The evening world. Newspaper, September 14, 1916, Page 15

whose methods are as The Evenia THE SCIENTIFIC GUNMAN By ARTHUR B. REEVE Craig Kennedy, the “ Scientific Detective,” wins @ remarkable duel of wits with « aster criminal scientific as his own By Maurice Ketten ee ~~ SEO Trig SPLENDID rm CLOSET In My Room —!, Otrores oF FF Towne Remington © so eee aeewre on wee sme telephow 4 ee Werregios bimeelt te thet ot 6 Got or, end from the ot flesh wound Benuedy wm “ CHAPTER VIII. (Coetiaued) The Detectaphone F VIDENTLY the boss has come in without making any notee,”— remarke Craig, “certainty heard no one through the other instrument. I guess he was waiting | for it to get dark before coming 4 @round. — Listen.” It wis a long-distance call from the HH & man they called chief. Where he was we had no means of finding out, but { we soon found out where he was } going. “Hello, boss," we heard come out 4 Of the detectaphone box “Hello, chief. You surely got us nearly pinched last night. What was the trouble?" “Oh, nothing much. Somehow or other they must have got on to us. I Buess it was when I called up the Joint on Forty-eighth Street. Three men surprised me, but fortunately I was ready, If they hadn't stopped at the door before they opened it, they might have got me. I put ‘em all out with that gun, though. Bay, I want you to help me on a little ob that I'm + planning.” “Yes? Is it a safe one? Don't you think we had better keep quiet for a little while?" “But this won't keep quiet. Listen, You know I told you about writing that letter about Warrington to his fiancee, Miss Winslow, when I was so sore over the report that he'd close up the Forty-eighth Street joint, right on top of finding that Rena , Taylor had the goods on the Forty- seventh Street place? We was fool. You said so, and I wai “You were.” “I know, but I was sore, IT hadn't got all I wanted out of those places. Well, anyway, I want that letter back, that's all, It's bad to have evi- ence like that around, Why, If they ever got a real handwriting expert they might get wise to something It ‘, they ever get hold of my own writing. 1 must have been batty. Now, I've found out from her maid that she hasn't got it. She took tt to that ) fellow Kennedy, and I happen to | know that Warrington that night _ came to his apartment and put some- thing that looked like @ letter into the safe he has there, He's got it all ,Pight. Now, I want to get in there while he's laid up near Tuxedo and back that letter. It isn't much of a safe. I think a can openet would do the job, We can make the thing look like @ regular robbery by a couple of yexgs. Are you on?" “No, I den't get you, chief. too risky.” “why?” “Why? That fellow Kennedy {s just as likely as not to be nosing around up there, I'd go but for that. “Well, | know. But suppose we find * that he isn’t there, not in the house, has left it, That's right, nothing do- ng if he's there. But say, I know how to get In all right without being geen. I'll tell you later. Come on, We won't try it {f anybody's the: Besides, it'll help to throw a scare into Warrington.” , “TM tell you what I'll do, I'll meet you at the same place we met the other day—you know where I mean— * fome time after 12, We'll talk it over.” “T'll be there, Good-by.” “And 80," remarked Kennedy as the Uttle machine stopped talking, “It ap- ‘ pears that our friends, the enemy, are Watching us as closcly as we are Jatchiag them, with the advantage that they know us, and we do not know them, except this garage fel- low.” He lapsed Into silence, “A plot to rob Warrington's safe,” I exclaimed, “Yos," he repeated, “and If we are to do anything about it it must be done immediately before we arouse suspicion and scare them off, I just eard the boss ™% out of the gars They expect me around there, at War riagton's apartment. Now it I go, | | ( It's On 4 ootentatious!y @e emey again (het will jure them en He resched tie decision qui Gravoing bie hat he led the way of the Old Tavern and up the street Until We come lo @ drug slore with & War. I beard bin talking @ret ertting from Dim the comb! on of the wate. Them be called up ory and one of the » meet him at Gran ay station with @ pack eee, the ebeif jocation of which be , dercribed minutely Weil beat them to It” he Fe marked, as we started uptows to meet Craig's man coming downtows, CHAPTER IX, Tie In. endiay. HE Warrington estate owne another large apartment on the neat #treet,” remarked Kennedy, balf an bour later, after we had met the student from the laboratory, “I have ar- ranged that we can get in there and wait In one of the empty suites.” Kennedy bad secured two rather gool-sited boxes from the etudent, and was carrying them very careful- ly, aw If they contained some delicate mechanism, Warrington ocoupied a quite in a large apartment on Seventy-second Street, and, as we entered, Kennedy stopped and whispered @ few words to the hallboy, In the apartment he unwrapped one of the packages, and laid tt open on the table, while he busted Bimself opening the safe with the combina- tion that Warrington had given him, “Here's the letter, Just as Warring- ton left it,” he reported, with some satisfaction, banging the door ebut and making the lttle safe look as though no one had touched it, Meanwhile I had been looking curi- ously at the box. It did not seem to be like anything we had ever used before, One end was open, and the ld lifted up on a pair of hinges, I lifted it and looked in, About halt- way down the box from the open end was a partition which looked almost as if some one had taken the end of the box and just shoved it in until it reached the middle. The open half was empty, but in the other half 1 eaw a sort of plate of some substance covering the outside of the shoved-in end. There was also a dry cell and weveral arrangements for adjustments which I did not understand. Back of the whole thing was a piece of mech- anism, a clockwork interrupter, as I learned later, Wires led out from the closed end of the box, Craig had shoved the letter into his pocket and had placed the box in @ corner, where it was hidden by a pile of books, with the open end facing the room in the direction of the anti- quated safe, The wires from the box were quickly disposed of and dropped out of the window to the yard below, where we could pick them up later, as wo had done with the detectaphone, “You see,” he explained, “there is no way of knowing just how the apart- ment will be entered, They appar- ently have some way, which they wouldn't discuss over the telephone, But it 1s certain that as long as they know that any one Is here they will put off the attempt. My echeme is for us now to | the apartment ostentatiously, I think that ts calcu- lated to insure the burglary, for they must have some one watching by this time. Then we can get back to the empty apartment on the next street, and we shall be prepared for them.” Kennedy stopped to speak to the hallboy again as we left, carrying the other box. After a turn down the street, a ride in a surface car for & few blocks and back again, he was satisfied that no one was following, and we made our way into the va- cant apartment on Seventy-third Street without being observed. Picking up the wires from War- rington’s, and running them across the back fences and up to the vacant apartment was accomplished ly. In the darkness of the vacant room he uncovered and adjusted the other box, connected one set of wires to those we had led tn and another set to an apparatus which looked pre- cisely like the receiver of a wireless telegraph, fitting over the head with an earpiece, He placed the ear-plece in positon and began regulating the panism, I didn't use the detectaphone,” he explained, “because we haven't any aasurance that they'll talk, or, if they do, that it will be worth while to lis- ten, But they certainly can't work without light of some kind, This in- strument literally makes light audt- ble, It was invented to assist the blind, but I think I'll be able to show that it can be used to assist justice— which is blind sometimes, they say, It is the optophone.” Ile paused to adjust the thing more accurately, “It was invented," he resumed, “by Prof, Fournier d'Albe, a lecturer on physics at the University of Birming- ham, England, and has been shown before many learned societies over there, It actually enables the blind to locate many things purely by the light reflected by them, Its action ts THis Guesr Room HAS A THAT WOULD MAKE MY HUSBAND GREEN WITH ENVY based on the peculiar property of ee- Jenium, which you already know, of changing its electrical conductivity under the influence of light. Varia- tions of light thus become variations of sound. That pushed-in end of the box which we hid over in Warring- ton's had, as you noticed, a selenium plate on the inside partition, facing the open end of the