim of the mirage.  Do you like the
caricature?"

"Astounding, my friend!" gasped Grimsby, sinking into the chair.
Shirley drew him to the mirror, to make a closer study of the
lines of senility and late hours.  A few delicate touches of
purple and blue, some retouching of the nostrils, and he drew on
the suit provided by his elder.  Dick Holloway was announced, and
Shirley ordered some wine and a dinner for one!  At Grimsby's
surprise, Shirley, smiled indulgently.

"I am selfish--I will have a little supper party by myself, and
spare you in nothing.  I want you to eat, to drink, to pour wine,
to take out your wallet, to walk, to sit down, to laugh, to
scold!  You have a task, sir: I will imitate you move by move!
This is a rare experiment."

"Great Scott!  Which is you?" cried Holloway who entered with the
burdened waiter.

"Neither.  We're both me!" chuckled the criminologist.  "But let
me introduce you to my twin--"

The two men exchanged formalities with an undercurrent of
dislike.  Shirley lost no time.  He compelled the old man to run
through his paces, as Holloway criticized each study in miming.
Just as the capitalist would swing his arms, limp with his left
leg, shift his head ever so little, from side to side in his
walk, so Shirley copied him.  A word here, an exhortation there,
and Shirley improved steadily under Holloway's analytical
direction.  At last the lesson was ended, with the manager's
pronounciamento of "graduation cum lauda."

"I'll have to star you, Monty," he declared, as Shirley put on
the fur greatcoat of the old man, grasping the gold headed cane,
and drooping his shoulders in a perfect imitation of the other's
attitude.

"Perhaps it will be necessary.  The chorus men have invaded
society with their fox-trots and maxixe steps.  We club men will
have to countercharge the enemy, for self-preservation, to play
heavy villains upon the stage.  Eh?"

He turned toward Grimsby, who was well wearied with the trying
ordeal, and evidencing a growing nervousness about his own
escape.

"You know how to leave, according to my plan?  Wrap the muffler
well around the lower part of your face, button this second
overcoat closely about your neck, and enter the private carriage
which I ordered for 'Mr. Lee,' waiting now at the Forty-fifth
Street Side.  Then drive leisurely to the West Forty-second
Street Ferry, where you can catch the late afternoon train for
your country place."

"Good-bye, Mr. Shirley.  I have been an old curmudgeon with you,
I fear.  You have taught this old dog new tricks in several ways,
young man.  Neither I nor my friends will forget your bravery.
They are all out of the city by now, according to word from my
private secretary.  Your field is clear.  Good luck, sir!"

Shirley and Holloway left the rooms first.  Neither addressed the
other on the lift, as it descended to the street level.  Holloway
casually followed Monty as he stiffly walked to the big red
limousine waiting at the Forty-fourth Street entrance of the
hostelry.  The chauffeur sprang out, opening the door with a
respectful salute.  The disguise was successful!

"Home!" grunted Shirley, sinking back into the car, with collar
high about his neck and the soft hat half concealing his eyes.
He scrutinized the faces of the passers-by, photographing in that
receptive memory of his the ugly features of two men, who peered
into the limousine from under the visors of their black caps.
The car sped up town through the bewildering maze of street
traffic.  The chauffeur helped him up the steps of the brownstone
mansion, while Grimsby's old butler swung open the glass door,
with a helping hand under the feeble arm.

Shirley puffed and grunted impatiently until he heard the door
close behind him.  Then straightening up, he turned upon the
startled butler.

"Well, my man.  Go out and tell the chauffeur to leave for the
country at once, as Mr. Grimsby already ordered him to do."

"My Gawd, sir!" exclaimed the servant, paling perceptibly.
"What's come over you, sir?--Oh, I beg pardon, sir, you're the
other gentleman.  You certainly fooled me, sir--You're bloody
brave, sir, to do all this for the master.  Are we in any
danger?"

"Not a bit--whatever happens will be outside the house.  Just
keep up the secret, as you value your master's life.  Go, and
tell the man.  I must kill time here in the library, reading
until four o'clock."

Shirley threw aside the greatcoat, and walked to the window of
the small reception room which faced the street, to draw aside
the curtains and watch the chauffeur, as he entered the machine
to speed away.  A black automobile slowly passed the house,
bearing two men on the driver's seat.  From under the visors of
their black caps they scrutinized the building, to hastily look
away as they observed the face at the window.

Shirley made a note of the number of the machine.  He could have
sworn that this was the same car which had passed him that
morning at dawn when the grip was snatched from his hand.

He returned to the library, where he lost himself in the rare old
volumes of Grimsby's life collection: the criminologist was a
booklover and the hours drifted by as in a happy playtime, until
the butler came to tell him the time.

"Great Scott!  I must hurry.  Call a taxi, for me.  I will go to
Holloway's office to learn where Miss Marigold has been
ensconced."

He sat in the machine before the office building, as he sent the
chauffeur up to Dick's office, to inquire for a message to "Mr.
Grimsby."  A note was brought down, informing him that the girl
awaited him in the Hotel California, a few blocks above.  The
machine started off once more, and Shirley laughed at the droll
situation in which he found himself.

"I wonder who Helene Marigold can be?  I wonder what Holloway
meant precisely when he predicted that I would meet my match.  I
am not seeking one kind--and blue eyes, surrounded by red-gold
hair and peaches and cream will not shake my determination."

But the best laid determinations of bachelor hearts gang aft
agley!

Down at the Hotel California, famous for its rare collection of
attractive feminine guests and the manifold breach-of-promise
suits which had emanated from the palm bedecked entrance, Helene
Marigold was indulging herself in a delighted, albeit highly
amused, inspection of sundry large boxes which had been arriving
from shops in the neighborhood.

"As nearly as I can imagine this must look like the bower of a
Broadway Phryne.  All that is missing is a family portrait in
crayon of the father who was a coal miner, the presence of a
buxom financial genius for the stage mother, and a Chinese
chow-dog on a cerise velvet cushion.  But who ever attains
perfection here below?"

She lifted some filmy gowns which had arrived in the latest
parcel to her chin, peering over the sheerness of the lacy
cascade, into the mirror of the dressing-table.

"If good old Jack could see me now?  Poor, old, stupid, dear,
silly Jack!  I must write to him at once, for he is largely
responsible for my present unusual surroundings.  How pleased
this would not make him, the old dear."

With the thought, she sat down before the escritoire, dipping a
pearl and gold pen, as she paused for the words with which to
begin the note.  Another knock came at the door.  It could not be
another gown.  She had told Holloway to keep all her personal
baggage at the steamer dock until she had finished her lark!  At
the portal a diminutive messenger delivered a large white box,
ornately bound in lavender ribbons.  When she unwrapped it,
hidden in the folds of many reams of delicate tissue, she found a
gorgeous bunch of orchids.

"How beautiful!  I wonder who could have--" then she found a
white card, and read it aloud, with a mirthful peal of laughter.

"To Lollypop's little Bonbon Tootems--from her foolish old
Da-Da!"

Helene turned toward the window, to gaze out over the mysterious,
foreign motley array of roofs and obtruding skyscrapers of this
curious district.

"This mysterious man plays his part with a sense of humor.  If
only he will be different and not mean the flowers, ever!"

And she forgot to finish the note which was to have gone to
faraway, stupid, dear old Jack.

Ten minutes later an aged gentleman entered the gorgeous foyer of
the Hotel California, impatiently presenting his card to the
bell-boy, for announcement to Miss Marigold.  The lad, true to
tradition, quietly confided the name to the interested clerk,
before doing so.  As the visitor was shown to the elevator, the
clerk turned to his assistant with a nudge.

"There's the easiest spender of the Lobster Club.  That means
good trade here, with this new peach in the crate.  These old
ginks are hard as Bessemer armor-plate in business, but oh, how
soft the tumble for a new shade of peroxide."

"Mr. Grimsby" was soon sitting on the velour divan, at a comfortable
distance from possible eavesdroppers at the door. She was putting
the finishing touches to her preparation for the butterfly role.
Shirley felt an unexpected thrill at this little intimacy of their
relations: the rooms were permeated with the most delicate
suggestion of a curious perfume, which was strange to him. Somehow
it fitted her personality so effectually: for despite the physical
appeal of her beauty, now accentuated by the risque costume which
she had donned, at the professional suggestion of Dick Holloway,
there was a pervasive spirituality in the girl's face, her hands,
and the tones of her soft voice.

She turned to smile at him, her dimples playing hide and seek
with the white pearls beneath the unduly scarlet lip.

"Isn't this a ripping good situation for a novel?" she began.

"Yes, too good at present, Miss Marigold.  There are too many,
important people to be affected for it ever to be given to the
public, for the identities would all be exposed ruthlessly.
Besides, no one would believe it: it seems too improbable, being
real life.  It will be more improbable before we finish the
adventure, I suspect.  Can I trust your discretion to keep it
secret?  You know, I have a deal of skepticism about the best of
women."

Helene reddened under that keen glance, and he saw that he had
offended her.

"I beg your pardon: I know that we shall work it out together,
with absolute mutual trust."

Such an earnest vibrance was in his voice that somehow she was
reminded of another voice: her mind went back to the neglected
letter to Jack.  What could have caused her to be so remiss?
She would not let herself dwell on the subject--instead, with
a surprising deftness, she caught up Shirley's own cue, for a
staggering question of her own.

"Are you sure that you have absolutely confided in me?  Did you
start at the beginning, when you told the story to-day."

"What do you mean?" and Shirley caught the glance sharply.

"Your unusual rapidity of action, Mr. Shirley, for a mere
interested friend!  It is queer how wonderfully your mind has
connected this work, and the various accidental happenings, to
evolve this clever ruse in which I am to assist.  It doesn't seem
so amateurish as you would make it.  You seem mysterious to me."

"Do you think I am the voice?  Here is a chance for real
detective work, if you can double the game, and capture me?" was
the laughing retort.  "I don't believe you trust me."

The girl stood up before him, and after one deep look, her eyes
fell before his.  Those exquisite lashes sent a tiny flutter
through the case-hardened heart of the club man, despite his
desperate determination to be a Stoic.

"I do trust you," the voice was impetuous, almost petulant.  "You
are a real man: I merely give you credit for being better than
the class of rich young men of whom you pretend to be an absolute
type.  But there, I waste words and time.  Is my costume for this
little opera boufe satisfactory to you?  Do you like my warpaint
and battle armor?"

She stood before him, a glorious bird of paradise.  The wanton
display of a maddening curve of slender ankle, through the slash
of the clinging gown imparted just the needed allurement to stamp
her as a Vestal of the temple of Madness.  The cunning simplicity
of the draping over her shoulders--luminous with the iridiscent
gleam of ivory skin beneath, accentuated by the voluptuous beauty
of her youthful bosom--the fleeting change of colors and contours
as she slowly turned about in this maddening soul-trap of silk
and laces--all these were not lost on the senses of Shirley.  As
the depths of those blue eyes opened before his gaze, a mad, a
ridiculous aching to crush her in his arms, surprised the
professional consulting criminologist!  For this swift instant,
all memory of the Van Cleft case, of every other problem, was
driven from his mind, as a blinding blast of seething desire
surged about him.

Then the old resolution, the conquering will of the man of one
purpose, beat back the flames of this threatening conflagration.
His eyes narrowed, his hands dropped to his side, and he squinted
at her with the frigid dissective gaze of an artist studying the
curves of a model.

"You must rouge your cheeks more, blue your eyelids and redden
your lips even yet.  Then be generous with the powder--and that
wonderful perfume."

An inscrutable smile played about the sensitive lips, as Helene
turned to her dressing-table.  Shirley stood with his face to the
window; he did not observe it, nor would he have understood its
menace to his own peace of mind.  Helene, however, did.  She was
a woman.

"May I smoke a cigarette?  I am afraid I am almost a fiend, for I
seem to crave the foolish comfort that I imagine they give, in
times of nervous drain."

"No, Lollypop's little Bonton Tootems enjoys their fragrance.
Don't ever ask me again.  I have completed the mural decoration
with futurist extravagance in the color scheme.  My cloak, sir!"

He tossed it about her, and took up his hat and gold-headed
stick.  With a final glance at his own careful make-up, he
started after her for the street.

"Some chikabiddy!" was the remark of the clerk to the head
bell-boy.  The words reached the ears of Shirley and Helene.  Her
hand trembled on his arm as they entered a waiting taxicab.  She
looked pathetically at him, as she asked.

"Don't you think I am interested, sincere and loyal, to brave
such remarks as these, and the other worse things they will say
before long?  I wouldn't dare do this, if I were not sure that no
one in America but you and Mr. Holloway knows me.  To wear this
horrid stuff on my face--to dress in these vulgar clothes--to
impersonate such a girl!  You know I'm not nearly as bad as I'm
painted!"

Shirley clasped her white-gloved hand and nodded.  He was
studying the pedestrians for a familiar twain of faces.  He was
not disappointed, as the car swung into Broadway.

"Look--those two men have been following me wherever I have gone.
They are a pair of old-fashioned pirates.  Don't forget their
faces!"




CHAPTER IX

IN THE GARDEN OF TEMPTATION


Their destination, one of the score of tango tea-rooms which had
sprung to mushroom popularity within the year, was soon reached.
Leaning heavily upon his stick, limping like his aged model, and
spluttering impatiently, Shirley was assisted by the uniformed
door man into the lobby.  Helene followed meekly.  Four hat boys
from the check-room made the conventional scramble for his
greatcoat, hat and stick, nearly upsetting him in their
eagerness.  Then Shirley led the way into the half light of the
tropical, indoor garden, picking a way through the tables to a
distant wall seat, embowered with electric grapes and artificial
vines.

"Sit down, my darling child," said the pseudo Grimsby, as he
dropped into a seat behind the table, which was protected from
the lights, and furthest away from any possible visitors.  "We
are early, avoiding the crush.  Soon the crowd will be here.  We
must have some champagne at once, to assist me in my defensive
tactics.  You will have to do most of the talking.  Remember, we
are going to the Winter Garden musical review when we leave here:
you may tell this to whom you will."

Helene looked about curiously, as the big tea-room began to fill
with its usual late afternoon crowd of patrons,--young, old and
indeterminate in age.  Women of maturely years, young misses from
"finishing" schools, demimondaine, social "bounders" deluded by
the glitter of their own jewelry and the thrill of their wasted
money that they were climbing into New York society--these and
other curious types rubbed elbows in this melting pot of folly.
The tinkle of glasses, the increasing buzz of conversation, the
empty laughter of too many emptied cocktail glasses mingled with
the droning music of an Hawaiian string quartette in the far
corner.

Suddenly, with banging tampani and the crash of cymbals, rattle
of tambourines and beating of tomtoms, the barbaric Ethiopians of
the dancing orchestra began their syncopated outrages against
every known law of harmony--swinging weirdly into the bewitching,
tickling, tingling rhythm of a maxixe.

"How strange!" murmured Helene, as the waiter brought them some
champagne and indigestible pastries--the true ingredients of
'dansant the'.

"Yes, on with the dance-let joy be unrefined!  The fall of the
Roman Empire was the bounce of a rubber nursery ball, compared
with this New York avalanche of luxurious satiation!  Now, my
child, old Da-da, is going to become too intoxicated to talk
three words to any of these gallants and their lassies.  Grimsby
did not write a monologue for me, so I must pantomime: you will
have to carry the speaking part of our playlet.  Flatter them
--but don't leave my side to dance!"

The first bottle of wine had been carried away by the waiter,
(half emptied it is true,) as he filled a second order.  Shirley
shielded his face beneath a drooping spray of artificial blooms
from the top of their wallbower.  Several young men were
approaching them, and the criminologist noted with relief that
they evidenced their afternoon libations even so early.  Eyes
dulled with over-stimulus were the less analytical.  Chance was
favoring him.  The newcomers were garbed in that debonair and
"cultured" modishness so dear to the hearts of magazine
illustrators.  Faces, weak with sunken cheek lines, strong in
creases of selfishness, darkened by the brush strokes of
nocturnal excesses and seared, all of them with the brand mark of
inbred rascality, identified them to Shirley as members of that
shrewd class of sycophants who feast on the follies of the more
amateurish moths of the Broadway Candles.

"Hello, old pop Grimsby!"

"You're in the dark of the moon, Grimmie!  I couldn't make you
out but for those horn rimmed head lights."

"Welcome to the joy-parlor, old scout."

The greetings of the juvenile buzzards varied only in
phraseology: their portent was identical: "Open wine."

"Poor Mr Grimsby is so ill this afternoon, but sit down and have
something with us," volunteered Helene tremulously.

The bees gathered about the table to feast on the vinous honey,
while Shirley, mumbling a few words, maintained his partial
obscurity, with one hand to his forehead.

"Fine boysh, m'deah.  Boysh, meet little Bonbon--my protashsh!"

Little Bonbon was a pronounced attraction.  Her vivacious charm
drew the eyes away from Shirley, who studied the expressions of
the weasel faces about him.  The girl's heart sickened under the
brutal frankness of a dozen calculating eyes, yet she valiantly
maintained her part, while Shirley marveled at her clever
simulation of silly, giggly, semi-intoxication.  One youth
deserted them to disappear through the distant dining room
entrance.  The comments about the table were interesting to the
keen-eared masquerader.

"Old Grimsby's picked a live one, this time!"--"What show is she
with?"--"Won't Pinkie be sore?"  The criminologist was not left
to wonder as to the identity of "Pinkie," for an older man,
walking behind a red-headed girl in a luridly modern gown,
approached the table with the absent guest.  The men were talking
earnestly, the girl staring angrily at Shirley's, beautiful
companion.

"Hey, here come's Reggie!  Sit down, Reg.  Pop has passed away,
but his credit is still strong."

"There's Pinkie--come, my dear, and join the Ladies' Aid Society
and have a lemonade," jested another youth, making a place for
the girl in the aisle.

Pinkie's dark-haired companion sank somewhat unsteadily into a
chair next the girl.  He frowned and rubbed his forehead, as
though to clear his mind for needed concentration.  He shook
Shirley's arm, and spoke sharply.

"Look up; Grimmie.  I never saw you feel your wine so early in
the afternoon.  It was a lucky day for me on Wall Street, so I
celebrated myself.  You are here earlier than usual.  Everybody
have some champagne with me."

As he beckoned to the waiter, the red-haired girl bestowed a
murderous look upon Helene, who was sniffing some flowers which
she had drawn from the vase on the table.

"Who's that Jane?" she demanded, her voice-shaking with jealousy.
"Grimmie, you act as if you were doped.  Introduce us to your
swell friend.  Wake him, Reg Warren."

Helene's jeweled white hand protected the safety-first dozing of
her companion, as, through the interstices of his fingers, he
studied the inscrutable difference between the face of Warren and
the other youths about them.

"Let Pop dream of a new way to make a million!" laughed one young
man.  "His money grows while he sleeps."

"Yes, let him dream on," laughed Helene, with a shrill giggle.
"When he makes that extra million he can star me on Broadway, in
my own show.  He, he!"

"You'll have to spend half of it at John the Barber's getting
your voice marceled and your face manicured," snarled Pinkie.
"Come, Reg, and dance with me: these bounders bore me."

"Run along, Pinkie, and fox-trot your grouch away with Shine
Taylor.  Here comes the wine I ordered--What's your name, girlie?
Where did you meet Grimsby?"

"Oh, we're old friends," and Helene maliciously spilled a bottle
over the interrogator's waistcoat, as she reached forward to
shake his hand.  "My name's Bonbon, you wouldn't believe me if I
told you my real name, anyway.  Who are you?"

"I'm not Neptune," he retorted, as he mopped the bubbles with a
napkin.  "You've started in badly."  Shirley mentally disagreed.
His stupor still obsessed him, but he noted with interest that
Warren paid the check for his bottle with a new one-hundred
dollar bill.  Warren could elicit nothing from Helene but silly
laughter, and so he arose impatiently, as Shine Taylor returned
to whisper something in his ear.  "I must be getting back to my
apartment.  Bring Grimsby up to it to-night: a little bromo will
bring him back to the land of the living.  I'll have a jolly
crowd there--top floor of the Somerset, on Fifty-sixth Street,
you know, near Sixth Avenue.  Come up after the show."

"We're going to the Winter Garden," suggested Helene, at a nudge
from Shirley, and Warren nodded.

"I'll try to see you later, anyway.  Goodbye!"

Losing interest in the proceedings, as the time for reckoning the
bill approached, the other gallants followed these two.  Alone,
again, Shirley ordered some black coffee, and smiled at his
assistant.

"He told the truth for once."

"What do you mean?"

"He will try to see us later.  That man is a member of the
murderous clan whom we seek.  'To-night is the night' for the
exit of William Grimsby--but, perhaps we may have a stage wait
which will surprise them."

Gradually the guests thinned out in the tea-room, but Shirley
cautiously waited until the last.

"Do you believe these young men are all members of the gang?"
asked the girl.  "Why do you suppose these men are all criminals?
They surely look a bad lot."

"There are two general reasons why men go wrong.  One is hard
luck, aided by tempting opportunity--they hope to make a success
out of failure, and then keep on the straight path for the rest
of their lives.  Such men are the absconders, the forgers, the
bank-wreckers, and even the petty thieves.  But once branded
with the prison bars and stripes, they seldom find it possible to
turn against the tide in which they find themselves: so they
become habitual offenders.  They are the easiest criminals to
detect.  The second class are the born crooks, who are lazy,
sharp-witted and without enough will-power to battle against the
problems of honesty in work.  It is easy enough to succeed if a
man is clever and unscrupulous without a shred of generosity.
The hard problem is to be affectionate, human, and conquer
every-day battles by remaining actively honest, when your rivals
are not straight.  The born crook is safer from prison than the
weakling of the first class."  He looked down at the coffee, and
then continued.

"I do not believe all these young men are in this curious plot.
They are merely the small fry of the fishing banks: they are
petty rascals, with occasional big game.  But somewhere, behind
this sinister machine, is a guiding hand on the throttle, a brain
which is profound, an eye which is all-seeing and a heart as cold
as an Antartic mountain.  There is the exceptional type of
criminal who is greedy--for money and its luxurious
possibilities; selfish--with regard for no other heart in the
world; crafty--with the cunning of an Apache, enjoying the thrill
of crime and cruelty; refined and vainglorious--with pride in his
skill to thwart justice and confidence in his ability to
continually broaden the scope of his work.  Crime is the ruling
passion of this unknown man.  And the way to catch him is by
using that passion as a bait upon the hook.  I am the wriggling
little angle worm who will dangle before his eyes to-night.  But
I do not expect to land him--I merely purpose to learn his
identity, to draw the net of the law about him, in such a way as
to keep the Grimsby and Van Cleft names from the case."

"And how can that be done?"

"That, young lady, is my 'fatal secret.'  The subplot developing
within my mind is still nebulous with me,--you would lose all
interest, as would I, if you knew what was going to happen.  But
the time has passed, and now we can go to the theatre.  I bought
the tickets by messenger this afternoon.  I will let you do the
talking to the chauffeur and the usher."

They left the tea-room, the last guests out.

It was a touching sight to see the elderly gentleman supported on
one side by a fat French waiter, and on the opposite, by the
solicitous girl.  The old Civil War wound was unusually
troublesome.




CHAPTER X

WHEN IT'S DARK IN THE PARK


At the entrance of the restaurant the starter tooted his shrill
whistle, and a driver began to crank his automobile in the
waiting line of cars.  According to the rules of the taxi stands
he was next in order.  But, as is frequently the custom in the
hotly contested district of "good fares" another car "cut in"
from across the street.  This taxi swung quickly around and drew
up before the waiting criminologist.

Grunting and mumbling, as though still deep in his cups, Monty
allowed himself to be half pushed, half lifted into the car by
the attendant.  Helene followed him.  "Winter Garden," she
directed, and the machine sped away, while the thwarted driver in
the rear sent a volley of anathemas after his successful
competitor.

Shirley scrutinized the interior of the machine, but there seemed
nothing to distinguish it from the thousands of other piratical
craft which pillage the public with the aid of the taximeter
clock on the port beam!  Soon they were at the big Broadway
playhouse, where Shirley floundered out first, after the
ungallant manner of many sere-and-yellow beaux.  He swayed
unsteadily, teetering on his cane, as Helene leaped lightly to
the sidewalk beside him.  The driver stood by the door of the
car, leering at him.

"Here, keep the change," and Shirley handed him a generous bill.

"Shall I wait fer ye, gov'nor?  I ain't got no call to-night.
I'll be around here all evening."

The criminologist nodded, and the chauffeur handed Helene the
carriage number check.

"Don't let 'em steal de old gink, inside, girlie.  He's strong
fer de chorus chickens."

Helene shuddered before the hawk-like glare of his malevolent
eyes, but in her part, she shook her head with a laugh, and
followed airily after her escort.

