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Show The Exploits of Elaine I J A Detective Novel and a Motion Picture Drama 2 r , t I By ARTHUR B. REEVE j r 2 I TheWell-KnownNooeliil and the "ri i .? Creator of the "Crcig Kennedy" Stories j j ? Presented in Collaboration With the Pathe Players and the Fclectin Film Company i I ropyrlRbt, 1M1, by the Star Company AH Koreipn RihtK tte-sprved i q 1 . 1 v;;icli to record something, and you, miss, are a tool!" j 1 Ihth was no conibatins Mi; j Siatis-tix. Siatis-tix. She overwhelmed all arguments by the very exactness of ner personality. person-ality. Elaine departed, speechless, properly prop-erly squelched, tollowed by her chauffeur. 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 sold lettering, "Metropolitan Window Cleaning company." lie carried a bucket and a small extension ladder. fn 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-! 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 later. 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. "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- I One of the maids whs sweeping In I the hall as Dan went toward the "'a- ! ! uow, about to Nvash it. J "I wonder whether 1 locked those i windows?" muttered Jennings, paus-j paus-j iug in the hallway. "1 guess I'd bet-! bet-! ter make sure." I He had taken only a step toward I the library again when Dan watchfully caught si;;ht of him. It would never I do to have Jennings snooping around ! there now. Quick action was necessary. neces-sary. Dan knocked over a costly Sevres vase. "There clumsy see what you've done!" berated Tennings, starting to pick up the pieces. Dan had acted his part well and promptly. In the library Clutching Hand was busily engaged at that moment mo-ment beside the secret panel searching search-ing for the spring that released it. He ran his finger along the woodwork, pausing here and there without succeeding. suc-ceeding. "Confound it!" he muttered, searching search-ing feverishly. Kennedy, having made the arrangements arrange-ments with the telephone company by which he had a clear wire from the Dodge house to his laboratory, had re-ioined re-ioined me there and was putting on the finishing touches on his installation 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. Wo had L ' Kennedy Shows Elaine the Little Instrument that Saved Her Life. had ft repaired,'1 he remarked to Aunt Josephine. Suddenly his face lighted I up. ""Ah an idea:" ne exclaimed, j "o one will ever think to look inside ! that." I "Now. Mrs. Dodge." he said finally, as he had completed installing the thing and biding the wire under carpets car-pets and rugs until it ran out to the connection which he made with the telephone, "don't breathe a word of it to anyone. We don't know whom to tru:-t 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 nilly surreptitiously drew from under his coat a half loaf of bread. With a glance about, he dropped it Into the gutter close to the entrance tr Elaine's car. Then he withdrew a little lit-tle distance. When Elaine came out and ap proached her car, Billy, looking as cold and forlorn, as could be, shot forward. for-ward. Pretending to spy the dj it piece of bread in the enlter, he matte a dive for it, just a- r-".:j.::ic vas aboul to step into the car. Elaine, surprised, drew back. Billy picked up the piece of bread and with all the actions of having discovered a treasure began to gnaw at it voraciously. 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 pathy. She had taken the fooc 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 fai 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 canyons, dodging children and push carts, stopping first at a grocer's, ther at a butcher's and a delicatessen Finally the car stopped where Bill directed. Billy hobbled out, followec by Elaine and her chauffeur, his arms piled high with provisions. She was indeed a lovely Lady Bountiful as ti crowd of kids quickly surrounded the car. In the meantime Dago Mike anc 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 anc emaciated, but it was dissipation thai had done it. Dago Mike was corre 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 erutcfc that was standing idly in a corner She coughed resignedly and he limpec about, forlorn. They had assumed their parts, which were almost to the burlesque of poverty, when the dooi was pushed open and Billy burst in followed by Elaine and the chauf feur. "Oh, ma oh, pa," h.e cried, running forward and Lissing his pseudo par ents, as Elaine, overcome with sym pathy. directed the c'aauffeur to la; the things on a shaky .able. Just then tie door opened again All were genuinely