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: upstairs in Elaine's room.
- fixing flowers in a vase on the dress-
RUNNING
‘The Exploits of Elaine
Sn ae ss SS a as a
A Detective Novel and a Motion Picture Drama
By AR’
A BEE Well. Kno
Ceeator of
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the **Craig Kerneds Stories
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SYNOPSIS.
reer
The New York police are mystified by a
series of murders and other crimes. The
fie eter ive 1 to the criminal is the warn-
lett which is sent the victims,
d with a “clutching hand.” The lat-
sign tar of the mysterious assassin is
Taylor Dodge, the insurance president.
His daughter, Elaine, employs Craig Ken-
nedy, the famous’ scientific detective, to
try to unravel the mystery. Wha t Ken-
nedy accomplishes is told by his’ rena
James, a newspaper man. By an ingen-
tous ruse Clutching Hand smuggles into
Elaine’s home a flask of liquid air which
she supposes to be a package of valuable
papers. It blows open the safe in which
it iz placed, but Kennedy arrives in time
« Drevent the robbery. The detective
rowly misses death in his apartment
#? ore Clutching Hand has placed a shot
1 5; that it 1s fired by the electrical
«ction formed when Kennedv places
_ands or a framed photograph of
FIr'TH EPISODE
The Poisoned Room.
Elzine and Craig were much togeth-
ér during the next few days. Some-
how or other, it seemed that the chase
of the Clutching Hand involved long
conferences in the Dedge library, and
even, in fact, extended to excursions
into the notoriously crime-infested
neighborhood of Riverside drive, with
its fashionable procession of automo-
biles and go-carts—as far north, in-
deed, as that desperate haunt known
as Grant's tomb.
. But to return to the more serious
side of the affair.
Kennedy and Hlaine had scarcely
come out of the house and descended
the steps, one afternoon, when a sinis-
ter face appeared in a basement area-
way ‘near by.
It was the Clutching’ Hand. |
He wore a telephone inspector's hat
and eoat and carried a bag slung by a
strap over his shoulder. For once he
had left off his mask, but, in place of
it, his face was covered by a scraggy
black beard. The disguise was effec-
tive.
He saw Kennedy and Miss Dodge
and slunk unobtrusively against a
railing, with his head turned away.
Laughing and chatting, they passed.
Then he turned in the other direc-
tion and, going up the steps of the
Dodge house, rang the bell.
“Telephone inspector,” he said in a
loud tone as Michael, in Jennings’
place for the afternoon, opened the
door.
He ascompaniod the words with the
stem, and Michael admitted him.
As it happened, Aunt Josephine was
She was
ing table of her idolized niece. Mean-
while, Rusty, the collie, lay, half blink-
ing, on the fioor.
“Who is this’ she asked, as Mi-
chael led the bogus telephone inspec-
tor into the room. -
“A man from the telephone com-
pany,” he answered deferentially.
Aunt Josephine, unsophisticated, al-
lowed them to enter without a usther
question.
Quickly, like a good hn
Olutching Hand went to the telephone
instrument and by dint of keeping his
finger on the hook and his back to
Aunt Josephine succeeded in convey-
ing the illusion that he was examining
it...
No sooner was the door shut than
the Clutching Hand hastily opened his
bag and from it drew a small powder-
spraying outfit, such as I have seen
used for spraying bug powder. He
then took out a sort of muzzle with
an elastic band on it and slipped it
over his head so that the muzzle pro-
tected his nose and mouth.
He seemed to work a sort of pump-
ing attachment and from the nozzle of
the spraying instrument blew out a
cloud of powder which he directed at
the wall.
Meanwhile, Michael, in the hallway,
on guard to see that no one bothered
the Clutching Hand at his work, was
overcome by curiosity to see what his
master was doing. He opened the
door a little bit and gazed stealthily
through the crack into the room.
Clutching Hand was now spraying
the rug close to the dressing table of
Elaine and was standing near the mir-
ror. He stooped down to examine the
rug. Then, as he raised his head, he
happened to look into the mirror. In
it he could see the full reflection of
Michael behind him,Ygazing into the
room.
