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Show I f Million Dollar Mystery By HAROLD MAC GRATH Illustrated from Scenes in the Photo Drama of tho Same Name t& the Thanhouser Film Company Copyright, 1V11, J Huxold MaQraUd CHAPTER XX. Brains Tries Another Weapon. ! "What I want now," said Braine as he paced tho living room of tin ! apartment of the countess, "is re vengo. I've been checkmated enough "Olga; they're playing with us." "That is nothing new," she replied .shrugging. "At tho beginning : .warned you, I never liked this affal) .after tho first two or three failur iBut you would have your way. Yoi (wanted revenge at that early date; ' but I cannot see that you've gone for J ward. Has it ever occurred to yoi : that the organization may be getting Hired, too? They depend solely upor 'your invention, and each time joui invention has resulted in touchin : nothing but zero." "Thanks!" r "O, I'm not chiding you. I've failed too." "Are you turning against me?" h -demanded bitterly. "Do my actions point that way?' she countered. "No. But the more 1 view what has passed, the more dis heartened I grow. It has been a series of blind alleys, an all we have sue :ceeded In doing is knocking our heads ,1 can see now that all our failures are due to one mistake." . "And what the devil is that?" he asked, irritably. "We were in too much of a hurry .at the beginning. Hargreave prepared himself for quick action on your part.,: "And if I had not acted quickly he would have started successfully on one of his world tours again, and that 'would have been the last of him, and we should never have learned of the girl's existence. Ho there's jour argu niont." "Perhaps you are right. Put for all that we have not played the game with any degree of finesse." "Bah!" Braino lit a cigarette and smoked nervously. "I can't even get rid of that meddling reporter. He has been as much to blame for our failures" fail-ures" is either Jones or Ilargrcave. ; Idmit that. In oiwa -J ylgrd " . ...' ordinary newspaper man, and he was clever enough to lull my suspicions. But I'm going to get him, Olga, even if I have to resort to ordinary gunman gun-man tricks. If there's any final reckoning, reck-oning, by the Lord Harry, he 6han't get a chance In the witness stand." "And I begin to think that that little lit-tle chit of a girl has been hoodwinking hoodwink-ing me all along. By the way, did you find out what that letter said?" Ehe asked after a pausew "Letter? What letter?" She sprng from her chair. "Do you mean to say that they have not told you about that?" Olga became greatly great-ly excited. "Explain," he said. "Why, I was at the garden day before be-fore yeBterday, and a man approached and aBked if I was Miss Hargieave. Becoming at once suspicious that something very important was about to happen, I signified that I was Miss Ilargreave. The man slipped a paper into my hand and hurried off. I took u quick glance at it and was dum-founded dum-founded to find it utterly blank of writing. At first I thought some joke had been played on me, then I chanced to remember"the invisible ink letters you always wrote me. Understanding Under-standing that you were to visit the cave In the morning, I had one man at the garden take the note. And you never got It!" "Some one shall pay for this carelessness!. care-lessness!. I'll call up Vroon and Jackson Jack-son at once. Wait just a moment." He went to the telephone. A low muttering conversation took place. Olga could hear little or none of it. When Braine put the receiver back ou the hook his face was not pleasant pleas-ant to see. "That girl!" "What now?" "It seems she had been out horseback horse-back riding that morning. She had seen one of the boys cross the field and suddenly disappear; and she was curious to learu what had become of him. With her usual luck she stumbled stum-bled on the method of opening the door of the cave and went in. She must have bern nosing about. She didn't have much time, though, as the boys came up to await me. Evidently she crawled into that old chest and in some inexplicable manner purloined the letter from Jackson's pocket. They left to recounoiter; and it was then that Jackson discovered his loss. When Florence heard them returning she jumped into the well. And lived through that tunnel! The devil id in It!" "Or out of it, since we consider him our friend." "And I had her in my hands, note and all!" "But with all that water there will lA-t bo any writing left on the letter." "Invisible ink is geuerally Indelible and impervious to the action of water; wat-er; at least the kind I use is. I'd give a thousand for a sight of that ktter." "And it might be worth a million," Oipa susested. . i i 'Not Hie least doubt of it In my mind. Olga, old girl, it does look as if my star was growing dim. We'll never get our hands on that million. I feel it in my bones. So let's settle down to a campaign of revenge, without any furbelows. I want to twi9t Har-greaves Har-greaves heart before the game winds up." "You wish really to injure her? "I do not wish to injure her. FaT from it," he replied, smiling evilly. : "Yon want