Show by FRANK I 1 LOVELL NELSON master mind 0 carlton clarke in a unique criminal solution S for you clarke I 1 eald as I 1 took the mes sage which the boy de levered at the door 0 our oak street apart meats one morning in mid summer A shade of anxiety passed oer the ace of my house mate strange I 1 thought that cariton clarke the great e detective should be disturbed by so ordan ary an event as the receipt of a telegram clarke took the ellow en delope and held it thoughtfully in his hand as a woman studies a tele gram before summoning the courage to open it do you remember Thalda 9 he naked suddenly etall holding the en delope as I 1 signed the messengers book did I 1 remember As it I 1 could forget that glorious vision of young womanhood that bad flashed into our presence in the ghetto als tract of tear york and whose psychometric cho metric mind bad aided us in the solution of the puzzling mystery of the blue 1 I sea you do continued clarke well my mind ha been filled with forebodings concerning her all morn ing I 1 have no word from her tor several weeks something tells me that this message concerns her and that the news Is not good we will see and he tore open the envelope and read it hastily A chiok of distress passing quickly to a black frown of anger overspread his face without a vord he passed the message to me I 1 read on board S S magellan ott pen bacola sacola fla marconi station the wolfs fangs no signature A ciphers kone that I 1 was familiar with yet it must have a meaning and a deep and terrible one for as I 1 looked at clarke his eyes blazed with anger and beneath it be wore a look of the deepest concern it Is from her the wolf I 1 must save her but how sexton can I 1 count on oa know that without asking I 1 replied but I 1 haven t the slightest idea what it all means of course not come into the 11 arary and I 1 will tell you while we plan some method of action I 1 do not yet know what 1 I first met thalda continued clarke when we were seated in the library when I 1 was an at bellevue sho was a student delving deeper than the mind of woman or goes into subjects phal and psychological she waa a true friend a jovial corn canlon and these traits allied with the beauty of which you can testify had the effect of gathering about her an ever enlarging court but with an admirable reserve she held them all at length I 1 alone came the nearest to her conal dence and the life we lived was ideal both too busy for our chosen work to mar it by thoughts of anything closer both protected she by her womanly reserve I 1 by my sincere respect tor her men armand ae came into our lives he was a young french nobleman very rich living where and how he pleased we were attracted to him by his love of the occult which he had studied in india in tibet wherever the manda of think era run in the direction 0 the able he was suave handsome and at first charming in every way it was not long however until his ad vances to thalda became so pronounced as to cause her to fear him and me to bate him with all my heart when it became necessary for her definitely to repel hla offers ha went out ot our sphere as suddenly as he bad entered it but behind him his curses and his vows of the most terrible vengeance bis fiery gallic spirit could invent J nine years have passed elace then and no blow has fallen unless this Is it after he left translating his name literally we called him the wolf we often talked jokingly of the time when the threatened tangs of the wolf would close upon us th fangs of the wolf it must be thalda As clarke was speaking the bell raa again and a second messenger arrived clarke feverishly toro open the cover and reading it passed it to me it was have struck save me alko the first it was sent by marconi system from the steamship magellan walt exclaimed clarke we can do nothing there will be a third she Is sending me word despite some ter obstacle he bad hardly finished when the third message arrived sent from the same station it read come to would there be a fourth ehni would gar w the final clire all the day we r f L afi 9 sassi S waited with all the patience we could summon but it came not charke spent the time poring over the timetables of the north and south alnea at last he gave up and throwing the time tables from him he exclaimed some thing has happened she cannot aln ish but there Is another means it only she will try it then he lay back in his chair and closed his eyes for more than an hour he did not stir I 1 began to think he slept then he jumped up so sud denly that he startled me quick I 1 have it we are going pack dont torget the arms and plenty of and put in those four automatics we got the other day there may be hot ork before we ever see chicago again lets see the train leaves in an hour and a quarter but where we are going I 1 asked involuntarily bew orleans he shouted as he dashed into hla room to throw his clothes put to me to pack we reached new orleans at dusk and took a cab from the railway station As we drove away looking out of the cab window I 1 saw a swarthy roughly dressed man enter another cab which immediately followed us I 1 thought nothing 0 the incident at the time except to wonder how such a looking individual happened to be riding in cabs and then flie full import of charke s devilish cunning hiis mastery