“The scoundrel!” muttered Clutch-
ing Hand, with repressed fury at the
discovery.
He rose quickly and shut off the
spraying instrument, stuffing it into
the bag. He took a step or two toward
the door. Michael drew back, fear-
fully, pretending now to be on guard.
Clutching Hand opened the door
and, still wearing the muzzle, beck-
oned to Michael Michael could
scarcely control his fears. But he |
obeyed, entering Elaine’s room after
POPP PPPVPIVIVIIVIIIIVIITIIVIIPIIIVIVIIVIIIVYIVvYI VIFF VI VV VY VY
the Clutching, Hand, who locked the
door
“Were you ws ing me? demand- |
ed the 1 ter criminal, with rage.
Micha { all I ob. | ©
his head BH a mon itching | ¢
F lo d him over dis nfully
brutally struck Michael im |
king him down
An un- |
SY
goveruable, almost insane fury
seemed to possess the man as he
stood over the prostrate footman,
cursing.
“Get up!” he ordered.
Michael obeyed, thoroughly cowed.
“Take me to the cellar, now,” he
demanded.
Michael led the way from the room
without a protest, the master criminal
following him closely.
Down into the cellar, by ‘a back
way they went, Clutching Hand still
wearing his muzzle and Michael say-
ing not a word.
Suddenly Clutching Hand turned on
him and seized him by the collar.
“Now. go upstairs, you,” he mut-
tered. shaking him until his teeth
fairly chattered, “and if you watch me
again—I'll kill you!”
He thrust Michael away, and the
‘footman, overcome by fear, hurried
upstairs. Still trembling and fearful,
Michael paused in the hallway.
He put his hand on his face where
the Clutching Hand had struck him.
Then he waited, muttering to himself.
As he thought it over, anger took the
place of fear. He slowly turned in
the direction of the cellar.
Meanwhile, Clutching Hand was
standing by the electric meter. He
examined it carefully, feeling where
the wires entered and left it, and
starting to trace them out. At last
he came to a point where it seemed
suitable to make a connection for
some purpose he had in mind.
Quickly he took some wire from his
bag and connected it with the electric
light wires. Next, he led these wires,
concealed, of course, along the cellar
floor, in the direction of the furnace.
The furnace was one of the old hot
air. heaters and he paused before it
as though seeking something. Then
he bent down beside it and uncovered
a little tank.
. He thrust his hand gingerly into it,
bringing it out quickly. The tank was
nearly full of water.
Next from his capacious bag he
took two metal ~oles, or electrodes,
and fastened them carefully to the
ends of the wires, placing them at op-
posite ends of the tank in the water.
For several moments he watched.
The water inside the tank seemed the
same as before, only on each elec-
trode there appeared bubbles, on one
‘bubbles of oxygen, on the other of
The water was decompos- |
hydrogen.
ing under the current by electrolysis.
Another moment he surveyed his
work to see that he had left no loose
ends. Then he quietly let himself
out of the house.
..The next morning Rusty, who had
been FElaine’s constant companion
since the trouble had begun, awakened
his mistress by licking her hand as it
hung limply over the side of her
bed. :
She awakened with a start and put
her hand to her head. She felt ill.
“Poor old fellow,” she .murmured,
half dazedly.
Rusty moved away again, wagging
hig tail listlessly. The collie, too, felt
ill.
“Why, Miss Elaine—what ees ze
mattair? You are so pale!” exclaimed
the maid, Marie, as she entered the
room a moment later with the morn-
ing’s mail on a salver.
“1 don’t feel well, Marie,” she re-
plied, trying with her slender white
hand to brush the cobwebs from her
brain. “I—I wish you'd tell Aunt Jo-
sephine to telephone Doctor Hay-
ward.”
“Yes, mademoisells,” answered
Marie.
Languidly Elaine took the letters
one by one off the salver.
