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Show fir The Exploits of Eiame ! I i X A Detective Novel and a M.otion Picture Drama 2 J . t f By ARTHUR B. REEVE I j 1 ! The Well-Known Noocliil and the I 1) T Creator of the "Craig Kennedy" Storiel jj I T T Presented in Collaboration With the Pathe Players and the Eclectic Film Company 2 Copyright, ly 14, by the Star Company. All KorelfQ Uifhts Reserved. the poveriul limuusiuc. vju uptown they went, the cinly thing preventing the limousine from escaping being the fear of pursuit by traffic police if the driver let out speed. They were content con-tent to manage to keep just far enough ahead to be out of danger of having Kennedy overhaul them. As for us, we followed as best we could, on uptown, up-town, past the city line, and out into the country. There Kennedy lost sight altogether alto-gether of the car he was trailing. Worse than that, we lost sight of Kennedy. Still we kept on blindly, trusting to luck and common sense in picking the road. I was peering ahead over the driver's shoulder, the window down, trying to direct him, when we approached ap-proached a fork in the road. Here was a dilemma which must be decided at once, rightly or wrongly. As we neared the crossroad I gave an involuntary exclamation. Beside the road, almost on it, lay the figure of a man. Our driver pulled up with a jerk and I was out of the car in an instant. in-stant. There lay Kennedy! Someone had blackjacked him. He was groaning and just beginning to show signs of consciousness as I bent over. "What's the matter, old man?" I asked, helping him to his feet. He looked about dazed a moment, then seeing me and comprehending, he pointed excitedly, but vaguely. "Elaine!" he cried. "They've kidnaped kid-naped Elaine!" What had really happened, as we learned later from Elaine and others, was that when the crossroads was reached the three crooks in the limousine limou-sine had stopped long enough to speak to an accomplice stationed there, according ac-cording to their plan for a getaway. He was a tough-looking individual who might have been hoboing it to the city. When, a, few minutes later, Kennedy Ken-nedy and Elaine had approached the fork, their driver had slowed up, as if Elaine, equal to nnytning, aid so, anu Craij bent down and cranked the engine. en-gine. It started on the first spin. "See;" he exclaimed. "There wasnt anything, after all." We took a step toward the taxicab. "Mr. Kennedy look out!" cried Elaine. Craig turned. Hut it was too late. The rough-looking fellow had awakened awak-ened to life. Suddenly he stepped up behind Kennedy with a blackjack. As the heavy weight descended Craig crumpled up on the ground unconscious. uncon-scious. With a scream, Elaine turned and started to run. Hut the chauffeur seized her arm. "Say, bo," he asked of the rough fellow, fel-low, "what does Clutching Hand want with her? Quick! There's another cab likely to be along in a moment with that fellow Jameson in it." The rough fellow, with an oath, seized her and dragged her into the taxicab. "Go ahead!" he growled, indicating in-dicating the road. 1. away they sped, leaving Kennedy Ken-nedy conscious on the. side of the road, w we found him. "What are we to do?" I asked helplessly help-lessly of Kennedy, when we had at last got him on his feet. His head still ringing from the force ot the blow of the blackjack, Craig stooped down, then knelt in the dust of the road, then ran ahead a bit, where It was somewhat muddy. "Which way which way?" he muttered mut-tered to himself. I thought perhaps the blow had affected af-fected him and leaned over to see what he was doing. Instead, he was studying the marks made by the tire of the Clutching Hand cab. More slowly now and carefully, we proceeded, for a mistake meant losing the trail of Elaine. We came to another crossroads and the driver glanced at Craig. "Stop!" he ordered. In another inslant he was down in f '' & rvs. : A i j Kennedy Quietly Examined the Showcase. From the other side Martin, tallowed tal-lowed by the police and the detectives, detec-tives, burst in. "Fire!" cried one of the policemen, leaping back to turn in an alarm from the special apparatus upstairs. All except Martin b"L-an beating out the flames, using such weapons as they already held in their hands to batter down the door. To Martin there was one thing paramount para-mount the jewels. In the miiUt of the confusion, Elaine, closely followed by her friend, Susie, made her way fearlessly Into the stifle of smoke down the stairj. "There are your jewels, Mr. Martin," cried Kennedy, kicking the precious burlap bag with his foot as if it had been so much ordinary merchandise, and turning toward what was in his mind the most important thing at stake the direction taken by the agents of the Clutching Hand. "Thank heaven!" ejaculated Martin, fairly pouncing on the bag and tearing it open. "They didn't get away with them after all!" he exclaimed, examining exam-ining the contents with satisfaction. Events were moving rapidly. The limousine had been