"Good-evening, sir.  Back again to-night, I see," volunteered the
ticket taker, to whom William Grimsby was a familiar visitant.
Shirley reeled with steadied and studied equilibrium, into the
foyer of the theatre, as he nodded.  Their seats were purposely
in the rear of a side box, well protected from the audience by
the holders of the front positions.  The criminologist appeared
to relapse into dreams of bygone days, while his companion peered
into the vast audience and then at the nimble limbed chorus on
the stage with piquant curiosity.

"For years I wanted to see an American stage and an American
audience," she confided in an undertone, "and to think that when
I do so, it is acting myself, on the other side of the footlights
in a stranger, more dramatic part than any one else in the
theatre.  A curious world, isn't it?"

Shirley breathed deeply, drinking in the maddening perfume of her
glorious hair, so perilously near his own face. The shimmer of her
shoulders, the adorable curves of that enticing scarlet mouth
murmuring so near his own, and yet so far away, in this soul-racking
game of make-believe, stirred his blood as nothing else had done in
all the kalaediscopic years.

"Yes, a more than curious world.  How things have changed since
last evening when I planned a sleepy evening at the opera.  I
wonder what the outcome will be?"

Helene looked up at him quickly, then as suddenly toward the
Russian danseuse within the golden frame of the great proscenium.
The orchestra, with its maddening Slavic music, stirred her
pulses with a strange telepathy.  The evening wore along, until
the final curtain.  Shirley, with cumbersome effort helped her
with her cloak, dropping his hat and stick more than once in
simulated awkwardness.  The electric numerals of the carriage
call soon brought the grimy-faced chauffeur.

"Jack on the spot, gov'nor, that's me!" and he swung the door
open.

"We'll go get some supper--no, we'll take little 'scursion in
Central Park, first," and his voice was thick, "correct, cabbie.
Drive us shru Central Park."

"Are you going to take a chance in a dark park?" Helene asked
him, as they sat within the car, while the chauffeur cranked.
Shirley was sharply observing the man.  A pedestrian crossed
directly in front of the machine, brushing against the driver, as
he fumbled with the lamp.  If there were an interchange of words,
the criminologist could not detect it.

"Surely.  The park is good.  We can be free of interference from
the police.  Are you afraid?"

"No--" yet, it was a pardonably weak little voice which uttered
the valiant monosyllable.

"Here, Miss Marigold.  Take this revolver.  Don't use it until
you have to, but then don't hesitate a second."

The machine started slowly up the street.  Shirley groped about
the sides and bottom of the car, to make sure that no one could
be concealed within it.  They were advancing up Broadway in
leisurely fashion.  It might have been for the purpose of
allowing some to follow.  Shirley wondered, then sniffed the air
suspiciously.  The girl looked at him with a silent question.

"Quick, tear off your glove and let me have that diamond ring I
noticed on your finger, the large solitaire, not the dinner
ring."

Unquestioningly she obeyed.  There was a strange Oriental odor
in the car--suggestive of an incense.  The car was gliding up
Central Park West, toward one of the road entrances into the Park
proper.  Shirley's hand clutched the ring, tensely.  The driver,
tactfully looking straight to the front, gave no heed to the
occupants of the Death Car.  He was, by this time speeding too
rapidly for either of his passengers to have leaped out without
injury.  Shirley understood the smoothness of the voice's system,
by now.  His hand slid to the top of the glass door pane, on the
right.  Down the glass, across the bottom, down from the other
corner, and then over the top line, he cut with the diamond,
using a peculiar pressure.  He rose to his feet, gave the lower
part of the pane a sharp tap.  The glass, practically cut loose
from its case, now dropped and would have slid out to the roadway
with a crash had he not dexterously caught it, to draw it into
the car.  Quickly he repeated the operation with the door pane at
the left.  A nauseating, weakening something in the car sent
Helene's head spinning; she choked for breath and lay back
weakly, despite her will.  Shirley turned to the small glass
square in the rear.  This came out more easily.  He lay the glass
with the others, on the floor of the car.  The good clear air
whirled through the openings, reviving the girl.

"Keep your eyes open, and that revolver ready.  Now is the time.
Pretend to sleep."

Shirley had drawn his own automatic by this time, and he realized
that the machine was slowing down.  The chauffeur, as they passed
a walk light, looked back, observing that the two were apparently
unconscious.  He slowed down still more, and tooted his horn
three times.  A large touring car passed them, to stop some
distance ahead.  Then it sped on, as Shirley's taxi followed
lazily.

A figure suddenly came out of the darkness of the road.  The
driver stopped the taxi, and walked around the front, as though
to adjust the lamp.  The door opened slowly.  A face covered with
a black handkerchief obtruded.  A hand slid up the detective's
knee, along his side toward the abdomen, and a protruding thumb
began a singular pressure directly below the criminologist's
heart.  Shirley's analysis for Dr. MacDonald had been correct!
But jiu-jitsu is essentially a game for two.

Shirley's left hand suddenly shot forth to the neck of his
assailant.  His muscular fingers closed in a deft and vice-like
pinch directly below the silk handkerchief.  It was the
pneumogastric nerve, which he reached: a nerve which, when
deadened by Oriental skill, paralyzes the vocal chords.  Not a
sound emanated from the mysterious man, even when Shirley's right
hand shot forward, under the chin of the other, for a deft blow
across the thorax.  The other tumbled backward.

"What's wrong, Chief?  Too much gas?" cried the chauffeur rushing
to the side of the fallen man.  As the driver dropped to his
knees, Shirley flung himself like a tiger upon the rascal's back.
The struggle was brief--the same silent silencer accomplished its
purpose.  Before the man knew what had happened to him, he was
dragged inside the car, and another deft pinch sent him to
oblivion!

"Hit him over the forehead with the butt of the revolver if he
opens his mouth," grunted Shirley.  "This is the chauffeur, now
I'll get the other one."

Just then a cry came from the darkness: it was a passing
patrolman.

"What you doing in that auto?"

But Shirley waited for no parley-explanations, showing his hand,
laying the whole scandal before the morning edition of the
newspapers, were all out of question now.  He must take up the
pursuit later.  He caught up, the chauffeur's cap, sprang into
the driver's seat, and the car shot forward like a race horse as
he threw forward the lever.  The astonished policeman was within
twenty-five yards of the spot, when the auto disappeared in the
darkness.  He pursued it vainly.

A few moments later, a man with a handkerchief across his face,
groaned and then raised himself on his elbow, there in the
roadway.  He could not remember where he was, nor why.  Slowly he
crawled on hands and knees, into the rhododendrons by the
roadside, where he again lost consciousness.

A big touring car rounded the curve of the roadway.

"Not a sign of the Chief," said the driver.  "He must have gone
back to the garage with the Monk.  But that's a fool idea.  Let's
get down there right away."

The injured man's memory returned, and he rose stiffly to his
feet.  He limped out of the Park, putting away the handkerchief,
muttering profanity and trying to fathom the mystery.  As nearly
as he could reason it out, he must have been struck by another
machine from the rear.

Far up in the northernmost driveway of the Park, where shrub
grown banks and rocky uplands shelter the thoroughfares, Shirley
stopped his runaway taxicab.

"Let me have his rubber coat, for I'm going to hide this car out
on Long Island.  It's a long ride, but this man and his machine
will disappear as completely as though they had been dumped in
the ocean."

Shirley manacled the prisoner, and gagged him with a tightly
knotted handkerchief.  He put the greatcoat of Grimsby's about
Helene's shoulders, as he brought her to the front seat of the
machine.  Then he shut the doors on the prisoner, and drove the
automobile out through the Easterly entrance of the park.

"I'm not really brave, Mr. Montague," said the tired voice at his
side.  "I'm so glad I'm sitting by you, instead of back inside.
We will be home soon, won't we?  I'm so exhausted--my first day
in a strange country, you know."

Shirley, with the skill of a racing expert, guided the machine
through the maze of streets toward the Bridge over the East
River.  The touch of that sweet shoulder, as it unconsciously
nestled against his own, sent through him a tremor which he had
not experienced during the weird silent battle in the dark.

"A strange night, in a strange country.  Are you sorry you tried
it?"

With a sidelong glance, he caught the starry light in her eyes as
she looked up at him: there seemed more than the mere reflection
of passing street lamps.

"A wonderful night: I'm glad, so glad, not sorry," was her dreamy
response.  She lapsed into silence as the somnolent drone of the
motor and the whirr of the wheels caused the tired eyes to close
sleepily.

When he looked at her again, as they were speeding down the
bridge Plaza in Long Island City, she was dozing.  The drowsy
head touched his shoulder; she seemed like a child, worn out with
games, trustingly asleep in the care of a big, strong brother.




CHAPTER XI

A TURN IN THE TRAIL


Helene was still asleep when Shirley stopped the engine of the
taxi before a stately Colonial mansion seated back among the
pines of a beautiful Long Island estate.  They had been driving
for more than an hour.  The girl stirred languorously as he
strove to awaken her.  She murmured drowsily:

"No, Jack, dear.  Emphatically no.  Let's not talk about it any
more, dear boy."

"Who can Jack be?" and a surprising pang shot through Montague
Shirley's heart.  "Jack, dear!  Well, and what's it my business.
She is a stranger.  She lives her life and I mine.  But, at any
rate, that settles some silly things I've been thinking.  I'm
less awake than she is."

This time he tried with better success, and Helene rubbed her
eyes, with hands stiffened by the brisk bite of the chill wind.
She gazed at the dimly lit house, at the big figure beside her,
as Shirley sprang to the ground--then remembered it all, and
trembled despite herself.

"Oh, it's you, Mr. Shirley," and she summoned up a little throaty
laugh, as she arose stiffly.  "What a queer place to be in!"

"We are a long way from New York's white lights, Miss Marigold.
This is the country home of a good old friend of mine.  You can
remain here for the rest of the night, as his wife's guest.
To-morrow, when you are rested, he can send you to the city in
one of his cars."

"You are the most curious man in two continents.  I am bewildered.
First, you kidnap a chauffeur and privateer his car, then me. Now
you besiege a friend and wish to leave me on his doorstep as a
foundling."

"I'm sorry--it's the exigency of war!  We must finish what we
started.  This is the only place I know where I could thoroughly
hide my trail.  We must wake up Jim, but first I will have a look
at our guest."

Shirley walked around the car, shooting the beam from his pocket
flashlight in through the open window of the taxi, to be met by
the wicked black eyes of his prisoner, who uttered volumes of
unpronounceable hatred.

"You are still with us, little bright eyes.  A pleasant trip, I
trust?  I hope you found the air good--I tried to improve the
ventilation for your benefit, as well as my own."  Only a subdued
gurgle answered him.

"Oh, what will they think of me--in this immodest gown, with this
paint on my face, and at this hour of night?" pleaded Helene, as
he started toward the door of the mansion.

"It would be awful at that," and Shirley paused at the beseeching
tone of the girl.  "I want you to meet Mrs. Jim as well as Jim.
I am afraid they would think this was the echo of an old college
escapade, and misjudge you.  Let me think--"

He led her to a little summer-house close by, and tucked the big
coat about her as he added: "It's dark here--the wind doesn't
reach you, and I'll take you back to town in five minutes.  Will
that do?"

As she nodded, he hurried to the door where he yanked vigorously
at the bell.  An angry head protruded from an upper story, after
many encores of the peals.

"Aw, what the dickens?  Go some place else and find out!"

"Jim, Jim.  It's Monty!  Come down and let me in quick."

The window closed with a bang as the head was withdrawn, while a
light soon appeared in the beveled panes of the big front door.

"You poor boob," was the cheerful greeting as it swung wide,
"What brings you out here?  I thought it was the usual joy party
which had lost its way.  They always pick me out for an
information bureau.  Come on in!"

Shirley spoke rapidly, in a low tone.  The girl in the dark
summer-house marveled at the rapid change of mien, as Jim
suddenly ran down the steps to gaze into the taxicab, then
nodding to Shirley.  The house-holder as promptly returned
through his front door, while Shirley swiftly unmanacled the
prisoner enough to let him walk, stiff and awkward from the
long ordeal in the car.  The stern grip, of his captor prompted
obedience.

Friend Jim had appeared with warmer garments, carrying a lantern.
At the door of the stable Jim's stentorian yell to the groom
seemed useless, but the two men entered.  Helene felt miserably
weak and deserted, in the chill night, but she was cheered by
seeing the energetic Shirley reappear, pushing open the doors of
the garage, which was connected with the stable.  He hurried to
the deserted taxicab, where he seemed busied for several minutes,
the glow of his pocket lamp shooting out now and then.  Through
the door of the garage a long, rakish-looking racing car was
being pushed out by Jim and his sleepy groom.  There was a cheery
shout from the taxi, and Helene heard a ripping sound.  Shirley
reappeared, carrying an oblong box.

"I have the gas generator:--it was built in, under the seat, and
controlled by a battery wire from the front lamp, Jim.  A nice
little mechanism.  Well, old pal, please apologize to Mrs.
Merrivale for my rude interruption of her beauty sleep.  Keep a
fatherly eye on Gentleman Mike, and the taxicab under cover.
I'll communicate with you very soon.  So long."

To Helene's amazement, Shirley cranked the racer, jumped in and
seemed to be starting away without her, down the sweep of the
driveway.  Could he have forgotten her?  The man must indeed
be mad, as some of his actions indicated!  But her aroused
indignation was turned to admiration of his finesse, for suddenly
he veered the lights of the car toward the garage door, throwing
them in the faces of Jim and his servant.  He leaped out again,
walking past the place of concealment.

"Slip into the car, while I go inside with them.  I'll come out
on the run, and no one will be the wiser."

With this passing stage direction he rushed toward his
accomodating friend, with some final directions.  They were
apparently humorous in content, for both the other men roared
with mirth, as he walked inside the building, with them, an arm
around the shoulder of each.  Helene obeyed him, hiding as best
she could in the low seat of the throbbing machine.  As Shirley
returned, Jim Merrivale was still laughing blithely.

"Good-bye, you old maniac: you'll be the death of me.  I'll take
care of the star boarder, however, and feed him champagne and
mushrooms."

With a roar, Shirley started the engines, as he bounced into the
seat, and they sped down the curving driveway, with Helene
leaning forward, unobserved.

"There, we've had a little by-play that friend Jim didn't guess.
I always enjoy a little intrigue," he laughed, as they whizzed
along toward distant New York.  "But, I had to lie, and lie, and
lie--like the light that lies in women's eyes.  What a jolly
game!"

He was a big boy, happy in the excitement, and bubbling with his
superabundance of vitality.  Helene felt curiously drawn toward
him, in this mood: she remembered a little paragraph she had read
in a book that day:

"A woman loves a man for the boy spirit that she discovers in
him: she loves him out of pity when it dies!"  Then she
fearsomely changed the current of her thoughts, to complain
pathetically of the cold wind!

"There, now, I am so thoughtless," was his apology, as he stopped
the car, to wrap the overcoat more closely about her, and tuck
her comfortably in a big fur.  Through the darkened streets of
the suburb they raced, entering the silent factory districts,
which presaged the nearness of the river.  It was well on toward
daybreak before they rolled over the Queensboro Bridge to
Manhattan.  It was his second day without sleep, but Shirley was
sustained by the bizarre nature of the exploit: he could have
kept at the steering wheel for an eternity.

"Are you glad we're getting back?" he asked.  Helene shook her
head, then she answered dreamily.

"Do you remember something from one of Browning's poems, that I
do?  It's just silly for us, but I understand it better now."

Shirley surprised her by quoting it, as he looked ahead into the
dark street through which they swung, his unswerving hand steady
on the wheel:

    "What if we still ride on, we two,
     With life forever old yet new,
     Changed not in kind, but in degree,
     The instant made eternity,--
     And heaven just prove that I and she
     Ride, ride together, forever ride?"

A quick flush, not caused by the biting wind, suffused her cheek
beneath the remnants of the rouge.  Then she laughed up at him
appreciatively.

"Curious how our minds ran that way, and hit the very same poem,
wasn't it?"

Shirley smiled back, as he swung down Fifth Avenue.

"Not so curious after all!"

Soon they drew up before the ornate portal of the California
Hotel, where late arrivals were so customary as to cause no
comment.  He bade her good-night, words seeming futile after
their long hours together.  The drive in the car to the club was
short.  Paddy the door man was instructed to send down to
Shirley's own garage for a mechanic to store the car until
further orders.  The criminologist had ere this rubbed off his
grease paint, so that his appearance was not unusual.  Once in his
rooms he treated himself to a piping hot shower, cleaned off the
powder from his dark locks, and as he smoked a soothing
cigarette, in his bathrobe, studied the mechanism of the
gas generator for a few moments.

"That was made by an expert who understands infernal machines
with a malevolent genius.  I must look out for him," he mused.
"Well, I promised Professor MacDonald that I would not sleep
until I had come face to face with the voice.  I have fulfilled
the vow: now for forgetfulness."

He tumbled into bed, but not to oblivion.  For his dreams were
disturbed by tantalizing visions of certain sun-gold locks and
blue eyes not at all in their simple connection with the business
end of the Van Cleft mystery.




CHAPTER XII

THE HAND OF THE VOICE


It took stoicism to the Nth degree for Shirley to respond to the
early telephone call next morning, from the clerk of the club.  A
few minutes of violent exercise, in the hand ball court, the
plunge, a short swim in the natatorium and a rub down from the
Swedish masseur, however, brought him around to the mood for
another adventure.  Sending for the racing car he began the
round-up of details.  There was, first of all, Captain Cronin to
be visited in Bellevue.  Here he was agreeably surprised to find
the detective chief recuperating with the abettance of his rugged
Celtic physique.  The nurse told Shirley that another day's
treatment would allow the Captain to return to his own home:
Shirley knew this meant the executive office of the Holland
Detective Agency.

"And sure, Monty, when I have a free foot once again, I'm going
to apply it to them gangsters who put me to sleep."

"Just what I want you to do, Captain!  I 'phoned to your men this
morning while I had breakfast at the club: they have that taxicab
which was left near Van Cleft's house.  It's put away safely,
Cleary said.  There are two gangsters where the dogs won't bite
them; today they are sending out to Jim Merrivale's house to get
the third and he'll be busy with a little private third degree.
I have no evidence which would connect the man who tried to kill
me last night with the other murders, except in a circumstantial
way.  What I must do is to follow up the trail, and get the
gentleman carrying out the bales, in other words, with the goods
on him."

"You'll get him, Monty, if I know you.  The fellow hasn't called
up at all on the telephone to-day.  I think he's afraid of you."

"No, Captain Cronin, not that!  He's up to some new game.  Well,
I'm off--take care of yourself and don't eat anything the nurse
doesn't bring you with her own hands.  I wouldn't put anything
past this gang."

He shook hands and hurried out of the hospital, with several
more errands to complete.  He looked vainly about him for the
gray racing-car.  It was gone!  Here was another unexpected
interference with his work, and Shirley, sotto voce, expressed
himself more practically than politely.  He hurried to an
ambulance driver who stood in a doorway, solacing his jangled
nerves with a corn-cob smoke.

"Neighbor, did you see any one take the gray car standing here a
few minutes ago?"

"Yep, a feller just came out of the hospital entry, cranked her
and jumped in."

"How long ago?"

"Well, I just returned with a suicide actor case five minutes
ago."

"Then you might have seen him enter first?"

"Nope.  Not a sign.  All I seen was the way he cranked the
machine, and he didn't waste any elbow grease doin' it, either.
He knew the trick.  That's what I thought when I seen him, even
if he did look like a dude."

Shirley hurried to the entry once more.  This was the only portal
through which visitors were admitted to the hospital for the
purpose of calling on patients.  He hastened to the uniformed
attendant who took down the names of all applicants.  This man,
upon inquiry, was a trifle dubious.  True, there had been two
Italian women and before them--yes, there had been a young chap
with a green velour hat, and white spats.  He had asked about a
Captain Cronin, and when told that a visitor was already seeing
the patient, agreed to wait outside.  It had been about five
minutes before.  The man was indefinite about more details.
Shirley hurried to the telephone booth in the corridor.  To
Headquarters he reported the theft of car "99835 N.Y.," giving a
description of its special features and its make.  This warning
he knew would be telephoned to all stations within five minutes,
so that every policeman in New York would be on the lookout for
the missing machine.  Satisfied, he left the hospital, to walk
across the long block to the nearest north and south avenue,
where he might catch a surface car.

Suddenly he halted, to mutter in astonishment at a sight which
was the surprise of the morning: it was the missing car standing
peacefully on the next corner.

"I wonder what that means?" he murmured, as he stopped to study
with great interest the window of an Italian green grocer.  A
sidelong glance at the car and its surroundings revealed nothing
out of the way.  He retraced his steps to the hospital, wasted
ten minutes with a cigarette or two, and still no one seemed to
take an interest in the automobile.  Finally he walked up to the
car, trying the lock of which he had the only key.  Apparently it
had been untampered with, for the key worked perfectly.  Here was
Jim Merrivale's car, a good three hundred yards away from the
place where he had locked it to prevent any moving.  He felt
certain that keen eyes had him under surveillance, yet he could
not observe any observers within the range of his own vision.  It
was simply a stupid, quiet slum neighborhood and at the time,
unusually deserted by the customary hordes of children and dogs!

What had been the purpose in moving it such a short distance?

Where had it been in the twenty-five minutes since he had left it
at the entrance to the hospital?

Why had it been left here, of all places, where he would
naturally walk if desirous of taking a street-car?

There seemed no immediate answer to the conundrums.  So, he
nonchalantly clambered into the car, after cranking it.  The
mechanism seemed in perfect order.  Puzzled, he started to speed
up the street, when he observed a white envelope close by his
foot, on the floor of the car.

He picked it up, and tearing it open quickly read this simple
message.

"To whom it may concern: It is frequently advisable to mind your
own business--is it not?  Answer: Yes!"

"Huh," grunted Shirley.  "While not thrilling in originality, it
is a lasting truth which nobody can deny.  I'll save this and
frame it on the walls of my rooms."

As he drove around the corner and up the Avenue, there was
suddenly a terrific explosion, which threw him completely out of
the machine!  The car, without a driver, its engines whirring
madly, dashed into a helpless corner fruit stand, scattering
oranges, bananas, apples and desolation in its wake, as it vainly
endeavored to climb to the second story with super-mechanical
intelligence!  Shirley, stunned and bruised, fell to the pavement
where he lay until an excited patrolman rushed to his rescue.

A little "first aid" work brought Shirley back to consciousness,
and he stiffly rose to his feet, with a head throbbing too much
for any real thinking.

"What's the matter with your auto?" cried the policeman.  "Can't
you run it?  Let's see the number."  The officer took out his
notebook, to jot down the details according to police rules.
Then he turned on Shirley in amazement.  "Be gorry, it's car
99835 N.Y.  I just wrote the number down when I came on post with
my squad!  This car is stolen.  You come with me!"

Shirley had been adjusting the mechanism, and the wheels had
ceased their whirring.  He tried to expostulate in a dazed way,
realizing that for once the department was working with a
vengeful promptness.  He was hoist by his own petard!

"I'm the owner of the car," he began, rubbing his aching
forehead.

"What's yer name?"

"Montague Shirley!"  The policeman laughed, as he caught the
criminologist by the shoulder, and blew his whistle for another
man from post duty.

"You lie.  This car is owned by James Merrivale.  You can't put
over raw stuff like that on me.  I'm no rookie--Here, Joe," (as
the other policeman ran up through the growing, jeering crowd,)
"watch this machine.  This guy's one of them auto Raffles, and I
done a good job when I lands him.  I'm going to the station-house
now."

The other policeman was examining the car, when he called to his
fellow officer: "Here, Sim, did you see this car was blown up
inside the seat?"

Shirley, his acuteness returned by this time, ran to the car
eluding his captor's hold.  He had not observed before the jagged
shattered hole torn in the side of the leather side.  It had all
happened so swiftly, that his professional instincts were slow in
reasserting themselves after the "buck" of the car.

"You're right," he exclaimed.  "There's an alarm clock and a dry
battery--the same man made this who built the gas-generator--"

"Whadd'ye mean--ain't you the feller after all?" asked the first
patrolman, beginning to get dubious about his arrest.

"No, I am no thief.  But just take me to the station-house quick,
and turn in your report.  Let this other man guard that car.
Hurry up!"

"Say, feller, who do you think is making this arrest?  You'll go
to the station-house when I get ready."

"Then you're ready now," snapped the criminologist.  "You'll see
me discharged very promptly, when I speak to the Commissioner
over the wire."

The officer was supercilious until the station-house was reached.
He had heard this blatant talk before.  What was his surprise
when Shirley telephoned to the head of the Department and then
called the Captain to the instrument.

"Release Mr. Shirley at once," was the crisp order.  "Give him
any men or assistance he needs."

"Well, whadd'ye know about that?  Not even entered on the blotter
to credit me with a good arrest!"  The patrolman turned away in
disgust.

"Do you want any of the reserves, sir?"  The Captain was
scrupulously polite.

