Exploits Of Elaine — The Blood Crystals
THE BLOOD CRYSTALS
"On your right is the residence of Miss Elaine Dodge, the heiress, who is pursuing the famous master criminal known as the Clutching Hand."
The barker had been grandiloquently pointing out the residences of noted New Yorkers as the big sightseeing car lumbered along through the streets.
The car was filled with people and he plied his megaphone as though he were on intimate terms with all the city's notables.
No one paid any attention to the unobtrusive Chinaman who sat inconspicuously in the middle of the car.
He was Mr. Long Sin, but no one saw anything particularly mysterious about an oriental visitor more or less viewing New York City.
Long was of the mandarin type, with drooping mustache, well dressed in American clothes, and conforming to the new customs of an occidentalized China.
Anyone, however, who had been watching Long Sin would have seen that he showed much interest whenever any of the wealthy residents of the city were mentioned.
The name of Elaine Dodge seemed particularly to strike him.
He listened with subtle interest to what the barker said and looked keenly at the Dodge house.
The sight-seeing car had passed the house, when he rose slowly and motioned that he wanted to be let off.
The car stopped, he alighted and slowly rambled away, evidently marvelling greatly at the strange customs of these uncouth westerners.
Elaine was going out, when she met Perry Bennett almost on the steps of the house.
"I've brought you the watch," remarked Bennett; "thought I'd like to give it to you myself."
He displayed the watch which he himself had bought a couple of days before for her birthday.
He had called for it himself at the jeweller's where it had now been regulated.
"Oh, thank you," exclaimed Elaine.
"Won't you come in?"
They had scarcely greeted each other, when Long Sin strolled along.
Neither of them, however, had time to notice the quiet Chinaman who passed the house, looking at Elaine sharply out of the corner of his eye.
They entered and Long disappeared down the street.
"Isn't it a beauty?"
cried Elaine, holding it out from her, as they entered the library and examining it with great appreciation.
"And, oh, do you know, the strangest thing happened yesterday?
Sometimes Mr. Kennedy acts too queerly for anything."
She related how Craig had burst in on her and Aunt Josephine and had almost torn the other watch off her wrist.
"Another watch?"
repeated Bennett, amazed.
"It must have been a mistake.
Kennedy is crazy."
"I don't understand it, myself," murmured Elaine.
Long Sin had continued his placid way, revolving some dark and devious plan beneath his impassive Oriental countenance.
He was no ordinary personage.
In fact he was astute enough to have no record.
He left that to his tools.
This remarkable criminal had established himself in a hired apartment downtown.
It was furnished in rather elegant American style, but he had added to it some most valuable Oriental curios which gave it a fascinating appearance.
Long Sin, now in rich Oriental costume, was reclining on a divan smoking a strange looking pipe and playing with two pet white rats.
Each white rat had a gold band around his leg, to which was connected a gold chain about a foot in length, and the chains ended in rings which were slipped over Long's little fingers.
Ordinarily, he carried the pets up the capacious sleeve of each arm.
A servant, also in native costume, entered and bowed deferentially.
"A Miss Mary Carson," she lisped in soft English.
"Let the lady enter," waved Long Sin, with a smile of subtle satisfaction.
The girl bowed again and silently left the room, returning with a handsome, very well dressed white woman.
It would be difficult to analyze just what the fascination was that Long Sin exercised over Mary Carson.
But as the servant left the room, Mary bowed almost as deferentially as the little Chinese girl.
Long merely nodded in reply.
After a moment, he slowly rose and took from a drawer a newspaper clipping.
Without a word, he handed it to Mary.
She looked at it with interest, as one woman always does at the picture of another pretty woman.
It was a newspaper cut of Elaine, under which was: ELAINE DODGE, THE HEIRESS, WHOSE BATTLE WITH THE CLUTCHING HAND IS CREATING WORLD WIDE INTEREST.
"Now," he began, at last, breaking the silence, "I'll show you just what I want you to do."
He went over to the wall and took down a curious long Chinese knife from a scabbard which hung there conspicuously.
"See that?"
he added, holding it up.
Before she could say a word, he had plunged the knife, apparently, into his own breast.
"Oh!"
cried Mary, startled.
She expected to see him fall.
But nothing happened.
Long Sin laughed.
It was an Oriental trick knife in which the blade telescoped into the handle.
"Look at it," he added, handing it to her.
