Show iroff Ir OF J effal W WT cwm TH SYNOPSIS percy darcw a scientist lr arch of a job enters the office 0 ha mccarthy of new york me birthy has lust been threatened by ar anonymous nony message ordering him to to europe lie does not take the mes inse darrow roes up th benator to arv for a position with dr nox suddenly the electric apparatus the atlas building koes out of business experts are unable to locate th all at once without apparent ason electric connections are restored fhe next evening mccarthy Is warned unless he leaves at once for europe BIRD will be sant him at six prompt y at that hour the entire electric ampara n of isea york Is cut off percy dar row thinks he has a clue lie tie helo of jack warford a college ath la they visit mccarthy and offer tc un flown the cause of his mysterious rouble mccarthy has just received an ther bv wireless at six a beachly alls on th atlas build k out all sound darrow Is as he leaves the he undisturbed because he believes he la n the track and that another por twit appear at alx lx this time the town Is thrown into darkness and 11 II suspended under cover ol 01 confusion darrow escapes from jail CHAPTER X the lifting of the spell the spell lifted the city broke ato a roar people sprang into rapid nd violent motion as though beleas d from a physical lethargy all over asked the reporter he asked U in a loud shout all over replied darrow you aon t need to yell I 1 m not deaf 1 I guess that s what everybody else to town la doing he surmised certainly this remark was by the sample in the square every man was shouting at his neighbor to the lung straining limit of his ability three exporters exhorters exhort ers their eyes ablaze with fanaticism began to thunder forth dire warnings ot the wrath to rome and gained a hearing men roshid to and tro aimlessly the gen beman with the eldo whiskers who looked like the caricatures of the trusts having at last succeeded in making his imperial wishes known clambered into a taxicab and sat back apparently unimpressed after a moment the driver recovered sufficiently to fall into the habit of obedience and w drove away while the three men watched a burly individual with a red face came hurtling directly at them it they had not dodged hastily to one side they bouw hare buffered a collision the end of the world is at hand this man was repents that s larry remarked the reporter with a grin he keeps bar 1 m hungry observed darrow haven t eaten since noon free lunch suggested the report r practically you won fc be able to get any service anywhere how about that interviews got anything to say yon re the busy little bee tonight aid darrow but ill tell you what do give you a up de at the atlas at not later than nine tomorrow morning and stay at least ten if you can fix it be on the tenth floor hunt up the united wireless man and make him talk then come to me afternoon paper stuff un leas its exclusive said jie reporter instantly it you 11 obey my orders the most important part of it will be exclusive cald darrow the reporter eyed him keenly why he asked I 1 youre hallowell arent you I 1 thought I 1 t mistaken I 1 saw you jt work on that duane street murder aas your work was good besides despatch and the afternoon are too soon for what I 1 want last reason accepted others re alved and placed on file all right agreed darrow have a conr own way only obey orders he entered the door of the bar and advanced on the lunch counter CHAPTER XI S thirty second more at nine the following morn sag five men grouped in mcca hy s office talking earnestly darrow and jack warford ha been the first to arrive mccarthy did not seem surprised to see them nor did he greet with belligerence belll gerence well he demanded welp repeated darrow sinking gracefully on one corner of the table youre an old fool mccarthy what good did sou think it would do you to arrest me 1 I intended to sweat you confessed the boss frankly but I 1 was too busy sweat me eh demanded darrow with bome amusement so you de tided not to dadou bence the lack f enthusiasm on the pert of the police in effecting my recapture you adut imagine I 1 caused all athla d d ou 1 I dont know growled mccarthy out if you or the other fellow or doeier lo eier or it think you ran ha or its lefel so you ve been getting more wireless have you surmised darrow mccarthy cast a surly glance toward jack whom previously he had ig nored yes he admitted grudgingly darrow held out his band after a hesitation mccarthy thrust forward a single yellow paper and darrow read aloud in eplite of the boss warning gesture t mccarthy the sigm has been bent you and bent lour people you ara stub born but it shall not avail you you must go and within twenty four hours it will not avail you unless you go the celtic leaves tomorrow at noo you must go on that phlp I 1 shall know whether or not you obey me once more I 1 shall warn you one more sign shall I 1 send then I 1 shall strike I 1 hes getting garrulous remarked darrow reflectively but he s bellev ed my mind better go go cried mccarthy half starting to his feet not on your life darrow surveyed him calmly you re getting rattled said he and it doean doesn t pay you particularly to try to bluff me A jack rabbit of av firmness could stampede you in your present state of mind you think so sneered mccarthy I 1 