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- gratefully.
- enough, Mr. Kennedy,” she said fer-
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The Exploits of Elaine
A Detective Novel and a Motion Picture Drama
di i a a Zh i a dh A 2 ale gl
PPIPIIPIPVITIIIITIIIITITIIIIV
The Well-Known Novelist and the
Creator of the **Craig Kennedy’’ Stories
=< | By ARTHUR B. REEVE
Presented in Collgboration With the Pathe Players and the Eclectic Film Company
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Copyright, 1914, by the Star Company. All Foreign Rights Reserved
SYNOPSIS.
The New York police are mystified by &
series of miurders of Srominent men. e
cipal clue to the murderer is the warn-
g letter Which is sent the victims signed
with a “clutching hand.” The latest vic-
tim of the ED assassin is Taylor
Dodge, the insurance president. His
daughter, Elaine, employs Craig Jennody,
the famous scientific detective, to try to
unravel the mystery. What Kennedy ac-
complishes is told by his friend, Jameson,
& newspaper man. nnedy frustrates a
daring attempt to on a jewelry store and
rescues Elaine from a boiler where she
had been imprisoned by the thugs
FOURTH EPISODE
The Frozen Safe. .
Kennedy swung open the door of
our taxicab as we pulled up, safe at
last, before the Dodge mansion, after
the rescue of Elaine from the brutal
machinations of the Clutching Hand.
Bennett was on the step of the cab
in a moment, and together, one on
each side of Elaine, they assisted her
out of the car and up the steps to the
house.
Elaine's Aunt Josephine was walt:
ing for us in the drawing-room, very,
much worried. The dear old lady was
quite scandalized as Elaine excitedly
told of the thrilling events that had
Just taken place.
“And to think they—actually—car-
ried you!” she exclaimed, horrified
adding, “And I not—"
“But Mr. Kennedy came along and.
saved me just in time,”
Elaine with a smile.
chaperoned!”
Aunt Josephine turned to Craig,
“How can I ever thank you
interrupted
“l was well
vently.
Kennedy was quite embarrassed.
With a smile, Elaine perceived his
discomfiture, not at all displeased by it.
“Come into the library!” she cried
gayly, taking his arm. “I’ve something
to show you.”
Where the old safe, which had been
burnt through, had stood, was now
a brand-new safe of the very latest
construction and design—one of
globular safes that look and are so
formidable.
“Here is the new silo" she pointed
out brightly. “It i8 not only proof
against explosives, but between the
plates is a lining that is proof’ Ty
tigrs and even that oxyacetylene
pipe by which you rescued me
oe the, old boil It
clock, too, prevent. its being
opened at "nfght, even if any one should
lgarn the combination.”
They ok before the safe a mo
ment, snd Kennedy. examined it close
I¥ il much interest.
“Wonderful!” he admired.
“I knew you'd approve of it,” cried
Hiatse; much pleased. “Now I have
sgmething else to show you.”
She paused at the desk, and from a
wer took ouf a pertfolio of large
Bhoioraps They were: very hand:
me photographs of herself.
“Much more wonderful than the
safe,” remarked Craig earnestly. Then,
hesitating and a trifle embarrassed,
he added, “May l—may I have one?”
“If you care for it,” she said, drop:
ping her eyes, then glancing up at him
quickly.
“Care for it?” he repeated. “It wil}
be one of the greatest treasures—"
She slipped the picture quickly into
an envelope. “Come,” she interrupted.
“Aunt Josephine will be wondering
Wheto we are: She—she’s a demon
chaperon.”
Bennett, Aunt Josephine and my-
self were talking earnestly as Elaine
and Craig returned.
That morning I had noticed Ken-
nedy fussing some time at the door
of our apartment before we went over
to the laboratory. As nearly as I
could make out he had placed some-
thing under ‘the rug at the door out
into the hallway. :
“Well,” said Benrett, glancing at
his watch and rising as he turned
to Elaine, “I'm afraid I must go now.”
He crossed over to where she stood
and shook hands. There was no doubt
that Bennett was very much smitten
by his fair client.
“Good-by, Mr. Bennett,” she mur-
mured, “and I thank you so much for
what you have done for me today.”
But there was something lifeless
about the words. She turned quickly
to Craig, who had remained standing.
“Must you go too, Mr. Kennedy?”
she asked, noticing his position.
“I'm afraid Mr. Jameson and I must
get back on the job before this Clutch-
ing Hand gets busy again,” he replied
relyctantly.