of the minds of men by the use of forces which bordered on the supernatural dav ned upon me here was the pilot ilch would guide us to the lair of the wolf and to thai da the spy turned to account against his own employer the rth lay by water this evidently charke bad discovered yes it was absurdly simple re marked charke quietly divining as he so often seemed to do my train of thought As soon as I 1 found we were watched I 1 knew I 1 had the master key to the it was easy to turn from the shadowed to the shadow I 1 slipped out of the hotel through the kitchens prepared the way tor you and while our pilot here waa watching the front entrance of the hotel I 1 was within a step 0 him and watching him you know my method and it was not long before I 1 had him in my power and knew all that he knows it Is not much except that de loup has some sort of rendezvous on an obscure Is land about 20 miles up the coast from the delta it Is called the he des serpents and we are going to find out what goes on there god send we do not get there too late charkes clarkes Cl arkes eyes took a faraway look and I 1 knew he was thinking of thalda before midnight we make beet said bloc who was steering by the compass silently we drew on the larder for a repast consisting of what ever we could find that needed no cooking then despite the tossing of our craft I 1 succeeded in making a pot of steaming hot coffee we were too near the unknown to be in the mood for conversation about 11 bloc who was peering into the darkness ahead ahls A la drott alle des serpents I 1 looked and rising out of the dark nesa was a black mass against the softer shades of the shore line with directions given in whispers we made fast to the landing you will stay here with the launch whispered clarke to bloc and have it reidy to get away at once in case we need it we stepped lightly out on the land ing and found ourselves facing a dor r of iron in the otherwise blank wall a heavy door In crusted with knobs and leset with strange heraldic devices in bag relief these latter drew clarke s attention and he studied them earnest ly jn the dim light then turning to ise with a smile of triumph ho ahls ah I 1 thought BO I 1 have the kaeter key come we will go in 0 o sound broke the stillness there was nothing to denote that a human habitation of any sort laya beyond the blank wall clarke lifted a heavy knocker in the center of the door and began a tattoo of alternating long and short raps these were answered from within and my companion la hla turn answered these signals what Is your age challenged a deep voice I 1 was at clarke s an ewer in an even tearless tone five years ho said whence do you come again in quiren the voice from the eternal flame answered my companion whither do you go rang out the question to the flame eternal wa the re kiy whom do you bring A hitherto deluded who would gain among us and thua A A A it horror oi a night and the intercept S ion oi a wireless message go to make up the aling features oi a strange case a which confronts chicago reporter and his friend the detective s cam the true story of the fall of the great and then it dawned upon me that no matter with what diabolical fra we were dealing clarke with his wonderful knowledge of the vaga rles that have possessed the human mind since the dawn ot the ages had its ritual at his tongues end dut you waste our time which Is precious if the examination Is satis factory lead us to the vice regent of lucifer and it he so desire he may question us further commanded clarke in a tone of authority als well to the temple of ba hornet answered the sentry he turned and motioned us to fol low we entered and heard the door close behind us with a click leaving us in utter absolute darkness and then seeming to come from the over our heads spoke a voice so terrible in its menace so steely cruel in its tones that I 1 felt my knees be gin to batter against each other let them that would look upon the face of the vice regent of the evil one enter through the eternal flame it said it they come on the business ot the great lucifer they pass un swathed scathed otherwise they wither up and die our guide bad disappeared as if by magic motioning me to follow clarke pressed forward we neared the flame and still there came no heat then clarke stepped into it and was lost to sight while I 1 stood alone in that awful corridor summoning all my courage I 1 too stepped into the flame beyond a tingling of the nerves and a stinging ot the skin I 1 felt no sensation I 1 found myself with clarke in an am mense hall the counterpart in devil ish decoration of the passageway we had left the walls root and floor were of stone and the whole scene was so broken with recesses grottoes and innumerable stone images ot sa beings that it was difficult to judge its size behind us the flame alternately flashed and flickered it there was another entrance it was so cunningly concealed as to escape our notice before us was a massive al tar apparently hewn in the solid rock though upon closer examination I 1 found it as well as all of the interior decoration to be of con crete we were alone at least we saw no forms but those of the devils and imps that as in the corridor flashed their many colored eyes upon us from all suddenly the stillness was broken by a voice from