know so and you re quite right if you attempt the game too long he 11 destroy you howa demanded mccarthy take my word tor it he can do it replied darrow mccarthy ruminated rumina ted drumming his thick fingers on the desk find him said he at last I 1 intend to replied darrow that 11 be right about your friend a job conceded mccarthy with a nod toward jack I 1 fancy you won t have anything fc do with it returned darrow pleas antly at this moment the door opened and hallowell entered he nodded to dar row and greeted mccarthy nothing tor you growled the lat ter darrow glanced at bis watch he will have in about five aln antes said he to the reporter the fifth member of the party now entered in the person of sammons the united wireless operator on seeing the number gathered in mccarthys McCar thys office he came to a halt darrow immediately detached him self from the group and approached this man anything new he inquired in a low voice sammons glanced toward mccarthy new about what he demanded stolidly any more messages from our mya gerlous friend out in the ether to our equally mysterious friend at the desk I 1 don t know what you meana darrow surveyed him reflectively this Is a pretty big story he said at last and affects a lot of people if you really haven t leaked well I 1 with a jerk of his head to thundered forth dire warning of wrath to come ward mccarthy must bribe high or have a strangle bold on you for fair he looked around to see the boan eye fixed intently on him smiled pleasantly and moved to one side sim mons stepped forward banded mccarthy a caper and went out the boss read the slowly and turned a little pale after a moment or so he surreptitiously drew out hla watch percy darrow smiled he too held bis in his band thirty seconds more about he remarked pleasant the boss looked up startled the last thing he saw was the faintly smiling triumphant face of the joung scientist then ab blackness fell on him for several seconds astonishment held the inmates of the room chained 0 o places and tor that space ol 01 time bound broke the deathly etall nesa then percy darrow keln bis natural voice well jack he remarked it work ed out to a second almost now I 1 m certain As though athla breaking of the sl lence had released a force hitherto held in repression the room filled with tumult and clamor with crashing banging and scurrying of heavy bodies A final concussion shook the air and then again abruptly silence tell say hallowell s voice spoke up a trine uncertainly I 1 II 11 stand for most an kind of a dark but this particular spook business Is getting on my nerves are you there darrow yes I 1 m here answered the scientist well can you explain that phenomenon no menon that drawled darrow a slight dote of laughter in his voice was that extraordinary upheaval of natural forces known as brother mccarthy going away from here hastily jack chucked he hit me on the way out remarked that young man testify he was a spook the reporter was methodically etelk ing match after match but without result after a moment the acrid smell of burning woolen rose in the air are you dropping those matches asked darrow sure they re no good well they re good enough to bum holes in mccarthys McCar thys rugs stamp around a little to put them out and quit it what next and how long asked jack what Is it have we gone blind or Is it a total eclipse or I 1 don t know how long came back darrow s voice calmly next we will get out of the building I 1 want to make some observations get hold of my hand well have to grope our way out it we could only get a light muttered hallowell you cant stated darrow they felt their way down the ten nights of stairs like blind men A few inmates of the building they jostled or passed or picked up on the way in the lower corridors darrow halt ed them here s another thing said he it I 1 m right we should run out tit athla just eleven feet beyond the last elevator cage he felt bis way along the grill made tour paces forward and uttered a lit tie cry of satisfaction the two men followed him blindly As though stepping from one room to another they emerged into glaring daylight both involuntarily looked back the darkness hung there like a curtain just inside the outer walls of the build ing already a crowd had gathered to observe this new and strange phenomenon of the now celebrated atlas building it was a curious and a fa crowd but not as it had been at the first manifestations of this freakish upset of natural forces A man observing the flight of an aeroplane for the first times loses his sense of strangeness inside of a few minutes and yet flying has been since the days of icarus considered one of the impossible achievements so the general public of manhattan were becoming accustomed to of form in the affairs of the physical world the frivolous majority discovered nothing to be apprehended from the phenomena save a few hours helplessness of a sort and guach to b gained through the savor of novelty were inclined to an amused or lr rotated attitude depending on the ex tent to which its occupations were in red with the minority took to religious meetings and interpretations darrow s exit and that of his corn pan lons were greeted uproariously please go way an let me bleed bleep Ble ep sang one at the blinking men heres another a gamin get up the