“Oh; ¥ hope you~~we get them soon”
she exelaimed, and there was nothing
lifeless about the way she gave Craig
her hand, as Bennett, he and I left a
moment later.
When we approached our door, now,
Craig pausec. By pressing a little
concealed button he caused a panel
in the wall outside to loosen, disclos-
ing a small, boxlike plate in the wall
underneate.
It was about a foot long and perhaps
four inches wide. Through it ran a
plece of paper which unrolled from one
coll end wound up on another, actu
_—
a time |
Craig?
ated Dy clockwork Across the bl
white paper ran an ink line ny
a stylographic pen, used as I had
seen in mechanical pencils used in
offices, hotels, banks and such places.
Kennedy examined the thing with
interest.
“What is it? 1 asked.
“A new kinograph,” he replied,
still gazing carefully at the rolled-
up part of the paper: “I have in.
stelled it because it registers every
footstep on the floor of our apartment.
We can't be too careful with this
Clutching - Hand. 1 want to know
whether we have, had any, visitors or
not in our absence. This straight line
indicates tha we have not ait a
moment.”
Craig hastily unlocked the door and
entered Inside I could see him pac-
ing up and down our modest quarters.
“Do you see anything, Walter?”
he called
1 looked a: the kinograph. The
pen had started to trace its lime, no
‘unger even aud straight, but zigzag.
at different heights, across the paper
He came to the coor. “What do you
think of it?” ' e inquired.
“Some {dea,” 1 answered enthusi-
«stically.
We entered and 1 fell to work on a
special Sunday story that 1 had been
forced to neglect. | was not so busy,
however, that I did not notice out of
9009290900000
[35
the corner of my eye that Kennedy
had ‘taken from its cover Klaine
Dodge’s picture and was gazing at it
ravenously.
1 had finished as much of the article
as I could do then and was smoking
and reading it over. - Kennedy was
still gazing at the picture Miss Dodge
had given him, then moving from place
to place about the room, evidently
wondering where it would look best. 1
doubt whether he had done another
blessed thing since we returned.
He tried it on the mantel. That
wouldn't do. At last he held it up be-
side a picture of Galton, I think, of
finger print and eugenics fame, who
hung on the wall. directly opposite the
fireplace. Hastily he compared the
two. Elaine's picture was precisely
the same size.
Next he tore out the picture of the
scientist and threw it carelessly into
against | the fireplace. Then he placed Elaine's
picture in its place and h
again, standing off to admire
EK watcl him gleefully, Was this
FROse I moved. my elbow
suddenly and is a book with a
bang on the floor. Kennedy actually
jum I picked up the book with a
Buttofd apology. No, this was not
e same old Craig. 3
Rerhaps half an kour later I wag stil)
reading. Kennedy was now pacing up
it Wp
and down the room, apparently unable |
to concentrate his mind om any but
one subject.
He stopped a moment before the
photograph, looked at it fixedly. Then
he started his methodical walk again,
hesitated, and went over to the tele
phone, calling a number which 1 rec-
ognized.
“She must have been pretty well
done up by he: experience,” he said
apologetically, catching my eye. “1
was wondering if—hello!—oh, Miss
Dodge—I—er—I—er—just called up to |-
see if you were all right.”
Craig was very much embarrassed,
but also very much in earnest.
A musical laugh rippled over the
telephone. “Yes, I'm all right, thank
you, Mr. Kennedy—and I put the pack-
age you sent me into the safs, but—"
“Package?” frowned Craig. “Why, 1
sent you no package, Miss Dodge. In
the safe?”
“Why, yes, and the safe is all cov-
ered with meisture—and so cold.”
“Moisture—cold ?” he repeated
hastily.
“Yes. I have been wondering if it is
all right. In fact, I was going to call
you up, only I was afraid you'd think
1 was foolish.”
“I shall be right over,” he answered
hastily, clapping the receiver back on
its hook. “Walter,” he added, seizing
his hat and coat, “come on—hurry!”
A few minutes later we drove up in
a taxi before the Dodge house and
rang the bell.
Jennings admitted us sleepily.
3 ® * ® s se ®
It could not have been long after we
left Miss Dodge, late in the afternoon,
that Susie Martin, who had been quite
worried over our long absence after
the attempt to rob her father, dropped
in on Elaine. Wide-eyed, she had lis-
tened to Elaine's story of what had
happened.