her . . . dead?" .whispered Olga, paling. I "Exactly. I want her dead. And so if all my efforts here come nothing, noth-ing, so shall Ilargrcave's. His millions mil-lions will become waste paper to him. That's revenge. The Persian peach method." "Poison? You shall not! You shall not kill her!" vehemently. "Tender hearted?" "No. If I must in the end go to prison, so be it; but I refuse to die in the chair." "Very well, then. We shan't kill her, but we'll make her wish she was dead. I was only trying to see how far you would go. The basket ol peaches is in the hallway. Every peach is poisoned. No man in the Just Power Enough to Keep Hersell Afloat country knows more about subtle poisons poi-sons than I do. Have I not written books on the subject?" Ironically. "And they will trace it back to you In a straight line," she warned. "I will not have it!" "I can go elsewhere," he replied coldly. "You would leave me?" "The moment you cross my will," emphatically. It became her turn to pace. Torn between her love of the man and the danger which stared her in the face, she was for the time being distracted. All the time he watched her with malevolent curiosity, knowing that In the end she would concur with his evil plaus. "Very well," she said finally. "But listen; we shall be found out Never coubt that Your revenge will cost us both our lives. I feel it." "Bah! The law will have no hand in my end. I always carry a pellet; and that ring of yours would suffice a regiment. She will not die. She will mere y become a kind of paralytic; the hind that can move a little but ot enough; always wheeled about in i chair. I'll bring in the peaches; rosy and downy. One bite, after a given lime, will do the trick. If they suspect and throw them out we have lost nothing but the peaches. A trusted messenger will carry them to the Hargreavc house. And then we'll sit down and wait." Meantime, in the library of the Ilar-greae Ilar-greae house, Florence and Jim wero puzzling over the blank sheet of paper. pa-per. "I'll wager," said Jim, "the water washed all the writing away. Tho fire does not seem to do any good. We'll turn It over to Jones. Jonesil find a way to solve it. Trust him." "What are you two chattering about?" asked Susan, who was arranging arrang-ing some flowers on the table. "Secrets," said Jim, smiling. "Humph!" Susan puttered about for a few minutes min-utes longer, then crossed to the reception recep-tion room, intending to go upstairB. At that moment the maid was admitting ad-mitting a messenger with a basket of fruit. "For Miss Ilargreave," said he. He gave the basket to the maid, touched his cap awkwardly, and swung ou his heel, closing the door behind him. He was In a hurry to deliver another message. "O, what lovely fruit!" cried Susan, pausing. "I'm going to steal one," she laughed. She selected a peach and began eating it ou the way up to her room.' : The maid passed on Into the library. "What's this?" inquired Florence, aa the maid held out the basket. She selected a pcaclTand was about to set her white teeth into It when Jim In-1 terpoied. "Wait a moment, dear." Florence lowered the peach. Jim turned to the maid. "Who sent it?" "1 don't know, sir. A messenger brought it, saying it was for Miss Ilargreave." "Let me see If there is a card." But Jim searched in vain for the card of the donor. At once all his suspicions suspi-cions arose. "Don't touch them. Better Bet-ter let the maid throw them out. Fruit from unknown persons might not bo the healthiest thing in the world." "What do you think?" "That in all probability they are poisoned. poi-soned. But there's no need trying to provo my theory right or wrong. Ask Jones. Heil tell you to throw them away." "Horrible!" Florence shuddered. "But they do not want to poison me. I'm too valuable. They want me alive." "Who can say?" returned Jim gloomily, "They may have learned that they cannot beat us, no matter what card they turn up. I may be wrong, but take my advice and throw them away. . . . Good Lord, what's thit?" startled. "Some one cried!" "O, Miss Florence!" exclaimed the maid, terror stricken as she recalled Susan's act "Miss Susan took a peach from the basket and was eating it on the way to her room!" "Good heavens!" gasped Jim. "I was right The fruit was poisoned." Jim had head enough to send for a specialist he knew. The specialist arrived ar-rived about twenty minutes after Susan's Sus-an's first cry. To his keen eye it looked like a certain poison which had for its basis the venom of the cobra. "Will she live?" "O, ye3. But she'll be a wreck for some montli3. Send her to the hospital hos-pital where I can visit her frequently. And I'll take that peach along for analysis. No police affair?" "No. We dare not call them in." said Jim. "That's your affair. I'll send down the ambulance. Keep her quiet. She'll have a species of paralysis; but that'll work off under the treatment A strange business." "So it is," agreed Jim grimly. Florence knelt beside her friend's bed and cried softly. "You called me just in time. An hour later, nothing would have saved her. She would have been paralyzed for life." Jim