Long Sin took a bladder of water from a table nearby and concealed it under his coat.
"Now, you stab me," he directed.
Mary hesitated.
But he repeated the command and she plunged the knife gingerly at him.
It telescoped.
He made her try it over and she stabbed more resolutely.
The water from the bladder poured out.
"Good!"
cried Long Sin, much pleased.
"Now," he added, seating himself beside her, "I want you to lure Elaine here."
Mary looked at him inquiringly as he returned the knife to its scabbard on the wall.
"Remember where it is," he continued.
"Now, if you will come into the other room I will show you how to get her."
I had been amusing myself by rigging up a contrivance by which I could make it possible to see through or rather over, a door.
The idea had been suggested to me by the cystoscope which physicians use in order to look down one's throat, and I had calculated that by using three mirrors placed at proper angles, I could easily reflect rays down to the level of my eye.
Kennedy, who had been busy in the other end of the laboratory, happened to look over in my direction.
"What's the big idea, Walter?"
he asked.
It was, I admit, a rather cumbersome and clumsy affair.
"Well, you see, Craig," I explained, "you put the top mirror through the transom of a door and--" Kennedy interrupted with a hearty burst of laughter.
"But suppose the door has no transom?"
he asked, pointing to our own door.
I scratched my head, thoughtfully.
I had assumed that the door would have a transom.
A moment later, Craig went to the cabinet and drew out a tube about as big around as a putty blower and as long.
"Now, here's what I call my detectascope," he remarked.
"None of your mirrors for me."
"I know," I said somewhat nettled, "but what can you see through that putty blower?
A key hole is just as good."
"Do you realize how little you can really see through a key hole?"
he replied confidently.
"Try it over there."
I did and to tell the truth I could see merely a little part of the hall.
Then Kennedy inserted the detectascope.
"Look through that," he directed.
I put my eye to the eye-piece and gazed through the bulging lens of the other end.
I could see almost the whole hall.
"That," he explained, "is what is known as a fish-eye lens--a lens that looks through an angle of some 180 degrees, almost twice that of the widest angle lens I know of."
I said nothing, but tossed my own crude invention into the corner, while Craig went back to work.
Elaine was playing with "Rusty" when Jennings brought in a card on which was engraved the name, "Miss Mary Carson," and underneath, in pencil, was written "Belgian Relief Committee."
"How interesting," commented Elaine, rising and accompanying Jennings back into the drawing room.
"I wonder what she wants.
Very pleased to meet you, Miss Carson," she greeted her visitor.
"You see, Miss Dodge," began Mary, "we're getting up this movement to help the Belgians and we have splendid backing.
Just let me show you some of the names on our committee."
She handed Elaine a list which read: BELGIAN RELIEF COMMITTEE
Mrs. Warburton Fish Mrs. Hamilton Beekman Mrs. C.
August Iselm Mrs. Belmont Rivington Mrs. Rupert Solvay.
"I've just been sent to see if I cannot persuade you to join the committee and attend a meeting at Mrs. Rivington's," she went on.
"Why, er," considered Elaine thoughtfully, "er--yes.
It must be all right with such people in it."
"Can you go with me now?"
"Just as well as later," agreed Elaine.
They went out together, and, as they were leaving the house a man who had been loitering outside looked at Elaine, then fixedly at her companion.
No sooner had they gone than he sped off to a car waiting around the corner.
In the dark depths was a sinister figure, the master criminal himself.
The watcher had been an emissary of the Clutching Hand.
"Chief," he whispered eagerly, "You know Adventuress Mary?
Well, she's got Elaine Dodge in tow!"
"The deuce!"
cried Clutching Hand.
"Then we must teach Mary Carson, or whoever she is working for, a lesson.
No one shall interfere with our affairs.
Follow them!"
Elaine and Mary had gone downtown, talking animatedly, and walked down the avenue toward Mrs. Rivington's apartment.
Meanwhile, Long Sin, still in his Chinese costume, was explaining to the servant just what he wished done, pointing out the dagger on the wall and replacing the bladder under his jacket.
A box of opium was on the table, and he was giving most explicit directions.
It was into such a web that Elaine was being unwittingly led by Mary.
Entering the hallway of the apartment, Mary rang the bell.
Long heard it.
"Answer it," he directed the servant who hastened to do so, while Long glided like a serpent into a back room.