“And you think this Cluteching Hand
has never recovered the incriminating
papers that caused him to murder
your father?” asked Susie.
Elaine shook her head. “No. Let me
show you the new safe I've bought.
Mr. Kennedy thinks it wonderful”
“I should think you'd be proud of it,”
admired Susie. “I must tell father to
get one, too.”
At that very moment, if they had
known it, the Clutching Hand, with
his sinister, masked face, was peeri.z
at the two girls from the other side
of the portieres.
(ETAT
i
Susie rose to go and Elaine followed
her to the door. No sooner had she
gone than the Clutching Hand came
out from behind the curtains. He gazed
about a moment, then, moving over to
the safe about which the two girls had
been talking, stealthily examined it
He must have heard someone com-
ing, for with a gesture of hate at the
safe itself, as though he personified it,
he sl skipped back of the curtains again.
had returned, and as she sat
a at the desk to go over some pa-
pers which Bennett had left relative
to seftling: up the estate the masked
intruder stealthily and silently with-
drew.
“A package fcr you, Miss Dodge.”
announced Michael later in the eve
ning, as Elaine, in her dainty evening
gown, wag still engaged in going over
the papers. He ded it in his hands
rather gingerly.
“Mr. Kennedy semt it, ma'am. He
says it contains clues, and will you
please put it in the new safe for him.”
aine took the package ¢-gerly an.
examined it. Then she pulled open
- the little round door of the globular
safe.
“It must be getting cold out, Mi-
chael,” she remarked. “This package
is as cold as ice.”
“It is, ma'am,” answered Michael.
She closed the safe, and, with a
glance at her watch, set the time lock
and went upstairs to her room.
No sooner had Elaine disappeared
than Michael appeared again, catlike,
through the curtains from the drawing-
room, and, after a glance about the
dimly lighted library, discovering that
the coast was clear, motioned to a fig-
ure hiding behind the portieres.
A moment and Clutching Hand him-
self came cut.
He moved over to the safe and
looked it over. Then he put out his
hand and touched it.
“Listen!” cautioned Michael.
Someone was coming, and they
hastily slunk behind the protecting
portieres. It was Marie, Elaine’s maid.
She turned up the lights and went
over to the desk for a book for which
Elaine had evidently sent her. She
paused and appeared to be listening,
Then she went to the door.
“Jennings!” she beckoned.
“What is it, Marie?” he replied.
She said nothing, but as he came up
the hall led him to the center of the
room.
“Listen! I heard sighs and groans!"
Jennings looked at her a moment,
puzzled, then laughed. “You girls!”
he exclaimed. “I suppose you'll always
think the library haunted now.”
“But, Jennings, listen,” she per-
sisted.
Jennings did listen. Sure enough,
there were sounds, weird, uncanny. He
gazed about the room. It was eerie.
Then he took a few steps toward the
safe. Marie put out her hand to it and |
. started back.
“Why, that safe is all covered with
cold sweat!” ghe cried with bated
breath.
Sure enough, the face of the safe
was beaded with dampness. Jennings
put his hand on it and quickly drew it
hyping leaving a mark on the damp
what do you think of that?” he
€85ped.
“I'm going to tell Miss Dodge,” cried
Marle, genuinely frightened.
A moment later she burst fato
Hale's. room.
Elad 38 She cis h hook.
ne, er.
look as if you had seen a ghost.”
“Ah, but mademoiselle—it ees just
like that. The safe—if mademoiselle
Marie?” asked
“A Package for You,
tdiss Dodge.”
will come down stairs, I will show it
you.”
Puzzled, but interested, Elaine fol
lowed her. In the library Jennings
pointed mutely at the new safe. Elaine
approached it. As they stood about,
new beads of perspiration, as it were,
formed on it. Elaine touched it and
also quickly withdrew her hand.
“I can’t imagine what's the matter,"
she said. “But—well—Jennings, you
may go—and Marie, also.”
When the servants had gone she stil)
regarded the safe with the same won
dering look, then turning out the
light, she followed.
She had scarcely disappeared when,
from the portiered doorway near by,
the Clutching Hand appeared, and,
after gazing out at them, took & quick
lock at the safe.
“Good!” he muttered.
Noiselessly Michael of the
siniste:
wr
EACH THURSDAY EVENING.
“You,
face moved in .nd took a position in
the center of the room, as if on guard,
while Clutching. Hand sat before the
safe watching it intently.