accompanied the doctor to the door and went in search of Jones. He found the taciturn butler eying the fruit basket, his face gray and drawn, though his eyes blazed with fury. "Poison!" I -'A pretty bad poison, too," said .TTjCX "We can't do anything. " We've Just mtM ill h I if III j W4kw Mi i ft pirv' - I I & -i if j win ' II :i ' 4 ' - A i s; He Went to the Telephone. got to sit still. But In the end we'll" get them. That she devil ..." "No, my friend; that he devil. The! woman is mad over him and would commit any crime at his bidding. But this is his work. We want him. He wasn't without courage to send this fruit, knowing that I would instantly suspect the sender. Yet, I have no definite proof. I could not hold him in court in law. He will have bought the fruit piece by piece, the basket in a basket shop. He will have injected the poison himself when alone. Poor Susan! That messenger was without doubt some one over whom he holds the threat of the death chair. That's the way he works." Jim tramped the room while Jones carried ihe fruit to the kitchen. The butler returned after a while. "What about that blank sheet of paper?" pa-per?" "It has to be dipped into a solution; after that you can read it by heating. I have already dipped It into the solution. solu-tion. The moment tho heat leaves the sheet the writing disappears again. The ink is waterproof. Iil show you." Jones got a caudle from the mantle, lit it, and held the sheet of paper very close to tho flame. Gradually, almost imperceptibly, letters began to form on the blank sheet. At length the message mes-sage was complete. ! "Dear Ilargreave The Russian minister min-ister of police is at the Blank hotel junder the name of Henri Servau. He is investigating the work of the Black Hundred in this country and can free lrom tir vengeance if you sup ply the evidence needed " "Now, what evidence can he want?" asked Jim. "Such as will prove Braine an undesirable unde-sirable citizen." "And then." "Quietly pack him off to Russia, where he Is badly wanted." "Who sent this message?" "One of our mysterious friends. We have a few, as you already know. But I'll go and make this man Servan a visit I have seen tho real minister, and If this man is the same one, something some-thing of importance may turn up, I shall want you somewhere about. Here, Iil let you have this letter. Remember, Re-member, heat brings It out and cold air makes it vanish. Now I'll go up for a moment to see how that poor girl Is getting along. We are lucky; there's no gainsaying that" "You're a clever man, Jones," said Jim. Jones turned upon him, his face grave. Tho two men looked steadily into each other's eyes. Jones was first to turn aside his glance, as he had something to conceal and Jim had nothing. When the ambulance took the tor tured Susan away, Jones addressed Florence gravely. "I am going out and so is Mr. Norton. Nor-ton. Do not leave the house; not even If you have a telephone call from me or Norton. Both of us will return; so don't let anything bother or confuse con-fuse you." "I promise," said Florence, struggling strug-gling with a sob. Jones went downstairs again, paused by a window as if cogitating, and suddenly sud-denly threw it up and looked abroad. A rustle among the lilacs caused a smile to flit across his face. So they had sent some one to learn the effect of the poison? Or to follow him should he leave the house? He retired re-tired to the kitchen and gave some j fitters Began to Form on the Blank Sheet. explicit orders to the chef, orders which did not in any way refer to cooking. Then Jones and the reporter (left the house, each quite aware that ihey were being followed. Near the .Blank hotel they separated in order ito confuse the stalker. He might dod !der and follow the wrong man. But it was evident that this time he had been directed to follow Jones; for he entered the hotel a minute after Jones. . Meantime a second spy, whom Jones had not seen, had observed the transfer trans-fer of the invisible writing and had immediately informed Braine, who was not far away. That his poisoned fruit had stricken down an outsider troubled him none at all. But that mysterious message he meant to have; It might be a life and death affair, it might be a clue to the treasure, or the whereabouts of Ilargreave. Thus, while only one man followed Jones, several kept a far eye on Jim. Jones scribbled his name on a blank card and had it taken to the Russian's room. The page eyed that card curiously. curi-ously. It was different from anythinc he had ever seen before. In one corner cor-ner were written three or four words which resembled a cross between Hebrew He-brew and Greek. "Humph!" muttered the boy-"Whadda boy-"Whadda y' know about that? Chicken Chick-en i cratches; but I guess the bell rings Rooslan. On your way, Hor-tense," Hor-tense," he cried to the hall maid, who wanted a look at the card. "Up f th' room, sir. He'll see yuh!" The boy kept the silver salver extended expectantly, ex-pectantly, but Jones went past without with-out apparently noticing the hint The Russian was standing by a window win-dow when Jones knocked