standing innocently in-nocently enough at the curb near the corner, with the taxicab close behind be-hind it. Less than ten minutes after they had entered, three well-dressed men came out of the vacant shop, apparently appar-ently from the tailor's above, and climbed leisurely into their car. As the last one entered, he half turned to the taxicab driver, hiding from passers-by the sign of the Clutching Clutch-ing Hand, which the taxicab driver returned re-turned in the same manner. Then the big car whirled up the avenue. All this we learned later from a street sweeper who was at work near by. Down below, while the police and detectives were putting out the fire, Kennedy was examining the wall of the cellar, looking for the spot where the crooks had escaped. "A secret door!" he exclaimed, as he paused after tapping along the wall to determine its character. "You can see how the force of the explosion has loosened it." Sure enough, when he pointed it out to us, it was plainly visible. One of the detectives picked up a crowbar and others, still with the hastily selected implements they had seized to fight the fire, started in to pry it open. As it yielded Kennedy rushed his way through; Elaine, always utterly fearless, followed. Then the rest of us went through. There seemed to be nothing, however, how-ever, that would help us In the cellar next door, and Kennedy mounted the steps of a stairway in the rear. The stairway led to a sort of storeroom, store-room, full of barrels and boxes, but otherwise characterless. When I arrived ar-rived Kennedy was gingerly holding up the smocks which the crooks had worn. "We're on the right trail," commented comment-ed Elaine as he showed them to her, "but where do you suppose the owners own-ers are?" Craig shrugged his shoulders and gave a quick look about. "Evidently they came in from and went away by the street," he observed, hurrying to the door, followed by Elaine. On the sidewalk he gazed up the avenue, then catching sight of the street cleaner, called to him. "Yes, sor," replied the man, stolidly, looking up from his work. "I see three gintlemen come out and get into an automobile." "Which way did they go?" asked Kennedy. For answer the man jerked his thumb over his shoulder in the general direction uptown. With keen glance. Kennedy strained his eyes. Far up the avenue he could descry the car threading its way in and out among the others, just about disappearing. A moment later Craig caught sight of the vacant taxicab and rooked his finger at the driver, who answered promptly by cranking his engine. "You saw that limousine standing here?" asked Craig. "Yes," nodded the chauffeur, with a show of alertness. "Well, follow it," ordered Kennedy, jumping into the cab. "Yes, sir." Craig was just about to close the door when a slight figure flashed past us and a dainty foot was placed on the step. "Please. Mr. Kennedy," pleaded Elaine, "let me go. They may lead to my father's slayer." She said it so earnestly that Craig could scarcely have resisted if he had wanted to do so. Just as Elaine and Kennedy were moving off I came out of the vacant store, with Bennett and the detectives. "Craig!" I cried. "Where are you going?" Kennedy stuck his head out of the window, and I am quite sure that he was not altogether displeased that I was not with him. "Chasing that limousine," he shouted shout-ed back. "Follow us in another car." A moment later he and Elaine were gone. Bennett and I looked about. "There are a couple of cabs down there." I pointed out at the other end of the block. "I'll take one, you take the other." Who, besides Bennett, went in the other car I don't know, iut it made no difference, for we soon lost them. Our driver, however, was a really clever fellow. Far ahead now we could see ttie limousine drive around a corner, making a dangerous Bwerve. Ken-, Ken-, nedy's cab followed, skidding dangerously danger-ously near a pole. But tbo tailcab was no match for certainly was a most peculiar noi. Inside that tank. Was a nuinied scream? Kennedy reached down and picked up a rock, hitting the tank with a resounding re-sounding blow. As the echo died down, he listened again. Yes there was a sound a scream, perhaps-a woman's voice, faint, but unmistakable. I looked at bin fce inqunlnfily. . Without a word I read in it the con. firmation of tho thought that had Hashed into my mind. Elaine Dodge was inside! .. First had come the limousine, with its three bandits, to the spot fixed oo a9 a rendezvous. Later had come tu taxicab. As it hove into sight, th three well-dressed crooks had drawn revolvers, thinkintr perhaps the plan for getting rid of Kennedy might possibly pos-sibly have miscarried. But the. taxV cab' driver and the rough-faced fellow . had reassured them with the sign o! the Clutching Hand, and the revolvers were lowered. As they parleyed hastily, tho roughneck and the fake chauffeur lifted Elaine out of the taxi. She was bound and gagged. "Well, now we've got her, what shall we do with her?" asked one. "It's got to be quick. There"i