“Someone at the door—Jenpings is
answering the bell,” Michael whis-
pered hoarsely.
“Confound it!” muttered Clutching
Hand, as both moved again behind the
beavy velour surtaina.
® ® &® * ®
Tm so oiod to see you, Mr. Ken-
nedy,” greeted Elaine unaffectedly as
Jennings admitted us.
She had heard the bell and was com-
Ing Jownstairs as we entered. We
three moved toward the library and
someone switched on the lighta
Craig strode over to the safe. The
cold sweat on it had now turned to
icicles. Craig's face clouded with
thought as he examined it more close:
ly. There was actually a groaning
sound from within.
“It can’t be opened,” he said to him-
self. “The time lock is set for tomor-
row morning.”
Outside, if we had not been so ab-
sorbed in the present mystery, we
might have seen Michael and the
Clutching Hand listening to us
Clutching Hand iooked hastily at his
watch.
“The deuce!” he muttered unde: his
breath, stifling his suppressed fury.
We stood looking at the safe. Ken-
nedy was deeply interested, Elaine
standing close beside him. Suddenly
he seemed to make up his mind.
“Quick—Elaine!” he cried, taking
her arm. “Stand back!”
We all retreated. The safe door,
powerful as it was, had actually begun
to warp and bend. The plates were
bulging. A moment later, with a loud
report and concussion, the door blew
off.
A: blast of cold. air and. flakes like
snow flew out. Papers were scattered
on every side.
We #860d gazing, aghast, « seconc,
ther ran forward. Kennedy quickly
sxamiped the safe. He bent down and
wreck took up a package,
now covered with white.
As quickly he dropped it.
ha 18 1 the package that was sent,”
ne. .
cried
Taking it in a table cover, he laid,
it on Tone table and opened; it. Inside
was a peculiar shape flask, open at the
top, but like a vacuum bottle.
“A Dewar flask!" ejaculated Craig.
“What 1s it?" asked Elaine, appeal-
ing to him.
“Liquid air!” he answered. “As it
evaporated, the terrific pressure of
expanding alr in the safe increased
until # blew out the door. That is
what caused the cold sweating and the
groans.”
We watched him, startled.
On the other side of the portieres
Michael and Clutching Hand waited.
. Then, in the general confusion, Clutch-
ine, Hand slowly * Bespin, oe
“Get Michael, ** ordered Kenne
A moment Tater he ‘returned. i
found him, going upstairs,” reported
Jennings, loadin. Michael in.
“Where di % vou ph package?”
shot out ig you :
“It, was left at the door, sir, by. a
boy, sir.”
Question after question could not
shake that simple, stolid; sentence.
Kennedy frowned.’ .
“You may £0," he said finally, as 1
reserving something for Michael later.
A sudden exclamation followed. from
Elaine as Michael passed down the
Hall again, She had moved over to
gl | the desk, during the questioning, and
was leaning against it.
Inadvertently she had touched an
envelope. It was addressed, “Craig
Kennedy.”
Craig tore it open, Elaine bending
anxiously over his shoulder, frightened.
We read:
“YOU HAVE INTERFERED FOR
THE LAST TIME. IT IS THE END.”
Beneath it stood the fearsome sign
of the Clutching Hand!
®- * ® * ¢ Le ®
The warning of the Clutching Hand
had no other effect on Kennedy than
the redoubling of his precautions for
safety. Nothing further happened that
night, however, and the next morning
found us early at the laboratory.
It was the late forenoon, when, aft.
er a hurried trip down to the office, 1
rejoined Kennedy at his scientific
workshop.
We walked down the street when a
big limousine shot past. Kennedy
stopped in the middle of a remark. He
had recognized the car, with a sort of
instinct.
At the same moment I saw a smi}
ing face at the window of the car. It
was Elaine Dodge.
The car stopped in something less
than twice its length and then backed
toward us.
Kennedy, hat off, was at the window
in a moment. There were Aunt Jose
phine and Susie Martin, also.
“Where are you boys going?” asked
Elaine, with interest, then added with
a gayety that ill concealed her real
anxiety, “I'm so gl&d to see you—to
see that—er—nothing has happened
from the dreadful Clutching Hand.”
“Why, we were just going up to our
rooms,” replied Kennedy.
“Can’t we drive you around?”
We climbed in and a moment later
were off. The ride was only too short
for Kennedy. We stepped out in front
of our apartment and stood chatting
for a moment.