Finally she selected one anf slow-
ly tore it open. It had no superscrip-
tion, but it at once arrested her at-
tention and transfixed her with ter-
ror. :
It read:
“You are sick this morning. To-
morrow you will be worse. The next
day you will die unless you discharge
Craig Kennedy.”
It was signed with the mystic trade-
mark of the fearsome Clutching
Hand!
Elaine drew back into the pillows,
horror stricken.
Quickly she called to Marie. “Go
—get Aunt Josephine—right away!’
And Marie almost flew down the
hall. Elaine seized the telephone and
called Kennedy's number.
*® * * * * * *
Kennedy, in his stained laboratory
apron, was a. work before his table,
while I was watching him with inter-
est, when the telephone rang.
Without a word he answered the
call, and I could see a look of per
turbation cross his face. I knew it
was from Elaine, but could tell noth-
ing about the nature of the message.
An instant later he almost tore off
e apron and threw on his hat and
coat I followed him as he dashed
out of the lab 'y
th
e mansi we found
IN THE AUDITORIUM,
Re vgn TX DeABeN
Doctor Hayward had arrived and
had just finished taking the patient's
pulse and temperature as our cab
pulled up. .
Elaine was quite ill indeed.
“Oh! I'm so glad to see you,” she
breathed with an air of relief as Ken-
nedy advanced.
“Why—what is the matter?” asked
Craig anxiously.
Doctor Hayward shook his head du-
biously, but Kennedy did not notice
him, for, as he approached, Elaine, she
drew from the covers where she had
concealed it a letter and handed it to
him.
Craig took it and read:
“You are sick this morning. To
morrow you will be worse. The next
day you will die unless you discharge
Craig Kennedy.”
At the signature of the Clutching
Hand he frowned, then, noticing Doc:
tor Hayward, turned to him and re.
peated his question, “What is the mat
ter?”
Doctor Hayward continued shaking
jis head. “I cannot diagnose her
symptoms,” he shrugged.
There seemed to be a faint odor, al-
most as if of garlic, in the room. It
was unmistakable and Craig looked
about him curiously, but said nothing.
As he sniffed, he moved impatiently
and his foot touched Rusty, under the
bed. Rusty whined and moved back
lazily. Craig bent over and looked
at him.
“What’s the matter with Rusty?” he
asked. “Is he sick, too?”
“Why, yes,” answered Elaine, fol-
lowing Craig with her deep eyes.
Craig reached down and gently
pulled the collie out into the room.
Rusty crouched down close to the
floor. .His nose was hot and dry and
feverish. He was plainly ill.
“How long has Rusty been in the
room?” asked Craig.
“All night,” answered Elaine. “I
wouldn’t think of being without him
now.”
“May I take Rusty along with me?”
Craig asked finally :
Elaine hesitated. “Surely,” she said
at length, “only be gentle with him.”
“Of course,” he said simply. “I
thought that I might be able to dis-
cover the trouble from studying him.”
We stayed only a few minutes
longer, for Kennedy seemed to realize
the necessity of doing something im-
mediately, and even Doctor Hayward
‘was fighting in the dark.
Back in the laboratory, Kennedy set
to work immediately, brushing every-
thing else aside.
oo
a
ing off a little of Rusty's blood in a
tube, very carefully.
“Here, Walter,” he said, pointing to
the little incision he had made, “will
you take care of him?”
Quickly Craig made one test after
another.
As he did so I sniffed. There - was
an unmistakable odor of garlic in the
air which made me think of what I
had already noticed in Elaine’s room.
“Arseniuretted hydrogen,” he an-
swered, still engaged in verifying his
tests. “This is the Marsh test for
arsenic.”
“Arsenic!” I repeated, in horror.
I had scarcely recovered from the
surprise of Kennedy's startling reve-
lation when the telephone rang again.
Kennedy seized the receiver, thinking
evidently that the message might be
from or about Elaine.
But from the look on his face and
from his manner, I could gather that,
although it was not from Elaine her-
terested him greatly.