box, “Now,” he went on, “this property of selenium is used for producing an electric current which 1s interrupted by a special clockwork interrupter, and @o is made audible in this wit leas telephone receiver which I have here connected with the second box. The eye is replaced by the ear as a detector of light.” He continued to adjust the thing as he talked. “The clockwork has been wound up by means of a small handle, and I moved @ rod along a slit until I heard @ purring eound. Then I moved it un- til the purring sound became as faint ae possible. The (nstrument ie now in ite most sensitive state.” “What does it sound like?” I asked. He looked out of the window in the @irection of Warrington's, which we could not see, however, since it was @round another building, “See,” he went on; “the moon is rising, and in a few minutes it will shine right tnto that room, I could tell the moment it did. Try the thing yourself.” I did so, I could hear just the faint- est sound, Buddenly there came a weird noise, l looked at Kennedy tn surprise. “What 1s that?" I asked, describing “Are they there?” “No,” he laughed, ‘That was the moon shining in, I wanted you to hear it.” He took the receiver back from me, and adjusted it to his own ear, “Yes,” he sald, “that was the moon, It's a pecullar sound, I must eilence the machine to that.” We had waited patiently for a long time and still there was no evidence that any one had entered the room, “I'm afraid they decided mot to come, after all," I said. “No,” he replied; ‘I took particular pains to make it seem that the coast was clear, I spoke to the hallboy twice, and we lingered about long enough when we went. It isn't much after midnight, I wonder how it was that they expected to get in. There goes the moon, I can hear it getting fainter all the time.” Suddenly Craig's face was all ani- mation, “What is it?" I asked breathlessly, “Some one has entered the room, Thero is a lght which sounds just ke an electric flashlight which ts being moved about, They haven't switched on the electric light. If I were sufficiently expert I think I could tell by the varying sounds just it, at what that fellow was flashing the ght. There, something walked di- rectly between it and the box. 80 there must be two of them. Yes, that was the shadow of a human being all right. They are over in the oorner by the safe. The fellow with the flashlight ts bending down, I can tell because the other fellow walked be- tween the light and the box, and I heard the shadow of both of his legs." Craig was apparently waiting only untll the intruders were busily en- gaged in their search before giving the alarm and hurrying over there after them, “Walter,” he cried, “call up the @partment house itself and get the hallboy, Tell him he must not run that elevator up until we get there, Also no one must leave or enter. ‘Tell bim to lock the door and conceal Bimself in the door to the cellar. I will ring the night bell five times to Jet him know when to let us in.” I was telephoning excitedly Craig's instructions, and he was taking @ lest turn at the optophone before we made our dash on Warrington’s, when a suppressed exclamation escaped him. I turned toward him quickly from the telephone and hung up the receiver. “What's the matter?” I asked. “Walter,” he answered, stripping the receiver from his head and clapping it over my ears, “quick—tell me what you hear, I can't be mistaken,” I listened feverishly. From the re- ceiver of the optophone came the most peculiar noise I had ever heard a me- chanical instrument make. It was Uke @ hoarse, rumbling ery, now soft and almost plaintive, again louder and like @ shrick of a damned soul n the fires of the nether world, ‘Then it died down, only to spring up again worse than before, 1 described it as best I could, In- deed, the thing almost frightened me by its weird novelty. “Yes, yes," agreed Cratg, as the sen- gations I experienced seemed to coln- celde with his own, “Exactly what [ heard myself. I thought I could not be mistaken, Quick, Walter, get cen- tral on that wire.” A moment later he had setzed the telephone from me. I had expected Aim to summon the police to assist us in capturing two crooks who had de- vised some odd and scientific method of blowing an old safe. “Hello, hello!” he shouted. “The fire department? This is forty-eight- fourteen Seventy-second—on the cor- ner; yes, yes, northeast, I want to turn {tn an alarm, Yes, Quick. There 