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RUNNING IN THE AUDITORIUM. MEYERSDALE, EACH THURSDAY EVENING. READ THE STORY AND SEE THE PICTURES. : -
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TOV IVIVIVIIPIITIPIIITIIIIIPIIIIIVITIIITIOIIPITIIIIVIvVIvVITY
The Exploits of Elaine
A Detective Novel and
Presented in Collaboration
Copyright, 1914, by the
a ees See a ees
PPPIVPIIIVITITIIITTIVIVYVYYY
By ARTHUR B. REEVE :
The Well-Known Novelist and the we
Crealor of the **Craig Kennedy Stories yo.
ith the Pathe Players and the Eclectic Film Company
‘Star Company :
FOV TTITIIIIIN
a Motion Picture Drama
All Foreign Rights Reserved
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p
y
loll ADSL LSSS
SYNOPSIS.
The New York police are mystified by a
geries of murders of prominent men. The
principal clue to the murderer is the warn-
ing letter which is sent the victims, signed
with a “clutching hand.” The latest vic-
tim 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. What Ken-
nedy accomplishes is told by his friend
Jameson, a newspaper man. Elaine is kid-
naped by the Clutching Hand, but is res-
cued by Kennedy, who has discovered her
whereabouts through using third degree
methods on one of the crooks.
EIGHTH EPISODE
: The Hitdden Voice.
“Jameson, wake up!” :
The strain of the Dodge case was
beginning to tell on me, for it was
keeping us at work at all kinds of
hours to circumvent the Clutching
Hand, by far the cleverest criminal
with whom Kennedy had ever had
anything to do.
1 leaped out of bed, still in my pa-
jamas, and stood for a moment staring
about. Then I ran into the living
room. I looked about, rubbing my
eyes, startled. No one was there.
“Hey—Jameson—wake up!”
It was spooky.
“Where—the deuce—are you?” I de
manded.
POPPI PIPIPIIIIIVITIIPITIVIIVIIVVPIITIITITITRIV VV VI VVYFVY EY
Suddenly I heard the voice again—
no doubt about it, either.
“Here I am—over on the couch!”
I scratched my head, puzzled. There
was certainly no one on that couch.
A laugh greeted me. Plainly, though,
it came from the couch. I went over
to it and, ridiculous as it seemed, be-
gan to throw aside the pillows.
There lay nothing but a little ob-
long oaken box, perhaps eight or ten
inches square at the ends. In the face
were two peculiar square holes, and
from the top projected a black disk,
about the size of a watch, fastened on
a swinging metal arm. In the face of
the disk were several perforated holes
I picked up the strange looking
thing in wonder, and from ‘that magic
oak box actually came a burst of
laughter.
“Come over to the laboratory, right
away,” pealed forth a merry voice.
“I've something to show you.”
“Well,” 1 gasped, “what do yom
know about that?”
Very early that morning Graig had
got up, leaving me snoring. Cases
never wearied him. He thrived on ex-
citement.
He had gone over to the laboratory
and set to work in a corner over agy-
other of those peculiar boxes, exactly
like that which he had already left in
our rooms.
Half an hour afterward I walked
into the laboratory, feeling a little
sheepish over the practical joke, but
none the less curious to find out all
about it. :
“What is it?” I asked, indicating the
apparatus.
“A vocaphone,” he replied, still
laughing, “the loud speaking telephone,
the little box that hears and talks.
It talks right out in meeting,
too—no transmitter to hold to
the mouth, no receiver to hold to
the ear. You see, this trans-
mitter is so sensitive that it picks up
even a whisper, and the receiver is
placed back of those two megaphone:
like pyramids.” f
He was standing at a table, careful:
ly packing up one of the vocaphones
and a lot of wire. /
“I pelieve the Clutching Hand has
been shadowing the Dodge house,” he
continued thoughtfully. “As long as
we watch the place, too, he will do
nothing. But if we should seem, OS:
tentatiously, not to be watching, per
haps he may try something, and we
may be able to get a clue to his iden-
tity over this vocaphone. See?”
I nodded. “We've got to run him
down somehow,” I agreed.