surprised this time if! ) t if - t i' S. j sf 4 if it 1 1 A t(mh By a Sort of Instinct Kenned) Seemed to Recognize the Sounds "Elaine!" He Exclaimed, Turnini Pale. for a prim, spick and span, Middle aged woman entered. "I am Miss Statfstix, of the organ ized charities," she announced, look ing around sharply. "I saw your ca standing outside miss, and the chil dren below told me you were up here I came up to see whether you wen aiding really deserving poor. She laid a marked emphasis on tin word, pursing up her lips. There wa no mistaking the apprehension tha these fine birds of prey had of hei either. "Why wh what's the matter? asked Elaine, fidgeting uncomfortably "This man is a gunman, that worn an is a bad woman, the boy is Bill: ! the Bread Snatcher," she answerei precisely drawins out a. card oi In the corner, as If T mrracle, cara a deep, loud voice. "Help! Help; Murder! Policel 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. They looked about. Not a soul. Then, to their utter consternation, from the helmet again came the deep, vibrant warning. "Help! Murder! Police!" Kennedy and I 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!" vVhat it meant we did not know. But Craig was almost beside himself, as he ordered me to get the police by telephone, tel-ephone, if there was any way to block them. Only instant action would count, however. What to do? We could hear the master crinj. inal plainly fumbling now. "Yes, that's the Clutching hand, ' h repeated. "Wait," I cautioned, "someone elss is coming!" By a sort of instinct he seemed to recognize the sounds. "Elaine!" he exclaimed, paling. , Instantly followed, in less than I can tell it, the sounds of a suppressed shuffle. "He has seized her gagged 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. Ha was equal to the emergency. He calmly turned the switch. Then, at the top of his lungs he shouted: "Help! Help! Police! They are strangling me!" I looked at him in amazement. What did he think he couM ''.o blocks away? "It works both ways," Be muttered. "Help! Murder! Police!" We could hear the astonished cursing curs-ing of the two men. Also, down th 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 Clutching Clutch-ing Hand. "Here they come, too, Chief!" There was a parting scuffle. "There take that!" t "A loud metallic ringing came from the vocaphone. Then silence! What had happened? In the library, recovering from their crock of surprise, Dan cried out to the Clutching Hand. "The deucel What Is it?" Then looking about, Clutching 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 that someone was in the library. With a parting thrust, Clutching Hand sent Elaine reeling. 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 of it spilled the vocaphone, with a bang on the floor. An instant later those in the hall rushed in. But the Clutching Hand and Dan were gone out of the window, win-dow, the criminal carrying the greater 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. ' J 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 back to her. "Are you all right?" "Yes all right thanks to the vocaphone." voca-phone." She had understood in an instant. She seized the helmet and breastplate to which the vocaphone still was attached at-tached and was holding them close to herself. Kennedy had been calling and listen lis-ten ng intently over the machine, wondering won-dering whether It had been put out of business in some way. "It works-yet!" he cried excitedly to me. "Elaine!" r ."J?8; Cra,s" came oacR over tha faithful little Instrument. "Are you all right?" "Yes all right." "Thank heaven!" breathed Cralr. pushing me aside. ,L,lFt,!y, k'SSei U,'at 'ocaphon. as if It had been human! ' lTo be ('OVTiNmaru f SYNOPSIS. The New York police art- mvstiflf bv a R'Tifa.i of niunli-rs of promim-nt mt-n. The ji-ln-lpi! clu lo the murd. n-r is tin- warn-ui warn-ui It; tier which Is sent tin; victims, signed vilh a 'VhitchliiK hand." The victim vic-tim o( tin- mysu-riouy assassin is Taytnr iM-h;--, thf tnsuram-r picsi-lcnt. ills tighter, tine, employs Cmitf vi n-ti.-.ly, t he fan tons sHcii 1 1 tic uVI-tive. to irv to unravel the inyst-ry. What Kn-ii.ily Kn-ii.ily ueei.inplisheH is told by his friend Jit in"4fn, a newspaper man. Khun-' Is kidnaped kid-naped hy th; ClntehiriK Hftnd. hut Is rescued res-cued by Kennedy, who has discovered her wli.-re.ijoul.s 1 1 trough using1 I hird deffroe rnethmly on one of the crooks. EIGHTH EPISODE The Hidden 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. I leaped out of bed, still in my pa-Jamas, 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 demanded. de-manded. 