"Not one.  I'm going to study that machine again.  You might
detail a plain clothes man to walk along the other side of the
street for luck.  Good-day."

The automobile to which he returned was still the object of
community interest.  Shirley took the remains of the bomb which
had caused his sudden elevation.  The policeman approached him
from the fruit store.

"The man wants damages for the stock you destroyed, mister.  I'll
fix it up with him if you want--about twenty-five dollars will
do."

"Well, hand him this five-dollar bill and see if that won't dry
some of the imported tears," retorted Shirley with a laugh.  In a
few minutes he was bowling along on a surface car, to the club.
There was no longer any use in trying to hide his identity or
address, for the conspirators knew at least of his interest and
assistance in the case: although in this as all others he was not
known to be a professional sleuth.

In the quiet of his room he drew out magnifying glasses and other
instruments for a thorough analysis of the remains of the
infernal machine.  He compared this with the mechanism of the
gas-generator which had been placed in the seat of the Death
taxi.  There was evidence that it had come from the same source.
Shirley sniffed at the generator and the peculiar odor still
clinging to it was familiar.

"Well, I think I will have a little surprise for Mr. Voice, the
next time we grapple, which will be an encore of his own tune,
with a new verse!"

He went to a cabinet, took out a small glass vial, filled with a
limpid liquid and placed it within his own pocket.  Then he
prepared for a new line of activities for the day.  His first
duty was a call on Pat Cleary, superintendent of the Holland
Agency.

"The Captain is progressing splendidly," was his answer to the
anxious query.  "He will be back in the harness again to-morrow.
How are the prisoners?"

"They have tried to break out twice and gave my doorman a black
eye.  But they got four in return: Nick is no mollycoddle, you
know.  I can't quite get the number of these fellows, for they
are not registered down at Headquarters, in the Rogue's Gallery.
Their finger-prints are new ones in this district, too.  They
look like imported birds, Mr. Shirley.  What do you think?"

Cleary's opinion of the club man had been gaining in ascendency.

"They may be visitors from another city, but I think the state
will keep them here as guests for a nice long time, Cleary.  They
say New York is inhospitable to strangers, but we occasionally
pay for board and room from the funds of the taxpayers without a
kick.  We saved the day for the Van Clefts, all right.  The paper
told of a beautiful but quiet funeral ceremony, while the
daughter has postponed her marriage for six months."

Then he recounted the adventure of the exploding car.  Cleary lit
his malodorous pipe, and shook his head thoughtfully.

"Young man, you know your own affairs best.  But with all your
money, you'd better take to the tall pines yourself, like these
old guys in the 'Lobster Club.'  That's the advice of a man who's
in the business for money not glory.  This is a bum game.
They'll get me some day, some of these yeggs or bunk artists that
I've sent away for recuperation, as the doctors call it.  But I'm
doing it for bread and beefsteak, while it lasts.  You run along
and play--a good way from the fire, or you'll get more than your
fingers burnt.  Take their hint and beat it while the beating's
good."

A glint of steel shone from the eyes of the criminologist as he
lit another cigarette and took up his walking-stick.

"Why, Cleary, this is what I call real sport.  Why go hunting
polar bears and tigers when we've got all this human game around
the Gold Coast of Manhattan?  I'm tired of furs: I want a few
scalps.  Good-morning."

As Cleary went up the stairway to renew the ginger of the Third
Degree for the two prisoners, he smiled to himself, and muttered:

"The guy ain't such a boob as he looks: he's just a high-class
nut.  I'd enjoy it myself if it wasn't my regular work."

At Dick Holloway's office Shirley was greeted with an eager
demand for his report of the former evening's activities.  An
envious look was on the face of the theatrical manager.

"Shucks, Monty!  It's a shame that all this sport is private
stock, and can't be bottled up and peddled to the public, for
they're just crazy about gangster melodrama.  They're paying
opera prices for the old time ten-twent-and-thirt-melodrama,
right on Broadway.  Hurry up and get the man and I'll have him
dramatized while the craze is rampant."

"Not while I own the copyright," retorted Shirley, "this is one
of the chapters of my life that isn't going to be typewritten,
much less the subject of gate-receipts."

"I'm not so certain of that," and Holloway's smile was quizzical.

"What do you mean?  Who is this Helene Marigold?  I have a right
to know in a case like this."

"Good intuition, as far as you go.  But you're guessing wrong,
for she has nothing to do with my little joke.  But why worry
about her?" laughed Holloway.  His friend had leaned forward,
intensely, clutching his cane, with an unusually serious look on
his face.  Holloway had never seen Shirley take such an interest
in any woman before.  He arose from his desk-chair and walked to
the broad window, which overlooked the thronging sidewalks of
Broadway.

"Down there is the biggest, busiest street in the world filled
with women of all hues and shades.  This is the first time you
ever looked so anxious about any combination of lace, curls,
silks and gew-gaws before.  You have been the bright and shining
example of indifferent bachelor freedom which has made me--thrice
divorced--so envious of your unalloyed, unalimonied joy.  Don't
betray the feet of clay which have supported my idol!"

The baffling smile of the debonair club man returned to Shirley's
face, as he twitted back: "Purely an altruistic inquiry, Dick.  I
feared that you might be risking your own heart and the modicum
of freedom which you still possess.  But I'll wager a supper-party
for four that I'll find out who she is, without either you or she
telling me."

"Taken.  At last I'm to have a free banquet, after years of
business entertaining.  You have met a girl who will match your
wits--I expect the sparks to fly.  Well, she's worth while--I
might do worse--but in perfect fairness she ought to do better.
How about it?"

"Yes, with Jack," and Shirley tapped the walking stick on the
floor with an emphatic thump, while Holloway regarded him in
startled surprise.

"Who is Jack?"

"You see--I am learning already.  But, you and I are drifting
from my task.  I wish that you would take me to call on Miss
Marigold, in my present lack of disguise.  I do not care for that
ancient garb any longer.  It was stretching the chances rather
far, but thanks to the darkness, the champagne, and good fortune,
I succeeded in impersonating our aged friend without detection.
I will not return to Grimsby's house, but propose now to get down
to brass tacks with Mr. Voice, even though the tacks be hard to
sit upon.  I wish to use her as a bait, by taking her out to tea
and getting a first-hand speaking acquaintance with these
convivial assassins."

"Monty, you are wasting your talents outside the pages of a play
manuscript, but we will make that call instanter."

In leisure, they promenaded up the crowded Gay Wide Way, through the
noontime crowd of theatrical folk who dot the thoroughfare in this
part of the city. His adversaries were to have every opportunity to
observe his movements and draw their own conclusions. At the Hotel
California new comment buzzed between the garrulous clerk and the
switchboard person, at sight of the well-known manager and his
prosperous-looking companion.

"Who is that come on?" asked the clerk of the bellboy.

"Sure, dat's Montague Shirley, one of dem rich ginks from de
College Club on Forty-fourth Street, where I used to woik in de
check room.  If I had dat guy's money I'd buy a hotel like dis."

"Then I see where Holloway, with that blonde dame upstairs, will
be putting on a new musical show, with a new angel.  It's a great
business, Miss Gwendolyn--no wonder they call it art."  And the
clerk removed a silk handkerchief from his coat cuff, to dust the
register wistfully.  "Why didn't I devote my talents to the drama
instead of room-keys and due-bills?"

But Miss Gwendolyn was too busy talking to the Milwaukee drummer
in Room 72 to formulate a logical reason.  Shirley and Holloway
improved the time by taking the elevator to the top floor where
Helene greeted them at the door of her pretty apartment.  She
welcomed them happily, declaring it had been a lonesome morning.

"Weren't you resting from that long thrill of last night, in
which you starred?" asked Holloway.

"It was too thrilling for me to sleep: I know I look a perfect
frump, this morning.  I tossed on the pillow, watching the dawn
over your towering New York roofs, so nervous and almost
miserable.  But, with company, it's all right again."

Holloway laughed inwardly at the warmth of the glance which she
bestowed upon Shirley.  From the angle of an audience, he was
beginning to observe a phase of this double play of personalities
which was unseen by either of the participants.  Two sleepless
nights, after such a first evening together, and what then?  He
imagined the denouement, with a growing enjoyment of his
vantage-point as the game advanced.

"To-day, I am reversing the usual progress of history," said
Shirley, as he sat down in the window-seat.  "From second
juvenility I am returning to the first.  In other words, I wish
to become your adoring suitor in the role of Montague Shirley."

"I don't understand," and her eyes widened in wonder, not without
an accompanying blush which did not escape Holloway.

"No longer a lamb in sheep's clothing, I want to entertain you,
without the halo of William Grimsby's millions.  I want to take
tea with these gentle-voiced cut-throats, who after my warning
to-day, are directing their attention to me."  He narrated the
narrow escape from death in the racing-car.  Helene's eyes
darkened with an uncertainty which he had hardly expected.
Perhaps she would refuse to carry out their compact along these
dangerous lines.

"Do you feel it wise to place yourself beneath this new menace?"

"The sword of Damocles is over me now, I know.  To run would be a
confession of weakness and open the field for his further
activities, with the rear-guard continuously exposed.  There is
nothing like the personal equation.  I will call at five this
afternoon, if you are willing, Miss Marigold?"

"I will fight it out to the end," and she placed her warm hand
firmly within his own.  The two friends departed, Shirley
retracing his steps to the club where many things were to be
studied and planned.  His system of debit and credit records of
facts known and needed, was one which brought finite results.  As
he smoked and pondered at his ease, a tapping on the study door
aroused him from his vagrant speculations.  At his call, a
respectful Japanese servant presented a note, just left by a
messenger-boy.  He tore the envelope and read it.

"Montague Shirley:--The third time is finis.  As a friend you
accomplished the purpose you sought.  There is no grudge against
you.  Why seek one?  It is fatal for you to remain in the city.
Leave while you have time."

That was all.  The chirography was the same as that upon the note
of the racing-car episode.  Shirley locked up the missive in his
cabinet, and smiled at the increasing tenseness of the situation.

"The writer of these two notes may have an opportunity to leave
town himself before long, to rest his nerves in the quiet valley
of the Hudson, at Ossining.  My friend the enemy will soon be
realizing a deficit in his rolling-stock and gentlemanly
assistants.  Two automobiles and three prisoners to date.  There
should be additional results before midnight.  I wonder where he
gardens into fruition these flowers of crime?"

And even as he pondered, a curious scene was being enacted within
a dozen city blocks of the commodious club house.




CHAPTER XIII

THE SPIDER'S WEB


The setting was a bleak and musty cellar, beneath an old stable
of dingy, brick construction.  The building had been modernized
to the extent of one single decoration on the street front, an
electric sign: "Garage."  On the floor, level with the sidewalk,
stood half a dozen automobiles of varied manufacture and age.
Near the wide swinging doors of oak, stood a big, black
limousine.  Two taxicabs of the usual appearance occupied the
space next to this, while a handsome machine faced them on the
opposite side of the room.  Two ancient machines were backed
against the wall, in the rear.

In the basement beneath, several men were grouped in the front
compartment, which was separated by a thick wooden partition from
the rear of the cellar.  Three dusty incandescents illuminated
this space.  In the back a curious arrangement of two large
automobile headlights set on deal tables directed glaring rays
toward the one door of the partition.  In the center of the rear
room was another table, standing behind a screen of wire gauze,
at the bottom of which was cut a small semicircle, large enough
for the protrusion of a white, tense hand, whose fingers were
even now spasmodically clenching in nervous indication of fury.
Behind either lamp was a heavy black screen, which effectually
shut off ingress to that portion of the room.

The man standing between the table and the closed door of the
partition, full in the light of the lamps, watched the hand as
though fascinated.  He could see nothing else, for behind the
gauze all was darkness.  Absolutely invisible, sat the possessor
of the hand, observing the face of his interviewer, on the
brighter side of the gauze.

"So, there's no word from the Monk?"

"No, chief.  De bloke's disappeared.  Either he got so much swag
offen dis old Grimsby guy, after youse got de bumps, or he had
cold feet and beat it wid de machine,"

"It's a crooked game on me." rasped the voice behind the screen.
"I'll send him up for this.  You know how far my lines go out.
What about Dutch Jake and Ben the Bite?"

The man before the screen shook his head in helpless bewilderment
There was a suggestion of fright in his manner, as well.

"Can't find out a t'ing, gov'nor.  I hopes you don't blame me for
dis.  I'm doin' my share.  Dey just disappears dat night w'en you
sends 'em to shadder Van Cleft's joint.  My calcerlation is--"

"I'm not paying you to calculate.  I've trusted you and lost six
thousand dollars' worth of automobiles for my pains.  You can
just calculate this, that unless I get some news about Jake, Ben
and the Monk by this time tomorrow, I'll send some news down to
Police headquarters on Lafayette Street that will make you wish
you had never been born."

For some reason not difficult to guess, the suggestion had a
galvanic effect on the bewildered one.  His hands trembled as he
raised them imploringly to the screen.

"Oh, gov'nor, wot have I done?  Ain't I been on de level wid yez?
Say, I ain't never even seen yez for de fourteen months I've been
yer gobetween.  I've been beat up by de cops, pinched and sent to
de workhouse 'cause I wouldn't squeal, and now ye t'reatens me.
Did I ever fall down on a trick ontil dis week?  You'se ain't
goin' ter welch on me, are you'se?  I ain't no welcher meself,
an' ye knows it."

The other snapped out curtly: "Very well, cut out the sob stuff.
It's up to you to prove that there hasn't been a leak somewhere
or a double cross.  Send in those rummies,--I want to give them
the once over again.  There's a nigger in the woodpile somewhere,
and I'm no abolitionist!  Quick now.  Get a wiggle on."

The hand was withdrawn from the little opening, as the lieutenant
advanced into the front compartment of the cellar.  He beckoned
meaningly to the others to follow him.  They obeyed with a
slinking walk, which showed that they were obsessed by some great
dread, in that unseen presence, in the heart of the spider-web!

"Which one of you is the stool pigeon," came the harsh query.

"W'y, gov'nor, none of us.  You'se knows us," whined one of the
men.

"Yes, and I know enough to send you all to Atlanta or Sing Sing
or Danamora, for the rest of your rotten lives, if I want to."

The rascals stared vainly into the black vacuum of the screen,
blinking in the glaring lights, cowering instinctively before the
unseen but certain malignancy of the power behind that mysterious
wall.

"I brought you here to New York," continued the master, "you are
making more money with less work and risk than ever before.  But
you're playing false with me, and I know some one is slipping
information where it oughtn't to go.  I'm going to skin alive the
one who I catch.  There's one eye that never sleeps, don't forget
that."

"Gee, boss, wot do we know to slip?" advanced the most forward of
them.  "We follers orders, and gets our kale and dat's all.  We
ain't never even seen ya, and don't know even wot de whole game
is.  Don't queer us, gov'nor!"

"Go out front again, and shut off this blab.  I warn you that's
all-Now, Phil, give this to the men.  Tell them to keep off the
cocaine--they're getting to be a lot of bone heads lately.  Too
much dope will spoil the best crook in the world."

The white hand passed out a roll of crisp, new currency to the
lieutenant of the gang, who gingerly reached for it, as though he
expected the tapering fingers to claw him.

"Fifty dollars to each man.  No holding out.  Remember, every one
of them is spying on the other to me.  I'm not a Rip Van Winkle.
Now, I want you to keep this fellow Montague Shirley covered but
don't put him away until I give you the word.  Send the bunch
upstairs, for I don't want to be disturbed the next two hours.
And just keep off the coke yourself.  You're scratching your face
a good deal these days--I know the signs."

Phil expostulated nervously.  "Oh, gov'nor, I ain't no fiend--just
once and a while I gets a little rummy, and brightens up. It takes
too much money to git it now, anyway. Goodbye, chief."

As he closed the wooden door to pay the gangsters, there was a
slight grating noise, which followed a double click.  A bar of
wood automatically slid down into position behind the door,
blocking a possible opening from the front of the cellar.  The
lights suddenly were darkened.  The sound of shuffling feet would
have indicated to a listener that the owner of the nervous hand
was retreating to the rear of the darkened den.  A noise
resembling that of the turn of a rusty hinge might have then been
heard: there was a metallic clang, the rattle of a sliding chain
and the rear room was as empty as it was black!

In the front room, after payment from the red-headed ruffian,
Phil, the men clambered in single file up a wooden ladder to the
street level.  A trap-door was put into place and closed.  Then
the men began to shoot "craps" for a readjustment of the spoils,
with the result that Red Phil, as his henchmen called him, was
the smiling possessor of most of the money, without the erstwhile
necessity of "holding out."

Then the gangsters scattered to the nearby gin-shops to while
away the time before darkness should call for their evil
activities.  It was a cheerful little assortment of desperadoes,
yet in appearance they did not differ from most of the habitues
of New York garages, those cesspools of urban criminality.

From his club, Shirley telephoned Jim Merrivale in his downtown
office, purposely giving another name, as he addressed his
friend--a pseudonym upon which they had agreed during the night
call.  Shirley was suspicious of all telephones, by this time,
and his guarded inquiry gave no possible clue to a wiretapping
eavesdropper.

"How is the new bull-dog?" was the question, after the first
guarded greeting.  "Is he still muzzled?"

"Yes, Mr. Smith," responded Merrivale, "and the meanest specimen
I have ever seen outside a Zoo!  When I sent the groom out to
feed him this morning, he snarled and tried to claw him.  He's on
a hunger strike.  I looked up the license number on his collar
but he's not registered in this state."  (This, Shirley knew,
meant the automobile tag under the machine which had been
captured.)

"When are you apt to send for him--I don't think I'll keep him any
longer than I can help."

"I'll send out from the dog store, with a letter signed by me.
Feed him a little croton oil to cure his disposition.  Good-bye,
for now, Jim.  I'll write you, this day."

Shirley hung up, and smiled with satisfaction at the news.  The
man would be glad to get bread and water, before long, he felt
assured.  However, he despatched a note to Cleary, of the Holland
Agency, enclosing a written order to Merrivale to deliver over
the prisoner, for safer keeping in the city.

This disposed of the started out from the club house for his
afternoon of dissipation.  As he left the doorway, he noticed the
two men with the black caps standing not far away.  They were
engrossed in the rolling of cigarettes, but the swift glance
which they shot at him did not escape Monty.

"Like the poor and the bill collectors, they are always with us,"
was his thought, as he calmly strolled over to the Hotel
California.  He determined to place them in a quiet, sheltered
retreat at the earliest opportunity.  He found Helene more
attractive than ever.

"Shall I put on this wretched rouge again to-day," was the
plaintive question, after the first greeting.  "I hate it so
--and yet, will do whatever you order."

"Your role calls for it, my dear girl.  Perhaps we may close the
dramatic engagement sooner than we expect.  To-night should be an
eventful one, for I will accept every lead which Reginald Warren
offers.  I would like to have a record of his voice, and that of
some of his friends.  There is a difference between the telephone
voice and that heard face to face,--you would be a good witness
if I could persuade him to sing or speak for me into a record.
You can straighten out the difficulties of this case, if you
will, in a thoroughly feminine manner."

"And what, sir, is that, I pray you?"

"Give him the opportunity--to fall in love with you."

Helene's cheeks flushed a stronger carmine than the rouge which
she was administering, as she looked up in quick embarrassment.

"I don't want him to love me.  I want no man to love me," was the
petulant answer.

"Doubtless you have reason to be satisfied as things are,"
replied Shirley, puffing a cigarette, "but the softness of
cerebral conditions increases in direct ratio with the mushiness
of the affections.  If it is important to us--and you are my
partner in this fascinating business venture--will you not
sacrifice your emotions to that extent: merely to let him lead
himself on, as most men do?"  He paused for a critical
observation of her, and then added: "You are even more beautiful
to-day than you were yesterday.  He cannot help loving you if he
is given the chance!"

Helene's white fingers crushed the orchid which she was pinning
to the bosom of her gown.  Her intent gaze met the mask of
Shirley's ingenuous smile, reading in his telltale eyes a message
which needed no court interpreter!  Quickly she turned to her
mirror to put the finishing touches to her coiffure, the golden
curls so alluringly wilful.

"Your flattery, sir, is very cruel.  Beware!  I may take it
seriously.  What would happen if my verdant heart were to fall a
victim to the cunning wiles of the voice?  Remember, I have only
met two men, since I came to America, yesterday.  And they are
both pronounced woman-haters.  I will take you at your word,
about Mr. Reginald Warren, and loosen my blandishments to the
best of my rustic ability."

A wayward twinkle in her eyes should have warned Shirley that she
was planning a little mischief.  But, he was too preoccupied in
finding the real front of her baffling street cloak to observe
it.  They left for the tearoom, while Helene still laughed to
herself over certain subtle possibilities which she saw in the
situation.




CHAPTER XIV

A PILGRIMAGE INTO FRIVOLITY


Rather early, again, for the usual throng, they were able to
choose their position to their liking: to-day, it was in the
center of the big room, close by the space cleared for the
dancing.  Gradually the tables were occupied, apparently by the
identical people of the afternoon before, so marked is the
peculiar character of the dance-mad individuality.  To-day he
varied his menu with a mild order of cocktails--for now he was
not emulating the Epicurean record of the bibulous Grimsby.  They
observed with amusement the weird contortions, seldom graced by a
vestige of rhythm or beauty, with which the intent dancers spun
and zigzagged.

"Considering how much money they pay to learn these steps from
dancing-masters, there is unusually small value in the market,
Miss Marigold.  I resigned myself to the approach of the sunset
years, and became a voluntary exile in the garden of the
wallflowers, when society dancing became mathematical."

"I don't understand?"

"Once it was possible to chat, to smile, to woo or to silently
enjoy the music and the measures of the dance in company with a
sympathetic partner.  Now, however, since the triumph of the 'New
Mode,' one must count 'one-two-three,' and one's partner is more
captious than a schoolmarm!  What puzzles me is the need for new
steps, to be learned from expensive teachers, when it's so easy
to slide down hill in this part of New York.  But here endeth the
sermon, for I recognize the amiable Pinkie at that other table,
where she is studying your face with the malevolence of a cobra."

Helene slowly turned her eyes toward the other girl, who now
advanced with forced effusiveness.

"Oh, my dear, and you're back again today.  But where is dear old
Grimmie; he is a nice old soul, though a trifle near-sighted.  He
wasn't half seas over last night--he was a war-zone submarine,
out for a long-distance record!"

She impudently seated herself at the table with them, sending a
questioning glance at the handsome companion of her quondam
rival.  Helene instinctively drew back, but a warning glance from
Shirley plunged her into her assumed character, and she greeted
the other girl with the quasi-comradeship of their class.

"Oh, yes, dear.  Grimsby was a little poisoned by the salad or
something like that: he was actually disagreeable with me, of all
people in the world.  But, I have so many friends that Grimsby
does not give me any worry.  He means nothing in my life.  You
seemed quite worried over him, though--"

"Yes, girlie," was Pinkie's effort to parry.  "I was upset--not
because he was with you, but to see the old chap showing his age.
His taste has deteriorated so much since he started wearing
glasses.  But why don't you introduce me to your gentleman
friend?"

Helene's faint smile expressed volumes, as she turned toward the
modest Shirley with a bow of condescension.  "This is Pinkie, one
of old Grimsby's sweethearts, Mr. Shirley.  I'm sure you'll like
her."

"Are you Montague Shirley?" demanded the auburn-haired coquette
with sudden interest.  As Shirley nodded, she caught his hand
with an ardent glance, ogling him impressively, as she continued:
"I've heard a lot of you.  I'm just that pleased to meet you!"

An indefinable resentment crept over Helene.  How could this
creature of the demi-monde have even distant acquaintance of such
a wholesome, superior man as her escort?  The effusiveness was
irritating, and the overacted kittenishness of the girl made her
sick at heart, although she betrayed no sign of her feeling.
Helene could not understand that despite its mammoth size, New
York is relatively provincial in the club and theatrical
community, his acquaintanceship numbering into the thousands.
Town Topics, the social gossipers of the newspapers and talkative
club men bandied names about in such wise that it was easy for
members of Pinkie's profession to satisfy their hopeful
curiosity--prompted by visions of eventual social conquest on the
one hand and a professional desire to memorize street numbers on
the Wealth Highway for ultimate financial manipulations.  As one
of the richest members of the exclusive bachelor set, Montague
Shirley, even unknown to himself, occupied reserved niches in the
ambitions of a hundred and one fair plotters!

"You will honor us by taking a drink, Miss Pinkie?" was the
criminologist's courteous overture.

"Pinkie Marlowe, if you want to know the rest of my name.  Yes, I
need a little absinthe to wake me up, for I just finished
breakfast.  We had a large party last night at Reg Warren's.  Why
don't you dance with me?"

"The old adage about fat men never being loved applies especially
to those who brave the terrors of the fox-trot.  I weigh two
hundred, so I wisely sit under the trees and laugh at the
others."