“Yes,” he said, taking his coat and
hat. “I am going to connect up one
of these things in Miss Dodge's libra
ry and arrange with the telephone
company for a clear wire so that we
can listen in here, where that fellow
will never suspect.”
At about the same time that Craig
and I sallied forth on this new mis-
sion, Elaine was arranging some flogy-
ers on a stand near the. corner of the
Dodge library where the secret panel
was in which her father had hidden
the papers for the possession of which
the Clutching “Jand had murdered
him.
She had moved away from the table,
but, as she did so, her dress caught
in something in the woodwork. She
tried to loosen it and in so doing
touched the little metallic spring on
which her dress had caught.
Instantly, to her utter surprise, the
panel moved. It slid open, disclosing
a strong box.
Elaine took it, amused, looked at it
a moment, then carried it to a table
and opened it.
Inside were some papers, sealed in
an envelope and marked “Limpy Red
Correspondence.”
‘They must be the Qlutching Hand
papers!” she exclaimed to herself,
hesitating a moment, in doubt what to
do
ES ASEM +
She seized the telephone and eager-
ly called Kennedy's number.
“Hello,” answered a voice.
“Is that you, Craig?” she asked ex-
citedly.
“No, this is Mr. Jameson.”
“Oh, Mr. Jameson, I've discovered
the Clutching Hand papers,” she be-
gan, more and more excited.
“Have you read them?” came back
the voice quickly.
“No; shall 1?”
“Then don’t unseal them,” cautioned
the voice. “Put them back exactly as
you found them and I'll tell Mr. Ken-
nedy the moment I can 'get hold of
a
“All right,” said Elaine. “I'll do
that. And please get him as soon as
you pcssibly can.”
“1 will.”
“I'm going out shopping now,” she
returned, suddenly. “But, tell him I'll
be right back—right away.”
“Very well.”
Hanging up the receiver, Elaine
dutifully replaced the papers in the
hox and returned the box to its secret
hiding place, pressing the spring and
sliding the panel shut.
A few minutes later she left the
house in the Dodge car.
Outside our laboratory, leaning up
against a railing, Dan the Dude, an
emissary of the Clutching Hand, whose
dress now greatly belied his under-
«arld “monniker,” had been shadow-
ing us, watching to see when we left.
The moment we disappeared, he
raised his hand carefully above his
head and made the sign of the Clutch-
ing Hand. Far down the street, in a
~Josed car, the Clutching Hand him-
«elf. his face masked, gave an an-
swering sign.
A moment later he left the car, gaz-
ing about stealthily. Not a soul was
in sight and he managed to make his
way to the door of our laboratory
without being'observed.
Probably he thought that the pa-
pers might be at the laboratory, for
he had rerentedly failed to locate
them at the Dodge house. At any rate
he was busily engaged in ransacking
drawers and cabinets, in the labora-
tory, when the telephone suddenly
rang. :
An instant he hesitated. Then, dis-
guising his voice as much as he could
to imitate mine, he took up the re-
ceiver.
“Hello!” he answered. 1
His face was a study in all that
was dark as he realized that it was
Elaine calling. He clenched his crook-
ed hand even more viciously.
“Have you read them?” he asked,
curbing his impatience as she unsus-
pectingly poured forth her story, sup-
possedly to me.
“Then don’t unseal them,” he has-
tened to ‘reply. “Put them back.
Then there can be no question about
them. You can open them before wit-
nesses.”
For a moment he paused, then add-
ed: “Put them back, and tell no
one of their discovery. I will tell Mr.
Kennedy the moment I can get him.”
Clutching Hand studied for a mo:
ment and then grabbed the telephone
again.
“Hello, Dan,” he called when he got
his number. “Miss Dodge is going
shopping. I want you and the other
Falsers to follow her—delay her all
you can. Use your own judgment.”
It was what had come to be known
in his organization as the ‘“‘Brother-
nood of Falsers.” There, in the back
room of a low dive, were Dan the
Dude, the emissary who had been loi-
tering about the laboratory, a gun-
man, Dago Mike, a couple of women,
slatterns, one known as Kitty the
Hawk, and a boy of eight or ten, whom
they called Billy.