19 a flre—a bad ono—incendiary—top floor, No, no, I'm not there, I can eco it, Hurry!” He had dropped the telaphone and was now dashing madly out and down the street, The hallboy had done as I had or- dered him, There was the elevator waiting as Craig gave the five short rings at the nicht bell and the out- side door was unlocked. No one had discovered the fire which we knew was rag.ng up on the top floor, We were whirled up there swiftly, just as we heard echoing through the hall from some one who had an apartment on the same floor the frantic cry of “Fire!” Tenants all the way up were now beginning to open doors and run You SurRevy HAVE PLENTY OF CLOSE VERY Root in Your ) / FORTUNATE NEW FLAT breathicesly about in various states of undress. The elevator bell was Jangling insistently. “Run your car up and down until all are out who want to go," ordered Craig. “Only tell them all th danger to any one except to thi ment that is on fire, You can leave us here.” We had reached the top floor and stepped out. 1 realized fully now what had happened. Elther the rob- bers had found out too quickly that they had been duped or else that the letter had been hidden in a place which they had not time to hunt out in the apartment. It had probably been the latter !dea which they had had. Instead of hunting farther they had taken a quicker d more un- scrupulous method, had set the room on fire, and that had promptly and faithfully been reported to us over the optophone, “At least wo were able to turn in an alarm only @ few seconds after they started the fire,” panted Craig, 6 strained to burst in the door, Together we managed to push it ‘n and rushed into the stifle of War- rington’s apartment. The whole thing was in flames, and It was impossible for us to remain there longer than to take in the situation, We retreated before the erce blaz and one of the tenants came running with two fire extinguishers that were on the floor. As well try to drown a Dlast furnace, They made no im- pression, , Firemen were now arriving, A hose had been run up, and @ solid stream of water was now hissing in on the fire, Smoke and steam wore every- where as the men hacked and cut their way at the very heart of the hunery red monster, “Wo are only in the marked Kennedy, retre: must ha entered and the roof.” He had dashed up ahead of the fire- men, I followed, Sure enouRy » the door out on the roof had been broken into, A rope tied around a chimney showed how they had pulled them- selves up and later let themselves down to the roof of the next apart- ment some fifteen feet lower, We could sea an open door leading to the roof there, which must have been broken open, That had evidently been the secret method of which the chief had spoken to the boss, Sudden and well planned though the incendiary assault had been, tt was not many minutes before it was completely under control, Men tn rubber coats and boots were on tramping through the water-@oaked rooms of Warrington, Windows were cracked open and the air was clear- ing. We followed in cautiously after one of the firemen, In the corner we could see the mafe, still hot and steaming. It had @tood the strain, But {t was open, “Somebody used Aa can opener,” comented Craig, looking at it and then ruefully at the charred wreck of his optophone, that was tumbled tn the ashes of the pile of books under which {t had heen hidden, "Yea, that was the scheme they probably evolved after their midnight conference, a robbery masked by a fire to cover the trail and perhaps destroy It alto- T agreed, “if wo had only at we might have saved here was In that safe for Wut I guess he didn't what litt Warrington. keen much there," “No.” answered Craig, “only some pergpnal letters and @ few things he PLEASE Move LADIES MY CLOTHES ARE UNDER THIS COUCH THERE |S NO ROOM IN THE CLOSETS FOR THEM Mked to have around. All the reall; valuable stuff be has was in & fe deposit vault downtown.” “I wonder who this fellow is that sey call the chief,” I ventured, “He's the cleverest 1 have met yet,” admitted Kennedy, “Il pace rapid, but I think we are getting up with it, There’ no use aticking around here any longer. for us is down getting an oarful other end of the detectaphone. We rode downtown on the subway, and I was surprised when Kennedy, tead of going all the way down to the crosstown line that would take us to the Old Tavern, got off at Forty- second Street. “Do you think I'm