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Show THE STRANGE Tf A kTf Ilk M JL O la B fly MAX RITTENBERG cases of MAtsfMUM, ocientihc Consultant 4- ,5ls - 7 MYSTERY OF THE VANISHING GOLD ATW'U-llOUyK lorry was moving sedately through the crowded traf tii-. in Mark Jiiiuo. It was a lorij dray with low wooden sides such as might be used for transporting trans-porting barrels of .boor. On the high fiout seat were a uniformed driver aud his male. The point of interest was that the lorry contained six large ingots of dull yellow metal. Magnum, the seicntiGc consultant, and Ivor Meredith, his young assistant, happened to bo gazing 'down from the upper witubuv ot a building in Mark Lane the anteroom to a client's office. of-fice. "It looks like geld' remarked Meredith mildly. "It is," returned Magnum, and with a quick mental calculation he summed up Ihe value of the ingots. "Over two hundred thousaird pounds' worth.'' "I should have thought it a very dangerous way to carrv gold about." "No the safest, possible. Note those two men on either side of the road. Thev're bank detectives. They watch the'lorrv from the docks to the Bank of Kngiaud. The ingots are far too heavv for anyone to steal. There's no 'possibility ' of losing them on the wav." In a block of traffic the lorry came to a standstill for some moments. Passengers Pas-sengers on the tops of motor buses looked down on the yellow ingots, open to anvone's inspection, and exchanged remains of astonishment. bike Meredith, Mere-dith, thev did not realize that this apparently ap-parently ' crude method of transporting gold had been decided, upon by the keenest brains in the Bank of England. "Suppose," mused Meredith, "that a gang of thieves had arranged to stop that lorry. They might overpower those two detectives and get them out of the way. The two men on the front, seat would know nothing of it. Then the " "Rubbish!" interrupted Magnum imnationtlv. "Imagine a man stagger ing through Mark Lane in broad daylight, day-light, with a quarter-ton ingot of gold iii his arms. Might as well try to steal a dead elephant! " Meredith blushed and shrank into silence. si-lence. Three davs later Magnum was called to the telephone in his office at Upper Thames street. "Ves, ves, this is Magnum. Curse that buzzing! Exchange, d 'you think I pay telephone rental in order to listen to fantasias on the buzz-saw!" " Sorrv, ' ' murmured the exchange operator op-erator mechanically, as she did about o hundred times a day, and replugged the connection jack. "That's better. Now don't cut me oil ten seconds -later. Give me a chance to know who's speaking." "Yes, the telephone service is disgraceful." dis-graceful." said a quiet, dignified voice nt the other end of the wire. "This is Sir Walter Symonds of the Bank ot England. Will yoii do me the favor to come to my- office this morning for a consultation?" "Is it urgent? I'm very busy." "Extremely urgent, and - it is a matter I cannot very well discuss over the telephone. One never knows who may be listening." "Quite possible," agreed Magnum. ''Abominable service! I'll be with you in half an hour." J Sir Walter Symonds, one of the directors of the bank, made a marked contrast to his visitor. The banker was quiet, leisured and dignified under all circumstances. Magnum was always hurried. After a few courteous commonplaces, com-monplaces, Sir Walter entered upon the subject of the consultation: "Three days ago a consignment of gold from South Africa was unloaded at the East India docks from H. R. M. S. Windsor Castle, and brought to the bank by our usual method of transport, trans-port, with which yon are doubtless familiar. ' ' "I saw it. Mark Lane. Six ingots." " Exactly. Now, it may seem incredible," in-credible," the banker smiled quietly as through he deprecated the sensationalism sensational-ism of the statement, "but on the way from the docks a.bout twenty thousand nnnnrlw' worth of crnhl el i n nps rprl "With your detectives watching it all the way!" exclaimed Magnum. "Yes, and men in whom we have the utmost, confidence. Six ingots left the ship; six ingots arrived at the bank; but the difference in their weights amounted to about twenty thousand pounds sterling." "Some mistake in weighing." "We have, of course, cabled to Johannesburg Jo-hannesburg to verify weights. They correspond