"You two hundred?" and admiration flashed from Pinkie's emotional
eyes, "I don't believe it.  Why, you're just right!  I could
dance with a man like you all night!"

Helene's helplessness only fanned the flames of her inward fury
at the brazen intent of the girl.  She forgot about Jack and even
her plans about Reginald Warren.  But Shirley's purpose was now
rewarded, for Pinkie acted as the magnet to draw over several of
the gilded youths whom they had met the day before.  More
introductions followed, and additional refreshments were soon
gracing the table.  Shine Taylor was the next to join the party,
and erelong the waited-for visitor was approaching them.  His
eyes were upon Shirley from the instant that he entered the room:
he advanced directly toward their table with a certainty which
proved to Monty that method was in every move.

"What a pleasant surprise, little Bonbon!" exclaimed this
gentleman as he drew up to their table.  "I'm so glad.  I was
afraid you wouldn't get home safely with Grimsby; he was so
absolutely overcome last night.  He promised to bring you to my
little entertainment but didn't show up.  What became of him?"

"Join us in a drink and forget him," suggested Helene, as she
took his hand with an innocently stupid smile.  "This is Mr.
Shirley, Mr.--Mr.--I had so much champagne last night I forgot
your name."

"Warren, that's simple enough.  Glad to see you, Mr. Sherwood,
oh, Shirley!  It seems as though I had heard your name--aren't
you an actor, or an artist?  A musician, or something like that?
My memory is so miserable."

"I'm just a 'something like that,' not even an actor," was the
answer, as the tiniest of nudges registered Helene's
appreciation.  "What is your favorite poison?"

Warren gave him a startled look, and then laughed: "Oh, you mean
to drink?  Now you must join me for I am the intruder."  He drew
out a roll of money; more nice, new hundred dollar bills.
Shirley remembered that old Van Cleft had drawn several thousand
dollars from his office the night of the murder.  Even his
trained stoicism rebelled at thought of drinking a cocktail
bought with this bloody currency!

"You didn't tell me about Grimsby?" persisted Warren, turning to
Helene, with an admiring scrutiny of the girl's charms.  "I'm
rather interested."

"You'll have to ask him, not me.  After we took a taxi from the
Winter-Garden we had a ride in the Park.  So stupid, I thought,
at this time of the year.  When I woke up, Grimmie was helping me
into the entrance of the hotel.  He was very cross with the
chauffeur and with me, too.  Then he took the taxi and went home,
still angry."

"So!" after a moment's silence, Warren continued, a puzzled look
on his face.  "What was the trouble?  I don't see how any one
could be cross with a nice little girl like you.  But to-night,
I'm to have another little party up at my house.  Bring some one
up, who won't be cross.  You come, Mr. Shirley?"

Helene hesitated, but Monty acquiesced.

"That would be splendid.  What time?"

"About eleven.  I'll expect you--I must run along now, as I'm
ordering some fancy dishes."

Shirley had paid his waiter, and he rose with Helene.

"We must be leaving, too.  I'll accept your invitation."

"And I'll be there, too, Mr. Shirley," put in Pinkie Marlowe.
"I'll teach you some new steps.  Reggie has a wonderful
phonograph for dancing, with all the new tunes.  See you later,
girlie."

They were accompanied to the door by Shine and Warren.  At the
check-room, Shirley was interested to note that Shine Taylor took
out his green velour hat.  His feet were adorned with white
spats.  After the door of their taxi had slammed he confided to
Helene that he had located the gentleman who had caused his wreck
that morning.  Still, however, the clues were too weak for
action.  The car went first to the club, where Shirley sent in
for any possible letters or messages.  The servant brought out a
note.  It was another surprise.  He gave an address to the driver
and as the car turned up Fifth Avenue, he studied this missive
with knit brows.

"A new worry?" asked Helene.  "May I help you?"

He handed her the letter, and she noticed the nervous
handwriting.  It was short.

"Dear Mr. Shirley: Just received a threatening note demanding
money.  Can you come up at once?  Howard V. C."

Shirley answered the question in the blue eyes, as she finished.

"As I thought it would turn out.  Baffled in their game of
robbing old men who have all left the city, they have begun to
work the chance for blackmail.  I will advise Van Cleft to pay
them, and then we will follow the money.  Here is the mansion and
I will be out in five minutes."

He soon disappeared behind the bronze door.  True to his promise,
in five minutes he had returned.  He looked up and down the
Avenue amazed.  Not a trace of the taxicab, nor of Helene
Marigold could be seen!

Shirley's impulse was to pinch himself to awaken from the
chimera.  He knew she was armed, and would use the weapon if only
to call for help.  For the first time in his career the chill of
terror crept into his heart--not for himself, but an irresistible
dread of some impending danger for this unfathomable woman who
had shared his dangers so uncomplainingly during this last
wonderful day.  He racked his mind vainly for some plausible
reason.  "She knows I need her.  Yet at the supreme moment of the
game she disappears.  Can she be like other women, when she is
most necessary?"

And he walked slowly down the Avenue, disconcerted, endeavoring
to solve this sudden abortion of his best laid plans.




CHAPTER XV

CONCERNING HELENE'S FINESSE


Shirley endured a miserable three hours, in his attempts to
locate the girl.  She had not returned to the Hotel California,
and he returned to the club in moody reflection.  It was
beginning to snow, and the ground was soon covered with a thin
coat of white, through which he noticed his footprints stenciled
against the black of the wet pavement.  He wasted a dozen matches
in the freshening wind, as he tried to light a cigarette.  He
stepped into a doorway on the Avenue to avail himself of its
shelter.  As he turned out to the street again, he almost bumped
into two men, wearing black caps!  One of them grunted a curt
apology, as he stepped on.

"They are after me as usual," he thought.  "Why not reverse
operations and find out where they belong?"

It seemed hopeless: as in a checker game they had him at
disadvantage with the odd number of the "move."  Theirs was the
chance to observe, and an open attempt to follow them would be
ridiculous.  Then, the footprints gave him an idea.

Dimly behind could be discerned the two men, as he quickened his
pace, turning into a side street, off Fifth Avenue.  Here he knew
that traffic would be light, and his footprints the best evidence
of his progress.  The men unwittingly caught his plan, and
dropped almost out of sight.  At the intersection of Madison
Avenue, they quickened their steps, and caught up with him again.
Across corners, down quiet streets, and by purposed diagonals he
led them: still they dogged his footprints.  So adroit were they
that only one experienced in the art could have realized their
watchfulness.

Shirley now turned a corner quickly, into an unusually deserted
thoroughfare, running with short steps, so as not to betray his
speed by the tracks.  Before they had time to round the corner he
ran up the thinly blanketed steps of a private residence.  Then
he backed, as swiftly down the stoop, and thus crablike, walked
across the street, down a dozen houses and backward still, up the
steps of another private dwelling.  Inside the vestibule he hid
himself.  The entry had strong wooden outside doors, and he tried
the strength of the hinges: they satisfied him.  A dim light
burned behind the glass of the inner portal.  He quietly
clambered up the door, and balanced himself on the wood which
gallantly stood the strain.  Fortunately it did not come within
four feet of the high ceiling of the old fashioned house.

He suffered a good ten minutes' wait before his ruse was
rewarded.  Being on the "fence" was a pastime compared to this
precarious test of his muscles.  The two men who had followed the
first footprints tired of waiting before the house.  One of them
determined to investigate the other steps, which led into the
house of their vigilance, from the other dwelling.  And so he
followed on, to the vestibule where he rang the bell.  Shirley
could have touched his head, so near he was, but the darkness of
the upper space covered the retreat of the criminologist.

"What do you want?" was the angry question of an indignant old
caretaker who answered the bell tardily.  "You woke me up."

"Say, lady, can I speak to Mr. Montague Shirley?" began the man,
gingerly.

"You get away from this house, you loafer or I'll call the
police.  No one by that name ain't here.  Now, you get!"

She slammed the door in his face.

"I'll get Chuck to watch de udder joint," muttered the man, in a
tone audible to Shirley.  "Den I'll go back and git orders from
Phil."

This habit of thinking aloud was expensive.  Shirley stiffly but
noiselessly slid down the steps, as he disappeared in the
thickening snowfall.  The criminologist slowly crossed the
street, and sheltered himself in a basement entrance, from which
he reversed the shadowing process.  The twain hesitated before the
first house, then one came up the sidewalk, as the other stood his
ground. This man passed within a few feet of Shirley, who followed
him over to Madison Avenue, then north to Fifty-fifth Street. Here
he turned west, and turned into one of the old stables, formerly
used by the gentry of the exclusive section for their blooded
steeds. Into one building, which announced its identity as "Garage"
with its glittering electric sign, the man disappeared.

Shirley paused, looked about him, and chuckled.  For he knew that
through the block on Fifty-sixth Street was the tall apartment
building, known as the Somerset--the address given him by
Reginald Warren.

"If I only had some word from Helene Marigold I could go ahead
before they realized my knowledge."

Even as this thought crossed his mind, he turned back into Sixth
Avenue.  A hatless, breathless young person, running down the
snowy street collided with him.  As he began to apologize, he
awoke to the startling fact that it was his assistant.

"Great Scott!  What are you doing here?  Where have you been all
this time?"

The girl caught his arm unsteadily, but there was a triumph in
her voice, as she cried: "Oh, this wonderful chance meeting.  I
was running down to my hotel but you have saved the day.  I will
tell you later.  Quick, take this book."

She drew forth a volume, flexibly bound, like a small loose-leaf
ledger.  Shirley stuck it into his overcoat pocket, which he was
already slipping about the girl's shivering shoulders.

"Take me back at once, for there is more for me to do."

"Where, my dear girl?  You are indeed the lady of mysteries."

"To the basement of Warren's apartment house.  I came down the
dumb-waiter, when they left me.  I left the little door ajar--Can
you pull me up again?  He is on the eighth floor.  It is a long
pull--Oh, if we can only make it before they return."

Her eyes sparkled with the thrill of the mad game, as she ran
once more, Shirley keeping pace with her.  The flurries of the
snowstorm protected them from too-curious observation, as the
streets seemed deserted by pedestrians who feared the growing
blizzard.  She led him to the tradesman's entrance of the
Somerset, into the dark corridor through which she had emerged.

"Don't strike a light, for I can feel the way.  We mustn't be
seen."

Shirley obeyed,--at last she found the base of the dumbwaiter
shaft.

"How did you have the strength to lower yourself down this shaft
--it is no small task?" and his tone was admiring.

"I am not a weakling--tennis, boating, swimming were all in my
education; they helped.  But it is beyond me to pull all those
floors, and lift my weight.  Pull up as far as the little
elevator car goes, then go away and come to his party to look for
me.  Do not be surprised at my actions.  My role has really
developed into that of an emotional heavy."

She patted his hand with a relaxation of tenderness, as he began
to draw on the long rope.  The girl was by no means a light
weight, but at last the dumb-waiter came to a stop.  Shirley
heard the opening and closing of a door above.  Then, still
wondering at it all, he returned to the street as unobserved as
they had entered.  There was at least an hour to wait.  He walked
over to the Athletic Club, of which he was a remiss member,
attending seldom during the recent months when his exercise had
been more tragic than gymnastic work.  In the library of the club
house he sat down to study the volume which Helene had thrust
into his hands at their startling meeting.

He gave a low whistle of surprise.

"Some little book!" he muttered, "and Helene Marigold has shown
me that I must fight hard to equal her in the race for laurels!"

Then he proceeded to rack his brains with a new and knottier
problem than any which he had yet encountered.




CHAPTER XVI

THE STRANGE AND SURPRISING WARREN


The volume was a loose-leaf diary, with each page dated, and of
letter size.  It covered more than the current year, however,
running back for nearly eighteen months.  It was as scrupulously
edited as a lawyer's engagement book, and curiously enough it was
entirely written in typewriting!

Most surprising of all, however, was the curious code in which
the entire matter was transcribed,--the most unusual one which
Shirley had ever read.

Here was the first page to which he opened, letter for letter and
symbol for symbol:

"THURSDAY: JANUARY SEVENTH, 1915.
;rstmrfagtp,ansmlafrav;rudyrtaftreadocayjpi
dsmfaoma,ptmomha,pmlassdohmrfaypayscoae
ptlagptayrsadjomrasddohmrfagocahrmrsypta
,sthoragsotgscafsyraeoyjafrav;rudyrtasyagobra
djomrasmfalprajse;ruavobrtomhas,rakslras
smffanrmasddohmrfan;svlavstagpta,raqsofaqj
o;apmrajimftrfavpbrtomhadqrvos; aeptlakpn
agomodjrfatobrtdofraftobrasyarohjyoayjotfad
ocadjstqafrqpdoyr famohjyasmfaffuagpitayjpi
dsmfadsgrafrqpdoyagogyrrmajimftrfa; rmyaf
p;;ua,stopmayepajimfrtgptaftrddagptaqstyua
eoyjabsmv;rgyamrcyasgyrtmppmasfbsmvrfad
jomrapmrayjpidsm daypavpbrtapqyopmapga
usvjyadimnrs, aqsofaypantplrtayjsyamohjyapt
frfaqtpbodop,dayr;rqjpmragptausvjyayepa,p
myjabtiodra, pmlasddohmrdagptkpnamrcyafs
uasfbs mvrfadjomragojimftrfapmasvvpimyae
ptlapmaer;;omhypmadrtts;a,syyrtatrqsitdan;
svla,svjomra"

and so it ran on, baffling and inspiring a headache!

Shirley went over and over the lines of this bewildering phalanx
of letters with no reward for his absorbed devotion to the
puzzle.

"Let me see," he mused.  "Thursday, January seventh, was the date
upon which Washington Serral was murdered, according to Doctor
MacDonald.  Any man who will maintain a record of the days in
such a difficult code as this must not only be extremely
methodical, but is certain to have much to put upon that record
worth the trouble.  Here may lay the secret of the entire case."

At the end of the hour he had allowed himself, there was no more
proximity to solution than at the inception of his effort.  It
was almost half-past eleven, and he knew that it was time to go
to Warren's apartment.  He sent a messenger with the book,
carefully wrapped up, to his rooms at the club on Forty-fourth
Street.  It was too interesting a document to risk taking up to
that apartment again, after Helene's exertions in obtaining it.

The Somerset was not dissimilar from the hundreds of highly
embellished dwellings of the sort which abound in the region of
the Park, causing out-of-town visitors to marvel justly at the
source of the vast sums of money with which to pay the enormous
rentals of them all.

The elevator operator smirked knowingly, when he asked for
Warren's apartment.  "You-all can go right up, boss.  He's
holdin' forth for another of dem high sassiety shindigs to-night.
Dat gemman alluz has too many callin' to bother with the
telephone when he has a party.  You don't need no announcin'."

The man directed him to the door on the left.  Closed as it was
the sounds of merrymaking emanated into the corridor.  Shirley's
pressure on the bell was answered by Shine Taylor's startled
face.  Warren stood behind him.  The surprise of the pair amused
Shirley, but their composure bespoke trained self-control.

"I'm sorry to be late," was the criminologist's greeting.  "But I
came up to apologize for not being able to bring Miss Marigold.
We missed connections somewhere, and I couldn't find her."

"I am so pleased to have you with us anyway.  We'll try to get
along without her--" but Warren was interrupted to his
discomfiture.

A silvery laugh came from the hallway behind him.  Helene
Marigold waved a champagne glass at Shirley.

"There's my tardy escort now.  I'm here, Shirley old top!  Te,
he!  You see I played a little joke on you this afternoon and
eloped with a handsomer man than you."  She leaned unsteadily
against the door post and waved a white hand at him as she
coaxed.  "Come on in, old dear, and don't be cross now with your
little Bonbon Tootems!"

Taylor and Warren exchanged glances, for this was an unexpected
sally.  But they were prompt in their effusive cordiality, as
they assisted Shirley in removing his overcoat, and hanging his
hat with those of the other guests.  He placed his cane against
the hall tree, and followed his host into the jollified
apartment.  He did not overlook the swift glide of Shine's hand
into each of his overcoat pockets in the brief interval.  Here
was a skilful "dip"--Shirley, however, had taken care that the
pickpocket would find nothing to worry him in the overcoat.

Warren's establishment was a gorgeous one.  To Shirley it was
hard to harmonize the character of the man as he had already
deduced it with the evident passion for the beautiful.  That
such a connoisseur of art objects could harbor in so broad and
cultured a mind the machinations of such infamy seemed almost
incredible.  The riddle was not new with Reginald Warren's case:
for morals and "culture" have shown their sociological, economic
and even diplomatic independence of each other from the time when
the memory of man runneth not!

Shirley's admiration was shrewdly sensed by his host.  So after a
tactful introduction to the self-absorbed merrymakers, now in all
stages of stimulated exuberance, he conducted his guest on a tour
of inspection about his rooms.

"So, you like etchings?  I want you to see my five Whistlers.
Here is my Fritz Thaulow, and there is my Corot.  This crayon by
Von Lenbach is a favorite of mine."  His black eyes sparkled with
pride as he pointed out one gem after another in this veritable
storehouse of artistic surprises.  Few of the jolly throng gave
evidence of appreciating them: the man was curiously superior to
his associations in education as well as the patent evidence
which Shirley now observed of being to the manor born.  Helene
Marigold, ensconced in a big library chair, her feet curled under
her, pink fingers supporting the oval chin, dreamily watched
Shirley's absorption.  She seemed almost asleep, but her mind
drank in each mood that fired the criminologist's face, as he
thoroughly relaxed from his usual bland superiority of mien, to
revel in the treasures.

Ivory masterpieces, Hindu carvings, bronzes, landscapes, rare
wood-cuts, water colors--such a harmonious variety he had seldom
seen in any private collection.  The library was another
thesaurus: rich bindings encased volumes worthy of their garb.
The books, furthermore, showed the mellowing evidence of frequent
use; here was no patron of the instalment editions-de-luxe!

"You like my things," and Warren's voice purred almost happily.
There was a softening change in his attitude, which Shirley
understood.  The appreciation of a fellow worshiper warmed his
heart.  "My books--all bound privately, you know, for I hate shop
bindings.  Most of them from second-hand stalls, redolent with
the personalities of half a hundred readers.  Books are so much
more worth reading when they have been read and read again.
Don't you think so?"

"Yes.  I see your tastes run to the modern school. Individualism,
even morbidity: Spencer, Nietsche, Schopenhauer, Tolstoi, Kropotkin,
Gorky--They express your thoughts collectively?"

"Yes, but not radically enough.  My entire intellectual life has
driven me forward--I am a disciple of the absolute freedom, the
divinity of self, and--but there I invited you to a joy party,
not a university seminar."

"But the party will grow riper with age," and Shirley was prone
to continue the autopsy.  "You are a university man.  Where did
you study?"

"Sipping here and there," and a forgivable vanity lightened
Warren's face.  "Gottingen, Warsaw, Jena, Oxford, Milan, The
Sorbonne and even at Heidelberg, the jolly old place.  You see my
scar?"  He pulled back a lock of his wavy black hair from the
left temple to show a cut from a student duelist's sword.  "But
you Americans--I mean, we Americans--we have such opportunities
to pick up the best things from the rest of the world."

"No, Warren," and Shirley shook his head, not overlooking the
slight break which indicated that his host was a foreigner,
despite the quick change.  "I have been to busy wasting time to
collect anything but fleeting memories.  Too much polo, swimming,
yachting, golfing--I have fallen into evil ways.  I think your
example may reform me.  You must dine with me at my club some
day, and give me some hints about making such wonderful
purchases."

"I know the most wonderful antique shop," Warren began, and just
then was interrupted by Shine Taylor and a dizzy blonde person
with whom he maxixed through the Hindu draperies, each deftly
balancing a champagne glass.

"Here, Reg, you neglect your other guests.  Come on in!" Shine's
companion held out a wine glass to Warren, but her eyes were
fixed in a fascinated stare upon Montague Shirley,

"Why, what are you doing here?"

It was little Dolly Marion, Van Cleft's companion on the fatal
automobile ride.  She trembled: the glass fell to the floor with
a tinkly crash.  Shirley smiled indulgently.  Taylor and Warren
exchanged looks, but Monty knew that they must by this time be
aware of his command to the girl to abstain from gay
associations.

"You couldn't resist the call of the wild, could you, Miss
Dolly?"

The girl sheepishly giggled, and danced out of the room, to sink
into a chair, wondering what this visitation meant.  Another
masculine butterfly pressed more champagne upon her, and in a few
moments she had forgotten to worry about anything more important
than the laws of gravity.  Warren had been rudely dragged away
from his intellectual kinship with his guest.  His manner
changed, almost indefinably, but Shirley understood.  He looked
at Helene, a little bundle of sleepy sweetness in the big chair.

"Well, Miss!  Where did you go when I left you on my call of
condolence to Howard Van Cleft?  He leaves town to-night for a
trip on his yacht, and it was my last chance to say good-bye."

"Where is he going?" was Warren's lapsus linguae, at this bit of
news.

"Down to the Gulf, I believe.  Do you know him, Warren?  Nice
chap.  Too bad about his father's sudden death from heart
failure, wasn't it?  He told me they were putting in supplies for
a two months' cruise and would not be able to sail before three
in the morning."

"I don't know Van Cleft," was Warren's guarded reply.  "Of
course, I read of his sad loss.  But he is so rich now that he
can wipe out his grief with a change of scene and part of the
inheritance.  It's being done in society, these days."

"Poor Van Cleft!  He's besieged by blackmailers, who threaten to
lay bare his father's extravagant innuendos, unless he pays fifty
thousand dollars.  He can afford it, but as he says, it's war
times and money is scarce as brunette chorus girls.  He has put
the matter before the District Attorney and is going to sail for
Far Cathay until they round up the gang.  These criminals are so
clumsy nowadays, I imagine it will be an easy task, don't you,
Warren?"

The other man's eyes narrowed to black slits as he studied the
childlike expression of Shirley's face.  He wondered if there
could be a covert threat in this innocent confidence.  He
answered laconically: "Oh, I suppose so.  We read about crooks
in the magazines and then see their capers in the motion picture
thrillers, but down in real life, we find them a sordid,
unimaginative lot of rogues."

He proffered Shirley a cigarette from his jeweled case.  As he
leaned toward the table to draw a match from the small bronze
holder, Helene observed Shirley deftly substitute it for one of
his own, secreting the first.

"Yes," continued Shirley, "the criminal who is caught generally
loses his game because he is mechanical and ungifted with talent.
But think of the criminals who have yet to be captured--the
brilliant, the inspired ones, the chess-players of wickedness who
love their game and play it with the finesse of experts."

Shirley smoothed away the ripple of suspicion which he had
mischievously aroused with, "So, that is why fellows like us would
not bother with the life. The same physical and intellectual effort
expended by a criminal genius would bring him money and power with
no clutching legal hand to fear. But there, we're getting morbid.
What I really want to do is to satisfy my vanity. Where did Miss
Marigold disappear?"

"Talking about me?" and Helene opened her eyes languorously.  "I
was so tired waiting for you that when Mr. Warren came along in
his wonderful new car I yielded to his invitation, so we enjoyed
that tea-room trip which you had promised.  Such a lark!  Then we
came up here where I had the most wonderful dinner with him and
three girls.  I was tired and sleepy, so I dozed away on that
library davenport until the party began--and there you are and
here I are, and so, forgive me, Monty?"

She slipped nimbly to the floor, with a maddening display of a
silken ankle, advancing to the criminologist with a wistful
playfulness which brought a flush of sudden feeling, to the face
of Reginald Warren.  Helene was carrying out his directions to
the letter, Shirley observed.

They lingered at Warren's festivities until a wee sma' hour,
Helene pretending to share the conviviality, while actually
maintaining a hawk-like watch upon the two conspirators as she
now felt them to be.  She was amused by the frequency with
which Shine Taylor and Reginald Warren plied their guest with
cigarettes: Shirley's legerdemain in substituting them was worthy
of the vaudeville stage.

"The wine and my smoking have made me drowsy," he told her, with
no effort at concealment.  "We must get home or I'll fall asleep
myself."

A covert smile flitted across Warren's pale face, as Shirley
unconventionally indulged in several semi-polite yawns, nodding
a bit, as well.  Helene accepted glass after glass of wine,
thoughtfully poured out by her host.  And as thoughtfully, did
she pour it into the flower vases when his back was turned: she
matched the other girls' acute transports of vinous joy without
an error.  Shirley walked to the window, asking if he might open
it for a little fresh air.  Warren nodded smiling.

"You are well on the way to heaven in this altitude of eight
stories," volunteered Shirley, with a sleepy laugh.

"Yes.  The eighth and top floor.  A burglar could make a good
haul of my collection, except that I have the window to the fire
escape barred from the inside, around the corner facing to the
north.  Here, I am safe from molestation."