“Some day I want to show you thn
laboratory,” Craig was saying.
“It must be so—interesting!” ex.
claimed Elaine very enthusiastically.
“Think of all the bad men you must
have caught!”
Elaine hesitated. “Would vou tka
| of the expresamen, descending with
a, he bane out.”
] a0. bad—we’ve got Sis large cab-
) SEE THE PICTURES.
to see it?” she wheedled of Aunt Jose
phine.
Aunt Josephine nodded acquiescence,
and a moment later we all entered the
‘buflding.
“You—you are very careful since
that last warning?” asked Flaine as
we approached our door.
“More than ever—now,” replied
Orais “lI have made up my mind ‘o
win.”
Kennedy had started to unlock the
door, when he stopped short.
“See,” he said. “this is a precaution
1 have just installed. [I most forgot
in the excitement.”
He pressed a panel and disclosed
the boxlike apparatus.
“This is my kinograph, which tells
me whether I have had any visitors in
my absence. If the pen traces a
straight line, it is all right; but ift—
hello—Walter, the Mine is wavy.”
We exchanged a significant glance.
“Would you mind—er—standing
down the hall just a bit while I en-
ter?” asked Craig.
“Be careful,” cautioned Elaine.
He unlocked the door, standing off
to. one side. Then he extended his
hand across the doorway Still noth-
It Was the Clutching Hand.
ing happened. There was not a sound.
He looked cautiously into the room.
Apparently there was nothing.
® $ ® ® ® ® ®
It had been about the middle of the
morning that an express wagon had
pulled up sharply before our apart- |
e | ent.
“Mr, Kennedy. live here?” asked one
his helper and approaching our janitor,
Jens: Jensen; a typical Swede, who
was coming up out'of the basement.
Jens growléd a surly, “Yes—but Mr.
inet he ordered from Grand Rapids.
Wea, can't cart it around. IT doy, Can't
You let ug In so We can Isave it?”
Jemsen muttered: “Well—I guess it
bane sll right.”
Fhey took the cabinet off the wagon
and Jarried it upstairs. Jensen Voi
door, still Eo they
sacnd the heavy cabinet in a Hving
Sign here.”
oy fallers bape a nuisance,” pro-
tested: Jens, signing nevertheless.
Scarcely had the sound of their
footfalls died away in the outside hall
way when the door of the cabinet
slowly opened and a masked face pro-
truded, gazing about the room.
It was the Clutching Hand!
From the cabinet he took a large
package wrapped in newspapers. As
Das held it, looking keenly about, his
eye rested on Elaine's picture. A mo-
ment he looked at it, then quickly at
the fireplace opposite.
An idea seemed to occur to him.
He took the package to the fireplace,
removed the screen and laid the pack-
age over the andirons with one end
pointing out into the room.
Next he took from the cabinet a
couple of storage batteries and a coil
of wire. Deftly and quickly he fixed
them on the package.
Meanwhile, before an alleyway
across the street and further down
the long block the express wagon had
stopped.
Having completed fixing the bat:
teries and wires, Clutching Hand ran
the wires along the molding on the
wall overhead, from the fireplace un-
til he was directly over Elaine's pic
ture. Skillfully he managed to fix the
wires, using them in place of the ple-
ture wires to support the framed pho-
tograph until it hung very noticeably
askew on the wall;
The last wire joined, he looked
about the room, then noisel.ssiy moved
to the window and raised the shade,
Quickly he raised his hand and
brought the fingers slowly together.
It was the sign.
Off in the alley, the express driver
and his helper jumped into the wagon
and sway it rattled.
Jensen was smoking placidly as the
wagon pulled up the second time.
“Sorry,” said the driver sheepishly,
“but we delivered the cabinet to the
wrong Mr. Kennedy.”
He pulled out the inevitable book to
prove it.
“Wall, you bane flne fallers,”
growled Jensen, puffing like a furnace,
in his fury. “You cannot go up
agane.”
“We'll get fired for the mistake,”
pleaded the helper.
“Just this ance.”
urged the driver. as
ERIN SIT ner
EE
he rattled some loose change in hig
pocket. ‘“Here—there goes a whole
day's tips.”
He handed Jens a dollar in smal}
change.
Still grumpy, but mollified by the
silver, Jens let them go up and opened
tue door to our rooms again. There
stood the cabinet, as outwardly inno
cent ag when ft came in.