go! around the city with that letter in m: pocket?” he “Not much, sinc they seem to set euch @ value on get- ting it back." He had stopped at @ hotel where he know the night clerk. He made the letter into @ little package and depos- ited tt in the safe, “Why do you leave it heret” I nrg think I fo near the eo, left and deposit it in @ really safe place. Wait a moment until I call up O'Con- nor, I think he ought to know what has happened.” CHAPTER X. The Newspaper Fake. E had been able to secure a key to the hotel entrance to the Old Tavern #o that we felt free to come and go at any hour of the day and night. We let ourselves in and mounted the staira cautiously to our room, “At least they haven't discovered anything yet,” Kennedy congratu- lated himself, picking up the detec- tive receiver of the mechanical eaves- dropper. He listened a moment. ‘There ts some one In there, all right," he sald. “I can hear sounds as if he were mov- ing around. I: must be the garage keeper himself, the one they call the boss, I don't think our clever thief would have tho temerity tu show up here yet.” We waited some time, but not the sound of @ voice came from the in- strument. “It would be just I!ke them to dis- cover one of these instruments,” rum inated Kennedy at length. i good opportunity, I belleve I'll just let myself quietly down there tn the yard, and separate those two wires, There's no use in risking all the exes in one basket." While I listened, Crate cautiously got out the rope ladder and descend- ed. I could hear the noses of the man walking about tn the garage, and was ready at the window to give the first alarm of danger, but nothing happened, and Kennedy succeeded in accomplishing his purpose and re- turning safely, Then listening in relays, \ we resumed (around tn corn NEXT WEEK'S MIRABEL' By LOUIS 1 IN hy @ beowife the baffling hero WEGINS IN NEXT ape an be t ard o te the ge i you go afters ay’ which I ore ma te antly tof the man (hey called et 4 yh, I had @ bitte o . 1t 4 under ° Hay, they got t fire out pretty qutekly They wey that Ken 1p at the fire doupie quick, He have been onte it De you know, I've been thinking at t that stnee then, ver hear of « Hittle thing they eall the dict No? Well, tte @ iittle ara that can be concealed almost any~ where, I've been wondering whether there might not be one hidden about the garage. He might have put one in that night, you know. I'm sure he knowe more about us than he has an fight to know, Hunt around, will your” “Hold the wire.” We could hear the boas poking back of the piles of accessories, back of the gasoline tank, lifting things up and looking under them, apparently flashing the light everywhere. A hasty exclamation was recorded over Getectaphone, “What the deuce ts thie?” growled a voloe. Then over the telephone we could hear the bons talking. “There's @ black, round thing back of @ pile of tires, with wires connected to tt, One side of it in full of little round holes, that one of those things?’ “No, it fan't @ dictograph, but it may be worse, Smash it!” came back the joe. “And, walt; look and ece where the wires from it rua, I thought you'd find something.” Kenedy had quickly cut the wires from bis receiving instrument, end, sticking bie head cautiously out of the window, be ewung the cut ends as far as could in the direction of @ pis, tron-shuttered warehouse down the atreet, Then he closed the window, and pulled down another switch on the other detectaphone connected with the fake telephone receiver. He smiled. The thing worked. We etill bad one connection left with the garage. There was the nolee of something being battered to bits. It was the black disk back of the pile of tires, We could hear the boss mut- tering to himself. “Say,” he reported back over the telephone, “I've smashed the thing, all right, and out the wires. They ran out of the back window to that mer- cantile warehause down the etreet. I'll look after that in the morning. It's ao dark over there now I can't see a thing.” “Good!” exclaimed the other voice. “Now we can talk. That fellow tsn't such @ wise guy, after all. I tell you, boss, I'm going to throw a good scare into them this time —one that will ¢ stick." “You know we can't always be fol- lowing that fellow Kennedy. He's too clever at dodging shadows. Warring- ton is out of tt for the present. I saw to that. Now, the thing ts to fiz up something to call them off altogether, How about Violet