to the weights registered by our men at the docks, but not to1 umU warn -csr' " it k$ v w4 W "Oh, go to blazes!" snapped the nettled Magnum. the weit; h ls yi on on our own scales at t he bullion department. ' ' "It scorns a case tor tlin ord inary detectives,"' returned Magnum without much interest. The banker drew out a letter from a drawer in his desk. "A very remarkable re-markable communication has re'aclied me. The writer states that he has discovered a method of brinin about the disintegration of gold, lie alleges that it is possible fur him to cause an ingot of gold to vanish gradually. I should ' value your opinion on the possibility.. 1 am not a scientist myself, my-self, and" T do not know if one can attach any credence to his statement. Supposing the unlikely ease that it were true, it would be very serious for the stability of the world's money markets, would it not." Magnum took up the letter and examined ex-amined it intently. "H'm," said the scientist noncommittal noncom-mittal ly after reading it. "What is vour opinion?" "I never deny the possibility of any niew scientific discovery. The X-ravs, radium and the transmutation of elements ele-ments were incredi ble enough when they first came to light, though they're commonplace today. ' J '' And your advice?" "If it isn't true, catch him and put him in prison. Tf it is true, put him in a lunatic asylum." Sir Walter laughed pleasantly. "A drastic, remedy! Though 1 am afraid the law is not sufficiently complaisant to allow us to carry out your suggestion." sugges-tion." "A man like that would be a danger to civilization. ' ' ' ' Exactly. The world .'s fabric, of j credit is based on the stability of gold. Therefore, we, as the focus of the world's money markets, are bound to proceed cautiously. He telephoned to me yesterday offering to sell us his secret for 50,000. Naturally he gives i no address or clew by which we might find him. He asks for the sum to be paid in cash to a lawyer whom he will name, and the lawyer will then hand to us the document embodying the secret and the antidote. That removes the.. case out or trie region or hiackmail. We are asked to pav money for a definite legal consideration that it to say, it would be a business transaction, "pure and simple. Now, would you advise us, on the grounds of scientific possibility, to buy this secret for .50,000, or aiiv other sum V Magnum drew himself together from his easy, rather impersonal attitude. The case was now touching him in a very personal way. If he gave wrong advice to a director of the Bank of England it would mean a severe blow to his reputation in the eity of T-on-don. ' ' Xo scientist eon Id express an opinion on the evidence yon have iven me, returned Mnnuin, with some a.sperity, ''Ak him for proof." ' ' Twenty thous;t nd pounds wort li of o!d disnjipeared between the Kast Indian In-dian drxdis and Tfireadneedle street," reminded the banker gently. " Ioes he claim to have managed that ' ' fi-n; naturally he would not lay himself him-self open lo a rharLre of theft." "Sc;ir.-ely theft." "Well, whatever niiht be the leal term for destroying the property of others." "Ask "him to destroy some- of the gold in your bank vaults." "lie said that he would telephone again to me this morning. Perhaps you might care to stay in my office, for the telephone call and speak to him yourself. That is,, if you . are willing to investigate this matter and give us your written opinion. ' ' Magnum, ' with a verv natural prudence, pru-dence, hedged. "I'll talk to him and investigate further. But I shall not definitely take up the case until I can see my way clearer. Xo fee will be due to' me until I hand you a written opinion. ' ' The banker 's eyes smiled pleasantly in cognition of this cautious answer. In Magnum's place ha would have taken ta-ken the same line. Magnum turned to the telephone on Sir Walter's desk and took up the receiver. re-ceiver. ' ' Hello, exchange ! Give me the supervisor. "Is this the supervisor su-pervisor at London Wall? I'm speaking speak-ing from the office of .Sir Walter .Symonds .Sy-monds at the Bank of England a private pri-vate line. A call is expected this morning morn-ing and the bank wants to know from where the call proceeds. Will vou ask your order-line operators to watch for any calls nnd trace them back to then-starting then-starting point? Against the regulations! Why ? J know your operators are busy, hut this matter mat-ter is extremely important and I'm ready to pay for the extra trouble. Damn your regulations! Put me through to the comptroller." " urn i rtd.