n-other n-other cab." put in the driver. "The deuce with that." "The deuce with nothing," a returned. re-turned. "That fellow Kennedy's a clever one. He may come to. If ho does, he won't miss us. Quick, now!" - "See," cried the third. "See that old boiler down there at the edge of the water? Why not put her in there? No one'll ever think to look in such a place." With a hasty expression of approval, the roughneck picked Elaine up bodily, still struggling vainly, and together they carried her, bound and gagged, to the tank. The opening, which was toward the water, was small, but they managed, roughly, to thrust her in. A moment later and they had rolled up a huge bowlder against the small entrance, bracing it so that it would be impossible for her to get out from the inside. Then they drove oft hastily. hast-ily. Frantically Elaine managed to loosen the gag. She screamed. Her voice seemed to be bound around by the iron walls as she was herself. She shuddered. The water was rising had reached her chest, and was still rising, slowly, inexorably. What was that? Silence? Or was someone outside? Coolly, in spite of the emergency, Kennedy took in the perilous situation. situa-tion. The lower end of the boiler, which was on a slant on the rapidly shelving beach, was now completely under water wa-ter and impossible to get at. Besidee, the opening was small, too small. Kennedy gazed about frantically and his eye caught the sign on the factory: OX Y ACETYLENE WELDING CO. "Come, Walter," he cried, running up the shore. A moment later, breathless, we reached the doorway. It was, of course, locked. Kennedy whipped out his revolver and several well-directed shots through the keyhole smashed the lock. We put our shoulders to.it and swung the door open, entering the factory. Beside a work bench stood two long cylinders, studded with bolts. "That's what I'm looking for," exclaimed ex-claimed Craig. "Here, Walter, take one. I'll take the other and the tubes and " We ran, for there was no time to lose. As nearly as I could estimate it, the water must now be slowly closing over Elaine. "What is it?" I asked, as he joined up the tubes from the tanks to the peculiar hooklike apparatus he carried. car-ried. "An oxyacetylene blowpipe," he mut- ' tered back feverishly. "Used for welding weld-ing and cutting, too," he added. With a light he touched the nozzle, instantly a hissing, blinding flame-needle flame-needle made the steel under it incandescent. incan-descent. The terrific heat from one nozzle made the steel glow. Tho stream of oxygen from the second completely consumed the hot metal. Kennedy was actually cutting out a huge hole in the still exposed surface of the tank all around, except for a few inches, to prevent the heavy piece from falling inward. As Kenned. -"carefully bent outward & the section of the tank which he had cut, he quickly reached down and lifted Elaine, unconscious, out of the water. Gently he laid her on the sand. It was the work of only a moment to cut the cords that bound her hands. There she lay, pale and atiH. Was she dead? Kennedy worked frantically to revive re-vive her. At last, slowly, the color seemed t return to her pale lips. Her eyelids fluttered. Then her great, deep eyel opened. As she looked up and caugl.t sight of Craig bending ar.':o;dly o'f her, she seemed to comprehend. For a moment mo-ment both were silent. Then Elaine reached up and took his hand. "Craig," she whispered, "you- you've saved my life!" Her tone was eloquent. "Elain-?," he whispered, still gazini down Into her wonderful eyes, "th Clutching Hand shall pay for thll U 1 flxht to a finish between ul" TO Bt CONTItrDKOj SYNOPSIS. The New York poll'-i? ar. mvstltU-'l bv it n;rlt-H of niiinl'-r.s ut prunii w nl nn-n. Thi-prlnfttml Thi-prlnfttml clue to th; murlr;p'r Is lh'- wurri-iiif,' wurri-iiif,' Nrtii-r whli li Ih m-tit tin; vli-tirns. Hl-'neil with a ".'lulrhliiL.' hrunl." The l;it-si victim vic-tim of tin- inyMU'i-loiiH a.sasHln Is Taylor DikIki", tin- Insurance pnrsjili jit. I Its dauKhlfr, Klalru:, employs ('rait,' Ki-nnnily, tlnk famous hi iwitllie ! ti-ctivi-, to try to unravM tin? mystery. What Ki-nni-tly ae-conipllHlieft ae-conipllHlieft Is told by his frk-tid, Jameson, a nuvtMpapi:r man. THIRD EPISODE 1 The Vanishing Jewels. Ranging away at my typewriter thu next day, in Kennedy's laboratory, I was aturtled by the sudden, insistent ringing of the telephone near me. "Hello," I answered, for Craig was at work at his table, trying still to extract ex-tract some clue from the slender evidence evi-dence thus far elicited in the Dodge mystery. "Oh, Mr. Kennedy' I heard an excited ex-cited voice over thi wire reply, "my friend, Susie Martin Is here. Her father fa-ther has just recelvd a message from that Clutching Hand and " "Just a moment, Miss Do age," I interrupted. in-terrupted. "Tills is Mr. Jameson." "Oh!" came back the vpice, breathless breath-less and disappointed. "It me have Mr. Kennedy quick." I had already passed the telephone to Craig and was watching him keenly keen-ly as he