"A great view of the Park--what a fine library for real reading;
and I see you have a typewriter--the same make I used to thump,
when I did newspaper work--a Remwood.  Let me see some of your
literary work, sometime--"

Warren waved a deprecating hand.  "Very little--editors do not
like it.  I do better with an adding machine down on Wall Street
than a typewriter.  But let us join the others."  There was a
noticeable reluctance about dwelling upon the typewriter subject.
Warren hurried into the drawing-room, as Shirley followed with a
perceptible stagger.

Shine Taylor scrutinized his condition, as he asked for another
cigarette.  As he yielded to an apparent craving for sleep, the
others danced and chatted, while Taylor disappeared through the
hall door.  After a few minutes he returned to grimace slightly
at Warren.  Shirley roused himself from his stupor.

"Bonbon, let us be going.  Good-night, everybody."

He walked unsteadily to the door, amid a chorus of noisy farewells,
with Helene unsteady and hilarious behind him. Warren and Shine
seemed satisfied with their hospitable endeavors, as they bade
good-night. The elevator brought up two belated guests, the roseate
Pinkie and a colorless youth.

"Oh, are you going, Mr. Shirley?  What a blooming shame.  I just
left the most wonderful supper-party at the Claridge to see you."

"Too bad: I hope for better luck next time."

"The elevator is waiting," and Helene's gaze was scornful.
Shirley restrained his smile at the girl's covert hatred of the
redhaired charmer.  Then he asked maliciously: "Isn't she
interesting?  Too bad she associates with her inferiors."

"You put it mildly."

"Here, boy, call a taxicab," he ordered the attendant, as they
reached the lower level.

"Sorry, boss, but I dassent leave the elevator at this time of
night.  I'm the only one in the place jest now."

Shirley insisted, with a duty soother of silver, but the negro
returned in a few minutes, shaking his head.  Shirley ordered him
to telephone the nearest hacking-stand.  Then followed another
delay, without result.

"Come, Miss Helene, there is method in this.  Let us walk, as it
seems to have been planned we should."

"Is it wise?  Why put yourself in their net?"

For reply, he placed in her hand the walking stick which he had
so carefully guarded when they entered the apartment.  It was
heavier than a policeman's nightstick.  As he retook it, she
observed the straightening line of his lips.

"As the French say, 'We shall see what we shall see.'  Please
walk a little behind me, so that my right arm may be free."

It was after two, and the street was dark.  Shirley had noted an
arc-light on the corner when he had entered the building--now it
was extinguished.  A man lurched forward as they turned into
Sixth Avenue, his eyes covered by a dark cap.

"Say gent!  Give a guy that's down an' out the price of a beef
stew?  I got three pennies an' two more'll fix me."

"No!"

"Aw, gent, have a heart!"  The man was persistent, drawing
closer, as Shirley walked an with his companion, into the
increasing darkness, away from the corner.  Another figure
appeared from a dark doorway.

"I'm broke too, Mister.  Kin yer help a poor war refugee on a
night like this?"

Shirley slipped his left hand inside his coat pocket and drew out
a handkerchief to the surprise of the men.  He suddenly drew
Helene back against the wall, and stood between her and the two
men.

"What do you thugs want?" snapped the criminologist, as he
clenched the cane tightly and held the handkerchief in his left
hand.  There was no reply.  The men realized that he knew their
purpose--one dropped to a knee position as the other sprang
forward.  The famous football toe shot forward with more at stake
than ever in the days when the grandstands screeched for a field
goal.  At the same instant he swung the loaded cane upon the
shoulders of the upright man, missing his head.

The second man swung a blackjack.

The first, with a bleeding face staggered to his feet.

The handkerchief went up to the mouth of the active assailant,
and to Helene's astonishment, he sank back with a moan.  Shirley
pounced upon his mate, and after a slight tussle, applied the
handkerchief with the same benumbing effect.  Then he rolled it
up and tossed it far from him.

He took a police whistle from his pocket and blew it three times.
His assailants lay quietly on the ground, so that when the
officer arrived he found an immaculately garbed gentleman dusting
off his coat shoulder, and looking at his watch.

"What is it, sir?" he cried.

"A couple of drunks attacked me, after I wouldn't give them a
handout.  Then they passed away.  You won't need my complaint
--look at them--"

The policeman shook the men, but they seemed helpless except to
groan and hold their heads in mute agony, dull and apparently
unaware of what was going on about them.

"Well, if you don't want to press the charge of assault?"

"No.  I may have it looked up by my attorney.  Tonight I do not
care to take my wife to the stationhouse with me.  They ought to
get thirty days, at that."

Shirley took Helene's arm, and the officer nodded.

"I'll send for the wagon, sir.  They're some pickled.
Good-night."

As they walked up to the nearest car crossing, Helene turned to
him with her surprise unabated.

"What did you do to them, Mr. Shirley?"

"Merely crushed a small vial of Amyl nitrite which I thoughtfully
put in my handkerchief this afternoon.  It is a chemical whose
fumes are used for restoring people afflicted with heart failure:
with men like these, and the amount of the liquid which I gave
them for perfume, the result was the same as complete
unconsciousness from drunkenness.--Science is a glorious thing,
Miss Helene."




CHAPTER XVII

IN WHICH SHIRLEY SURPRISES HIMSELF


They reached the hotel without untoward adventure.

"Perhaps we might find a little corner in that dining-room I saw
this afternoon, with an obliging waiter to bring us something to
eat.  Shall we try?  I need a lot of coffee, for I am going down
to the dock of the Yacht Club to await developments."

"You big silly boy," she cautioned, with a maternal note in her
voice which was very sweet to bachelor ears from such a maiden
mouth, "you must not let Nature snap.  You have a wonderful
physique but you must go home to bed."

"It can't be done--I want to hear about your little visit to the
apartment, and the story of the diary.  I'll ask the clerk."

A bill glided across the register of the hotel desk, and the
greeter promised to attend to the club sandwiches himself.  He
led them to a cosey table, in the deserted room, and started out
to send the bell-boy to a nearby lunchroom.

"Just a minute please,--if any one calls up Miss Marigold, don't
let them know she has returned.  I have something important to
say, without interruption: you understand?"

"Yes, I get you, sir," and the droll part was that with a
familiarity generated of the hotel arts he did understand even
better than Shirley or Helene.  He had seen many other young
millionaires and golden-haired actresses.  Shirley looked across
the table into the astral blue of those gorgeous eyes.  Certain
unbidden, foolish words strove to liberate themselves from his
stubborn lips.

"I am a consummate idiot!" was all that escaped, and Helene
looked her surprise.

"Why, have you made a mistake?"

"I hope not.  But tell me of Warren's mistake."

She had been waiting what seemed an eternity before Van Cleft's
house, when a big machine drew up alongside.  Warren greeted
her with a smiling invitation to leave Shirley guessing.  Her
willingness to go, she felt, would disarm his suspicions.  The
little dinner in the apartment with Shine, Warren and three girls
had been in good taste enough: pretending, however, to be
overcome with weariness she persuaded them to let her cuddle up
on the couch, where she feigned sleep.  Warren had tossed an
overcoat over her and left the apartment with the others,
promising to return in a few minutes.  He had said to Shine,
"She'll be quiet until we return--it may be a good alibi to have
her here."  Then he had disappeared, wearing only a soft hat,
with no other overcoat.  Listening at the closed hall door, she
heard him direct the elevator man, "Second off, Joe."  The door
was locked from the outside.  The servant's entrance was locked,
all the bedrooms locked, every one with a Yale lock above the
ordinary keyhole.  The Chinese cook had been sent out sometime
before to buy groceries and wine for the later party.

"But where did you find the note-book?  It may send him to the
electric chair."  Monty Shirley was lighting one of the
cigarettes handed him by his host.  He sniffed at it and crushed
out the embers at the end.  "This cigarette would have sent me to
dreamland for a day at least--Warren understands as much
chemistry as I do."

"At first I studied the books in the library out of curiosity and
then noticed that three books were shoved in, out of alignment
with the others on the shelf.  With a manservant in the house,
instead of a woman, of course things needed dusting.  But where
these three books were it had been rubbed off!  I took out the
books, reached behind and found the little leather volume.  It
was simple.  I went to his typewriter when I saw that the pages
were all typed, and took out some note-paper, from the bronze
rack."

"And then, Miss Sleuth?"

"Don't laugh at me.  I had heard of the legal phrase 'corroborative
evidence,' so knowing that it would be necessary to connect that
typewriter with the book, I rattled off a few lines on the machine.
Here it is: it will show the individuality of the machine to an
expert."

"You wonderful girl!" he murmured simply.  She protested, "Don't
tease me.  I have watched you and am learning some of your simple
but complete methods of working.  I understand you better than
you think."

"Go on with your story," and Shirley was uncomfortable, although
he knew not why.

"That is the end of my tale of woe.  The kitchen being open, I
took advantage of the dumb-waiter, as you already know.  It's
fortunate that waiter is dumb, for it must have many lurid
confessions to make.  I never saw such an interminable shaft; it
seemed higher than the Eiffel Tower.  See how I blistered my
hands on the rope, letting myself down."

She opened her palms, showing the red souvenirs of the coarse
strands.  Almost unconsciously she placed her soft fingers within
Shirley's for a brief instant.  She quickly drew them away,
sensing a blush beneath the cosmetics, glad that he could not
detect it.  That gentle contact thrilled Shirley again, even as
the dear memory of the tired cheek against his shoulder, during
the automobile trip of the previous night.

"After finding you so accidentally and returning with your aid,
on the little elevator, I threw myself back into the original
pose on the big couch.  It was just in time, for Warren returned.
His cook came in shortly afterward.  I imagine that he allows no
one in that apartment, ordinarily, when he is not there himself.
But what, sir, do you think I discovered upon the shoulder of his
coat?"

Shirley shook his head.  "A beautiful crimson hair," he asked
gravely, "from the sun-kissed forehead of the delectable Pinkie? Or
was it white, from the tail of the snowy charger which tradition
informs us always lurks in the vicinity of auburn-haired
enchantresses?"

"Nothing so romantic.  Just cobwebs!  He saw me looking at them,
and brushed them off very quickly."

"The man thinks he is a wine bottle of rare vintage!" observed
Shirley.  But the jest was only in his words.  He looked at her
seriously and then rapt in thought, closed his eyes the better to
aid his mental calculation.  "He got off at the second floor--He
wore no overcoat--A black silk handkerchief--cobwebs--and that
garage on the other street, through the block!  Miss Helene, you
are a splendid ally!"

"Won't you tell me what you mean about the garage?  Who were
those men who attacked you?  What happened since I deserted you?"

But Shirley provokingly shook his head, as he drew out his watch.

"It is half-past two.  I must hurry down to East Twenty-fifth
Street and the East River, at the yacht club mooring, before
three.  Tomorrow I will give you my version in some quiet
restaurant, far from the gadding crowd of the White Light
district."

He rose, drawing back his chair; they walked to the elevator
together.  The clerk beckoned politely.

"A gent named Mr. Warren telephoned to ask if you were home yet,
Miss Marigold.  I told him not yet.  Was that wrong?"

"It was very kind of you.  Thank you so much," and Helene's smile
was the cause of an uneasy flutter in the breast of the blase
clerk.  "Good-night."

"That's a lucky guy, at that, Jimmie," confided the clerk to the
bell-boy.  "She is some beauty show, ain't she?  And she's on the
right track, too."

"Yep, but she's too polite to be a great actress or a star.  Her
temper'ment ain't mean enough!" responded this Solomon in brass
buttons.  "I hopes we gits invited to the wedding!"

Outside, Shirley enjoyed the stimulus of the bracing early
morning air.  A new inspiration seemed to fire him, altogether
dissimilar to the glow which he was wont to feel when plunging
into a dangerous phase of a professional case.  He slowly drew
from his pocket the typed note-paper which had nestled in such
enviable intimacy with that courageous heart.  The faint
fragrance of her exquisite flesh clung to it still.  He held it
to his lips and kissed it.  Then he stopped, to turn about and
look upward at the tall hostelry behind him.  High up below the
renaissance cornice he beheld the lights glow forth in the rooms
which he knew were Helene's.

As he hurried to the club, he muttered angrily to himself: "I
have made one discovery, at least, in this unusual exploit.  I
find that I have lost what common sense I possessed when I became
a Freshman at college!"




CHAPTER XVIII

ON THE RISING TIDE


A hurried message to the Holland Agency brought four plain
clothes men from the private reserve, under the leadership of
superintendent Cleary.  Monty met them at the doorway of the club
house, wearing a rough and tumble suit.

They sped downtown, toward the East River, the criminologist on
the seat where he could direct the driver.  At Twenty-sixth
Street, near the docks, they dismounted and Shirley gave his
directions to the detectives.

"I want you to slide along these doorways, working yourselves
separately down the water front until you are opposite the yacht
club landing.  I will work on an independent line.  You must get
busy when I shoot, yell or whistle,--I can't tell which.  As the
popular song goes, 'You're here and I'm here, so what do we
care?'  This is a chance for the Holland Agency to get a great
story in the papers for saving young Van Cleft from the
kidnappers."

He left them at the corner, and crossing to the other pavement,
began to stagger aimlessly down the street, looking for all the
world like a longshoreman returning home from a bacchanalian
celebration from some nearby Snug Harbor.  It was a familiar type
of pedestrian in this neighborhood at this time of the morning.

"That guy's a cool one, Mike," said Cleary to one of his men.
"These college ginks ain't so bad at that when you get to know
'em with their dress-suits off."

"He's a reg'lar feller, that's all," was Mike's philosophical
response.  "Edjication couldn't kill it in 'im."

A hundred yards offshore was the beautiful steam yacht of the Van
Clefts', the "White Swan."  Lights on the deck and a few glowing
portholes showed unusual activity aboard.  Shirley's hint to
Warren about the contemplated trip to southern climes was the
exact truth.  Naked truth, he had found, was ofttimes a more
valuable artifice than Munchausen artistry of the most consummate
craft!  The longshoreman, apparently befuddled in his bearings,
wandered toward the dock, which protruded into the river, a part
of the club property.  He staggered, tumbled and lay prostrate on
the snowy planks.

Then he crawled awkwardly toward one of the big spiles at the
side of the structure, where he passed into a profound slumber.
This, too, was a conventional procedure for the neighborhood!  A
man walked across the street, from the darkness of a deserted
hallway: he gave the somnolent one a kick.  The longshoreman
grunted, rolled over, and continued to snore obliviously.

An automobile honk-honked up Twenty-third Street, and then swung
around in a swift curve toward the dock.  The investigating
kicker slunk away, down the street.  The limousine drew up at the
entrance to the tender gangway.  Accompanied by a portly servant,
a young man in a fur coat, stepped from the machine.

"Give them another call with your horn, Sam," he directed.  "The
boat will be in for me, then."

This was done.  A scraping noise came from the hanging stairway
of the dock, and a voice called up from the darkness: "Here we
are, sir!"  Howard Van Cleft leaned over the edge and looked
down, somewhat nervously.  A reassuring word came up from the
boat, rocking against the spiles.

"You was a bit late, sir.  You said three, Mr. Van Cleft, and now
it's ten after.  So the captain sent us in to wait for you.
Everything's shipshape, sir, steam up, and all the supplies
aboard.  Climb right down the ladder, sir.  Steady now, lads!"

This seemed to presage good.  Van Cleft turned to his butler.

"Take down the luggage, Edward.  Goodbye, Sam.  Keep an eye on
the machines.  The folks will attend to everything for you while
I am away.  Good-bye."

The butler had delivered the baggage and now returned up the
ladder, puffing with his exertions.

"Good-bye, sir," and his voice was more emotional than usual.
"Watch yourself, sir, if you please, sir.  You're the last Van
Cleft, and we need you, sir."  The old man touched his hat, and
climbed into the automobile, as Van Cleft climbed down the
ladder.  The machine sped away under the skilful guidance of Sam.

"Steady, sir, steady--There, we have you now, sir,--Quick, men!
Up the river with the tide.  Row like hell!--Keep your oars
muffled--here comes the other boat."

All this seemed naturally the accompaniment of the embarkment of
Van Cleft's yachting cruise, but the sleeping longshoreman
suddenly arose to his feet and blew a shrill police whistle.
Next instant the flash of his pocket-lamp illumined the dark boat
below him.  A volley of curses greeted this untoward action!  A
revolver barked from the hand of a big man in the stern.  Young
Van Cleft lay face downward in the boat, neatly gagged and bound.
As the light still flickered over the surprised oarsmen, an
answering shot evidenced better aim.  The man in the back of the
bobbing vessel groaned as he fell forward upon the prostrate body
of the pinioned millionaire.  One oarsman disappeared over the
side of the boat, to glide into the unfathomable darkness, with
skilful strokes.

"Hold still!  I'll kill the first man who makes a move!"

As Shirley's voice rang out, Cleary with his assistants was
dashing across the open space to the end of the dock.

"Shove out that boat-hook and hold onto the dock!" was the
additional order, accompanied by a punctuation mark in the form
of another bullet which splintered the gunwale of the boat.
Looking as they were, into the dazzling eye of the bulb light,
the men were uncertain of the number of their assailants:
surrender was natural.  Cleary's men made quick work of them.
The boat from the yacht now hove to by this time, filled with
excited and profane sailormen.  The skipper of the "White Swan,"
revolver drawn, stood in its bow as it bumped against the
stairway.  Howard Van Cleft was unbound: dazed but happy he tried
to talk.

"What--why--who?" he mumbled.

"Pat Cleary, from the Holland Detective Agency," was Shirley's
response.  "There, handcuff these men quick.  Two cops are
coming.  We want the credit of this job before the rookies beat
us to it."

Van Cleft recognized the speaker, and caught his hand fervently.
Shirley, though, was too busy for gratitude.  He gave another
quick direction.

"Hurry on board your yacht tender and get underway.  Your life
isn't worth a penny if you stay in town another hour.  These men
will be attended to.  Good luck and goodbye."

The young man rapidly transferred his luggage to his own boat.
They were soon out of view on their way to the larger vessel.
Shirley turned toward Cleary.

"I'll file the charge against these two men.  They tried to rob
me and make their getaway in this boat.  You were down here as a
bodyguard for Van Cleft, who, of course, knew nothing about the
matter as he left for his cruise.  So his name can be kept out of
it entirely.  And the fact that you helped to save him from
paying fifty thousand dollars in blackmail, will not injure the
size of Captain Cronin's bill.  Get me?"

"It's got!" laughed Cleary.

Two patrolmen were dumfounded when they reached the spot to find
four men in handcuffs in charge of six armed guardians.  The
superintendent explained the situation as laid out by Shirley.
The cavalcade took its way to the East Twenty-first Street Police
Station, where the complaint was filed.  Sullen and perplexed
about their failure, the men were all locked in their cells,
after their leader had his shoulder dressed by an interne
summoned from the nearby Bellevue Hospital.

Shirley and Cleary returned with the others to the waiting
automobile, after these formalities.  The prisoners had been
given the customary opportunity to telephone to friends, but
strangely enough did not avail themselves of it.

"We're cutting down the ranks of the enemy, Cleary," observed the
detective as he lit a cigarette.  "But I wonder who it was that
escaped in the water?"

"He'll be next in the net.  But say, Mr. Shirley, what percentage
do you get for all this work, I'm awondering?" was the answering
query.  The criminologist laughed.

"Thanks, my dear man, simply thanks.  That's a rare thing for a
well-to-do man to get since the I.W.W. proved to the world that
it's a crime for a man to own more than ten dollars, or even to
earn it!  But I wish you would drop me off about half a block
from the Somerset Apartments, on Fifty-sixth Street.  I want to
watch for a late arrival."

He waited in the shadows of the houses on the opposite side of
the street.  After half an hour he was rewarded by the sight of
Mr. Shine Taylor dismounting from a taxicab.  The young gentleman
wore a heavy overcoat over a bedraggled suit.  One of his snowy
spats was missing; his hat was dripping, still, from its early
immersion.  He entered the building, after a cautious survey of
the deserted street, with a stiff and exhausted gait.

Shirley was satisfied with this new knot in the string.  He
returned to his rooms at the club, to gain fresh strength for the
trailing on the morrow.  And this time, he felt that he deserved
his rest!

Next morning, after his usual plunge and rub-down, he ordered
breakfast in his rooms.  He instructed the clerk to send up a
Remwood typewriter, and began his experiments with the code of
the diary.

From an old note-book, in which were tabulated the order of
letter recurrences according to their frequency in ordinary
English words, he freshened his memory.  This was the natural
sequence, in direct ratio to the use of the letters: "E: T: A: O:
N: I: S: B: M, etc."  The use of "E" was double that of any
other.  Yet on the pages of the book he found that the most
frequently recurring symbol was "R" which was, ordinarily, one of
the least used in the alphabet.  "T," which would have been second
in popularity, naturally, was seen only a few times in
proportion.  "Y," also seldom used, appeared very often.  The
symbol "A" was used with surprising frequency.

"Let me see," he mused.  "This code is strictly typewritten.  It
must be arranged on some mechanical twist of the typing method.
A is used so many times that it might be safe to assume that it
is used for a space, as all the words in this code run together.
If A is used that way, what takes its place?  S would by rights
be seventh on the list, but the average I have made shows that it
is about third or fourth."

Carefully he jotted down in separate columns on a piece of paper
the individual repetitions of letters on the page of "January 7,
1915." He arrived at the conclusion, then, that "R" was used for
"E," that "S" took the place of "A" and that "Y" alternated in
this cipher for "T" which was second on his little list.

Fur the benefit of the reader who may be interested enough to
work out this little problem, along the lines of Shirley's
deductions the arrangement of the so-called "Standard" keyboard
is here shown, as it was on the "Number Four" machine of Warren's
Remwood, and the duplicate machine which Shirley was using.

            Q  W  E  R  T  Y  U  I  O  P

              A  S  D  F  G  H  J  K  L  ;

                Z   X  C  V  B  N  M  , .

          Shift      SPACE BAR          Shift
           Key                           Key

This diagram represents the "lower case" or small letters,
capitals being made by holding down one of the shift keys on
either side, and striking the other letter at the same time,
there being two symbols on each metal type key.  As only small
letters were used through the code Shirley did not bother about
the capitals.  He realized at last, that if his theory of
substitution were correct the writer had struck the key to the
right of the three frequent letters.  He had the inception of the
scheme.

Starting with the first line of the sentences so jumbled on the
page for January 7, 1915, he began to reverse the operation,
copying it off, hitting on the typewriter the keyboard letter to
the left of the one indicated in the order of the cipher.

The result was gratifying.  He continued for several lines,
having trouble only with the letter "P."  At last he realized
that the only substitution for that could be "Q."  In other
words, "A" had been used for the space letter throughout, and for
all the other symbols the one on the right had been struck,
except "P" which being at the end of the line had been merely
swung to the first letter on the other end of it!

No wonder Warren had been so confident of its baffling simplicity!
Many of the well-known rules for reading codes would not work with
this one, and had it not been for Shirley's suspicion, aroused in
the library of the arch-schemer the night before, he would hardly
have given the typewriter, as a mechanical aide, a second thought.
Warren's desire to drop the subject of machines had planted a
dangerous seed.

Laboriously Shirley typed off the material of the entire page for
the fatal Thursday, and his elation knew no bounds as he realized
that here was a key to many of the activities of his enemy.  He
donned his hat and coat and hurried over to the Hotel California
to show his discovery to Helene.  She invited him up to her suite
at once, where he wasted no words but exhibited the triumphant
result of his efforts.  He handed her his own transcription, and
this is what she read:

"January 7, 1915, Thursday.

learned from bank de cleyster drew six thousand in morning monk
assigned to taxi work for tea shine assigned to fix generator
margie fairfax date with de cleyster at five, shine and joe
hawley covering game jake and ben assigned black car for me paid
phil one hundred covering special work job finished riverside
drive at eighty third sharp deposited night and day four thousand
safe deposit fifteen hundred lent dolly marion two hundred for
dress for party with van cleft next afternoon advanced shine one
thousand to cover option of yacht sunbeam paid to broker that
night ordered provisions telephone for yacht two month cruise
monk assigned for job next day advanced shine five hundred on
account work on wellington serral matter repairs black machine
fifty party apartment same night champagne one hundred fifty
caterer one hundred tips fifty five to janitor taxis twelve must
stir phil up on work for grimsby matter memorandum arrange for
yacht mooring on east river instead of north after wednesday
eighth job finis memorandum settle telephone exchange proceeds
not later than monday paid electrician special wiring two hundred
in full settlement."

"There, Miss Helene, how do you like my little game of letter
building?"

There was a boyish gleam of triumph in his smile as he turned
toward her.

"You are a wizard, but how did you work it all out?"  There was
no smile in her face, only a mingled horror at the revelations of
this calculating monster in his businesslike murder work, and an
unfeigned admiration for Shirley's keenness.