He began by draw-’
Craig Reached Down and Gently
self, it was about something that in|
“Good!” I heard him say finally. “I
| chael, pacing
shall keep the appointment—abso- |
lut ely. 2
“What was it?
It w I
| he replied, tl
| pected, h
moment.
“Well,” added Craig, “yon. see, M1
chael has become infuriated by the
treatment he received from the Clutch-
ing Hand. I believe -he cuffed him in
the face yesterday. Anyway, Be says
he has determined to get even and be-
tray him.”
I did not like the looks of the
thing, and said so. “Craig,” I objected
vehemently, “don’t go to geet him.
It is a trap.”
Kennedy had evidently sotidered
my objection already.
“It may be a trap,” he replied slow-
ly, “but Elaine is dying and we've got
to see this thing through.”
. As he spoke, he took an automatic
from a drawer of a cabinet and thrust
it into his pocket. Ther he went to
another drawer and took out several
sections of thin tubing, which seemed
to be made to fasten together as a
fishing nole is fastened, but were now
separate, as if ready for traveling.
Then he went out. I followed, still
arguing.
“If you go, I go,” I capitulated.
“That's all there is to it.”
Following the directions that Mi-
chae! had given over the telephone,
Craig led me into one of the toughest
parts of the lower West side.
“Here’s the place,” he announced,
stopping across the street from a
dingy Raines law hotel.
“Pretty tough,” I objected. “Are you
sure?”
“Quite,” replied Kennedy, consulting
his notebook again.
Reluctantly I followed and we en-
tered the place.
“I want a room,” asked Craig as
we were accosted by the proprietor,
comfortably clad in a loud checked
suit and striped shirt sleeves. : {I had
one here once Before--forty-nine, 1
think.”
“Fifty—" 1 began to; gorrect.:
Kennedy trod hard on: my toes.
“Yes, forty-nine,” he repeated.
The proprietor called a stout megro
porter, waiter and bell-hop all com-
bined in one, who led us upstairs.
“Forty-nine, sgh,” he pointed out,
as Kennedy dropped a dime into his
ready palm.
The: negro left us, and as Craig
started to. enter, I objected. “But,
Craig, it was fifty-nine, not forty-nine.
This is the wrong room.”
“I know it,” he replied. “I had it
written in thé book. But I want forty-
nine—now. Just follow me, Walter.”
Nervously 1 followed him into the
room.
“Don’t you understand?’ he went
on. “Room forty-nine is probably just
Puliéd ‘the Collie Into the Room.
the same as Ifty-nine, except perhaps
the pictures and furniture, only it is
on the floor below.”
He gazed about keenly. Then he
took a few steps to the window and
threw it open. As he stood there he
took the parts of the rods he had been
carrying and fitted them together un-
til he had a pole some eight or ten
feet long. At one end was a curious
arrangement that seemed to contain
lenses and a mirror. At the other
end was an eye-piece, as nearly as I
could make out.
“What is that?” I asked as he com-
pleted his work. :
“That? That is an instrument
something on the order of a miniature
periscope,” Craig replied, still at
work.
I watched him, fascinated at his re-
sourcefulness. He stealthily thrust
the mirror end of the periscope out
of the window and up toward the cor-
responding window upstairs. Then he
gazed eagerly through the eye-piece.
“Walter—look!” he exclaimed to
me. ‘
I did.
There, sure enoug
v J
up and
h, was Mi-
he ‘room.
As T lo
S
. am safe enough.
ds
b
Jed
MEYERSDALE, EACH THURSDAY EVENING. READ THE STORY AND SEE THE LER
I
knocked. The footsteps ceased. Then
the door opened slowly and I could
see a cold blue automatic. #
“It's all right, Michael,” reassured
Craig calmly. “All right, Walter,” he
added to me.
The gun dropped back into the foot-
man’s pocket. We entered and Mi-
chael again locked the door. Not a
word had been spoken by him so far.