listened over it. He motioned to me for a ttad and pencil that lay near me. "Please read the letter again, slower, slow-er, Miss Dodge," lie asked, adding, "there isn't time for me to see it just yet. Hut I jnt it exactly. You say it is made up of separate words i and type cut from newspapers and pasted on note paper?" I handed him paper and pencil. j "All right, now, Miss Dodge, go j ahead." As he wrote he indicated to me by ; his eyes that he wanted me to read. I did so: Sturtevant Martin, Jnwclor. No. 7305,f. Fifth Avnne, New York City. Sir As you have failed to deliver the $10,000, I shall rob your main diamond case at exactly noon today. "Thank you, Miss Dodge," continued Kennedy, laying down the pencil-"Yes, pencil-"Yes, I understand perfectly signed by that same Clutching Hand. Let me see," he pondered, looking at his watch. "It is now half-pa.dt eleven. Very well. 1 shall meet y o and Miss , r P V v r - ? v V . 3 N . i A Remarkable Scene Greeted Us. Martin at Mr. Martin's store directly." It lacked five minutes of noon when Kennedy and 1 dashed up before Martin's Mar-tin's and dismissed our taicttb. A remarkable scene greeted us as we entered the famous jewelry shop. Involuntarily I drew back. Siiuarely In front of us a man had suddenly raised a revolver and leveled it at us. "Don't!" cried a familiar voice. 'That is Mr. Kennedy!" Just then, from a little knot of people. peo-ple. Elaine Dode sprang forward vi-'i a cry and seized the gun. Kennedy turned to her, apparently not half so much concerned about the automatic that yawned at him as about the anxiety of the pretty girl who 'Mi-, intervened. The too eager plain Jh.thes man towered the gun sheepishly. Sturtevant Martin ivas a typical society so-ciety business man, quietly but richly dressed. In tke excitement I glanceJ about hurriedly. Directly in front of me was a sigu -Acked up on a pillar, which read: "This store will be closed at noon to-y. to-y. Martin & Co." AJt t cujiuiars ware gona. Martin himself was evidently very nervous and very much alarmed. Indeed, In-deed, no one could blame him for that. Merely to have been singled out by this ai.iazing master criminal was enough to cause panic. Already he had engaged detectives, prepared for whatever might happen, and they ha'J advised him to leave the diamonds in the counter, clear the store and let the crooks try anything, if they dared. ! Just back of us, and around the corner, cor-ner, as we came in, we had noticed a limousine which had driven up. Three faultlessly attired dandies had entered a doorway down the street, as we learned afterward, apparently going to a fashionable tailor's which occupied the second floor of the old-fashioned building, the first floor having been renovated and made ready for renting Had we been there a moment sooner we might have seen, I suppose, that one of them nodded to a taxicab driver, driv-er, who was standing at a public hack stand a few feet up the block. The driver nodded unostentatiously back at the man. In spite of the excitement, Kennedy quietly examined the showcase, which was, indeed, a veritable treasure store of brilliants. Slowly the hands of the clock came nearer together at noon. We all gathered about the showcase, with its glittering hoard of wealth, forming a circle at a respectable distance. dis-tance. In deep-lunged tones the clock played the chords written, I believe, by Kandel. Then it began striking. Nothing had happened. We all breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, it is still there!" exclaimed Martin, pointing at the showcase with a forced laugh. Suddenly came a rending and crashing crash-ing sound. It seemed as if the very floor on which we stood was giving way. The showcase, with all its priceless contents, went smashing into the cellar cel-lar below. The flooring beneath the case had been cut through! All crowded forward, gazing at the black, yawning cavern. Down below, three men, covered with smocks and their faces hidden by masks, had knocked the props awr.y from the ceiling of the cellar, which they hai sawed almost through at their leisure, and the showcase had landed eight or ten feet below, shivered shiv-ered into a thousand bits. A volley of shots whizzed past us. and another. While one crook was hastily stuffing the untold wealth of jewels into a burlap bag the others had drawn revolvers and were firing up through the hole in the floor desperately. des-perately. "Look out!" cried someone behind us before we could recover from our first surprise and return the fire. One of the desperadoes had taken a bomb from under his smock, lighted it and thrown it up through the hole in the oor. It sailed up over our heads and land-i land-i ed near our little group, on the floor, the fuse sputtering ominously. I heard an exclamation of fear from Elaine. Kennedy had pushed his way past us and picked up the deadly infernal machine in his bare hands. I watched him, fascinated. As near as he dared, he approached the hole ill the floor, still holding the thing off at arm's length. Would he never