"A very old method, but one which would have availed for naught
without your help.  The letter paper which you used and the
unmistakable identity of Warren's machine are two more bars of
iron with which to imprison him.  The paper of that note is the
same on which they wrote to Van Ceft for money, and their threats
to me.  This shows from a microscopic examination of its texture.
I will give the whole book to a trustworthy stenographer: more
than six months of these little confessions are tabulated here.
Warren was evidently so used to this code that he could write in
it as easily as I do with the straight alphabet.  His training in
German universities developed a thoroughness, a methodical
recording of every thing, which is apt to cost him dearly.  And
his undoubted vanity prompted him to have a little volume of his
own in that library to which he could turn occasionally for the
retrospection of his own cleverness.  Now, I must investigate
this clever telephone system.  I think I have the clue
necessary."

He intrusted the book to Helene for the morning, promising to
return in an hour or two with new information, drolly refusing to
tell her his destination.

"You're a bad, bold boy, and should be spanked, for not letting
some one know where to look for you in case you get into
difficulties," she pouted.  "Perhaps I will do some equally
foolish thing myself."

"If you knew how you frightened me yesterday!" he began.

"Did you really worry and really care?"  But Shirley had slipped
out of the door, leaving her to wonder, and then begin that long
delayed letter to Jack.




CHAPTER XIX

AN EXPEDITION UNDERGROUND


The criminologist picked his way through the swarming vehicles
which swung up and down Broadway, across to Seventh Avenue, where
he turned into a plumber's shop.  This fellow had handled small
jobs on Shirley's extensive real estate holdings, and he was
naturally delighted to do a favor in the hope of obtaining new
work.

"Mike, I want to borrow an old pair of overalls, a jumper and one
of those blue caps hanging up on your wall.  And I need some
plumbers' tools, as well, for a little joke I am to play on one
of my friends."

The workman was astounded at such a request from his rich client,
but nodded willingly.  The dirtiest of the clothes answered
Shirley's requirements and with soot rubbed over his face and
hands, his hair disarranged, he satisfied his artistic craving
for detail.  He was transformed into a typical leadpipe brigand.
Hanging his own garments in the closet, after transferring his
automatic revolver into the pocket of the jeans, he started out,
carrying the furnace pot, and looking like a union-label article.

He reached the Somerset by a roundabout walk, passing more than
one of his acquaintances with inward amusement at their failure
to recognize him.  He had arranged for Helene to invite Shine
Taylor and Reginald Warren down to call on her at the apartment
in the California at this particular time.  So thus he felt that
the coast was clear.  At the tradesmen's entrance, where he had
gone before to hoist on the dumbwaiter, he entered the building.
An investigation of the basement showed him that in the rear of
the building were one large and two small courts or air shafts.
Then he ascended the iron stairway to the street level of the
vestibule.

"Say, bo, I come to fix de pipes on de second floor," was his
self-introduction to the haughty negro attendant.  "Dey're
leakin' an' me boss tells me to git on de job in a hustle."

"Which one?  I ain't heard o' no leaks.  It must be in de empty
apartment in de rear, kase dat old maid in de front would been
kickin' my fool head off ef she's had any trouble.  She's always
grouchy."

"Sure, dingy, it's de empty one in de rear.  Lemme in an' I'll
fix it."

"You-all better see de superintendent.  People is apt to be
lookin' at dat apartment to-day to rent it, an' he mightn't want
no plumber mussin' round.  I'll go hunt 'im fer you-all."

"Say, you jest lemme in now.  I'm paid by de hour.  You knows
what plumber bills is, an' your superintendent'll fire you if he
has to pay ten dollars' overtime 'cause you hold me up."

This was superior logic.  The negro took him up and opened the
door.  Shirley entered, and peered out of the court window in the
rear.  Helene's suggestion about the dust was applicable here,
for he found all the windows coated except the one opening upon
the areaway.  Below he observed a stone paving with a cracked
surface.  It was semidark, but his electric pocket-light enabled
him to observe one piece of the rock which seemed entirely
detached.  Shirley investigated the closets of the empty
apartment.  In one of them he discovered the object of his
search.  It was a knotted rope.  He first observed the exact way
in which it had been folded in order to replace it without
suspicion being aroused.  Then he took it to the small window of
the air shafts hanging it on a hook which was half concealed
behind the ledge.  Down this he lowered himself, hand over hand.
The stone was quickly lifted--it was hinged on the under surface.
 n the dark hole which was before him there was an iron ladder.
Down he went, into the utter blackness.  His outstretched hands
apprised him that he was at the beginning of a walled tunnel,
through which he groped in a half-upright position.  He reached
an iron door, and remembering his direction calculated that this
must be at the rear entrance of the old garage on West
Fifty-fifth
Street.  It opened, as he swung a heavy iron bar, fitted with a
curious mechanism resembling the front of a safe.  Softly he
entered, carrying his heavy boots in his hand.  All was still
within, and he shot the glow ray of his little lamp about him.
As the reader may guess, it was the rear room of Warren's private
spider-web!  The table, facing the screen was surmounted by an
ingenious telephone switchboard.

Shirley examined this closely.  The various plugs were labelled:
"Rector," "Flatbush," "Jersey City," "Main," "Morningside," and
other names which Shirley recognized as "central" stations of the
telephone company.  Here was the partial solution of the
mysterious calls.  He determined to test the service!

He took up the telephone receiver and sent the plug into the
orifice under the label, "Co." wondering what that might be.
Soon there was an answer.

"Yes, Chief.  What is it?"

"How's everything?" was Shirley's hoarse remark.  "I find
connections bad in the Bronx?  What's the matter?"

"I'll send one of the outside men up there to see, Chief.
There's a new exchange manager there, and he may be having the
wires inspected.  But my tap is on the cable behind the building.
I don't see how he could get wise."

Shirley smiled at this inadvertent betrayal of the system: wire
tapping with science.  He was able to trap the confederate with
his own mesh of copper now.

"I want to see you right away.  Some cash for you.  I'm sick with
a cold in the throat so don't keep me waiting.  Go up town and
stand in the doorway at 192 West Forty-first Street.  Don't let
anybody see you while you wait there, so keep back out of sight.
How soon can you be there?"

"Oh, in half an hour if I hurry.  Any trouble?  You certainly
have a bum voice, Chief.  But how will I know it's you?"

"I'll just say, 'Telephone,' and then you come right along with
me, to a place I have in mind.  Don't be late, now!  Good-bye."

Shirley drew out the connection and tried the exchange labelled
"Rector."  Instantly a pleasant girl's voice inquired the number
desired.

"Bryant 4802-R."

This was the Hotel California.

The operator on the switchboard of the hostelry replied.

"Give me Miss Marigold's apartment, please."

Helene's voice was soon on the wire.  Shirley asked for Warren in
a gruff tone.

"What do you want?" was that gentleman's musical inquiry, in the
tones which were already so familiar to the criminologist.

"Chief, dis is de Rat.  I wants to meet you down at de Blue Goose
on Water Street in half an hour.  Kin you'se come?  It's
important."

The other was evidently mystified.

"The Rat?  What do you mean?  I don't know you.  Ring off!"

Shirley heard the other receiver click.  He held the wire,
reasoning out the method of the intriguer.  Soon there was a buzz
in his ear, and Warren's voice came to him.  It was droll, this
reversal of the original method, which had been so puzzling.

"What number is this?"

"Rector 4471, sir," answered the criminologist in the best
falsetto tone he could muster.  Then he disconnected with a
smile.  This was turning the tables with a vengeance.  But he
knew that he must be getting away from the den before the
possible investigation by Warren or his lieutenant.  There were
many things he would have liked to study about the place.  But
his curiosity about the telephone had made it impossible for him
to remain.  It was a costly mistake, as events were destined to
prove!

He hurried out of the compartment, into the tunnel, up the rope
and through the window.  He replaced the knotted rope, exactly as
it had been before.  He put a few drippings of molten lead from
the bubbling pot, under the wash-stand of the bathroom, to carry
out the illusion of his work as plumber.  Then he departed from
the building, as he had entered.

In ten minutes he was changing his garments in Mike's plumbing
shop, with a fabulous story of the excruciating joke he had
played upon a sick friend.  Then he walked rapidly to the doorway
at 192 West Forty-first Street.

Back against the wall of this empty store entry, lounged a
pleasant-looking young man who puffed at a perfecto.  Shirley
stepped in, and in a low tone, said: "Telephone."  The other
started visibly, and scrutinized the well-groomed club man from
head to foot.

"Well, Chief, you're a surprise.  I never thought you looked like
that.  Where will we go?"

"Over to the gambling house a friend of mine runs, just around the
corner.  There we can talk in quiet."

Shirley led the way, restraining the smile which itched to betray
his enjoyment of the situation.  The other studied him with
sidelong glances of unabated astonishment.  They were soon going
up the steps of the Holland Agency, which looked for all the
world, with its closed shutters, and quiet front, like a retreat
for the worshipers of Dame Fortune.  Cronin fortunately did not
believe in signs.  So the young man was not suspicious, even when
Shirley gave three knocks upon the door, to be admitted by the
sharp-nosed guardian of the portal.

"Tell Cleary to come downstairs, Nick," said the criminologist.
"I want him to meet a friend of mine."

The superintendent was soon speeding two steps at a time.

"The Captain is back, Mr. Shirley," he exclaimed.  "He's in the
private office on a couch."

"Good, then we'll take my friend right to him."

The stranger was beginning to evidence uneasiness, and he turned
questioningly to his conductor, with a growing frown.

"Say, what are you leading me into, Chief?"

Shirley said nothing but strode to the rear of the floor, through
the door of Captain Cronin's sanctum.  The old detective was
covered with a steamer shawl, as he stretched out on a davenport.
The young man observed the photographs around the room,--an
enormous collection of double-portraits of profile and front face
views--the advertized crooks for whom Cronin had his nets spread
in a dozen cases.  The handcuffs on the desk, the measuring
stand, the Bertillon instruments on the table, all these aroused
his suspicions instantly.

He whirled about, angrily.

Shirley smiled in his face.  Then he addressed the surprised
Captain Cronin.

"Here is our little telephone expert who arranged the wires for
Warren and his gang, Captain.  You are welcome to add him to your
growing collection of prisoners."

For answer the young man whipped out a revolver and fired
point-blank at the criminologist. His was a ready trigger finger.
But he was no swifter than the convalescent detective on the couch,
who had swung a six shooter from a mysterious fold of the steamer
blanket, and planted a bullet into the man's shoulder from the rear.

As the smoke cleared away, Shirley straightened up from the
crouching position on the floor which had saved him from the
assassin, and dragged the wounded criminal to his feet.  The
handcuffs clicked about his wrists before the young man had
grasped the entire situation.  Cleary and three others of the
private force were in the room.

"I've got to hurry along now, Captain.  Just let him know that
his Chief is captured and the sooner he turns State's evidence
the better it will be for him.  The District Attorney might make
it lighter, if he helps.  I'll be back this evening if I can."
And Shirley hurried away, leaving much surprise and bewilderment
in every mind.

Cronin was equal to the task of picking up the threads, and under
his sarcasm, and Cleary's rough arguments, the prisoner admitted
some interesting matters about the mysterious employer whose face
he had never seen.  But Shirley's task was far from completed.




CHAPTER XX

A DOUBLE ON THE TRAIL


Shirley walked up to the Hotel California, at the door of which
he met Warren and Taylor just leaving.  They looked somewhat
embarrassed but his manner was cordiality itself.

"Sorry you are going.  I was just stepping up to see Miss
Marigold.  Won't you come back?"

His invitation was refused.  Then Shirley urged Warren to be his
guest at the club for dinner that evening.  This was accepted
with a surprising alacrity.  So, he left them, and was soon
talking with Helene.

"You missed a curious little sociable party," she assured him.
"They tried to quiz me, and I confess that I worked for the same
purpose--no results on either side.  But, Warren had an unusual
telephone call, which disturbed him so much that he hurried away,
sooner than he had planned."

Shirley recounted his explorations of the afternoon, with the
explanation of Reginald's disturbance.  It was certain now that
the leader of the assassins had something to cause uneasiness,
--enough to take his mind off the campaign of murder and
blackmail.

"But he will try to get you out of the way," was her anxious
answer.  "You are multiplying needless dangers.  Why don't you
have him arrested now--the phonograph records will identify his
voice, will they not?  The diary will show his career, and
everything seems complete in the case."

Shirley sat down in the window-seat, before replying.

"It is just my own vanity, then, perhaps.  I am foolish enough to
believe that I can trap him on some crime which will give him the
complete punishment he deserves without dragging in the names of
these unfortunate old society men.  All our trouble would be for
nothing, just now, if the story came out.  The phonograph records
helped me--but I prefer to keep that method to myself, as a
matter of interest and selfishness.  Somewhere, in that beautiful
apartment of his there must be clues which will send him to the
electric chair on former crimes: Warren is an artist who has
handled other brushes than the ones he used on this masterpiece.
He is not a beginner.  So, I must ransack his apartment."

"That is impossible, with all the care he takes with bolts and
locks."

"We shall see.  Meanwhile, I'll spin the yarn of the last
thirty-six hours.  I'm sure your curiosity is whetted: my own
is by no means satisfied."

So he gave her a survey of the progress he had made.  Helene
brought forth a number of typewritten pages which she had
transcribed from the diary, proudly exhibiting a machine which
she had ordered sent up from the hotel office.

"There, sir, we are unwinding the ravelings of his past life to
an extent.  I have found a mysterious reference to a Montfluery
case in Paris, during August of last year.  What can you do to
investigate that lead?"

Shirley jotted down the name, and answered: "A cable to the
prefecture of Police of the city of Paris from Captain Cronin
will bring details.  That should be an added link in the chain,
within the next twenty-four hours.  I am going to leave you for
the while, as I wish to investigate a certain yacht which is
moored in the East River.  That yacht is there for a purpose--you
remember his reference to the payment of supplies for a two-month
cruise.  My amateurish vanity leads me to a hope that I can
capture him just at the crucial moment when he thinks he is
successful in his escape from pursuit."

"That is the childishness of the masculine mind," retorted
Helene.  "You say we women are illogical, but we are essentially
practical in the small things.  I would advise closing the doors
before the horse escapes, rather than a chase from behind!"

"Perhaps," answered Monty, "but the uncertainty does allure me.
I always enjoyed skating on thin ice, from the days of college
when I loved to get through a course of lectures on as little
work as possible.  The satisfaction of 'getting away with it'
against odds was so exhilarating.  I will return after my little
dinner with Warren at the Club.  Where will you dine?"

"Your friend Dick Holloway is taking me to some restaurant where
singing and music may alter my refusal to him."

"Your refusal?" and Shirley shot a quick glance at the girl.  Her
dimples appeared as she added: "Yes--he wants me to star in a
little play for the coming spring, but I have had such fun
playing in real-life drama that I said him nay."

"Oh," was all the criminologist said, but as he left, Helene's
laugh interpretated a little feminine satisfaction.  Monty's mind
was just disturbed enough about the attitude of Dick Holloway to
keep him from worrying over the Warren case until he had reached
the East River, near the yacht club mooring.

There was the white yacht which had been mentioned in the
purloined book.  It was a trim, speedy craft.  The criminologist
walked down a few blocks to the office of a boat contractor with
whom he had dealt on bygone occasions.

"I want to engage a fast motor-boat, Mr. Manby," was his request.
"The speediest thing you've got.  Keep it down at your dock, at
Twenty-first Street, with plenty of gasoline and a man on duty
all the time, starting with six o'clock to-night.  I may need it
at a minute's notice."

"I've got a hydroplane which I'll sell this spring to some
yachtsman," said Manby.  "It's a bargain--you can do forty miles
an hour in it, without getting a drop of spray.  Shall I show it
to you?"

"Yes, and the two men who you will have alternating on duty, so
they will know me when I come for it.  I'll pay for every minute
it is reserved."

They soon came to terms; the men were introduced and Shirley was
well satisfied with the racing craft, which was moored according
to his directions, handy for a quick embarkation.

Then he went up to the Holland Agency.  Cronin was disappointed
in his results with the telephone confederate.  All of Warren's
men were close-mouthed, as though through some biting fear of
swift and unerring vengeance for "squealing."  Even the prisoners
in the station-house had not volunteered to communicate with
friends, as they were allowed to do by law.  They were "standing
pat," as the old detective declared in disgust.

"That proves one thing," remarked the criminologist.  "They are
not local products, or they would have friends other than their
chief on whom to call for bail or aid.  Their whole work centers
on him.  I think I will send a code message to this man Phil this
afternoon or evening.  He may be able to read it, and if he does,
it may assist us.  I wish you would have a man call on Miss
Marigold at the California Hotel, so that she may know his face.
Then keep him covering her for they are apt to get suspicious of
her and try to quiet her.  She is a game and fearless girl, but
she is no match for this gang."

Cronin assigned one of the men immediately, and the sleuth took
up a note of introduction to Helene, in which Monty explained the
need for his watch.

Shirley then repaired to the club house to await his dinner
guest.  He was thoughtful about the alacrity of Warren to dine
with him.  There was more to this assumed friendliness than the
mere desire to talk to him.

"I wonder if he wants to keep me occupied for some certain
reason?" pondered the club man.  "Helene is protected now by a
silent watcher.  The members of the Lobster Club are all out of
the city.  Van Cleft is safe on the ocean.  They must be laying a
trap.  I wonder where that trap would be?"

As he looked about his rooms he realized that many important
pieces of evidence were locked up in his chests and the small
safe.  His bedroom, in the uppermost floor of the club building,
was in a quiet and less frequented part of the house.  Shirley
summoned one of the shrewd Japanese valets who worked on the
dormitory floors of the building.

"Chen," he began.  "Are you a good fighter?"

The Mongolian grinned characteristically.  Shirley took out a
bill, and handed it to the little fellow.

"I have reason to think some one may come into my rooms to-night,
while I am busy downstairs.  How would you like to lock yourself
on the inside of my clothes closet, and wait?  The air is not
very good, but with this ten dollars you could take a nice ride
in the country to-morrow, and get lots of good oxygen in your
lungs to make up for it."

Chen was a willing little self-jailer.  Shirley handed him his
own revolver, and the slant eyes sparkled with glee at the
opportunity for some excitement.  Americans may carp at the
curious manners and alleged shortcomings of the Oriental, but
personal fear does not seem to be in the category of their
faults.  So, with this little valet, who improved his time, as
Shirley had discovered, by taking special courses in Columbia
University's scientific department.  The criminologist had used
him on more than one occasion when Eastern subtlety and apparent
lack of guile had accomplished the impossible!

The closet door was closed, and Shirley went downstairs.  At the
desk of the, club clerk he sent a cablegram to the police
authorities of Paris.  The message was simple

"Cable collect to Holland Detective Agency name and record of man
in Montfleury case, August, 1914.  Do you want him? .........
                             ........ Cronin, Captain."

Shirley smiled as he handed the envelope to the little messenger
who had been summoned, and made his exit through the front
doorway just as the affable Reginald Warren entered it: another
instance of "ships that pass in the night," was the thought of
the host who advanced courteously.

"You are on time to the minute: German training, I see.  Let the
boy have your hat and coat, Mr. Warren."

These little amenities completed, they sauntered about the
beautiful building, Shirley pointing out the many interesting
photographs of athletic teams, trophies, club posters, portraits
of famous graduates, and the like, which seem part and parcel of
collegiate atmosphere.  Warren was profoundly interested, yet
there was an abstraction in his conversation which was not
unobserved by his entertainer.  As they passed a tall, colonial
clock in the broad hallway, Shirley caught him glancing uneasily
at it.  This was the second time he had looked at its silvered
face since they came into the range of it.  Purposely the club
man took him down the length of the big dining-hall, to exhibit
the trophies of the hunt, from jungles and polar regions,
contributed by the sportsmen members of past classes.  Here
Shirley chatted about this and that boar's head, yonder elephant
hide, the other tiger skin, until he had consumed additional
time.  As they passed into the lounging room Shirley led his
guest past another small mahogany clock.  Again the sharp,
anxious glance at the progress of the minutes.  He was convinced
by now that some deviltry was being perfected on schedule time.
He began to worry over his little assistant on the floor high
above: perhaps he would not be able to cope with the plotters,
after all.  Yet, Chen was wiry, cunning, and needed no diagrams
as to the purpose for which he was to guard the rooms.

At last Shirley led Warren to the grill-room where they ordered
their dinner: the supreme test of a gentleman is his taste in the
menu for a discriminating guest.  Warren sensed this, as the
delicious viands and rare old wines were brought out in a
combination which would have warmed the heart cockles of the
fussiest old gourmon from Goutville!

"Ah, a feast fit for the gods," were his admiring words, as the
two men smiled across this strange board of hospitality.  In the
midst of the meal, their chat of student days was interrupted by
a page who approached Shirley.

"Begging your pardon, sir, but I have a note which was left here
by messenger for a gentleman named Mr. R. Warren; your guest, I
believe, sir?"

Warren's face flushed, and his surprise was indubitable.  He
snatched the envelope from the boy, who had reached it toward
Shirley.  The criminologist was no less in the dark.  Warren,
with a scant apology, tore open the missive.  It was typewritten!
He read it, and his brows came together with an angry scowl.

He arose from his seat swiftly, turning toward Shirley with a
nervous twitching of the erstwhile firm lips.

"Would you pardon me if I ran?  A Wall Street client of mine has
suddenly been stricken with apoplexy.  We have deals together,
dependent upon gentlemen's agreements, without a word of writing.
It may mean a fortune to get to him before he loses all power of
speech.  It is a shame to spoil, at this time, such a wonderful
dinner as I had promised myself with you.  Can you forgive me?"

The man was visibly panic-stricken, although his superb nerve was
fighting hard to cover his terror.  Shirley wondered what news
could have fallen into his hand this way.  He watched the
envelope, hoping that he would inadvertently drop it.  But no
such luck!  Warren carefully folded it and put it with the letter
into the breast pocket of his coat.

"My dear fellow, business before indigestion, always!  I am sorry
to have you go, but we will try again.  I will go upstairs with
you.  Shall I call a taxicab for you?"

Warren expostulated, but the host followed him to the check room.
Unseen by Warren, Shirley inserted a handkerchief from his own
pocket into the overcoat pocket of the other with a
sleight-of-hand
substitution, in the withdrawal of the guest's small linen
square!

Warren rushed to the door.  He sprang into the first taxicab that
came along, and disappeared.  Shirley watched the car as it raced
away and noticed its number.  He turned to the door man.

"Whose machine was that?  On the regular club stand here?"

"Yes, sir.  A man named Perkins drives it, sir."

"Will it return here as soon as the fare is taken to the end of
the trip?"

"Yes, sir, they have orders for that.  They belong to a gent who
supplies cars for our club exclusively, sir.  They are not
allowed to take outside passengers."

"Very good!  You send for me, in my rooms, as soon as the driver
of the car shows up.  I want to find out where he went."

Shirley hurried up in the lift to his own floor.  He went to the
door of his room, and tried to open it with his key.  It was
bolted from inside!  There came a muffled report from within.
Then he heard a cry, which he recognized as the voice of Chen,
the Jap.  He dropped to the floor, listening at the crack--a
scuffle was in progress within!




CHAPTER XXI

A BURGLARY FOR JUSTICE


Shirley rose, and once more applied that gridiron-trained boot of
his: this time to the lock of the door.  Two doses resulted in a
complete cure for its obstinacy.  As he rushed into the room, he
saw a figure swing out of the window on a dangling rope.  He
hesitated--the desire to chase this intruder to the roof of the
club struggled with his duty to the unfortunate Jap, who lay on
the floor, where he was being garroted by a burly ruffian in a
chauffeur's habiliments.  He sprang toward his little assistant,
and made quick work of the big man.

As he threw the other, with one of his "silencer" twists of the
neck cords, the Jap sprang up.  A demoniac anger twisted that
usually smiling countenance, and it took all of Shirley's
strength, to wrest away the automatic revolver from the maddened
valet, to prevent swift revenge.

"Why, Chen.  He's caught.  Don't shoot him now!"

Chen, with a voluble stream of Nagasaki profanity, spluttered in
rage, and strove like a bantam rooster to get at his antagonist.
The necessity for quieting him to prevent bloodshed was fatal to
the pursuit of the other man, as Shirley realized bitterly.  The
servants were running to the room by this time.  The club steward
opened the battered door, and Shirley turned to explain.

"You have a brave little man, here, Cushman.  Chen heard this
burglar in my room, and tried to capture him at the risk of his
own life.  He deserves promotion and a raise in salary.  Go
downstairs and call the police.  We'll have this fellow locked
up!"

The man glared at Shirley, and rubbed his throat which throbbed
from the vice-like grip of the jiu-jitsu.  Chen still breathed
hard and his almond eyes rolled nervously.  At last he was quiet
again, although the slender fingers twitched hungrily for a
clawing of that dirty neck.  Shirley patted him on the back.
Judgment had come to another of the gangsters, and the
criminologist was pleased at the diminution in the ranks of his
opponent.