somewhere tn the deep recesses of the cavern a voice steely and cruel in its icy suavity I 1 looked yes thalda was there she seemed even more beautiful than in the brief period when I 1 had before seen her her robes clung to the graceful outlines of her willowy form her black hair was colled tightly into a crown about her beautifully shaped head and in its tresses one red rose matching perfectly the coral of her lips was the only bit of color proudly ehe walked and hypatia before the monks of cecil was not love nor more disdainful of her execl she took her place calmly before the center of the semicircle the count approached her and taking her hand touched it to his lips with a tri smile she offered no show of resistance had she steeled herself to submit meekly to whatever be in store tor then ensued some ritualistic gibberish of which I 1 could not catch the import during which each member of the semicircle seized whit looked 0 o be a chalice from the I 1 altar and beat it with a short stick 0 lucifer star of the morning answer tapu unto the conjuration of the four and say it it is thy will that this maiden become a faithful pal ladet inay service this the count intoned in a solemn bolce from somewhere in ehg root came tha answer in hollow reverberating rever berating tones it Is my will then come thou art mine said the count as with outstretched ams he adva aeed toward she stood breet 3 he w r i r A r J t s w q her and I 1 trembled to BOO loveliness profaned by his unholy touch ills arms were just about to fold her in their embrace hen my straining eyes saw a llotd green flash strike from the whiteness of her throat full upon the forehead ot the count it hurtled I 1 saw him throw out his arras wildly as it trying to fight it off but there it clung a writhing glistening streak ot green j the count tottered his face and hands began to turn to the sickly shade ot tarnished brass with a great cry he reeled headlong leaping oer the prostrate form thalda flew lahe a deer I 1 heard the bar of clarke s prison bouso fall then the door of mine swung open in the twinkling of an eye we were behind those little steel cages thalda be tween us at that instant the lights went out and we were in styrlan darkness at the end of the hall we heard the hurrying of many feet and the moans of men in terror of an awful death al most mechanically we drew our weapons and began to empty four into the blackness ahead I 1 do not know whether or not any of our chota took effect I 1 heard no cries when we stopped to reload and the reverberations ot the lade had died away in tho recesses of the root all was still to the boat whispered clarke we picked up the now ta inting thalda dashed through the aura of flamo and down the corridor now in utter darkness dar kaess the door barred for a moment our progress but clarke finders soon fouad the bolt and we were ee it WM by raw said ubalda 1 I far had no thought of de loup and had long since hoped that he had passed out ot our lives when I 1 was summoned by a false letter on board the magel lan in new york harbor once there I 1 was seized and locked in a cabin we were sitting in the ladles cabin I 1 was watching the waves dashing over her bows de loup sat watching me writing materials were on the desk at my elbow but I 1 dared not even look at them for tear of his suspicions then sudden ly F looked up he was dozing I 1 snatched a pen and wrote your ad dress and three words of the message then he roused and I 1 bad only time to snatch the paper and conceal it in my dress before bis sharp eyes were again upon me I 1 would send it any way I 1 knew your intuitive wit would make something of it I 1 In trusted it to the stewardess fortunately they had left me my money I 1 told her it was a cypher and she swore to give it to the wireless operator in his little rookery on the upper deck that was in the morning in the afternoon I 1 again had a chance to write a few words when I 1 was again stopped by de loup s eye I 1 again went to my cabin and calling the stewardess sent it to the same address I 1 had one more chance to write but when it came to telling you where to find me I 1 suddenly remembered that I 1 did not know I 1 sent the dispatch anyway I 1 bad no more chance to write I 1 believe that de loup already suspected I 1 now think he knew it all the time and was arloue that I 1 lure you on for thai same day he told me that our destination was near new orleans I 1 till hoped for ao banc to get you word but all thae time I 1 those two words to you with all tha intensity of my being woman like she had omitted that part we were most to hear t the cause of the death ot the wolf t 0 yes she continued but the blow that struck him I 1 had reserved for myself when all else had failed we were on the launch going up the narrow harbor of the island I 1 was v alone on the after deck watching the y snakes thit colled and twisted in the branches that almost swept the steea of the boat they had no horror tor j me tor as you know I 1 have a strange i 4 power over all animal life suddenly a peculiar lettla green snake fell from a tree limb onto the deck almost at my feet from its triangular head I 1 knew it to be deadly poisonous here was my weapon I 1 snatched it up and f j concealed it in my dress I 1 might be able to turn it upon the count it |