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, began be-gan to throw aside the pillows. There lay nothing but a little oblong 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," I gasped, "what do you know about that?" Very early that morning Craig had got up, leaving me snoring. Cases never wrearied him. He thrived on excitement. ex-citement. He had gone over to the laboratory and set to work in a corner over another an-other of I hose 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 rone the less curious to find out all about it. "What is it?" I asked, indicating the apparatus. MA 7 ?caphone," 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 transmitter trans-mitter is so sensitive that it picks up even a whisper, and' the receiver is placed back" of those two megaphonelike megaphone-like py.ramids." He was standing at a table, carefully careful-ly packing up one of the vocaphones nd a lot of wire. "I believe the Clutching Hand has been shadowing the Dodge house," he continued thoughtfully. "As long as we watch the place, too, he will dD nothing. But if we should seem, ostentatiously, os-tentatiously, not to be watching, perhaps per-haps he may try something, and we may be able to get a clue to his identity 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 nat. "I am going to connect up one f these things in Miss Dodge's library libra-ry and arrange with the telephone tompany for a clear wire so that we can listen in here, where that fellow will never suspect." At about the same fame that Craig nd I sallied forth on this new mission, mis-sion, Elaine was arranging some flow-ers flow-ers on a stand near the comer of the Dodge library where the secret panel was in which her father had hidden the papers for the possession of which the Clutching Hand had murdered tiim. She had moved away from the table, but is she did so. her dress caught In someth'ne in the woodwork. She tried to loosen it and in so doing touched the little metallic spring on tvhicb her dress had caught. Instantly, to her utter surprise, the panel moved. It slid open, disclonins ft strong box. Elaine took It, amused, looked ! il i moment, then carried it to a taile and opened K- " Inside were so.ue papers, sealed in in envelope and marked "Limpy Red Correspondence." "They n,;st Be the Clutching Hand apers!" she exclaimed to herself, levUatlnf osomeut, In doubt wat U, U She seized the telephone and eagerly eager-ly called K nnedy's number. "Hello," answered a voice. "Is that you, Craig?" she asked excitedly. ex-citedly. "N'o, this Is Mr. Jameson." "Oh, Mr. Jameson, I've discovered the Clutching Hand papers," she began, be-gan, more and more excited. "Have you read thorn?" came back the voice quickly. "No; shall I?" "Then don't unseal them," cautioned the voice. "Put them back exactly as you found them and I'll tell Mr. Kennedy Ken-nedy the moment I can get hold of him." "All right," said Elaine. "I'll do that. And please get him as soon as you possibly can." "I will." "I'm going out shopping now," she returned, suddenly. "Hut, tell nlm I'll be right back right away." "Very well." Hanging up the receiver, Elaine dutifully replaced the papers in the box and returned the box to its secret hiding place, pressing the sprii.g aud 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 underworld under-world "monniker," had been shadowing 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 Clutching Clutch-ing Hand. Far down the street, in a closed car, the Clutching Hand himself, him-self, his face masked, gave an answering an-swering sign. A moment later he left the car, gazing 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 repeatedly failed to locate them at the Dodge house. At any rate he was busily engaged in ransacking drawers and cabinets, in the laboratory, labora-tory, when the telephone suddenly rang. 1 - - An instant he hesitated. Then, disguising dis-guising his voice as much as he could to imitate mine, he took up the receiver. re-ceiver. "Hello!" he answered. His face was a study in all that was dark as he realized that it was Elaine calling. He clenched his crooked crook-ed bi.nd even more viciously. "Have you read them?" he asked, curbing his impatience as she unsuspectingly unsus-pectingly poured forth her story, sup-possedly sup-possedly to me. "Then don't unseal them," he hastened has-tened to reply. "Put them back. Then there can be no question about them. You can open them before witnesses.", wit-nesses.", For a moment be paused, then added: 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 moment 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 "Brotherhood "Brother-hood of Falsers." There, in the back room of a low dive, were Dan the Dude, the