An examination of his cabinet and dresser drawers showed that the
pillaging had barely begun when Chen popped out of his hiding-place.
It was no wonder that Warren had been so solicitous as to the
speeding time: intuition had once more intervened to interrupt these
well-laid schemes.

The little Jap could tell barely more of his adventure than that
he had opened the door when he heard men walking and talking in
the room.  Then the struggle had ensued, with the result already
described.

Now, indeed, was Shirley more puzzled than ever at Warren's
sudden departure.  It had upset the plans of the conspirators: it
was an unwelcome surprise to their Chief.  And furthermore it had
interfered with a little scheme of the criminologist by which he
had expected to craftily imprison his guest for the remainder of
the night.

The room was put in order--not much was there to rearrange, for
the tussle had come so promptly.  With a final look at his
belongings, Shirley left Chen in charge, not forgetting to slip
to him another reward for his courage.

Then he went downstairs and hurried over to the Hotel California
to hold a conference of war with Helene Marigold.

She was nervous, as she greeted him.  Yet a subtle smile on her
face showed that she was not surprised by the visit.  Shirley
quickly outlined the occurrences of the dinner hour.  When he
asked her opinion, for he had learned to place a growing trust in
her quick grasp of things, she walked silently to her typewriter.

"Here, sir, is a little note which may amuse you."

She handed him a piece of paper.  It read:

"Chief: The Monk has turned up at the Blue Goose on Water Street.
He is drunk and telling all he knows.  Come down at once to help
us quiet him.  Hurry or every thing will be known.  You know
who."

Shirley looked at the message, and then with tilted eyebrows at
his fair companion.

"What do you know about the Blue Goose?" he asked.  "And the
Monk?  For I presume that you wrote this out?"

"Your presumption is correct.  I remembered hearing Warren ask
Taylor this afternoon after that telephone call from you, where
the Blue Goose saloon could be.  Taylor told him it was a
sailor's dive on Water Street.  The night they thought me
dreaming on his library couch, I heard Taylor ask Warren if they
had heard from the Monk.  So, it seemed to me that the two
questions might interest Mr. Reginald Warren if presented in a
language that he understood."

"And what was that language?"

"It was a code message, which I typed out on this Remwood machine
here, by the system you told me.  It was slow work, but I
finished it and sent it over to the club, knowing Warren would be
with you.  I really don't know what good the message would do.
But being an illogical woman, and a descendant of Pandora, I
thought it would be amusing to open the Pandora's box and let all
the little devils loose, just to see the glitter of their wings!"

Shirley caught her hands delightedly.

"You bully girl!  Nothing could have happened better.  I'll
improve my time now, by visiting Mr. Warren's apartment, impolite
as it is without an invitation.  And then I think I will go
calling in that little cave of the winds in the rear of his art
collection, on the other street."

"But, Monty--I Mean, Mr. Shirley," and a rosy embarrassment
overcame her, "you will put your head into the lion's mouth once
too often.  Why not wait until you get him under lock and key?"

"My dear girl, we will telephone my club and talk to the door
man.  I think that he may be under lock and key by this time, in
a manner you little suspect.  Let me have the number."

He went to the instrument on her dressing-table.  The club was
soon reached, and Dan the door man was answering his eager
question.

"Yes, sir, the taxi has come back, sir."

"Send the chauffeur to the wire.  I want to talk to him," said
Shirley.  The man was soon speaking.  "What address did you take
that gentleman to, my man?"

"Why, sir, I started out for the Battery, but sir, a terrible
thing happened."

"What was it?"

"The gentleman was overcome with an ep'leptic stroke or somethin'
like that.  He pounded on the winder behind me, and when I
stopped me car, and looked in he was down an' out.  I was on
Thirty-third Street and Fift' Avenue at the time, so I calls a
cop, and he orders me to run 'im over to Bellevue.  He's there
now, sir.  He ain't hardly breathin', sir.  It's terrible!"

"Too bad, I must go and call, to see if I can help him!" was
Shirley's remark as he hung up the receiver.  He repeated the
news to Helene.  Her eyes sparkled, as she said: "Ah, those
symptoms resemble the ones you told me which came from that
amo-amas-amat-citron, or whatever it was."

"Not quite such a loving lemon, Miss Marigold," he chuckled.
"Amyl nitrite.  The same soothing syrup which quieted our
would-be robbers on Sixth Avenue, that night when we left his
apartment.  It will wear off in about three hours.  I had a
little glass container folded in my own handkerchief, which I put
in his overcoat pocket as a parting souvenir, crushing it as I
did so.  I reasoned that undue anxiety which he displayed might
cause him to mop his brow, close to that student-duel scar.  One
smell of the chemical on that handkerchief, in the quantity which
I gave, was enough to quiet his worries.  Now for the Somerset
Apartment."

He looked at his watch.

"It is eight fifteen.  I want you to telephone up to Warren's
apartment exactly at ten o'clock.  Tell them--there should be a
them, that I have been overcome in your apartment, and that they
are the only people who can help you, or who know you.  I believe
that the idea of finding me unconscious, and getting me away will
bring any and all of his friends who may be there.  If Taylor is
there with others, he will hardly leave them in the place when he
goes.  What I want is to be sure that the coast is cleared of
people at that hour.  Then I will make an investigation into his
papers and other matters of interest.  Can I count on you?"

A reproachful pouting of the scarlet lips was the only answer.
Shirley left, this time hurrying uptown to a certain
engine-house,
whose fire captain he had known quite well in the old reportorial
days.

It was beginning to snow once more.  And as Shirley slipped out
of the engine-house, carrying a scaling ladder which he had
borrowed after much persuasion from his good-natured friend, he
thanked his luck for this natural veiling of the night, to baffle
eyes too curious about the campaign he had planned.  He knew the
posts of the policemen on this street, and sedulously avoided
them.

The Warren apartment faced the Eastern side of the structure, and
when he reached the front of the Somerset, he sought for a way in
which to use his implement.  A scaling ladder, it may be
explained to the uninitiated, is about eight feet long--a single
fire-proof bar, on which are short cross-pieces.  At one end is a
curiously curving serrated hook, which is used for grappling on
the sills of windows or ledges above.  It is the most useful
weapon for the city fire-fighter, enabling him to climb
diagonally across the face of a threatened structure, or even to
swing horizontally from one window to a far one, where ladders
and hose-streams might not reach.

A hundred feet to the West of the Somerset he found the
excavations for a new apartment house.  No watchman was in sight,
in the mist of falling flakes, so the criminologist disappeared
over the fence which separated the plot of ground from the
sidewalk.  Advancing with many a stumble through the blasted rock
and shale, he obtained ingress to an alleyway in the rear.
Following this brought him to the back of the Somerset.  Shirley
had an obstinate grandfather, and heredity was strong upon him.
It seemed a foolhardy attempt to scale the big structure, but he
raised the ladder to the window-sill of the second story,
climbing cautiously up to that ledge.

On the second sill he rested, then stretched his scaler diagonally
forward to the left. As he put his feet upon this, he swung like a
pendulum across the space. It was a severe grueling of nerves, but
his judgment of placement was good. When the ladder stopped swinging
he clambered up another story, as he had learned to do on truant
afternoons wasted at the firemen's training school, during the
privileged days of journalistic work.

Floor after floor he ascended, until he reached the eighth, on
which was Shirley's great goal.  Here he exerted the utmost
prudence, refraining from the natural impulse to look down at the
great crevasse beneath him.  His footing was slippery, but the
thickening snowfall was a boon in white disguise, for it
protected him from almost certain observation from the street
below.  Slowly he raised his eyes to a level with the illuminated
window, and peered in.

A strange sight greeted him.

Shine Taylor was busily engaged in the 'twisting of coils of
wire, about shiny brass cylinders, with an array of small and
large clocks, electric batteries and mysterious bottles on the
carved library table.  He was intent upon the manufacture of
another of his diabolical engines of death!

Even as he watched, the door opened and who should stagger into
the room but Reginald Warren!

"Great Scott, Reg!  What hit you?" was Taylor's ejaculation, as
the other stumbled forward, with a hand to his purple face, to
sink into an easy-chair, groaning.  The man outside the window
could not distinguish the words, but the current of thought was
well expressed in pantomime.

"I've been drugged!" moaned Warren.  "That devil put something on
my handkerchief which knocked me out.  I came to in Bellevue and
I had a time getting away to come back here.  What about the
Monk?  Did you see him?"

Taylor had run to his side.  It seemed as though Warren's eyes
would pop from his head.  The veins were swollen on his pallid
brow, and he gasped for air.

"Open the window!" he murmured, and his confederate rushed to
the very portal through which the criminologist was watching this
unusual scene, with bated breath.  His heart sank, as he lowered
himself with a suddenness which vibrated the loosely-attached
scaler.  For the first time his eyes turned toward the terrifying
distance from which he had ascended.

There was a squeak and he heard the window slide in its frame.
He felt that all was over.  It would be impossible for Shine
Taylor not to observe the hooked prong of the ladder, with its
curving metal a few inches from his hands.  In this ghastly
minute of suspense, Shiley's thoughts, strangely enough turned
back to one thing.  He did not dash through the gamut of his life
experiences nor regret all past peccadilloes, as novelists inform
us is generally the ultimate thought in the supreme moment before
a dash into eternity!  He felt only a maddening, itchingly
bewitching desire to reach up to his coat pocket and draw out
that scent-laden page of typed note-paper which had been
glorified by its caress of the warm, bare bosom of the wonderful
woman who had so mysteriously drifted into the current of his
life.

Then he heard a voice through the open window so close to his
ears: it was Shine Taylor's nasal whine.

"It's snowing, Reg.  The air will do you good.  What a gorgeous
night for a murder.  Tell me now, what was the trouble?"

And Shirley swung, and swung and swung!




CHAPTER XXII

IN THE DOUBLE TRAP


Eternity had passed, the Judgment Day had been overlooked and new
aeons had gone their way, it seemed to the criminologist, when
the voice was audible again.

"Oh, all right.  I just drew it down from the top.  Tell me about
your doping.  Who was the devil?"

He had been unobserved.  By the grace of the fates, Warren's
sudden appearance had given him a better chance to hear their
secrets, and Taylor's own abstraction had dissipated any interest
in the world beyond the window.  Again he lifted himself to the
level of the sill, sure that the creamy curtains upon which the
light from the big electrolier was beaming, would shield him from
their view.  Warren called for some brandy.  Taylor served him,
but it was three minutes or more before the other could collect
himself.  Then he began furiously, as the pain in his forehead
diminished.

"This Shirley: he's a clever dog.  He put something on my
handkerchief, and when I got that message of yours it got me,
right in the taxicab, as I was on my way to the Blue Goose to
meet you."

"To meet me?" and Taylor's turn came to be startled.  "I don't
know why you should meet me at the Blue Goose!"

"Say, didn't you send me this note in code?" demanded Warren,
drawing out the typewritten sheet.  Taylor shook his head, with a
blanched face.

The other looked at him with the first evidence of fear which
Shirley had ever seen on the confident face.  Warren caught his
assistant's hand, and drew his face down toward the note.

"Look, it is in our code.  Phil can read it but he is the only
one beside you.  He is locked up in jail, and couldn't reach a
typewriter.  I got a message from him this afternoon that he
wouldn't squeal.  You know how he smuggled it out to me.  Tell me
how could any one know about the Monk and write this so?"

Taylor shook his head, speechless.  As he turned his face toward
the window Shirley observed the great drawn shadows under his
squinting eyes.  The sudden shock was telling on that weasel
face.  Taylor walked unsteadily toward the infernal machine, and
he looked blankly toward Warren again.  The other's blazing orbs
were full upon him now.  There was a frightful menace in their
glittering depths as he spoke.

"Taylor, if I thought you had sold out I'd skin you alive right
now!"

"Reg--Reg--you are my best friend.  Don't say a thing like that."

"Are you selling me for some purpose.  Are you soft on that
chicken?  Has she blarneyed you into this?" demanded his chief,
rising, unsteadily, but fierce in his suspicious tensity.

Taylor cowered, with imploring hands stretched out.

"Why, Reg, no one ever did for me what you've done.  I'd die
rather than sell you out, and there ain't a dame in the world
that could make me soft on a real game like this."

As Warren studied his white face there came a tinkle on the
telephone.

"What's that?  Who's that?"  Warren turned and ran toward the
instrument, still studying the face of his companion.  It was
evident that a seed of distrust was planted in his bosom.  He
answered nervously.

"Yes, yes!  What do you want?  Who's speaking?"

Then he listened, and a wise expression came over his face.  It
broke into a smile for the first time since he entered the room.
He winked at Taylor who drew near him.  Shirley strained his ears
to catch the words.

"Yes, yes, why, my dear Miss Bonbon.  Surely, I'll be glad to
come down--To help take care of Mr. Shirley--Of course, I will
come in my machine and bring him uptown to a hospital--That's
what you want?--Yes, indeed, nothing would give me greater
pleasure."

He rang off, and turned toward Taylor.

"That smooth devil has sniffed some of his own dope as sure as
you live, Shine.  We'll get him.  Call up and have the machine
sent around.  You and I will be a committee of two, and we'll end
this tonight.  Bring what you need."

Warren drank another full glass of brandy, while Taylor gave a
quick order over the telephone.  Then the latter snatched up a
small black satchel which was standing on a side table.  The
assistant came to the window, and Shirley dropped down out of
sight, for another moment of suspense.  But the sash was quickly
closed and bolted.

The light was turned out, and he waited another five minutes,
stiffening in the cold wind which had sprung up to send the big
flakes in eddies against his numbed fingers.  With difficulty he
fished out a long, thin wire from his pocket, with which he had
frequently turned the safety catch of windows on other such
occasions.  Again it served its purpose, and he drew himself up
to the sash of the opened window.  He brushed off the snow, so as
to leave no telltale puddles of drippings.  He went to the door
of the library, and then to that of the vestibule.

It was locked from the outside, even as they had done when Helene
was the drowsy prisoner.

He had little time, he knew, for his search, but he first thought
of the girl's predicament.  He must cover the tracks there.  He
took up the receiver, and in a minute was talking to her.

"I'm in.  Leave word downstairs (and pay the clerk and bell-boy a
good bribe) that you have gone to a hospital with a sick friend.
Tell them to swear to that, and better still leave the hotel at
once, hunt up Dick Holloway--you'll find him at the Thespis Club
to-night.  Send in the chauffeur to ask for him and have him stay
with you in the machine.  I am going to visit the other place
when I finish here.  I'll be down there, at the Thespis Club, by
eleven again.  Good-bye--use your wits."

Then he began a hurried ransacking of the apartment.  He picked
up a note-book here, sheets of memoranda there, letters and
documents which he thought would be convenient.  Warren's
bedrooms were locked, but a small "jimmie" sufficed to force
them open.  He found in one drawer a dozen or more bank books,
with as many different financial houses, and under many names.
This he shoved into his pockets.  At last, satisfied that he
could gain no more, he retreated to the window.  He shut this and
was once more on the windowsill.  Here he looked down, and a new
inspiration came to him.  He would have difficulty in getting
admission to the apartment entrance, at this time of night.  The
attendant would remember him and warn Warren upon the latter's
return.  It was but one more climb, a single story, to the roof.
So, up he went, deserting the faithful scaling ladder on the
roof, for the time being.

He sought around for several minutes on the snowy, slippery
surface before he found the entrance to the iron stairway close
by the elevator shaft.  Then he went softly down.

Past Warren's apartment, on his way without a noise, his boots
off, he continued until he reached the second floor.  Here he was
baffled again.  Why had he not taken some impression of the
pass-key of the negro attendant when let in before?  Yet now he
remembered that the man had never relinquished his hold upon that
open sesame.  He remembered the "jimmy"--yet this would betray
him, by the broken lock!

There was the servant's entrance, however, in the rear of the
hallway.  To this he slipped, even as the elevator passed up
bearing Warren and Shine Taylor, muttering angrily.  Shirley
found the rear door to the rooms, and there he worked quickly,
forcing the lock.  He was soon inside, and hid himself in the
pantry of the darkened apartment.  He had not long to wait.

There was a clicking noise which reverberated through the empty
room, as the other two entered by the front portal.  He heard
them talking in whispers, then the creaking of a window, and all
was silent again.

Shirley went to the same small window through which he had
descended before.  With his boots tied together by their laces,
and suspended from his neck, on either side, he went down the
rope noiselessly.  He found the iron door partially opened, as he
reached the end of the corridor.  A block of wood held it back
from the jamb.

"He is prepared for a quick retreat.  So shall I be," thought
Shirley, as he noiselessly crept into the chamber, after having
drawn away the wooden block.  He let the door come gently to its
frame, stopping it within an inch of its lock.  As he turned
slightly forward he caught two curious silhouettes: Warren at his
table, with Shine at his side, their outlines clear and black
against the brightness of the headlights.  On, the other side of
the transparent screen stood a man, with one eye blackened, his
face badly bruised and wicked in its battered condensation of
evil determination with rage and fright, so oddly mixed.

"It ain't my fault, Chief!  There are only six of the boys left.
I tried me best but this little Chinyman he soaks me one on the
lamp, with a gun butt.  Me pal was nabbed in the room when I
sneaks out on the rope.  I finds out afterward that Jimmie's
watch must-a been about twenty minutes slow.  That's how we
misses."

"But you didn't get him, and I'm going to break you for this!"

"But gov'nor, listen--we leaves the machine all right.  That'll
git 'im anyway.  What'll I do?"

"I have the addresses of the other men here in my pocket.  You
tell them to stick right in their rooms for the next twenty-four
hours.  If they don't hear anything from me, tell them to go to
Frisco by roundabout ways and I'll forward their money, care of
Kelso.  Now get out."

The man disappeared and there was a double click as the door to
the front compartment closed.  Warren turned toward Taylor, While
Shirley flattened himself against the rear wall, and crouched
down slowly, without a betraying sound.

"I don't understand that girl not being there.  Some one's
closing in on us.  I'm going to break that girl's spirit before
I'm through.  She'll be on the yacht tonight, for everything's
ready now.  What sort of a machine did you arrange for his room?"

"The old telephone one we worked in Oakland.  It is under his
bed.  I told the men to do that first before they went through
his things.  Then it would look like plain robbery, and when he
goes to take the receiver off the hook it's 'good-night, nursey!'
That little popper will blow the roof off that club house!"

Shirley's blood might have run cold at the calm pride of this
degenerate fiend, had it not been boiling at the reference to
Helene.  He crept nearer to them, along the wall.  He lay down on
the floor, below the level of the first bullet paths.  Then he
drew his automatic and the bulb light, ready for his surprise.

"I'll call up Kick Brown at the telephone company.  He's on duty
until twelve.  That's an hour yet."

He placed the plug in position but there came no answer over his
private wire.  Warren cursed: this time in a dialect unknown to
Shirley.  The man was asserting his most primitive nature now.

"What does that mean?  He knows that it's important to-night.
I wonder if some one has squealed.  You know what I said
upstairs, Shine?"  Warren's voice was ominous.  "I don't like the
looks of things.  And you're the only one who has ever known the
inside working of my system.  I've even told you the key to my
code--Phil knows it in part, but there is nothing I've kept from
you."

Here Shirley's dramatic instinct asserted itself.  In a
sepulchral voice, he spoke: "One key to the right, in writing.
One to the left to read.  Hands up, Warren, you're wanted in
Paris, and we have the goods on you!"

Placing the bulb light far to his left, he twisted the little
catch which kept it glowing permanently.  The light fell full on
the face of Warren and Taylor as they sprang up back to back!

"Drop that revolver.  It's all up now.  You go to the chair for
these murders."

Warren shot for the body he supposed to be above the little
light.  As he did so Shirley sent a bullet into the arch
criminal's right wrist.  The weapon dropped from his hand to the
table.  Shine Taylor, terror-stricken, staggered against his
companion, groping for support.  Warren misunderstood it: he
thought his assistant was trying to hold him.  The swift
interpretation gave new fuel to the flame of mistrust which had
sprung up in his heart.  He knew not how many men were about him
--he merely realized that his crafty plans had been set at
naught,--there could be only this one explanation.  He struck at
Taylor, who moaned in pain.

"You cur, you've squealed on me!"  With his uninjured left hand
he caught the other in his Oriental death grip, with all his
consummate skill.  Astonished at the sudden move, Shirley rose to
his feet.  But he hesitated too long.

With a faint gurgle, Shine Taylor, pickpocket, mechanical artist
and criminal genius sank to the mouldy ground of the cellar
--lifeless!

Shirley snatched up the light, instinctively throwing its rays
upon the face of the dead man.  It was horrible to see this
ghastly ending of the miserable life, so suddenly conceived and
grewsomely executed!  Here was Warren's opportunity.  He caught
up his weapon from the table with the left hand, and sent a shot
at the intruder, leaping at the same time toward the rear
entrance.  Monty swung the light about, but the other threw on an
electric switch.  He stood by the iron portal a fiendish smirk on
his distorted features.

"So, my luck is good after all: I've got you where I most want
you!"  His weapon covered Shirley's.  "I shoot as well with my
left hand as with my right.  But, no, I won't shoot you.  I'll
put you away without a trace left.  That is always the clever
way.  I told you that the average criminal was too careless about
little things.  Good-bye, Mr. Montague Shirley, I wish you a
pleasant journey!"

His hand, bleeding from the bullet wound, was pushing the iron
door, behind him as he faced Shirley.  Suddenly a frightful sound
broke the stillness: it was the final exhalation of air from the
dead man's lungs.  It sent a creeping chill through Shirley's
blood.  Warren's right hand dropped, nervously for an instant,
despite his resolution.  In that second Shirley had brought his
own weapon up to a level with the other's eyes.

The door closed with a clang!

Warren's face lost its sneering smile.  He was locked in from
the rear!

"Now, let's see you get out the front way," retorted the
criminologist.  He had one hand behind him.  He felt a metal
contrivance, With three buttons on it.  He thought perhaps it
were the controlling switch for the lights.  He would take his
chances in the dark.  He pressed all three quickly.

There was a clang from the front, as some mechanism whirred for
an instant.  A gong sounded above, and scurrying feet could be
heard--then were audible no more.  It was the warning alarm for
the gangsters: they had fled.

Suddenly to Shirley's straining ears came the tick-ticking of an
alarm clock, from the corner of the room to his right.  He dare
not look at it.  Warren's eyes grew black with the Great Fear!

"You fool, you've locked all the entrances, and sent the men
away.  That clock will ring in exactly five minutes.  When it
does, this place will go up from a load of lyddite.  You've dug
your own grave!"

Warren's voice was hoarse, and his bright eyes radiated venomously,
as he kept his weapon pointed, like Shirley's, at the face opposite.
They were both prisoners in the death cellar, with the advantage in
favor of neither!

And the ticking clock, with its maddening, mechanical death chant
seemed to Shirley to cry, with each beat, like the reminiscence
of some nightmare barbershop: "Next!  Next!  Next!"




CHAPTER XXIII

CAPTURED AND THEN


Warren's white lips were moving in perfect synchronism, as he
counted the seconds and ticks of the clock.  Shirley, never so
acute, cudgeled his mind for some devise by which he might
overcame the other.  It was hopeless.  At last, just as he knew
the inevitable second was almost completed, a faint rustling came
from the other side of the iron door.  Warren's face brightened
with hope.  With a nerve-racking rasp, the iron bar on the other
side was raised: it was a torturing delay as the two waited!

The door slowly opened.  After a harrowing pause a revolver
muzzle slid gently through the crack, and a woman's voice
murmured softly: "Drop the gun!"

It was Helene Marigold!

Warren's ashen face changed to purple hue, his hand trembled just
enough to incite Shirley to a desperate chance.  As the criminal
drew the trigger with a spasmodic jerk, Shirley was dropping to
the floor, whence he pushed himself forward with a froglike leap,
as he straightened out the great muscles.

Together they rolled in a frenzied struggle.

"Run back, Helene.  The clock will explode!" cried Shirley,
desperately.  Instead, she sprang into the bright room, espied
the diabolical arrangement in the corner, and ran to pick it up.
She saw the wire, and her deft fingers reached behind the clock
to turn back its hands.  Had she torn the wire, as a man would
have done, the dreaded explosion would have ended it all.

"We're coming!"

It was the voice of Pat Cleary from the passageway.  He rushed
through the subterranean passage, followed by several men, with
Dick Holloway excitedly in their train.  After a titanic
struggle, with the man baffled in this maddening moment of ruined
triumph, they handcuffed him.

Shirley led Helene into the front compartment before she could
observe the horror stamped upon the face of the murdered rogue.

The girl turned her glorious eyes to his, reached forth her
hands, and then the eternal feminine conquered as she trembled
unsteadily and sank into his arms.

"Break down the doors, Cleary.  Out here, to the street.  Pull
off the hands of that clock--it's a lyddite bomb!" cried Shirley,
excitedly.