-i mm tu Lin- lui.ipil oner condescended to listen to Magnum's request re-quest and replied superciliously that it was out of the question. An order-line operator at Wall would be handling 300 or 400 calls an hour during the rush period of the morning. It was impossible impos-sible to divert the operators from their set duties. ' ' This request is from the Bank of England, ' ' emphasized Magnum. "If it came from the king of England En-gland it wouldn't affect the matter," was the flippant answer as , the man rang off. ' 'A government department! ' ' commanded com-manded Sir Walter. Ualf an hour later the expected call came through. "1 want )i0,f)00 for my secret," said a voice which appeared to be made deliberately de-liberately husky as a matter of disguise. Otherwise, it was the voice of an educated edu-cated man, probably under ."(1. "Vou said fifty,1' returned Magnum. ' ' That was yesterday. Torlav it 's sixty. Tomorrow the price may be seventy. ' ' " It may not be worth 70 pence. " ' 1 Then don 't. buy it. " "We might be disposed to buv if we had reasonable proof." "You've had it already." x "How?" "I'll leave that to your recollections of the week." "Arc yon prepared to destroy some of the gold in the bank vaults"'' ' ' ( 'ertainlv not ! " "Why not?" "Because T should have fo install apparatus that would give away my secret." "Then our gold is in no danger." " Except in transit," taunted the voice of the unknown. "And every week there's gold moving into or out of the ban!;. ' ' ' ' With this warning you 've kindlv given us, we shall take precautions. " "Take all the precautious yon ran think of. Engage a squad of' cavalrv to protect your lorries. (r change the route." "Decidedly, change your route if you want to. " "Or Ihe liners that carry the gold." "''luinge tho liners." ' ' There 's something el.-o we shall change. ' ' "What's that?" "That," retnrled Mngnum, "is our secret ! ' ' ' ' You 'd better f a he mv nf for while the price is low," taunted the voice. "Indicate the nature of your discovery. discov-ery. ' ' "It might be a bombardment of al pha ravs from radium, suitably directed." direct-ed." "Would it need to be very near to the gold,"' , ' 1 I- ishing? ' ' ' ' Trying to determine what you offer of-fer us. ' ' ' Vou 'II find that in the envelope with my lawyer. ' ' " Who is he?" " 1-iefore I tell you I want to know if you arc ready to pay 00,000 in cash. A re you ? " ' ' Will you give us a week 's opl ion V ' ' ( 'ertainlv not ! 1 ' came the decided 1 answer. "In a week 'a time my secret might be worth a hundred thousand." 'Oh, go to blazes!" snapped the nettled Magnum, losing his temper, flight. Good-by till Mondavi" The telephone irritations of the morning, morn-ing, coupled with tho eocksureness of this young man, roused Magnum to an inordinate desire to fight out the mystery. mys-tery. Thrusting aside his previous business busi-ness prudence, he told Sir Walter that he would undertake to give a definite written opinion for a fee of a thousand guineas. "That is to say, you guarantee to give us advice which will prove sound in the outcome?" asked the, banker. "Provided I'm given a free hand in the investigation yes!" said Magnum. His first step was to visit the gold vaults inside the citadel of the Bank of England. The head of the bullion department showed him into a steel-lined steel-lined room in which ingots "of gold were stored, some piled up like metal castings in a factory, others resting on low trucks. Magnum uusnapped a pocket magnifying glass and examined minutely the consignment from the Windsor Wind-sor Castle. It was evident that the vanished gold had not been sliced or sawn away, because either of those processes proc-esses would have left a type of surface sur-face easily recognizable under the magnifying mag-nifying glass. On the contrary, the surface sur-face was unmistakably corroded tho marks of identification stamped on the i ingots at Johannesburg were blurred, as with the legend on a coin which has been for a long time in circulation. He of corrosive acid. As Magnum on leaving