The servant opened the door and Elaine and Mary entered.
He closed the door and almost before they knew locked it and was gone into the back room.
Elaine gazed about in trepidation.
But before she could say anything, Mary, with a great show of surprise, exclaimed, "Why, I must have made a mistake.
This isn't Mrs. Rivington's apartment.
How stupid of me."
They looked at each other a moment.
Then each laughed nervously, as together they started to go out of the door.
It was locked!
Quickly they ran to another door.
It was locked, also.
Then they went to the windows.
Behind the curtains they were barred and looked out on a blank brick wall in a little court.
"Oh," cried Mary wringing her hands, stricken in mock panic, "oh, I'm so frightened.
This may be the den of Chinese white slavers!"
She had picked up some Chinese articles on a table, including the box that Long had left there.
It had a peculiar odor.
"Opium!"
she whispered, showing it to Elaine.
The two looked at each other, Elaine genuinely worried now.
Just then, the Chinaman entered and stood a moment gazing at them.
They turned and Elaine recoiled from him.
Long bowed.
"Oh sir," cried Mary, "We've made a mistake.
Can't you tell us how to get out?"
Long's only answer was to spread out his hands in polite deprecation and shrug his suave shoulders.
"No speke Englis," he said, gliding out again from the room and closing the door.
Elaine and Mary looked about in despair.
"What shall we do?"
asked Elaine.
Mary said nothing, but with a hasty glance discovered on the wall the knife which Long had already told her about.
She took it from its scabbard.
As she did so the Chinaman returned with a tray on which were queer drinks and glasses.
At the sight of Mary with the knife he scowled blackly, laid the tray down, and took a few steps in her direction.
She brandished the knife threateningly, then, as if her nerve failed her, fainted letting the knife fall carefully on the floor so that it struck on the handle and not on the blade.
Long quickly caught her as she fainted and carried her out of the room, banging shut the door.
Elaine followed in a moment, loyally, to protect her supposed friend, but found that the door had a snap lock on the other side.
She looked about wildly and in a moment Long reappeared.
As he advanced slowly and insinuatingly, she drew back, pleading.
But her words fell on seemingly deaf ears.
She had picked up the knife which Mary had dropped and when at last Long maneuvred to get her cornered and was about to seize her, she nerved herself up and stabbed him resolutely.
Long staggered back--and fell.
As he did so, he pressed the bladder which he had already placed under his coat.
A dark red fluid, like blood, oozed out all over him and ran in a pool on the floor.
Elaine, too horror-stricken at what had happened even to scream, dropped the knife and bent over him.
He did not move.
She staggered back and ran through the now open door.
As she did so, Long seemed suddenly to come to life.
He raised himself and looked after her, then with a subtle smile sank back into his former assumed posture on the floor.
When Elaine reached the other room, she found Mary there with the Chinese servant who was giving her a glass of water.
At the sight of her, the servant paused, then withdrew into another room further back.
Mary, now apparently recovering from her faintness, smiled wanly at Elaine.
"It's all right," she murmured.
"He is a Chinese prince who thought we were callers."
At the reassuring nod of Mary toward the front room, Elaine was overcome.
"I--I killed him!"
she managed to gasp.
"What?"
cried Mary, starting up and trembling violently.
"You killed him?"
"Yes," sobbed Elaine, "he came at me--I had the knife--I struck at him--" The two girls ran into the other room.
There Mary looked at the motionless body on the floor and recoiled, horrified.
Elaine noticing some spots on her hands and seeing that they were stained by the blood of Long Sin, wiped the spots off on her hankerchief, dropping it on the floor.
"Ugh!"
exclaimed a guttural voice behind them.
It was the servant who had come in.
Even his ordinarily impassive Oriental face could not conceal the horror and fear at the sight of his master lying on the floor in a pool of gore.
Elaine was now more frightened than ever, if that were possible.
"You--kill him--with knife?"
insinuated the Chinese.
Elaine was dumb.
The servant did not wait for an answer, but hastily opened the hall door.
To Elaine it seemed that something must be done quickly.
A moment and all the house would be in uproar.
Instead, he placed his finger on his lips.
"Quick--no word," he said, leading the way to the hall door, "and--you must not leave that--it will be a clue," he added, picking up the bloody handkerchief and pressing it into Elaine's hand.
They quickly ran out into the hall.