Next Michael moved to the center
of the room and, as J] realized later,
brought himself in direct line with the
open window. He seemed to be oyer-
come with fear at his betrayal and
stood there breathing heavily.
“Professor Kennedy,” he began, “I
have been so mistreated that I have
made up my mind to tell you all I
know about this Clutching—"
Suddenly he drew a sharp breath’
and both his hands clutched at his
own breast. He did not stagger and
fall in the ordinary manner, but
seemed to bend at the knees and
waist and literally crumple down on
his face.
We ran to him. Craig turned him
over gently on his back and examined
him. He called. No answer. Michael
was almost pulseless.
Quickly Craig tore off his colar and
bared his breast, for the man seemed
to be strugzling for breath. As he did
80 he drew from Michael's throat a
small, sharp-pointed dart
“What’s that?” I ejaculated, horror
stricken.
“A poisoned blowgun dart, such as
is used by the South American In-
dians on the upper Orinoco,” he said
slowly.
He examined it carefully .
“What is the poison?” I asked.
“Curari,” he replied simply. “It acts
on the respiratory muscles, paralyzing
them and causing asphyxiation.”
The dart seemed to have been made
of a quill with & very sharp point, hol-
low, and containing the deadly poison
in the sharpened end.
“Look out!” 1 cautioned, as he
handled it.
“Oh, that’s all right,” he answered
casually. “If 1 don’t scratch myself, I
I could swallow the
stuff and it wouldn't hurt me—unless
1 had an abrasion of the lips or some
internal cut.”
Kennedy continued to examine the
dart untfl suddenly I heard a low ex-
clamation of surprise from him. In-
side the hollow quill was a thin sheet
of tissue paper, tightly rolled. He
drew it out and read:
“To know me is Death.
“Kennedy—Take Warning.”
Underneath was the inevitable
Clutching Hand sign.
We jumped to our feet. Kennedy
rushed to the window and slammed it
shut, while I seized the key from Mi-
chael’s pocket, opened the door and
called for help.
A moment before, on the roof of a
building across the street, one might
have seen a bent, skulking figure.
‘His face was copper colored and on
his head was a thick thatch of mat-
ted hair. He looked like a South
| American Indian, in a very dilapidated
suit of cast-off American clothes.
He had slipped out through a door-
way leading to a flight of steps from
the roof to the hallway of the tene-
ment, and, like one of his native ven-
omous serpents, worked his way down
the stairs again.
. My outcry brought a veritable bat-
talion of aid. The hotel proprietor,
the negro waiter and several others
dashed upstairs, followed shortly by
a portly policeman.
Craig took the policeman into his
confidence, showing him the dart and
explaining about the poison. The offi-
cer stared blankly.
“1 must get away, too,” hurried on
Craig “Officer, 1 will leave you to
take charge here. You can depend on
me for the inquest.”
The officer nodded.
“Come on, Walter,” whispered
Craig, eager to get away, then adding
the one word, “Elaine!”
I followed hastily, not slow to un-
derstand his fear for her.
Nor were Craig’s fears groundless.
In spite of all that could be done for
her, Elaine was still in bed, much
weaker now than before.
More than that, the Clutching Hand
had not neglected the opportunity,
either.
Suddenly, just before our return, a
stone had come hurtling through the
window, without warning of any kind,
and had landed on Elaine’s bed.
Below, as we learned some time aft-
erwards, a car had drawn up hastily
and the evilfaced crook whom the
Clutching Hand had used to rid him-
self of the informer, “Limpy Red,” had
leaped out and hastily hurled the
stone through the window, as quick-
ly leaping back into the car and
whisking away.
Around the stone was wrapped a
piece of paper on which was the om-
inous warning, signed as usual by the
Hand:
“Michael is dead.
“Tomorrow, you.
“Then Kennedy.
“Stop before it is too late.”
Elaine had sunk back into her pik
lows, paler than ever from this sec
ond shock.
It was just then that Kennedy and
I arrived and were ittec
“Oh, Mr Kennedy,”
handing him the note.