passed through the outer office, his eye was caught by ihe weighing scale. It was a heavy machine fashioned wholly in brass, very like the scale employed for baggage at a railway station or shipping office. Indeed, In-deed, viewing the heavy weight of the gold ingots, no other type of machine could be employed. "Correct to a quarter of an ounce," mentioned the head of the bullion department, de-partment, laying an affectionate- hand on his protege. On returning to his laboratories at Upper Thames street, Magnum passed n generous word to young Meredith. "You are right and I was wrong," he said. , Meredith flushed with pleasure. "In which matter?" ! "Transporting gold through the streets of Bon don. The bank lost twenty thousand pounds' worth on Mon- i day. 've undertaken to find out how." He explained briefly the conversations of the morning, and then tossed a I sovereign over to the young fellow. "Make it vanish." "In what manner? ' ' "That's for your ingenuity. Try the I radium alpha-rays or high-power alter- I nating currents, or anything else you can think of." Mercrhth looked blank. "T don't see how it 's possible, " he objected, ' ' uu- j less I' use aqua regia. " i " Xo, it wasn't managed with acid.' I could smell the nitric, in aqua regia ' a month old, and there was no trace of ift on the i ngnts. ' ' ' ' Or mereu ry. ' ' "It would take a couple of weeks; for mercury to dissolve up twenf y i thousand pounds' worth of field. I ! wa nt some met hod which will do the trick in an hour or two. Find it. Out i with that cocksure y o u n g m an who wants sixty thousand 1V an en- : velope! " j Meiediih, roused by the. spur of com-' petition, took up the sovereign and set to work to dan on t a campaign of sciontilic assault against it. j Meanwhile, Magnum entered the motor mo-tor la umdi moored to his back gate I and sped her at a di..v rate down the lower Thames to the Kast India docks,: 'resloring his equanimity by Ihe breathless breath-less rush through the water. Tho Wind-i Wind-i sor ( as! le, her white paint and trim , brass -work dirtied over by the grime of I the Easl End, was patiently enduring i Ihe process of unloading. The hawsers I which held her lo the quay -side were rather insultingly armed with tin I shields, so as to protect the wharf from any plague rats she might be carrying. On board, the fourth officer held charge. i Magnum presented his credentials ! from Sir Walter .Symonds. "I. would like to see the strong room, ' 5 he asked. "The detectives have done that already. al-ready. Yon clumsy swab! " answered 1 the fourth officer. ' The latter part of his remark whs addressed to a stevedore. steve-dore. "T want to see it also." , "The purser or his assistant has Ihe keys, and they're both on shore leave during the unloading. ' ' "Bring them both here," ordered Magnum, impatient of obstacles, and taliped hip letter of introduction emphatically. em-phatically. The fourth officer whistled up a steward in a grimy fatigue jacket. " Wilkes, get this gentleman the moon or anything else he asks for." Then ensued a long period of telephoning tele-phoning in order to find the purser and his assistant. It was not until night fall that they arrived at the dockn, by no means pleased at having their leave interfered with. The purser was a steady-going, middle-aged man, his subordinate a quiet, capable-looking young fellow. "There's nothing to show," frowned the purser, unlocking the door of the strong room and stepping over the two-foot-high sill. "We keep the gold here. The keys are always in my possession, or my assistant's. Nothing happened to the gold on the voyage. The weighing weigh-ing at the dock side proved that. Are you satisfied?' ' "No! " snapped Magnum for want of some better rejoinder. ' ' Why do you a How the keys out of your own possession?" " , " D'you accuse me?" flared the young assistant. Magnum turned his back on him and went snifl'ing round the vault in a highly high-ly impressive, manner. "Well?" demanded the purser. "J reserve my conclusions," retorted Magnum, having formed no conclusions, ami stepped out of the vault. ' The purser expressed his feelings by slamming homo the steel door. Magnum sped ofr in his motor-launch to his home out by the Plumstead marshes, cleaving- through the night mist of the lower Thames like some phantom rider to the