"Go--quick!"
he urged again, "and hide the handkerchief in the bag.
Let no one see it!"
He shut the door.
As they hurried away, Elaine breathed a sigh of relief.
"Why did he let us go, though?"
she whispered, her head in a whirl.
"I don't know," panted Mary, "but anyhow, thank heaven, we are out of it.
Come," she added, taking Elaine's arm, "not a soul has seen us except the servant.
Let us get away as quietly as we can."
They had reached the street.
Afraid to run, they hurried as fast as they could until they turned the first corner.
Elaine looked back.
No one was pursuing.
"We must separate," added Mary.
"Let us go different ways.
I will see you later.
Perhaps they will think some enemy has murdered him."
They pressed each other's hands and parted.
Meanwhile in the front room, Long Sin was on his feet again brushing himself off and mopping up the blood.
"It worked very well, Sam," he said to the servant.
They were conversing eagerly and laughing and did not hear a noise in the back room.
A sinister figure had made its way by means of a fire-escape to a rear window that was not barred, and silently he had stolen in on them.
Cat-like, he advanced, but instead of striking at them, he quietly took a seat in a chair close behind them, a magazine revolver in his hand.
They turned at a slight noise and saw him.
Genuine fright was now on their faces as they looked at him, open mouthed.
"What's all this?"
he growled.
"I am known as the Clutching Hand.
I
allow no interferences with my affairs.
Tell me what you are doing here with Elaine Dodge."
Their beady almond eyes flashed fear.
Clutching Hand moved menacingly.
There was nothing for the astute Long Sin to do but to submit.
Cowed by the well-known power of the master criminal, he took Clutching Hand into his confidence.
With a low bow, Long Sin spread out his hands in surrender and submission.
"I will tell you, honorable sir," he said at length.
"Go on!"
growled the criminal.
Quickly Long rehearsed what had happened, from the moment the idea of blackmail had entered his head.
"How about Mary Carson?"
asked Clutching Hand.
"I saw her here."
Long gave a glance of almost superstitious dread at the man, as if he had an evil eye.
"She will be back--is here now," he added, opening the door at a knock and admitting her.
Adventuress Mary had hurried back to see that all was right.
This time Mary was genuinely scared at the forbidding figure of which she had heard.
"It is all right," pacified Long.
"Henceforth we work with the honorable Clutching Hand."
Clutching Hand continued to emphasize his demands on them, punctuating his sentences by flourishes of the gun as he gave them the signs and passwords which would enable them to work with his own emissaries.
It was a strange initiation.
At home at last, Elaine sank down into a deep library chair and stared straight ahead.
She saw visions of arrest and trial, of the terrible electric chair with herself in it, bound, and of the giving of the fatal signal for turning on the current.
Were such things as these going to happen to her, without Kennedy's help?
Why had they quarreled?
She buried her face in her hands and wept.
Then she could stand it no longer.
She had not taken off her street clothes.
She rose and almost fled from the house.
Kennedy and I were still in the laboratory when a knock sounded at the door.
I went to the door and opened it.
There stood Elaine Dodge.
It was a complete surprise to Craig.
There was silence between them for a moment and they merely looked at each other.
Elaine was pale and woebegone.
At last Kennedy took a quick step toward her and led her to a chair.
Still he felt a sort of constraint.
"What IS the matter?"
he asked at length.
She hesitated, then suddenly burst out, "Craig--I--I am--a murderess!"
I have never seen such a look on Craig's face.
I know he wanted to laugh and say, "YOU--a murderess?"
yet he would not have offended even her self accusation for the world.
He managed to do the right thing and say nothing.
Then she poured forth the story substantially as I have set it down, but without the explanation which at that time was not known to any of us.
"Oh," expostulated Craig, "there must be some mistake.
It's impossible--impossible."
"No," she asserted.
"Look--here's my handkerchief all spotted with blood."
She opened the bag and displayed the blood-spotted handkerchief.
He took it and examined it carefully.
"Elaine," he said earnestly, not at all displeased, I could see that something had come up that might blot out the past unfortunate misunderstanding, "there simply must be something wrong here.
Leave this handkerchief with me.
I'll do my best."
There was still a little restraint between them.
She was almost ready to beg his pardon, for all the coolness there had been between them, yet still hesitated.
"Thank you," she said simply as she left the laboratory.
Craig went to work abruptly without a word.
