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ri The Exploits o 0 x A Detective Novel and a < * II D? 1DTUITP 1 + U J i HV X X1VAV 1 O *** The Well-Known Nt \> Creator of the "Craig A | o ? J J Presented in Collaboration With the **dthe PI z Copyright, 1914, by the Star Company. SYNOPSIS. ] ne The New York police are mystified by a de series of murders of prominent men. The principal clue to the murderer is the warn- U1< f ing letter which is sent the victims, signed by with a "clutching hand." The latest vie- " ,-t m of the mysterious assassin is Taylor i'odge, the insurance president. His ha A daughter, Elaine, employs Craig Kennedy. ?. B the famous scientific detective, to try to V unravel the mystery. What Kennedy ac- ad rnmnUcViiic ic tnM hv hie fripnd. Jameson. ? ?>, FVVU.1/..?..VD .*7 ' ttXI a. newspaper man. . th( THIRD EPiSODE ne The Vanishing Jewels. ^ Banging away at my typewriter the next day, in Kennedy's laboratory, I a vfts startled by the sudden, insistent j ringing of the telephone near me. * ' "Hello," I answered, for Craig was at work at his table, trying still to ex- u tract some clue from the slender evi- J?' dence thus far elicited in the Dodge 1 i mystery. * * "Oh, Mr. Kennedy," I heard as ex- or' cited voice over the wire reply, "my friend, Susie Martin, is here. Her father has just received a message from r that Clutching Hand and?" at. "Just a moment, Miss Dodge," I interrupted. "This is Mr. Jameson." "Oh!" came back the voice, breathA less and disappointed. "Let'me have or* W Mr. Kennedy?quick." I had already passed the telephone j ne f to Craig and was watching him keen ly as he listened over it. J*1 He motioned to me for a pad and t0! pencil that lay near me. & "Please read the letter again, slow- j Bter, Miss Dodge," he asked, adding, j fc'there isn't time for me to see it? j b-v K: I want It exactly. You J le up of separate words ; t from ne\*6papers and ! :e paper?" ! m paper and pencil. ( a now, Miss Dodge, go ini e he indicated to me by h? wanted me to read. I co rtin. Jeweler. J , th Avenue. New York City, j 1 have failed 10 deliver the j vnur mflin diamond hp m as th( W ^Hj 1 ? of iSfmid i dei BWiiiiill Hi in Hi iiiirTr ne' ^ ? TwtwT r ^ A Remarkable Scene Greeted Us. Ke Martin at Mr. Martin's store directly." irJ It lacked five minutes of noon when en* Kennedy and I dashed up before Martin's and dismissed our taxicab. be; A remarkable scene greeted us as < we entered the famous jewelry shop. Involuntarily*I drew back. Squarely in front of us a man had suddenly 1 ug raised a revolver and leveled it at us. j "Don't!" criefi a laminar voice. cie "That is Mr. Kennedy!" Just then, from a little knot of peo- ; pie, Elaine Dodge sprang forward ^ with a cry and seized the gun. Kennedy turned to her, apparently ( sh( not half so much concerned about the ja, automatic that yawned at him as ^ about the anxiety of the pretty girl jar who had intervened. The too eager tju plain-clothes man lowered the gun ! , sheepishly. ! *>a Sturtevant Martin was a typical so- i ,)V>; ciety business man, quietly but richly j tht dressed. { be; In the excitement I glanced about hurriedly. Directly in front of me was a sign aft tacked up on a pillar, which read- he; "This stc?e will be closed at noon to- ba: day. Martin & Co." tin All the customers were gone. opi A 1 > of Elaine ill !! Motion Picture Drama J!I i il\ B. REEVE I . I tcellst and the . j O 'ennedy'' Stories j ^ J layers and the Eclectic Film Company J t __J o All Foreign Rights Reserved Martin himself was evidently very rvous and very much alarmed. Ined, no one could blame him for it. Merely to have been singled out this amazing master criminal was ! ough to cause panic. Already he j d engaged detectives, prepared for j Uaymvaw fllATT Vl O ?1 idicvci uxigiii iiappcii) ai^u iutj - , vised him to leave the diamonds in j b counter, clear the store and let j 5 crookp try anything, if they dared. ! Just back of us, and around the corr, as we came in, we had noticed a aousine which had driven up. Three iltlessly attired dandies had entered doorway down the street, as we irned afterward, apparently going to fashionable tailor's which occupied e second floor of the old-fashioned ildir^, the first floor having been novated and made ready for renting id we 'been there a moment sooner ) might have seen, I suppose, that e of them nodded to a taxicab driv , who was standing at a public hack ini a few feet up the block. The iver nodded unostentatiousl> back the man. In spite of the excitement, Kennedy ietly examined the showcase, which is, indeed, a veritable treasure store brilliants. Slowly the hands of the clock came arer together at noon. We all gathered about the showcase, th its glittering hoard of wealth, rming a circle at a respectable distice. T? J ~ ~ + r?1 nr? U" Ill ueey-iuij^cu imico '.jiv ~.? ived the chords written, I believe, Handel. Then it began striking. Nothing had happened. We all breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, it is still there!" exclaimed artin, pointing c the showcase with forced laugh. ^ Suddenly camJh. rending and crash% sound. Tt seemed as if the very or on which we. stood was giving iv. The showcase, with all its priceless ntents, went smashing into the eeli i - Deiuw. The flooring beneath the case had en cut through! All crowded forward, gazing at the ick. yawning cavern. Down below, three men, covered th smocks and their faces hidden masks, had knocked the prop* ay from the ceiling of the cellar, j lich they had sawed almost through , their leisure, and the showcase had i ided eight or ten feet belo.w, shiv- j ?d into a thousand bits. j * nf c-Vinto wliiv/p^ nn.ct us. | n VUlirT Ul CUVIO * x ! d another. While one crook was j stily stuffing the untold wealth of .vels into a burlap bag the others d drawn revolvers and were firing through the hole in the floor desrately. 'Look out!" cried someone behind before we could recover from our st surprise and return the fire. One of the desperadoes had taken a mb from under his smock, lighted it d thrown it up through the hole in ? floor. it sailed up over our heads and iandnear our little group, on the floor, I ... . i i fuse sputtering ommousiy. [ heard an exclamation of fear from j line. Kennedy ba ? pushed his way past i and picked up the deadly infernal ichine in his bare hands. f watched him, fascinated. As near he dared, he approached the hole in ! ? floor, still holding the thing off at 11 s length. Would he never throw He was coolly holding it, allowing ? fuse to burn down closer to the plosion point. t was now within less than an inch sure death. j Suddenly he raised it and hurled tne adly thing down through the hole. iVe could hear the imprecations of i crooks as it struck the cellar floor, ar them. 'Leave the store?quick!" rang out nnedv's voice. Down below the crooks were beat; a hasty retread through r. secret trance which they had effected. 'The bag! The bag!" we could ar one of them bellow. 'The bomb?run!" cried another ice gruffly. rhe explosion that followed lifted fairly off our feet. As the smoke from the explosion ;ared away, Kennedy could tr seen, j first to run forward. Meanwhile Martin's detectives had shed down a flight of back stairs it led into a coal cellar. With coal Dvels and bars, anything they could hands on, they attacked the door a opened forward from the coal cel into the front basement where i robbers had been. \ moment Kennedy and Bennett used on the brink of the abyss tich the bomb had made, waiting for ? smoke to decrease. Then they ?an to climb down cautiourly over 3 oiled-up wreckage. rh* explosion had set the basement Vvii 4 a wn n /I v\ A 4- a-A * vt /I aV> i c, uui liic me ;iau iiv/l gciuieu niucu aaway by the time they reached the semert. Quickly Kennedy ran to i door into the coal cellar and ened it. From the other side Martin, followed by the police and the detectives, burst in. "Fire!" cried one of the policemen, leaping back to turn in an alarm from the special apparatus upstairs. All except Martin began beating out the flames, using such weapons as they already held in their hands to batter down the door. io jwarun mere was uu? wwg mount?the jewels. In the midst of the confusion, Elaine, closely followed by her friend, Susie, made her way fearlessly into the stifle of smoke down the stairi. "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 awc.y with them?after all!" he exclaimed, exam ! ining the contents with satisfaction. ******* i Events were moving rapidly. | The limousine had been standing inI nocently enough at the curb near the ! corner, with the taxicab close behind it. Less than ten minutes after they had entered, three well-dressed men came out of the vacant shop, apparently 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 Hand, which the taxicab driver' returned 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!1' 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, howI ever, that would help us in the cellar next door, and Kennedy mounted the I steps of a stairway in the rear. The stairway led to a sort of storeroom, full of barrels and boxes, but / otherwise characterless. When I ar- j rived Kennedy was gingerly holding J up the smocks which the crooks had j worn. I "We're on the right trail,"' comment- j ed Elaire as he showed them to her, j "but where do you suppose the own- j ers are?" j f Craig shrugged his shoulders and j * ' * ? J il.. ! gave a quicK jook aDout. ii.viuec.iiv > they came in from and went awa> by j the street." he observed, hurrying to i 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 uirecuuu uyn??u. 