throw it? He was coolly holding it, allowing the fuse to burn down closer to the explosion point. It w-as now with'in less than an inch of sure death. Suddenly he raised It and hurled the deadly thing down through the hole. We could hear the imprecations of the crooks as it struck the cellar floor, near them. "Leave the store--quick! " rang out Kennedy's voice. Down below the crooks were beating beat-ing a hasty retreat through secret entrance which they had effected. "The bag! The bag!" we could hear one of them beliow. "The bomb run!" cried another voice gruffly. The explosion that followed lifted us fairly off our feet. As the smoke from the explosion cleared away, Kennedy could b' seen, the first to run forward. Meanwhile Martin's detectives had rushed down a flight of back stairs that led into a coal cellar. With coal shovels and bars, anything they could lay hands on, they attacked the door that opened forward from the coal cellar cel-lar into the front basement where the robbers had been. A moment Kennedy and Bennett paused on the brink of the abyss which the bomb had made, waiting for the smoke to decrease. Then they began to climb down cautioudy over the piied-up wreckage. The explosion had set the basement afire, but the fire hd not gained much headway by the time they reached the basement. Quickly Kennedy ran to tiie door into the coal cellar and opened It in doubt which way to go. Craig had stuck his head out of- the window, as I had done, and, seeing the crossroads, had told the chauffeur to stop. There stood the hobo. "Did a car pass here, just now a big car?'' called Craig. The man put his hand to his ear, as if only half comprehending. "Which way did the big car go?" repeated re-peated Kennedy. The hobo approached the taxicab sullenly, as if he had a grudge against cars in general. One question after another elicited little that could be construed as intelligence. intel-ligence. If Craig had only been able to see, he would have found out that, with his back toward the taxicab driver, the hobo held one hand behind him and made the sign of the Clutching Clutch-ing Hand, glancing surreptitiously at the driver to'catch the answering sign, while Craig gazed earnestly up the two roads. At last Craig gave him up as hopeless. hope-less. "Well go ahead that way," he indicated, picking the most likely road. As the chauffeur was about to start he stalled his engine. "Hurry!" urged Craig, exasperated at the delays. The driver got out and tried to crank the engine. Again and again he turned it over, but somehow it refused to start. Then he lifted the hood and be g:tn to tinker. "What's the matter?" asked Craig, impatiently jumping out and bending over the engine, too. The driver shrugged his shoulders. "Must be something wrong with the ignition, I guess," he replied. Kennedy looked the car over hastily. "I can't see anything wrong," he frowned. "Well, there is," growled the driver. Precious minutes were speeding away f.s they argued. Finally with his characteristic energy, Kennedy put the taxicab driver aside. "L-;t me try it," he said. "Miss Dode, will you arrange that spark au! 'hrottle?" the dirt, examining the road for marks. "That way!" he indicated, leaping back to the running board. We piled back into the car and proceeded pro-ceeded under Kennedy's direction, as fast as he would permit. So it cop-tinued, cop-tinued, perhaps for a couple of hours. At last Kennedy stopped the cab and slowly directed the driver to veer into an open space that looked particularly partic-ularly lonesome. Near it stood a one-story one-story brick factory building, closed, but not abandoned. As I looked about at the unattractive unattrac-tive scene, Kennedy already was down on his knees in the dirt again, studying study-ing the tire tracks. They were all confused, showing that the taxicab we were following had evidently backed in and turned several times before going on. "Crossed by another set of tire tracks!" he exclaimed excitedly, studying closer. "That must have been the limousine, waiting." Laboriously he was following the course of the cars in the open space, when one word escaped him, "Footprints!" "Foot-prints!" He was up and off in a moment, before be-fore we could imagine what he was after. We had got out of the cab, and followed him as, down to th-i very shore of a sort of cove or bay, he went. There lay a rusty, discarded discard-ed boiler on the beach, half sub merged in the rising tide. At this 1 tank the footprints seemed to go right down the sand and into the waves, which were slowly obliterating them. Kennedy gazed out as if to make out a possible boat on the horizon hori-zon where the cove widened out. "Look!" I cried. Further down the shore, a few feet, I had discovered the same prints, going go-ing in the opposite direction, back toward to-ward the place from which he had just come. I started to follow them but soon found myself alone. Kennedy Ken-nedy had paused beside the lid boiler. "What is it?" I asked, tracing my stepn. He did not answer, hut seemed to to |