sea, plumed with the white foam tossed up by the, razor bow. Tugs bellowed their sirens at him ; ferry boats cu rsed him ; a police boat sleuthing under tho shadow of a deserted wharf hailed him peremptorily, then darted out in pursuit ; but Magnum drove on rrgardless. Be was intoxicated intoxi-cated with tho madness of speed, his one hobby of mental relief from the problems of his profession. The following morning, Saturday, he was at the Bank of England with the request that Sir Walter Symonds should have the six ingots from South Africa loaded on to a lorry aud taken down to tho docks by the usual route and method. The banker looked doubtful. "Suppose "Sup-pose that some more of the sold should disintegrate on the way 1 " he suggested. sug-gested. "So much the better," returned Magnum Mag-num briskly. ' Sir Walter smiled at the rejoinder, and gave the required order. The six ingots were carefully weighed to a quarter of an ounce on the bank scales, and loaded onto the lorry. The detectives detec-tives accompanied on foot. Magnum followed the detectives at a discreet distance, also on foot. Nothing suspicious sus-picious happened. At the docks the ingots were piled on to the official weigh-bridge of the port of London authorities a heavy iron machine rooted to the planking of the quayside. It was, of course, not so accurate as the scale in the Bank of England, but the weight registered corresponded cor-responded closely enough. Nothing had been lost on the way. And so back to the bank, where a third weighing tallied with the others. Another morning wasted, and not a whit nearer a solution of the problem! prob-lem! From Thursday to Monday morning, with only a few hours off' for sleep, the patient Meredith had been continuously continu-ously assaulting that golden sovereign, as well as a specimen of pure gold obtained ob-tained from a jeweler, in the hope of inducing it to shrink, evaporate or otherwise vanish. His efforts were fruitless. The gold seemed as stable as the law of gravitation. " T 'm afraid, ' ' he suggested mildly. Magnum tugged at his strangely reddish red-dish beard, and furrowed his forehead. "It's not the loss of a thousand-guinea thousand-guinea fee J object to, but being beaten by that cocksure young fellow." ' Meredith said nothing. 1 1 is department depart-ment w'as tho purely analytical; he left all initiative to his chief. Magnum was in the act of setting light to a pipeful of his special evil-odored evil-odored mixture, when he suddenly jumped up, and. with a curt "I'm off to the docks," bustled out. The Windsor Castle was now in the process of loading for its end-of-the-wcek departure. Magnum paid no attention at-tention to the. ship, .but made straight for the official weigh-bridge, examining its solid impassiveness with a searching eye. " ' ' What 's below the wharf? " he asked of a port of London harbormaster. harbormas-ter. ' ' The cold storage rooms, sir, ' ' was . the answer. "Could I see over them?" "Certainly. But T should advise you not to stay in them too Jong, as you would be liable to catch a chill." He passed Magnum over to the single attendant in charge of the cold storage. Down below the wharf sidp, Magnum was conducted to an icy rabbit warren of passages where frozen mutton from Australia, game and butter were awaiting, await-ing, in coverings of sacks and muslin nettings, their removal to the markets. "What's above here?" he asked. "Some part of the offices or wharf T couldn't exactly say which, sir." "Have you a plan of the arrangement arrange-ment of these rooms?" "Yes, sir. I'll fetch it." Magnum studied the diagram intently, intent-ly, and made his way to one end of a passage. ' ' Do you happen to remember what was here last Mondav morning on that top shelf?" The attendant scratched his head to stimulate the inside brain. Magnum assisted with a half-crown. "Sacks of game, sir," was the recollection. recol-lection. "They were taking them awav. ' ' "'Who?" "The firm thev belonged to." "Could you trace the firm?" "I'll have to look up my. books. " "Were you watching while the firm's men were down here?" "No, I don't think so. I check at the outer door. ' ' "Did you happen to notice anything peculiar about the packages, they took away?" " Now you mention it, sir, I did. One of them was so heavy that two men had to carry it. I