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 j finger at the driver, who answered j 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, j jumping into the cab. "Yes, sir." Cyaicr ixruc Sncf nhrrnt frt flnSP the I \^ia,x& ** ju^v - - door when a slight figure flashed past I 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, j "Craig!" I cried. "Where are you j going?" Kennedy stuck his head out of the I window, and I am quite sure that he | was not altogether displeased that I was not with him. "Chasing that limousine," he shouted 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 -< Wnoi- "T*11 talrp nnf von take I Ui uiwv. , ? the other." Who, beside? Bennett, went in the other car I don't know, but it made no ' difference, for we soon lost them. Our j driver, however, was a really clever J fellow. Far abe?d now we could see the limousine drive around a corner, making a dangerous swerve. Kennedy s cab followed, skidding danger* on sly near a pole. But the taxieab wag no match for ' ! / the powerful limousine. On uptown they went, the only thing preventing the limousine from escaping being the fear of pursuit by traffic police if the driver let out speed. They were content to manage to keep just far enough Q oq H t r\ ah f nf V? Q 11 cr VVf KtKs V7UW VX UUlI^Vi V J. ' ?~? Kennedy overhaul them. As for us, we followed as best we could, on uptown, past the city line, and out into the country. There Kennedy lost sight altogether . 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 a fork in the road. Here j was a dilemma which must be decided i at nnrp ri^htlv nr wrrme-lv 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. 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?" 1 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 Elaine!" ******* What Viari roallv hannpnpd nR wfi learned later from Elaine and others, was that when the crossroads was reached the three crooks in the limousine had stopped long enough to speak to an accomplice stationed there, according 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 and Elaine had approached the fork, their driver had slowed up, as if Kennedy Quietly Exa? 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 Kennedy. The hobo approached the taxicab sullenly, as if he had a grudge against no rn in orQnOTQl One question after another elicited little that could be construed as intelligence. If Craig liad only been able to see, be 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 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 hope-. less. "Well?go ahead?that way," he 1 *? 1-? xt. X jx I indicated, piCKing me most iiKexy roau. As the chauffeur was about to start he stalled his engine. "Hurrj'' 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 gan 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. + T-* f " nrrnn'! /^riiT^r VY Cli, LI1C1 C JO, giunitu I.UC Precious minutes were speeding away as they argued. Finally with his characteristic energy, Kennedy put the taxicab driver aside. "Let me try it," he said." "Miss Dodge, will you arrange that spark and throttle?" ?? i ??? ?? Elaine, equal to anything, did so, and Craig bent down and cranked the engine. It started on the first spin. "See;" he exclaimed. "There wasn't anything, after all." He took a step toward the taxicab. "Mr. Kennedy?look out!" cried Elaine. Craig turned. But it was too late. Ihe rough-looking fellow had awakened to life. Suddenly he stepped up behind Kennedy with a blackjack. As hp hPflvv weieht d-escended Craig crumpled up on the ground unconscious. With a scream, Elaine turned and started to run. But the chauffeur seized her arm. "Say, bo," he asked of the rough fellow, "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 the road. And away they sped, leaving Kennedy unconscious on the side of the road, where we found him. "What are we to do?" I asked helplessly of Kennedy, when we had at last got him on his feet. His head still ringing from the force of the blow of the blackjack, Craig stnnned Hnwn then knelt in the dust of the road, then ran ahead a bit, where it was somewhat muddy. "Which way?which way?" he muttered to himself. I thought perhaps the blow had affected him aDd 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. Tr? onntlior inctant hp waq dnxcn In """ nined the Showcase. the dirt, examining the road for marks. "That way!" he indicated, leaping back to the running board. We piled back into the car and pro-! ceeded under Kennedy's direction, as fast as he would permit. So it continued, perhaps for a couple of hours. At last Kennedy stopped the cab and slowly directed the driver to veer into pa open space that looked particularly lonesome. Near it stood a onestory brick factory building, closed, but not abandoned. As I looked about at the unattractive scene, Kennedy already was down on his knees in the dirt again, study ing the tire tracks. They were