emissary who had been loitering loi-tering about the laboratory, a gunman, 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 vayts. Elaine had not been gone long from the house when Craig a:id I arrived there. "Too bad," greeted Jennings, "but . Miss Elaine has just gone shopping . and I don't know when she'll be back." i Aunt Josephine greeted us cordially, and Craig set down the vocaphone package he was carrying. "I'm not going to let anything happen hap-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?" l asked Aunt Josephin6 keenly. "I'm going to put in a vocaphone," he returned, unwrapping it. ; "What's that?" she asked. "A loud speaking telephone con-: con-: nected with my laboratory," he ex-! ex-! plained, repeating what he had already al-ready told me. wiile she listened al-i al-i most awe-struck at the latest scientific I wonder. He was looking about, trying to fig-I fig-I ure out Just where it could be placed , to best advantage, when he approached i the suit of armor. ' see you have brought it back and amining the order and finding it apparently ap-parently all right. ' Dan followed him in, taking the lad-" lad-" der and bucket upstairs, where Aunt Josephine w'as still reading. "The man to clean the windows, 1 ma'am," apologized Jennings. "Oh, very well," she nodded, taking I 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 tow-ard 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 nearby near-by drug store and going into the telephone tele-phone booth. Without a moment's hesitation he called upon the Dodge house, and Marie, Elaiue's maid, answered. an-swered. "Is Jennings there?" he asked. "Tell him a friend wants to speak to him." "Wait a minute," she auswered. "I'll get him." Marie went toward the library, leaving leav-ing the telephone off the hook. Dan was washing the windows, half inside, in-side, half outside the house, while Jennings Jen-nings was trying to be very busy, although 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 ,he library. The butler responded slowly, with a oovert glance at Dan. No sooner had they gone, however, than Dan climbed all the way into the room, ran to the door and looked after them. Then he ran to the window. ' Across and down the street, the Clutching Hand was gazing at the 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 r this time the chauffeur was keeping .- Jennings busy over the telephone with i. some trumped-up story, a As the master criminal came in by the ladder through the open window, e Dan was on guard, listening down the s nallway. A signal from Dan, and t Clutching Hand slid back of the por-, por-, tieres. Jennings was returning. "I've finished these windows," an-" an-" nounced Dan as the butler reappeared. . "Now, I'll clean the hall windows" i- Jennings followed like a shadow, v No sooner had they gone than i Clutching Hand stealthily came from ? behind h portiere,a. heard the window cleaner and Jen: nings, but thought nothing of it at the time. Once, however, Craig paused, and I 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. Kennedy fnowned. What was that scratching noise? Could it be Jennings? Jen-nings? Perhaps it was Rusty. Just then we could distinguish a , sound as though someone had moved about. . "No that's not Jennings," cried Craig. "He went out." He looked at me a moment. The same stealthy noise was repeated. "It's the Clutching Hand!" he exclaimed ex-claimed excitedly. A moment later Dan hurried into the Dodge library. "For heaven's sake, Chief, hurry!" he whispered hoarsely. "The Falsers must have fallen down. The girl herself 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," she said softly. Jennings had obeyed and gone upstairs. up-stairs. Elaine moved toward the library. li-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 saw-no one. Then she went quickly to the panel, found the spring and pressed it. .So many queer things had happened hap-pened to her since she went out that she had begun to W;;'ry over the safety 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 Clutching Clutch-ing Hand crept up behind her. As he did so, Dan gazed in through the portieres por-tieres from the hall. With a spring, Clutching Hand leaped at Elaine, snatching at the papers. pa-pers. Elaine clung to them tenaciously, tenacious-ly, in spite of the surprise, and they struggled for them, Clutching Hand holding one hand over her mouth to prevent her screaming. Instantly Dan was there, aiding his chief. "Choke her! Strangle her! Don't let her scream!" he ground out. They fought viciously. Would she succeed? It was two desperate, unscrupulous un-scrupulous men against one frail girl. Suddenly, from the man in armor |