and was bidden to enter. "You are not Ilargreave." "Neither ara you the Russian minister min-ister of police," urbanely. "Who are you?" "I am Hargreave's confidential man, elr." The two men eyed each other cautiously, cau-tiously, "You speak Russian?" "No. I am able to scribble a few words; that Is all." The Russian lit a cigarette and smoked leisurely. He was in no hurry. hur-ry. "No, I am not the minister; but I am -his accredited agent. I am empowered em-powered to bring back to Russia a man who is known hero by the name of Braine, another by the name of Vroon, and a woman who calls herself her-self a' countess and unfortunately is one All I desire Is some damaging proof against them that they are outlaws out-laws In this country. The rest will bo simple." "They have all three taken out naturalization nat-uralization papers." The Russian waved his hand airily. "Once they are in Russia those documents docu-ments will never come to light This man Braine, It has been learned, has long been injhe pay of Prussia, and ! I i has given tho general staff of that country many plans of our frontier fortifications. I do not know what any one of the three looks like. That Is i why I sought Hargreave." "I will gladly point them out to you," said Jones, rubbing his hands together, a sign that he was greatly pleased. "That will be very good of you, I'm sure," in a rumbling but perfectly intelligible English. "And suddenly they all three will disappear?" "Suddenly: and you may believe me that from that time on they'll be heard of never more." "All this sounds extremely agreeable agree-able to me. Mr. Hargreave will be happy to hear that his long enforced hiding will soon come to an end." "All you have to do, sir, is to point them out to me." "It may take a week or ten days." "My government has waited for ten years to gather in this delectable trio. A month, if you like." "The sooner the better. I shall call this evening after dinner. We shall begin with Mr. Braine; and generally where he Is is the woman. Vroon will be the most difficult." "After dinner, then, since you know some of his haunts. There is a reward." re-ward." Jones laughed shortly. "Keep It yourself, Bir. Mr. Ilargreave would willingly double whatever this reward Is to eliminate these despicable creatures crea-tures from his affairs." "Thanks." While this conversation was taking place Norton idled about; and feeling the cravings for a cigarette, prepared to roll one, only to find that he hadn't the "makings." So fat urged him to step into the nearest tobacconist's. He asked for his favorite brand and passed over the sliver. Braine and his companions saw Nor ton enter the shop. It agreed with their plans perfectly. The tobacconist happened to be affiliated with the order. or-der. So they hurried into the shop. Jim instantly realized that he was In a trap. "How can I get out of here?" he whispered to the tobacconist. The latter smiled. "I have to obey these gentlemen. I don't know what they want you for; but If I made a move to help you I should find my own throat cut without saving yours." "The devil!" Jim made a dash for the rear door, to find it locked. Even as he fumbled with the key, Braine and his companions com-panions flung themselves upon the reporter re-porter and overpowered him. "Ah, my friend Braine!" he said. 'My friend Norton!" Jeered the victor. vic-tor. "And what do you want; some poaches?" -V paper, my friend, little secret of 'paper with invlslblewritlng oil it We promise to give you something In exchange for it" "What?" asked Jim with as much nonchalance as he could assume. "Life." "Search," said Jim. "You won't object ob-ject to my smoking?" He began to roll a cigarette while they passed over him. He struck a match; the pleasant pleas-ant aroma of tobacco floated about his head. "He's got It on him somewhere. I saw him take It He's got his nerve with him." The cigarette glowed. Jim smoked hurriedly. Through every pocket they went The contents of his wallet lay scattered scat-tered at his feet; his watch dangled from the chain. The cigarette grew shorter and shorter. Suddenly one of the men stretched out a hand and whisked the cigarette from Jim's lips. He threw it to the floor and stamped out tho coal. "I thought so!" he exclaimed, holding hold-ing out the scrap of burnt paper towards to-wards Braine. The words "Dear Hargreave" were all that remained of the message. With a snarl of rage Braine whipped out his revolver. "I will give you one minute to tell me what that paper contained." "And after that minute is up?" "A bullet in your stomach." Quick as a flash Jim's hand shot out, caught the loosely held revolver, gave it a wrench, and brought It down savagely upon Braine's head. Then he reversed it and backed toward the front entrance. "Au revoir, till we meet again, gentlemen!" gen-tlemen!" iTo le continued) This Story THE MILLION DOLLAR MYSTERY Will lo ended in -1 nunc issues. A NEW SERIAL Probably THE DIAMOND FROM THE SKY One of the costliest pilu t ions over attempted will follow in story in Till: MYTOX FREE PRESS And be presented on the curtain at i THE .MYTOX OPERA IIOl'SE |