One of the men used the table with clattering effect.  The iron
door of the front room gave way, and Shirley carried Helene up
the ladder, to the main floor of the old garage.  She seemed a
sleeping lily--so pale, so fragile, so fragrant in her colorless
beauty.  He had never seen her so before!  For an instant a great
terror pierced him: she seemed not to breathe.  But as he placed
his face close to her mouth, her eyes opened for one divine look,
then drooped again.  A white hand and arm curled, with childish
confidence, about his shoulder.  He bore her thus to the big car
from the Agency, which stood outside.

"Quick, down to the Hotel California," he called to the
chauffeur, "Pat Cleary can handle matters there."

As they sped toward her apartment the roses took their wonted
place in her cheeks.  She sat up to smile in his face.  Then she
lowered her glance, with carmine mounting hotly to her brow.
Helene said no word--nor did Shirley.  She simply leaned toward
him, to bury her face upon the broad shoulder, as neither heeded
the possible curiosity of the driver on the seat in front.

At least, they understood completely.  There was nothing else to
say!

        *       *       *

As Shirley left her at the door of the apartment, he turned into
the elevator, his mind whirling with the strange imprisonment
into which he had let his unwilling heart drift.  The clerk
stopped him at the lower floor.

"There's a call for you, sir.  It's rush, the gentleman said!"

"Great Scott!  What now?" he ran to the instrument, and he heard
Captain Cronin's excited voice.

"Shirley.  The man's escaped again!  They just came into the
place.  He threw some sort of bottle at the front of the patrol
wagon which blew it all to pieces.  He got away in the mix-up
--three policemen were injured!"

"I'll get him, Captain, if it's the last act of my life."

To the surprise of the blase clerk, the well-known club man ran
out of the hotel, dropping his hat in his excitement.  He shouted
to the driver who still waited in the agency machine.

"The sky's the limit, now, son.  Race for Twenty-first Street and
the East River.  Let me off at the end of the dock.  Then go back
to get some men from the agency, as I'll have a prisoner, then,
or they'll get my body!"

The machine raced down the street, regardless of the warnings of
policemen.  Shirley was confident that his was not the only car
on such a mission.  He reached the dock of Manby, where was
waiting the expert engineer of the hydroplane.  He had not
planned in vain.

"Have you seen an auto go past here before mine?"

"Yes, sir, I was smoking me pipe, and settin' on the rail of the
dock, when one shoots up toward the Twenty-third Street Ferry,
with a cop on a motor-cycle chasin' it behind."

"Then, quick, into the boat."

They clambered down the wet ladder, and after an aggravating
delay, the whirring engines of the racing craft were started.
Shirley took off his coat, and lashed a long rope about his
waist.  He tied the other end of it securely to a thwart in the
boat.

"What's your idee, Cap?" asked the engineer, as he waited the
signal.

"There's a man trying to catch that white yacht out in the river.
I want to get him, that's all.  If I fall out of this boat, keep
right on going, for I'm tied up now.  Where's the boat hook?"

"Here, sir.  Are you ready?  Just give me your directions.  All
right, sir, we're off."

Shirley grunted and the hydroplane sped out onto the river, in a
big curve, as he directed.  Like a white ghost on the river was
the trim yacht, which even now could be seen speeding down the
stream, all steam up.  There were two toots on the whistle and
Shirley feared that his man had boarded her.  But the hydroplane,
ploughing through the cold waves, whizzed toward the yacht, as he
climbed out to the small flat stern.  A small boat had swung
close to the yacht now.  A ladder had been lowered from a spar,
while a man standing in the little craft missed it.  The yacht
was gliding past the boat, when another rope ladder was deftly
swung over the stern.

The hydroplane was close up now, and Shirley saw his prey
dangling at the end of the ladder, now in the water, struggling
with the rungs of the ladder, and now being drawn up.

His engineer, with a skilful hand on the helm, swung in close to
the yacht, as keen for the capture as his patron.  They whizzed
past at almost railroad speed, and Shirley, sprang toward the
ladder.  His arms closed about the body of Reginald Warren in a
grip which he braced by a curious finger-lock he had learned in
wrestling practice.

Two revolvers barked over the taffrail of the yacht, as the
hydroplane raced onward, dragging Shirley and his prisoner at the
end of the rope, through the water.  Again the shots rang out,
but they were out of range, on the dark waters so quickly, that
before the police boat had set out from shore to investigate the
firing from the pleasure vessel, the criminologist's struggle
with his wounded antagonist was over.

Half drowned, himself, with Warren completely past consciousness,
Shirley was pulled into his own boat as the engines were slowed
down.  They returned rapidly to the dock.

"Help me work him--that was a pretty rough yank.  He's been shot
in the hand already."

They rolled Warren on a barrel, "pumped" his arms, and by the
time the Cronin automobile had returned with the other
detectives, Warren was restored to understanding again.  Shirley
forced some liquor between his teeth, to be greeted with a
torrent of strange oaths.

"The jig is up, Warren," said the criminologist.  "As a chess-player
in the little game, you are a wonder. But, I think I may at last
call 'Checkmate.'"

"I'm not dead yet, Shirley," hissed Warren.  "I gave you your
chance to keep out of this.  But you wouldn't take it.  I'll
settle the score with you before I'm finished.  There's one man
in the world who knows how to get away from bars.  I'm that man."

Then his teeth snapped together with a click.  He said nothing
more that night, even during the operation for probing Shirley's
bullet, and the painful dressing.  At the station-house, and his
arraignment before the magistrate at Night Court, where he saw
some other familiar faces of his fellow gangsters--now rounded up
on the same charges--he still maintained that feline silence.

And his eyes never left the face of Montague Shirley, as long as
that calm young man was in sight!

Shirley merely presented his charge of murder--for the strangling
of Shine Taylor.  The names of the aged millionaires were not
brought into the matter--there was no need.  He had done his work
well.

At Cronin's agency, late that night, there came a cablegram from
the greatest detective bureau of France.

"The Montfleury case" was the most daring robbery and sale of
state war secrets ever perpetrated in Paris.  It had been
successful, despite the capture, and conviction of the criminal,
Laschlas Rozi, a Hungarian adventurer who had killed three men to
carry his point.  The scoundrel had escaped after murdering his
prison guard, and wearing his clothes out of the gaol.  A reward
of 100,000 francs had been offered for his capture, by the
Department of Justice.

"Monty, who gets all the credit for this little deal--that's
what's bothering me?" asked Captain Cronin, as they sipped a
toast of rare old port, in his rear office.

Shirley lit the ubiquitous cigarette, and tilted back in his
chair.

"Captain: why ask foolish questions?  This case ought to buy you
five or six of those big farms you've been planning about--and
leave you fifty thousand dollars with which to pay the damages
for being a gentleman farmer."

"And you, Monty?  You know you never have to present a bill with
me.  What will you do with your pin money?"

"I'm going down on Fifth Avenue tomorrow and invest it in a
solitaire ring, for a very small finger."




CHAPTER XXIV

CONCLUSION


Shirley made some investigations in a private reading room of the
Public Library: there was much good treasure there, not salable
over the counter of a grocery store, mayhap, but unusually
valuable in the high grade work which was his specialty.  In an
old volume enumerating the noble families of Austro-Hungary he
found two distinguished lines, "Laschlas" and "Rozi."

From the library he went to a cable office where he sent a
message to the chief of police of Budapesth inquiring about the
remaining members of the families.  The old volume in the library
was thirty-four years behind the times: it was the only record
obtainable in America.

After a couple of hours, which he devote to some personal
matters, he received a response to his inquiry.  When translated
from the Hungarian it read thus:

"Professor Montague Shirley, College Club, N.Y., U.S.A.

Families extinct except Countess Laschlas, and son Count Rozi
Laschlas, reported killed in Albanian revolution.

                            Csherkini, Minister of Justice."

The criminologist was happy.  Here was a weapon which he had not
yet used.  Now he turned his steps towards the Tombs, for an
interview with the prisoner.

After some parley with the warden, he was admitted for a visit to
Reginald Warren.  That gentleman's fury was rekindled at the
sight of the club man who had been so instrumental in his
downfall.  But a cunning smile played over the features of the
criminal.

"So, you have come to gloat over your work, Shirley?  Well, it is
a game two can play."

"Yes?  I am always interested in sport.  I came to see if there
was anything I could do for you in your confinement," was the
unruffled reply.

"You will be busy with your own affairs," retorted Warren.  "I
have been busy writing my confession.  Here is the manuscript.  I
will baffle all your efforts to hush up the affairs of the
'Lobster Club.'  Furthermore, my confession," (and he exultantly
waved a mass of manuscript at his visitor,) "will send young Van
Cleft to prison for perjury on the certificate of his father's
death.  Captain Cronin, that prince of blockheads, will share the
same fate.  Professor MacDonald, who I know very well signed the
death certificates, will be disgraced and driven from
professional standing.  You will be implicated in this plot to
thwart justice.  With the German university thoroughness to which
you so sarcastically referred, I have written down the facts as
carefully as though I were preparing a thesis for a doctor's
degree!"

He laughed maliciously, studying the effect of his words.  He was
disappointed.  Shirley's bland manner changed not a whit.
Instead the criminologist offered him a cigarette.

"You might as well smoke now--as later!" and there was a wealth
of innuendo in the emphasis.  "Is that all you are going to do,
to square your accounts?"

"By no means!  As my trump card, I have implicated Miss Helene
Marigold in the various exploits which have been so successful
now.  She is unknown in New York--I investigated that matter.
She will have a fine task in proving an alibi, after the careful
preparation I have made.  In fact, I accuse her of being the
mistress of my dead con'federate--"

Shirley sprang to his feet, and the rage which was shown in his
strong features brought a leer to the face of the other.

"Strike me," continued the tormentor.  "All I have to do is to
call the guard.  I have been busy thinking since they locked me
up here.  There is nothing more to do to me than the electric
chair--but, I am not finished yet."

The criminologist controlled himself with difficulty.  He
realized that an altercation with the prisoner would shatter his
whole case, like a house of cards blown down by a vagrant breeze.
He sat down again, the mask of calm indifference playing over
his features.

"And what then?"

"Is not that sufficient to interest you?  It will be another
month before my trial, and my literary work has just begun.  The
newspapers are filled with war news, which have ceased to be a
nine days' wonder.  I shall provide them with material which will
be the story of the age!  Another month, and then?"

The prisoner lit the cigarette which he had accepted, and
stretched back in the plain wooden chair to enjoy the misery of
his victim.

"But, a month--let me see?  That would enable me to do some
corresponding myself, wouldn't it?" and Shirley took out a
memorandum book.  "You have degraded a splendid intellect, a
gallant spirit and brought disgrace upon yourself, for this
miserable ending.  You have ruthlessly murdered others, caring
naught for the misery and wretchedness of those left behind.  Has
it been worth it all, Warren?"

The other's eyes twinkled, as he nodded.

"A wonderful game.  And I haven't completed the score, even now."

"You are right, Warren.  There is one soul more whom you have not
affected.  It is too bad that you were not killed in the Albanian
revolution,--then you would have been on record as a hero instead
of the vilest scoundrel in Christendom."

Had the death-dealing current of the electric chair been turned
upon Warren he could not have been more startled, as he sprang
up.  His pallid face seemed to turn a sickly green, as his dark
eyes opened in galvanized amazement.

"Albanian--what do you mean?  I never saw Albania!"

"You will never see it again.  You will never see Budapesth
again, either," was the menacing continuation of the
criminologist's methodical speech.  "But a very old lady, the
Countess Laschlas, will see the accounts of her son's wretched
death, in the New York papers which will be sent to her, in care
of the American consul!"

It was merely a deductive guess: but the shot struck the center
of the bull's-eye.  Warren, alias Count Laschlas, staggered back,
and his nervous fingers touched the chilling surface of the stone
wall.  He dropped his eyes, and then strove to regain his
nonchalance.  It was a pitiable failure.

"Just as you have dealt to the children of others, so will you
deal with your own mother, the last of a distinguished line of
aristocrats.  I swear, by the memory of my own dead parents, that
I will avenge the misery you have given to the innocent.  The
good Book says, the sins of the fathers shall be visited upon the
children even unto the third and the fourth generation.  But life
to-day has taught me that the sins of the children are visited
upon the fathers and the mothers--especially, the sweet, loving,
trusting mothers!  As I value my honor, Reginald Warren, or Count
Rozi, I will see to it that your mother shall know every detail
of the whole miserable career of her son.  That is my answer to
your alleged confession.  If there is a hereafter, from which you
may observe that which follows your death, you will be able to
see through eternity the earthly punishment which has been
visited upon the one person whom you love and respect."

The criminal's ashen face was buried in his hands.

Great sobs emanated from his white lips, as his shoulders heaved
in a paroxysm.

Shirley had struck the Achilles tendon--the hardest wretch in the
world had one, as he knew!

"Oh--oh--" he moaned, "the poor little mutter.  She has forgiven
so much, suffered so much.  You can't do it.  You won't do it!"
He fell to his knees, clawing at the criminologist's garments
with his trembling hands, the tears streaming down his face.

"What about those who have seen no compassion from you?" cried
Shirley in a terrible voice.  "Your vanity, your self-worship!
Do they not comfort you now?  This is only the suffering of
another which you contemplate!  Why all these hysterics?"

Warren, groveling on the floor of the reception-room, was a
picture of abject, horrid soul-torture.  At last, through the
subtlety of this unconventional sleuth, along methods which were
never dreamed of in the ordinary police category, he had been
broken on the wheel which he had himself so cunningly
constructed!

"And if that mother dies, cursing your memory with her last
breath, cursing the love of the father, of her husband, of the
ancestors, all responsible for your being in the world today,
what will you think, when you watch from the other side of that
great unseen wall?"

"Oh, Shirley!  I can't.  See--I'll destroy this stuff.  I'll keep
silent about the others.  I mean it.  Here: I tear it up now and
give you the pieces to burn!"

Warren, maddened by his fears, nervously tore the sheets into
bits and pressed the remnants into the criminologist's hands.

"Will you promise to keep my identity a secret?"

"I will not send word to Budapesth.  You have a bad record in
Paris, and other parts of the world.  But, if you play fair on
the confidential nature of this case, saving the innocent from
disgrace and shame, I will see that the story never reaches your
mother.  There is no need to ask this on your honor--that does
not count."

Warren winced at this final thrust.  He turned toward Shirley,
eagerly.

"You don't understand me at that, Shirley.  I have had a curious
career.  Somewhere I inherited a strain of criminality--you know
how many ancestors a man has in ten generations.  I was a member
of a poor but prominent family.  The government paid for my
education in the best universities of Europe, for I was to hold a
position under the Emperor, which had been held in my family for
generations.  But I was ruined by the extravagances and the
excesses which I learned from the rich young men whom I met.  I
studied feverishly, yet was able to waste much time with the
gilded fools, by my ability to learn more quickly.  The result
was that I could not be contented with the small salary of my
government office.  I had to keep up appearances with my
companions.  So, I drifted into gambling, into sharp tricks--then
became a mercenary soldier, an officer, in the continuous
revolutions of the southeastern part of Europe.  I sank deeper
and at last, in one serious escapade, I managed to have myself
reported dead, so as to quiet the heartaches of my mother, who
believed I was killed on the battlefield.  There is the miserable
story--or all I will tell.  They caught me in Paris and a girl
betrayed part of my name--fortunately they did not hunt me up, so
my mother was saved that disgrace.  Will you keep the secret now,
on our understanding?"

"I give you my word for that, Warren."  Shirley rose, putting the
torn-up papers into his pockets.  "I am sorry for the past--but
you have made the present for yourself.  Good-bye."

Warren returned to his cell and the detective to the club house.

There he found an additional cable message.  It said: "Countess
Laschlas has been dead ten months."  It was signed like the
other.

Shirley tore up the message, and blinked more than seemed
necessary.

"Poor little old lady, she knows it all now.  I will not have to
tell her."

        *       *       *

That afternoon Shirley called again at the Hotel California for
Helene.

"I want you to go to a sweet, old-fashioned English tea-room,
where I may tell you the rest of the story.  There will be no
tango music, no cymbals, no tinkling cocktails, nor, champagne.
Can you pour real tea?"

"I am an English girl.  I have been five days without it."

As they were ensconced at the quaint little table, he realized
how wondrously blended in her was that triad of feminine
essential spirits: the eternal mother instinct, the sensuous
strength of the wife-love and the wistful allurement of maiden
tenderness.

"Does my great big boy wish three lumps of sugar, after his hard
tasks?"

"He'll die in the flower of immaturity if he has too many sweets
in one day."

He drew out his memorandum book, opening it to a closely-written
page.

"Before the confections, I must hand in my report to the
commanding officer."

"Advance three paces to the front, and hand over the details,"
and she added another lump of sugar, with a mischievous twinkle
in the blue eyes.

"Very well, excellency.  We transcribed the addresses of Warren's
gangsters from his note-book, and they have all been arrested. The
men we captured in the earlier skirmishes are all languishing in the
tombs, as accomplices in his crime, as well as for their attempts
against my own life. You will be astonished, Helene, at the
revelations of his operations as shown by his bank-books, a
translation of that diary and some of the letters which I took when
I burglarized his rooms. I have sent a code letter to Phil, advising
him to confess all, and that man's testimony adds to the
corroboration. I went down to the District Attorney with a full
statement of the facts, leaving nothing unbared. Like me, he agreed
that it were best to let the law take its course, demanding the full
penalty, and saving the honor of a dozen families who would have
been dragged into the case, had not Warren laid himself liable by
the murder of his confederate, Taylor. That young man was an
electrical genius--with his brains misguided by his equally
misdirected employer. There is no chance of a miscarriage of
justice, and Warren had accumulated so much money that many of the
victims of his organization can be reimbursed in full."

"You have handled all this with a suspicious skill for a lazy
society man, with no experience in such matters."

Shirley understood the subtle sarcasm of the remark, but he
proceeded unruffled, to lull her suspicious.

"I only tried to cover the points which meant happiness and peace
of mind to others.  It was merely a matter of common or garden
horse sense, as we call it in America.  Warren has been
systematically robbing the rich men of New York for three years,
under various subterfuges.  No wonder he could afford such
gorgeous collections of art, keeping aloof from his associates in
crime.  His treasures, like those in many European museums were
bought with blood.  It is curious how a complex case like this
smooths itself out so simply when the key is obtained.  And you,
Helene, have been the genius to supply that key: my own work has
been merely corroborative!"

He looked at the delicate features of the girl, remembering with
a recurring thrill the margin by which they had escaped death in
the cellar den of the conspirators.

"Cleary and Dick Holloway told me how cleverly you led the men to
the Somerset where you followed my trail through the mole's
passage.  It was a frightful risk for you to take: Cleary should
have had more sense and led the way himself."

Helene's lips pursed themselves into a tempting pout.

"Are you not happier that it was I, at that supreme moment?"

"Indeed I am: success was all the sweeter.  There is remaining
only one mystery which I must admit is still unsolved in this
curious affair.  And that is you.  Who are you?"

She parried with the same question.

"I know your name, sir, but you profess to be a society
butterfly, flitting from pleasure to dissipation, and back again.
Tell me the truth, now, if ever."

"Why--gracious, Helene--of all the foolish questions!"  He was
adorably boyish in his confusion.  She laughed gleefully, like a
happy schoolgirl.

"Then, Monty Shirley, my score is better than yours, for I have
every mystery cleared.  But while I know all about you, what
frightful chances you are taking with me!"

Shirley reddened, as he burned his finger with the match which
had been raised to the end of his cigarette.  He accused her of
teasing, and she glanced happily at the iridiscent solitaire upon
the third finger of her left hand.

"Dear boy, I realize that I understand about you what you cannot
fathom with me.  You are not a moth, but your self-sacrifice, and
bravery in this case are professional: you worked on this case as
you have on a hundred others: you are a very original and
successful expert in criminology.  And I am not more than half
bad at observation and deduction, myself; now, am I, dear?"

Shirley gracefully admitted defeat, with a question: "Who are
you, Helene?  And who is dear old Jack?"

The roses blossomed in her cheeks as she answered: "Jack is a
very sweet boy, ten years older than you in gray hair and the
calendar, and infinitely younger in worldly wisdom and intellect.
He is an English army officer, who was foolish enough to imagine
he loved me, foolish enough to propose every three days for
the last three years and foolish enough to bore me until in
self-defense I escaped from his clutches.  As for myself, at
least I am not the young woman who can stand staying in that
gaudy theatrical hotel for another day longer.  I have done so
many bold, unmaidenly things that you may believe it easy for
me.  It is not.

"I am truly a horrid, old-time, hoopskirt-minded prude.  My first
act of domestic tyranny is to make you find a sedate, prim place
for my work and play, where I may know my own blushes when I see
them in the mirror, and will have less occasion to deserve them!"

"Your work?  What is that?"

"It is very hard work--with a typewriter, but not in code.  I
will not divulge my name until we tell it to the marriage license
clerk.  But Dick Holloway knows me, and I came to this country,
partly to see him.  I have written a few plays, which simple as
they were, seemed to interest European audiences and critics.
Some of my novels have strangely enough brought in royalties,
despite the publishers!  But, I became satiated with life in
England and on the Continent.  I came here because I felt that I
needed life in a younger and newer country.  I needed an
emotional and physical awakening."

"You have not wasted any time in drowsiness since you
reached America."

"No--and all because I went to Holloway's office that fateful
morning, before I saw any one else in New York, to ask about a
play which he is to produce this spring.  I confess that it was
my first experience as an actress.  Will you forgive my
deception?"

Shirley nodded, as he studied the animated face with a new
interest.  He admitted to himself that Holloway's prediction had
come true--he had met his match.

"And so, my dear Helene (for such I shall always call you,
whether your really, truly name be Mehitabel, Samantha or
Sophronisa) you came here, went through all these horrors without
a complaint, crushing the independence of my confirmed
bachelorhood for the sake of what we newspaper men call copy?"

Helene nodded demurely.

"Yes, but it was such wonderful 'copy,' Monty boy."

The criminologist scowled over his cigarette, yet he could not
feel as unhappy as he felt this defeat should make him.

"When will the 'copy' be ready for publication, my dear girl.  It
would be most interesting, I fancy."

Helene caught his hand, drawing it toward her throbbing heart.
Her wet lips were almost touching his ear, as she confided,
whisperingly, with the blue eyes averted: "Only published in
editions de luxe: some bindings will be with blue ribbons, some
with pink.  All of them with flexible backs and gloriously
illumined by the Master's brush.  The authors' autographs will be
on every copy to prove the collaboration, and every volume will
be a poem in itself ....  But there, Montague dear, I am a
novelist--not a fortune-teller!"

"How can I forecast the exact dates of publication?"










End of Project Gutenberg's The Voice on the Wire, by Eustace Hale Ball

*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VOICE ON THE WIRE ***

This file should be named vcntw10.txt or vcntw10.zip
Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, vcntw11.txt
VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, vcntw10a.txt



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.  Thus, we usually do not
keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.

We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
even years after the official publication date.

Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
and editing by those who wish to do so.

Most people start at our Web sites at:
http://gutenberg.net or
http://promo.net/pg

These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).


Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.

http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or
ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03

Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90

Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
as it appears in our Newsletters.


Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)

We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.

The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.

Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):

eBooks Year Month

    1  1971 July
   10  1991 January
  100  1994 January
 1000  1997 August
 1500  1998 October
 2000  1999 December
 2500  2000 December
 3000  2001 November
 4000  2001 October/November
 6000  2002 December*
 9000  2003 November*
10000  2004 January*


The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.

We need your donations more than ever!

As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
that have responded.

As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.

In answer to various questions we have received on this:

We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
just ask.

While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
donate.

International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
ways.

Donations by check or money order may be sent to:

Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
PMB 113
1739 University Ave.
Oxford, MS 38655-4109

Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
method other than by check or money order.

The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising
requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.

We need your donations more than ever!

You can get up to date donation information online at:

http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html


***

If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
you can always email directly to:

Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>

Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.

We would prefer to send you information by email.


**The Legal Small Print**


(Three Pages)

***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.

*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.

ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
distribute it in the United States without permission and
without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.

Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
any commercial products without permission.

To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.

LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
time to the person you received it from. If you received it
on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
receive it electronically.

THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
may have other legal rights.

INDEMNITY
You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this eBook,
[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
or [3] any Defect.

DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
or:

[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
     eBook or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
     if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
     including any form resulting from conversion by word
     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
     *EITHER*:

     [*]  The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
          does *not* contain characters other than those
          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
          author, and additional characters may be used to
          indicate hypertext links; OR

     [*]  The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
          form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
          OR

     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
          eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
          or other equivalent proprietary form).

[2]  Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
     "Small Print!" statement.

[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
     let us know your plans and to work out the details.

WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
in machine readable form.

The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
Money should be paid to the:
"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."

If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
hart@pobox.com

[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
when distributed free of all fees.  Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
Michael S. Hart.  Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
they hardware or software or any other related product without
express permission.]

*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*