remember saying: say-ing: 'You've got a corpse there.' Of course, that was only a joke." "What were the men "like?" "One of them was just a workman of some kind, and the other was a young fellow, a sort of manager." " Ah! Quiet, dark, capable-looking." "Yes, sir, that would just fit." Magnum passed over a sovereign. "I'm going to telephone for a young man I know to come down to the docks. I'll lead him past, vour office, and I want you to look carefully through the window and tell me afterward after-ward if you recognize him. Don't mention men-tion a word of this to anyone, and there may be a second sovereign for you." Another prolonged bout with the fourth officer, the Steward Wilks and the telephone fetched the assistant purser from his home in North London, highly indignant at this further interruption inter-ruption to shore leave. "What is it now?" he demanded of Magnum. The scientist was, for this occasion only, quite apologetic. "I'm very sorry if I'm giving you unnecessary trouble. Perhaps this fiver will compensate yon?" The young fellow waved it away. "I'm not in the habit of taking tips." "Now ' tell me: The gold was weighed on a port of London weighbridge weigh-bridge on Monday morning?" A careless nod". Magnum led the way toward the machine. "That one?" "Probably." The window of the cold-storage office ; was around the corner. Magnum led j the way slowly past it. "And they' trucked the gold bv this passage to the lorry?" "Possibly. I wasn't here " vv here were youi" "That's not you concern. But if ! want to know particularly I f ' 1 home. I went oif cm leave carlvv at ' day morning." ldny Moa. . "That's all I wanted tn -,ci, '' When the young felT0 insight, in-sight, Magnum returned briskt, !ut cold-storage attendant y to the , "You saw him. Was that the v. man?" . lue young ; "Yes, sir, it was," affirmed u, j tendant. " But la.st Monday l!" 1 wearing another suit 0f clothe, ?as : bowler hat, not a softelt " nd a i "Vou e0u swoar it was ; man?" pursue,! Magnum eagerly. i, "On my Bible oath, sir' " f "Then here's a fiver for you " I Sir .Walter Symonds wore a'a ir . So.Trn as MagDum enl3riil ; "1 have had another telenhon ! sage during the day," he nZl m- 1 "Wo are now asked to pav Tl'T1 thousand pounds for the L ro ( ?h' consulted with my co-directors jL : are anxious to have your nni,,;. ,r earlv as possible." opmoa M f Ttie scientist handed over a Bhert ftf i'-letter i'-letter paper. ' Pay nothing, "Ta, l- 1 brief message, followed by -Man L ' . heavy signature. -uagnms -3 Sir Walter, smiled in relief "nJ your reason?" he asked ' 1 "The gold did not vanish on ifR , from the docks to the bank. Jt ' ' peared between Johannesburg and " !" don-most probably, on the Cpj suspect that for a couple of ww&'ii, -fl strong room of the Winder Castle ll r-turned r-turned into a mercury bath. The vS'" has a high sill to the doorwav, and ' u ! exactly serve that purpose. 4 3 ,a : night's rocking with mercury -j d easily eat off twenty thousanrpoTn worth of gold." ' r1, "But the weighing at the flocks rnr.i;!I respon. roimhly with the JohaMesbu' weight!" objected .Sir Walter. ! -j, 'It's an iron weigh-briilge. " ''I rlo not see the application of tin'1'"" point. " 1 .::e ''In the cold-storage rooms below ft. wharf, one or more men manipulate ' a powerful electro-magnet to der-f the iron scale and so falsify the wish I ing. A very neat and audacious wh But the cleverest feature was to tii -sit the hank off the scent bv the cock-a'-V bull story of a new method for di ' ' tegrating gold. That made vou ' trate on the transport between th. docks and Threadnecdle street, Tn natural. Of course. I personally va' '. deceived for a moment hy the" story j Magnum's recording angel mar i'm. I fre been charitable enough to overlook th-." ' "T knew from the first that it wji ::; : a fairy tale," pursued Magnum, "thopi - f it would not have done to let him peot over the telephone that I 5 riei through it." Thi "Who is this man!" bi "The assistant purser." q-. "Have you had him arrested!" " "No, ray duty ends with explain:;? M ' to you how the scheme was planne-l,'1 answered Magnum. "I have no islet --x est in policemen's work. Fraoklv, I rather admire the fellow's ingenuity! I: he should manage to escape suk '-e well, I don't know that I shoii :.' v feel greatly disappointed!, ;er |