“All right, Chief,” shouted back
Dan, their leader, as he hung up the
telephone after noting carefully the
hasty instructions. “We'll do it—
trust us.”
With alacrity the Brotherhood
went their ‘separate ways.
Elaine had not been gone long from
the house when Craig and I arrived
there.
“Too bad,” greeted Jennings, “but
Miss Elaine has just gone shopping
and I don’t know when she’ll be
back.”
Aunt Josephine greeted us cordially,
and Craig set down the vocaphone
package he was carrying.
“I’m not going to let anything hayp-
pen, here to Miss Elaine again if I
can help it,” remarked Craig in a low
tone, a moment later, gazing about the
library.
“What are you thinking of doing?”
asked Aunt Josephine keenly.
“I'm going to put in a vocaphone,”
he returned, unwrapping it.
“What's that?” she asked.
“A loud si i telephone—con-
nected with my laboratory,” he ex-
ained, repeating what he had al
told m Al
told 1 d al-
( re it ¢
to best advantage, when he a
the suit of armor.
“I see you have brought it back 2
A rn ee
had it repaired,” he remarked to Aunt
Suddenly his face lighted
he exclaimed.
“No one will ever think to look inside
Josephine.
up. “Ah—an idea!”
tha ”
“Now, Mrs. Dodge,” he eaid finally,
as he had completed installing the
thing and hiding the wire under car-
pets and rugs until it ran out to the
connection which he made with the
telephone, “don’t breathe a word of it
We don’t know whom
—to anyone.
to trust or suspect.”
Elaine’s car had stopped finally at
a shop on Fifth avenue. She stepped
out and entered, leaving her chauffeur
to wait.
As she did so, Dan and Billy sidled
along the crowded sidewalk.
Dan the Dude left Billy and Billy
surreptitiously drew from under his
With a
glance about, he dropped it into the
close to the entrance to
Elaine’s car. Then he withdrew a lit-
coat a half loaf of bread.
gutter
tle distance.
When Elaine
ward.
to step into the car.
Elaine, surprised, dréw back. Billy
picked up the piece of bread and with
all the actions of having discovered a
treasure began to gnaw at it.vora-
ciously.
Shocked at the disgusting sight, she [
tried to take the bread away from
him.
“I know it’s dirty, miss,” whimpered
Billy, “but it’s the first food I've seen
for four days.”
Instantly Elaine was full of sym-
She had taken the food
pathy.
away. That would not suffice.
“What’s your name, little boy?” she
asked.
“Billy,” he replied, blubbering.
“Where do you live?”
“With me mother and father—
they're sick—nothing to eat—"
He was whimpering an address far
over on the East side.
“Get into the car,” Elaine directed.
“Gee—but this is swell,” he cried,
with no fake, this time.
On they went, through the tenement
came out and ap-
proached her car, Billy, looking as
cold and forlorn as could be, shot for-
Pretending to spy the dirty
piece of bread in the gutter, he made
a dive for it, just as Elaine was about
miss, are a fool!”
There was no combating Miss Statis-
tix. She overwhelmed “all arguments
by the very exactness of her persomn-
ality.
Elaine departed, speechless, prop-
erly squelched, followed by her chauf-
feur.
Meanwhile, a closed car, such as
had stood across from the laboratory,
had drawn up not far from the Dodge
house. Near it was a man in rather
shabby. clothes and a visored cap on
which were the words in dull gold
lettering, “Metropolitan Window
Cleaning company.” He carried a
bucket and a small extension ladder.
In the darkened recesses of the car
was the Clutching Hand himself,
masked as usual. He had his watch
in his hand and was giving most min-
ute instructions to the window clean:
er about something. As the latter
turned to go, a sharp observer would
have noted that it was Dan the Dude,
still further disguised.
A few moments latér, Dan appeared
at the servants’ entrance of the Dodge
house and rang the bell. Jennings,
who happened to be down there, came
to the door. 2
“Man to clean the windows,” sa
luted the bogus cleaner, touching his
hat in a way quietly to call attention
to the words on it and drawing from
his pocket a faked written order.