porter wants to make up your berth several of the crowd pending the usual arrival of the police to clear the had ventured through the wide portals and were experimenting with als strange palpable ble quality of darkness one or two popped inside the curtain but emerged quickly look ing a little scared A bright youth made the discovery that if one lighted a match and stepped within the blackness the match waa immediately extinguished but that upon emerging into daylight the flame came up again some one happened along with a plumber s gasoline torch immediately this was lighted and the experiment repeated the bearer of the torch astonished at the instant extinguishment of the flame felt with bla band to see what could be the matter instantly he uttered a yelp ot pain and leaped outside dis playing a badly burned palm there gasn wasn t no flame I 1 swear he explained excitedly but she burn ed just the same he rushed about from one to another displaying his in aured palm to whoever would look darrow paid little attention to this gathering crowd first of all he scanned a paper he held in his band then plunged back again into the blackness jack warford and hallowell left together hesitated uncertainly hell be back the reporter decad ed finally and he a the man to tie to while waiting he proceeded to pick up what information he could from the bystanders it seemed that the first intimation of anything wrong was tol lowed very shortly by the emergence of mccarthy disheveled hatless star ing gasping the boss had stumbled into the street hesitated then started south on a run before any one could stop him be turned a corner and die appeared the excitement at the at laa building had distracted attention from him nobody wondered at his getting rattled and running away the had stumbled vowing never to return to euch a assorted adjectives building that was all there to be to say in the meantime the crowd bad in creased from a few hundred to thou sands police appeared the carrl dors were cleared of all but a few among these were hallowell and jack warford War tord the former as a reporter the latter as the reporter s compan ion doctor knox and professor eld ridge arrived shortly after a time darrow reappeared sauntering quite calmly from the pall of darkness as though emerging from behind a vel vet curtain CHAPTER XII the unknown it now becomes necessary to glance in passing at the personal character of professor eldradge this man was in about his fortieth year tall spare keenly intellectual in coun cenance te nance cool possessed of an absolute reliance on the po vers of science beyond which his mental processes did not stray his manner waa distinguished by a stiff unbending tor malaty his expression by a glacial coldness of steel gray eyes and a straight line compression of thin lips his dress by a precise and unvarying formalism and his speech by a curl ous polysyllabic stiffness this latter idiosyncrasy would in another haye seemed elther priggish of facetiously intended with professor eldradge it was merely a natural method of speech withal bis scientific attainments were not only undoubted but so con as to have won for him against many odds the reputation a great scientist ills speciality it started south on a run few tenants remaining in the building such it might be called was scientific diagnosis the exactness of scientific laws was so admirably duplicated by the exactitudes of bis mind that he seemed able by a and me sympathy to penetrate to th e most obscure causes of the strangest events it might be added that practically his only social ties were those with the Wart and that the only woman with whom he avei entered into conversation was helen at sight of him percy darrow s lounging gait became accentuated to exaggeration hello prof he drawled on the job I 1 see good morning doctor he greeted knox what do you make of it I 1 make of it that the atlas building will shortly be without tenants replied the doctor me for one eldridge surveyed darrow coldly through the glittering of his glasses the cause of these extraordinary phenomena Is self evident he stated you mean their nature not their cause replied darrow in nature they refer back to the interference with etherly and molecular vibrations that he added Is a fact that every boy in the grammer school physics class has figured out for himself the cause is a different matter I 1 stand corrected said eldradge suan lapses in accuracy ot stai emen are not usual with me but may be considered as concomitant with un usual circumstances right 0 agreed darrow cheerfully well what bout the causes that I 1 will determine when I 1 am satisfied that all the elements of tho problem are in my hands right o repeated darrow well bet you a new hat I 1 II 11 land the cause before you do de a sport I 1 never in wagers replied well said darrow to jack and hallowell come on without waiting to see it he waa followed the young man again edento the black and clinging dark ness get hold of my coat bis voice came to the others were going to climb accordingly they climbed in silence up many flights of stairs through the cloying darkness at last darrow halted turned sharp to the left tumbled tor a door and entered a room sammons he said here came a voice I 1 though be on the job said darrow with satisfaction how fl your |