Winslow?” " " t do you mean—e robbery, up there?” ‘No, no, no! What good will a rob- bery do? I mean to get her, to kid- nap her. I guess Warrington would call the whole thing off to release her—eh?”" “Say, obief, that’s going tt pretty strong. I'd rather break in up there and leave a warning of some kind, I'm afraid"—— “Atraid—nothing. I tell you we've got to do it. Wo've either got to get Kennedy or do something that'll cail him off for good, Why, the whele game ts up if he keeps on, let alone our own risk of getting caught.” “When would you do it?” asked the boss, weakening “Not for a couple of days. I'm go- ing up to our place where I left tho car, I'll study the situation up there, I can run over and look over the ground, seo how she spends her time, I'll let you know. In tho mean time I want you to watch that place on Forty-seventh Street. Tell mo tf they make & move against It, Don't waste any time either, I can't be out of touch with things the way I was the last time I went away. You see, they almost, they did put one across on you with that dictograph or whatever It was, Now, you can't let that hap- pen again, Just keep me posted, Seo?” They had fintshed talking and that apparently was all that we were to get that night, It had been enough If they would murder and burn, what would they stop at to strike at us through the innocent figure of Vio- let Winslow? It sent a shudder over me to think of the delicate slip of a girl In the power of such men, “At least," rapped out Kennedy, “they can't do anything for a couple of days, Before that time we shal) have rounded them up, The time has come for something desperate, 1 d cultured girl should be ti sland ia only the aarti nysterion that the shipwree {the story, who fell in lowe with her, set himaelf to solve MONDAY 8 EVENING telephone there wae a Mr distance tryt eallin, that the letter wae safe, IMPLETE NOVEL S ISLAND rRACY v/ WORLD upie * ear tment mn the thet We had Warringt to got us. pul on the wire, Ware have he rington had evidently been informed of the fire and inquired angiously for the detatia, especially about the let~ ter, Craig quickly apologised for pet him sooner, and sesured hima “How are yout’ he asked, “Convalescing rapidly,” Warrtag- ton laughed. “Thanks to e new tente which the doctor haa presoribed for me” “14 “1 oan guess what that ia” “Ive been allowed to take ehert auto tripe with Violet,” said Warrtag~ ton eagerly. “Bay,” buret out Craig, “I hate te butt in, but if you'll take my advice you'll just out that out for « few days. 14 want to alarm you, but after to-day I want Mise Winslow sever to be out of the sight of friende—trienda, 1 eaid; not one but several, 1 can't explain it all over the telephone, But Tl eee you before long, perhaps te- Gay. Don't forget. It's Mfe or death—or perhape alarm her, but just fix it up ae quietly a you can. No, I can’t explain aor) But to-day ts the last outing unt valae the ban.” rington reported to Kennedy. “It was from McBirney. He one of hie unofficial scouts hae told him of see- Craig. ‘ou will have to one of your cars lke that racer, if it is put at our dis; down here. 1’ im condition, Yes? We may have ome sleuthing to de in it.” “Good heavens!" I exclaimed when the conversation was over and Craig told me of Me! soda $ 35 i 4 5, 2 3 zg a i i Me informant it ment,” end _.. the mythical “gambler who A oper- ating quietly uptown” told some amaring facts, It began: Bince the rald by the police on the “is ous gambling house tn Forty«ighth a Nag Mig aag yntaided “to. the district atta fe quietly gathering : place Atuatat An, ‘ths samme who "frequented placed many inerim! ut the second place in the witles. who are contempl: posure that will stir even New York, eccup tomed ae it & to such startling revelations, Te tnvoltes. one of the ‘cleverest “and mned 7 opts eriminala who ever operated im the 4 under observation te ‘ tragedy ton noe in the meee * olerer and ame There was more of the stuff, which I do not quote, describing the situa. tion in general terms which could have only one meaning to a person acquainted with the particular case with which we were dealing, It threw a “scare” im type as hard ag could be done “That will make some one sit up and take notice,” remarked Craig late in the afternoon, when he jotmed at the office, and the printed copies were delivered to us, “Now, to sow the seed, and watch it grow. om (To Be Continued) \ cco Stal arabia