all confuse , 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!" He was ud and off in a moment, he fore we could imagine what he was I after. We had got out of the cab, and followed him as, down to the very shore of a sort of cove or bay, he went. There lay a rusty, discarded boiler on the beach, half submerged in the rising tide. At this tank the footprints seemed to go right down the sand and into th? waves, which were slowly obliterating them. Kennedy gazed out as if to make out a possible boat on the horizon where the cove widened out. "Look!" I cried. Further down the shore, a few feet, I had discovered the same prints. going in the opposite direction, back toward the place from which he had just come. I started to follow them, but soon found myself alone. Kennedy had paused beside the old boiler. "What is it?" I asked, retracing my steps. He did not answer, but seemed to be | 4 listening. We listened also. There certainly was a most peculiar noise inside that tank. J Was it a muffled scream? <[ Kennedy reached down and picked j up a rock, hitting the tank with a resounding blow. As the echo died down, he listened again. j Yes, there was a sound?a scream,^ perhaps?a woman's voice, faint, but unmistakable. 4 I looked at his face inquiringly, j "Without a word I read in it the con formation of the thought that had 5 floohod mxr mind ilUlJUV/U JU?V Ui J AJLi*UW* I Elaine Dodge was inside! First had come the limousine, with its three bandits, to the spot fixed on as a rendezvous. Later had come the taxicab. As it hove into Figlit, the three well-dressed crooks had drawn revolvers, thinking perhaps the plan for getting rid of Kennedy might possibly have miscarried. But the taxicab driver and the rough-faced fellow had reassured them with the sign of the Clutching Hand, and the revolvers were lowered. As they parleyed hastily, the roughneck and the fake chauifeur ( lifted Elaine out of the taxi. She was bound and gagged. "Well, now we've got her, what shaii we do with her?" asked ?ne. } ^ "It's got to be quick. There's another cab," put in the driver. . j "The deuce with that" "The deuce with nothing," he re "TVot /Allnm TTonnO^v's ft IU1 ilUU. JL iia if 1C11VTT w clever one. He may come to. If he does, he won't miss us. Quick, now!" I "See," cried the third. "See that old j 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. t 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 thA inside. Then thev drove oil hast- . ?y- I Frantically Elaine managed to ; loosen the gag. She screamed. Her voice seemed to be bound around by the iron walls as she was herself. Shej shuddered. The water was rising? 1 | had reached her chest, and was still ; ! rising, slowly, inexorably. What was that? Silence? Or was ^ i someone outside? J * ? ? J I ' '* Coolly, in spite of the emergency, | Kennedy took in the perilous situaj tion. ! The lower end of the boiler, which ; was on a slant on the rapidly shelving j beach, was now completely unaer wa- ; | ter and impossible to get at. Besides, j | the opening was small, too small. j Kennedy gazed about frantically j and his eye caught the sign on the . factory: j I I * OXYACETYLENE WELDING CO. : ' * * ? "Come, Walter," he cried, running up the shore. } A moment later, breathless, we reached the doorway. It was, oi 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. " " i 1- J *i,.? Inner .tJesiae a wors ueucu &uuwu iwua cylinders, studded with bolts. "That's what I'm looking for/' exclaimed 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. "An oxyacetylene blowpipe," he muttered back feverishly. "Used for welding and cutting, too," he added. With a ngni ne luucueu mc 11V6A1V $ instantly a hissing, blinding flameneedle made the steel under it incandescent. The terrific heat from one nozzle made the steel glow. The stream of oxygen from the second completely consumed the hot metal. Kennedy was actually cutting but a huge hole In the still exposed surface of the tank?all around, except !or a few inches, to prevent the heavy piece from falling inward. As Kennedy carefully bent outward the section of the tank which he had cut, he quickly reached down and lifted Elaine, unconscious, out of the water. - - - - - ? A T* Gently he lam ner on me sauu. u was the work of only a moment to cut the cords that bound her hands. There she lay, pale and still. Was she dead? Kennedy worked frantically to revive her. At last, slowly, the color seemed to return to her paie lips. Her eyelids fluttered. Then her great, deep eyes opened. As she looked up and caught sight of Craig bending anxiously over her, ^ For a mo Bne seexneu uj 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. "ElainV he whispered, still gazing down into her wonderful eyes, "tne Clutching Hand shall pay for this! It Is a fight to a finish between us!" (TO BE CONTINUED.) < ? a