Craig took it and read
Dodge,” he said, as he he
out to me
are suf
but I «
n min
him exclaim.
up against?”
He fairly leaped at me and I felt
him examining my shoulder where §
k=d been leaning on the wall. Some-
thing on the paper had come off and
left a mark on my shoulder. Craig
looked puzzled from me at the wall
“Arsenic!” he cried.
He whipped cu! a pocket lens and
looked a‘ ithe wvpaper. “This heavy,
fuzzy paper is Iuizly loaded with it,
powdered, he reported.
Kennedy paced the room. Sudden-
ly, pausing by the register, an ides
seemed to strike him.
“Walter,” he whispered, “come down
cellar with me.”
“Oh! Be careful!” cried Elaine, anx-
ious for him.
“] will,” he called back.
As he flashed his pocket bull’s-eye
about, his gazé fell on the electrie
meter. He paused before it. Im
“What have you beem
Kennedy Discovers the Secret of the
Poisoned Room.
spite of the fact that it was broad
daylight, it was running. His face
puckered
“They are using no current at pres-
ent in the house,” he ruminated, “yet
the meter is running.’
He continued to examine the meter.
Then he begar to follow the electric
wires along At last he discovered a
place where they had been tampered
with and tapped by other wires.
+ “The work of the Clutching Hand!”
he muttered.
Eagerly he followed the wires to
the furnace and around to the back.
There they led right into a little
water tank Kennedy yanked them
out. As he did so he pulled some
thing with them.
“Two electrodes the villain placed
there,” he exclaimed, holding them up
triumphantly for me to see.
“Y-yes,” 1 replied, dubiously, “but
what does it all mean?”
“Why, don’t you see? Under the in-
fluence of the electric current the wa-
ter was decomposed and gave off oxy-
gen and hydrogen. The free hydrogen
passed up the furnace pipe and com:
bining with the arsenic in the wall
paper formed the deadly arseniuretted
hydrogen.”
He cast the whole improvised elec
trolysis apparatus on the floor and
dashed up the cellar steps.
“I've found it!” he criel, hurrying
into Elaine's room. “It’s in this room
—a deadly gas—arseniurettec hydro
gen.” *
He tore open the windows.
“Have her moved,” he shouted to
Aunt Josephine. “Then have a vac-
uum cleaner go over every inch of
wall, carpet and upholstery.”
Standing beside her, he breathless.
ly explained his discovery. “That wall
paper has been loaded down with
arsenic, probably paris green or
Schweinfurth green, which is acetoar
senite of copper. Every minute you
are here you are breathing arseniuret-
ted hydrogen. This Clutching Hand
is a diabolical genius. Think of it—
poisoned wall paper!” *
No one said a word. Kennedy
reached down and took the two
Clutching Hand messages Elaine had
received. “lI shall want to study
these notes. more, too,” he said, holds
ing them up to the wall at the head
of the bed as he flashed his pocket
lens at them. “You see, Elaine, I may
be able to get something from study-
ing the ink, the paper, the hand writ-
ing—”
Suddenly hoth leaped back, with a
cry.
Their faces had been several inches
apart. Something had whizzed between
them and literally impaled the two
notes on the wall,
Down the street, on the roof of a
carriage house, back of a neighbor's,
might have been seen the v- couth fig
ure of the shabby South American In-
dian crouching behind a chimney and
gazing intently at the Dodge house.
As Craig had thrown open Elaine's
window and turned to Elaine the figure
had crouched closer to the chimney.
Then with an uncanny determina-
tion, he slowly raised the blowgun ta
his lips.
I jumped forward, followed by Doc:
tor Hayward, Aunt Josephine and
Marie. Kennedy had a peculiar look
as he pulled out from the wall a blow:
gun dart similar in every way to thal
which had killed Michacl.
“Craig!” gasped Elaine, reaching up
and laying her soft, white hand on his
arm in undisguised fear for him, “you
t give up this chase for the
Hand!”
the chase for the