“All right.” nodded Jennings, ex-
3 » bug was J. sey mE
which ‘to record something, “and Yow
One of the maids was sweeping In
the hall as Dan went toward the win-
dow, wbout to wash it.
“f wonder whether 1 locked those
windows?” muttered Jennings, paus-
ing in the hallway. “I guess I'd bet-
ter make sure.”
- He had taken only a step toward
the library again when Dan watchfully
caught sight of him. I(t would never
do to have Jennings ~neconing around
there now. Quick action was neces-
sary. Dan knocked over a costly
Sevres vase.
“There—clumsy—see what you've
done!” berated Jennings, starting to
pick up the pieces.
Dan had acted his part well and
promptly. In the library Clutching
Hand was busily engaged at that mo-
ment beside the secret panel search-
ing for the spring that released it.
He ran his finger along the woodwork,
pausing here and there without suc-
ceeding.
“Confound it!” he muttered, search-
ing feverishly.
- Kennedy, having made the arrange-
ments with the telephone company by
which he had a clear wire from the
Dodge house to his laboratory, had re-
joined me there and was putting on
the finishing touches on his installa-
tion of the vocaphone.
Every now and then he would
switch it on, and we would listen in
it as he demonstrated the wonderful
little instrument to me. We had
canyons, dodging children and push-
carts, stopping first at a grocer’s, then
at agbutcher’s and a delicatessen.
Finally the car stopped where Billy
directed. Billy hobbled out, followed
by Elaine and her chauffeur, his arms
piled high with provisions. She was
indeed a lovely Lady Bountiful as a
crowd of kids quickly surrounded the
car.
In the meantime Dago Mike and
Kitty the Hawk had gone to a wretch-
ed flat, before which Billy stopped.
Kitty sat on the bed, putting dark
circles under her eyes with a black-
ened cork. She was very thin and
emaciated, but it was dissipation that
Kennedy Shows Elaine the Little Instrument That Saved Her Life.
had done it.
spondingly poorly dressed.
He had paused beside the window
to look out “She’s coming,” he an-
nounced finally.
Kitty hastily jumped into the rick-
ety bed, while Mike took up a crutch
that was standing idly in a corner.
She coughed resignedly and he imped
They had assumed
their parts, which were almost to the
burlesque of poverty, when the door
was pushed open and -Billy burst in,
followed by Hlaine and the chauf-
about, forlorn.
f
Dago Mike was corre-
eur. :
“Oh, ma—oh, pa,” he cried, running
forward and kissing his pseudo par-
ents, as Elaine, overcome with sym-
pathy, directed the chauffeur to lay
the things on a shaky table.
Just then the door opened again.
All were genuinely surprised this time,
amining the order and finding it ap-
parently all right. :
Dan followed him in, taking the lad-
der and DUCKSL upstairs, where Aunt
Josephine was still reading.
“The man to clean the windows,
ma’am,” apologized Jennings. -
“Oh, very well,” she nodded, taking
up her book, to go. Then, recalling
the frequent injunctions of Kennedy,
she paused long enough to speak
quietly to Jennings. :
“Stay here and watch him,” she
whispered as she went out.
Jennings nodded, while Dan opened
a window and set to work.
Elaine now decided to go home.
From his closed car, the Clutching
Hand gazed intently at the Dodge
house. He could see Dan on the lad-
der, now washing the library window,
his back toward him.
~ Dan ‘turned slowly and made the
sign of the hand. Turning to his
chauffeur, the master criminal spoke
a few hurried words in a low tone and
the driver hurried off.
A few minutes later the driver
might have been seen entering a near-
by drug store and going into the tele-
phone booth. Without a moment's
hesitation he called upon the Dodge
house, and Marie, Elaine’s maid, an-
swered.
“Is Jennings there?’ he asked.
“Tell him a friend wants to speak
to him.”
“Wait a minute,” she answered. “I'll
get him.”
Marie went toward the library, leav-
ing the telephone off the hook. Dan
was washing the windows, half in-
side, half outside the house, while Jen-
nings was trying to be very busy, al-
though it was apparent that he was
watching Dan closely..
“A friend of yours wants to speak
to you over the telephone, Jennings,”
said Marie, as she came into the
library.