Lugging and tugging they mrnaged.
to get the heavy piece of furniture out
and downstairs again, loading it om
the wagon. Then they drove off with
it, accompanied by a parting volley
from Jensen
In an unfrequented street, perhaps
half a mile away, the wagon stopped.
With a keen glance around, the driver
‘and his helper made sure that no one
was about.
“Such a shaking up as you've given
me!” growled a voice as the cabinet
door opened. “But I've got him this
time!”
It was the Clutching Hand.
® ® : or ® ® *® eo
Craig gazed into our living room cau-
tiously
“I can’t see anything wrong,” he said
to m. as I stood just beside aim. “Miss
Dodge,” he added, “will you and the
rest excuse me if | agk you to walt
just a moment longer?”
Elaine watched him, fascinated. He
crossed the room, then went ifito each
of our other rooms. Apparently noth-
ing was wrong and a miniite liter he
réappeared at the doorway.
“I guess it's all right,” he sale. “Per
haps it was only Jensen, the janitor.”
Elaine, Aunt Josephine and Susie
Martin entered. Craig placed chairs:
for them, but still I could See that he
was uneasy. From time to time, while
they were admiring one of our treas-
ures after another, he glaneed about
suspicious. y
“What is the trouble; de you think?”
asked Elaine wonderingly, noticing
his manner.
“I—I can’t just say,” answered Craig
tryin, to appear easy.
She had risen and with keen inter-
est was looking at the books, the pic~
tures. the queer eéllection of weapons
and odds and ends from the under
world that Craig had amasse: ir hig
adventures
At las! her eye wandered across the
room. She caught sight of her own
pictu-e. occupying a place of honor—
but hanging askew.
“Isn’t that just like a man?!” she ex-
claimed. “Such housekeepers as you
are—such carelessness!”
She had taken a stop or two across
the room to straighten the picture.
‘Miss Dodge!" almost shouted Ken:
nedy, his face fairly blanched. “Stop!”
She turned, her stunning eyes filled
with amazement at his suddenness.
Nevertheless she moved quickly to one
: side, as he waved his arms, unable to
! speak quickly enough.
Kennedy stood quite still, gazing at
the picture, askew, with suspicion.
“That wasn’t that way when we left,
was it, Walter?” he asked.
“It certainly was not,” 1 answered
positively. “There was more time
spent in getting that picture just
right than I ever saw you spend on the
Cn frowned.
os myself 1 dud not know what
ake of ft.
“I'm afraid I shall have to ask you
$0 step into this baok room,” sald Craig
at length to the ladies. “I'm 80
but we can’t be too careful with fits
{ritruder, whoever he was.”
Elaine, however, stopped at the door.
For a moment Kennedy appeared to
be considering. Then his eye fell om
a fishing rod that stood in a corner.
He took it and moved toward the pic
ture.
On his hands and knees, to one
side, down as close as he could get to
the floor, with the rod extended at
arin’s length, he motioned to me to do
the same, behind him.
Carefully Kennedy reached out with
the pole and straightened the picture.
As he did so there was a flash, a
loud, deafening report, and a great
puff of smoke from the fireplace.
The fire screen was riddled and over
turned. A charge of buckshot shat-
tered the precious photograph of
Elaine.
We had dropped flat on the floor at
the report. I looked about. Kennedy
was unharmed and so were the rest.
With a bound he was at the fire-
place, followed by Elaine and the rest
of us. There, in what remained of a
package done up roughly in newspa-
per, was a shotgun with its barrel
sawed off about six inches from the
lock, fastened to a block of wood, and
connected to a series of springs om
the trigger, released by a little electro-
magnetic arrangement actuated by
two batteries and leading by wires up
along the molding to the picture where
the slightest touch would complete the
circuit.
A startled cry from Klaine caused us
to turn. :
She was standing directly before her
shattered picture where it hung awry
on the wall. The heavy charge of
buckshot had knocked away large
pieces of paper and plaster under it.
“Craig!” she gasped.
He was at her side in a second.
She laid one hand on his arm, as she
faced him. With the other she traced
an imaginary line in the air from the
level of the buckshot to his head and
then straight to the infernal thing that
had lain in the fireplace.
“And to think,” she shuddered, “that
it was through me that he tried to kill
you!”
“Never mind,” laughed Craig easily,
as they gazed into each other's eyes,
drawn together by their mutual peril,
“Clutching Hand will have to be
cleverer than this to get either of us
—Hlainel”
fFfO BE CONTINUED.)
-~ nm