The butler responded slowly, with a
covert glance at Dan.
No sooner had they gone, however,
than Dan climbed all the way into the
room, ran te the door and looked after
By a Sort of Instinct Kennedy| por Then he ran to the window.
Seemed to Recognize the Sounds.| ,.ros5 and down the street, the
Evins! He Exclaimed, Turning| cjytching Hand was gazing at the
for a prim, spick and span, middle-
aged woman entered.
“I am Miss Statistix, of the organ-
ized charities,” she announced, look:
fng around sharply. “I saw your car
standing outside miss, and the chil
me you were up here.
I came up to see whether you were,
dren below told
aiding really deserving poor.
She laid a marl
her lips.
apprehension
prey had of
» hat's the matt
asked El uncomforte
the boy is Billy
she answered
out a card, on
ap *?
( ¥
arawing
yt or
ted emphasis on the
There was
that{-
her, | U€r
house. He had seen Dan disappear
and suspected that the time had come.
Sure enough, there was the sign of
the hand. He hastily got out of the
car and hurried up the street. All
this time the chauffeur was keeping
Jennings busy over ihe telephone with
some trumped-up story.
As the master criminal came in by
the ladder through the open window,
Dan was on guard, listening down the
hallway. A signal from Dan, and
Clutching Hand slid back of the por-
Jennings was returning.
finished these windows,” an-
nN 1
ler reappeared.
he hall windows.”
n wed like a shadow.
No soone ad they gone than
3 | Clutching Hand stealthily came from
behind the portieres.
heard the window cleaner and Jem:
nings, but thought nothing of it at
the time.
Otice; however, Craig paused; and-
saw him listening more intently than
usual. :
“They've gone out,” he muttered,
“but surely there is some one in the
Dodge library.” :
“I listened, too. The thing was so
sensitive that even a whisper could
be magnified, and I certainly did hear
something. y
Kennedy frowned. What was that
scratching noise? Could; it be Jen-
rings? Pérhaps it was Rusty.
Just then we could distinguish =a
sound as though someone had moved
about. :
“No—that’s not Jennings,”
Craig. “He went out.”
He looked at me a moment.
same stealthy noise was repeated.
“It’s the Clutching Hand!” he ex-
claimed excitedly.
A moment later Dan hurried into
the Dodge library.
“For heaven’s sake, Chief, hurry!”
he whispered hearsely. “The Falsers
must have fallen down. The girl her-
self is coming!”
Dan himself had no time to waste.
He retreated into the hallway just as
Jennings was opening the door for
Elaine.
Marie took her wraps and left her,
while “Elaine handed her numerous
packages to Jennings.
Dan watched every motion.
“Put them away, Jennings,”
said softly.
Jennings had obeyed and gone up-
stairs. Elaine moved toward the Ili-
brary. Dan took a quiet step or two
behind her, in the same direction.
In the library Clutching Hand was
now frantically searching for the
spring. He heard Elaine coming and
dodged behind the curtains again just
as she entered.
With a hasty look about, she saw
no one. Then she went quickly to the
panel, found the spring and pressed
it. So many queer things had hap-
pened to her since she went out that
she had begun to worry over the safe
ty of the papers.
The panel opened. They were there,
all right. She opened the box and
took them out, hesitating to break the
seal before Kennedy arrived.
Stealthy and tigerlike, the Clutch:
ing Hand crept up behind her. As he
did so, Dan gazed in through the por
tieres from the hall.
With a spring, Clutching Hand
leaped at Elaine, snatching at the pa-
pers. Elaine clung to them tenacious
ly, in spite of the surprise, and they
>oled for them, Clutching Hand
ng one hand over her mouth to
prevent her
was there
cried
The
she
‘Choke
Suddenly, from the man in armor
I Sr REARS i TS SAC
X-4
reaming. Instantly Dan
in the corner, as if by a miracle, came
a deep, loud voice.
“Help! Help: Murder!
They are strangling me!”
The effect was terrific.
Clutching Hand and Dan, hardened
in crime as they were, fell back,
dazed, overcome for the moment at
the startling effect.
Policet
The: Ineked =honi, Not a soul.
then .c .peit otter consternation,
from the naimet again came the deep,
vibrant warning.
“Help! Murder! Police!”
Kennedy and [ had been listening:
over the vocaphone, for the moment
nonplused at the fellow’s daring.
Then we heard from the uncanny
instrument: “For Heaven's sake,
Chief, hurry. The Falsers have fallen
down. The girl herself is coming!”
What it meant we did not know. But
Craig was almost beside himself, as
he ordered me to get the police by tel-
ephone, if there was any way to block
them. Only instant action would count,
however. What to do?
We could hear the master crime
inal plainly fumbling now.
“Yes, that’s the Clutching hand,” he
repeated.
“Wait,” [ cautioned,
is coming!”
By a sort of instinct he seemed to
recognize the sounds.
“Elaine!” he exclaimed, paling.
instantly followed, in less than 1}
can tell it, the sounds of a suppressed
shuffle.
“He has seized her—sgagged her,”
I cried in an agony of suspense.
We could now hear everything that
was going on in the library. Craig
was wildly excited. As for me, I was
speechless. Here was the vocaphone
we had installed. It had warned us.
But what could we do?
I looked blankly at Kennedy.
was equal to the emergency.
He calmly turned the switch.
Then, at the top of his lungs he
shouted: “Help! Help! Police! Thay
are strangling me!”
I looked at him in amazement. What
did he think he could do—blocks
“someone else
He
away?
“It works both ways,” ne muttered.
“Help! Murder! Police!”
We gould hear the astonished curs-
ing of the two men. Also, down the
hall, now, we could hear footsteps ap-
proaching in answer to his call for
help—Aunt Josephine, Jennings, Marie
and others, all shouting out that there
were cries in the library.
“The deuce! What is it?’ muttered
a gruff voice.
“The man in armor!” hissed Clutch.
ing Hand.
“Here they come, too, Chief!”
There was a parting scuffle.
“There—take that!”
“A loud metallic ringing came from
the vocaphone.
Then silence!
What had happened?
In the library, recovering from theim
crock of surprise, Dan cried out tos
“the Clutching Hand. “The deucel
What is it?”
Then looking about, Clutchings
Hand quickly took in the situation.
“The man in armor!” he pointed
out.
Dan was almost dead with fright
at the weird thing.
“Here they come, too, Chief,” he
gasped, as, down the hall he could
hear the family shouting out thai
someone was in the library.
With a parting thrust, Clutching
Hand sent Elaine reeling. 1
She held on to only a corner of the
papers. He had the greater part of
them. They were torn and destroyed
anyway.
Finally, with all the venomousness
of which he was capable, Clutching
Hand rushed at the armor suit, drew
back his gloved fist, and let it shoot
out squarely in a vicious solar plexus
blow.
“There—take that!” he roared.
The suit rattled furiously. Out ol
it spilled the vocaphone, with a bang
on the floor.
An instant later those in the hal
rushed in. But the Clutching Hand
and Dan were gone out of the win
dow, the criminal carrying the greates
part of the precious papers.
Some ran to Elaine, others to the
window. The ladder had been kicked
away, and the criminals were gone
Leaping into the waiting car, they had
been whisked away.
“Hello! Hello! Hello!” called a
voice, apparently from nowhere.
“What is that?” cried Elaine.
She had risen by this time, and was
gazing about, wondering at the strange
voice. Suddenly her eye fell on the
armor scattered all over the floor.
She spied the little oak box.
“Elaine!”
Apparently the voice came from
that. Besides it had a familiar ring
to her ears.
“Yes—Craig!” she cried.
“That is my vocaphone—the little
box that hears and talks,” came bach
to her. “Are you all right?”
“Yes—all righti—thanks to the voca
phone.”
She had understood in an instant
She seized the helmet and breastplate
to which the vocaphone still was at
tached and was holding them close te
herself.
XNennedy had been calling and lis
tening intently over the machine, wom
dering whether it had been put out of
business in some way.
“It works—yet!” he cried excitedld
{0 me.
l Y breathed Craig,
g me aside.
siterally he kissed that vocaphone
as if it had been human!
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
R——
I TE I TSI DTT
cea