Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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wr? -mm SIX fMovellzed from the Photo Play of the Sai Film Manufacti TTii?? ^**or.tir?rr instalment, the Black Box will be shown ir motion pictures at the Casino Theatre Thursday night. SYNOPSIS. Sanford Quest, master criminologist of the world, finds that In bringing to Justice Maedougal. the murderer of I.orU Ashlelgh's daughter, he has but Just beKvin a life-and-death struggle with a mysterious master criminal. In a hidden hut in Froressor Ashlelgh's garden he lias seen an anthropoid ape skeleton and a. living Inhuman creature, half monkey, half man, destroyed by fire. In his room have appeared from nowhere black boxes, one containing diamonds torn from a lovely throat by a pair of armless, threatening hands, both with sarcastic, threatening notes signed by the incrutable hands. On his return from finding the body of Macdougal, who had escaped on his way to prison, he is arrested for the murder of his valet, Ross Brown, and a Miss Qulgg, in his rooms. I ..aura and Renora, his assistants, suspect Craig the professor's valet, trap Craig and rescue Quest from the Tombs to hypnotize Craig into confession, but when Quest arrives he finds that Oraig and l^enora have both disappeared. He dodges Police Inspector French, who has discovered his escape. SIXTH INSTALLMENT THE UNSEEN TERROR. CHAPTER XIV. "With a little gesture of despair ijuest turned away from the instrument which seemed suddenly to have become so terribly unresponsive, and looked across the vista of square I roofs and tangled masses of telephone wires to where the lights of larger New York llared up against the sky. From his attic chamber the roar Of the city a few blocks away was always in his ears. He had forgotten in those hours of frenzied solitude to fear for his own safety. He thought only of Ixmora. He paused once more before the little instrument. *)s.^jLilBnora, where are you?" he signaled. "I have taken a lodging in the Servants' club. I am still in hiding, hoping that Craig may come here. I mm very anxious about you." Still no reply! Quest drew a chair up to the window and sat there with folded arms looking down into the street. Suddenly he sprang to his feet. The instrument quivered?there was a message at last! He took it d$wn with a little choke of relief. V "I don't know where I am. I am terrified. I was outside the garage when I I was seized from behind. The'Hands' ym wMs'sss .asmJ | found myself here. I am now in an attic room with no window except the skylight, which I cannot reach. I can Hew uoming?near nothing. No one has hurt me, no one conies near me. , ;Food is pushed through a door, which locked again immediately. The hyuge geems empty, yet I fancy that I mm being watched all the time. 1 am rt3TrT5ei!" . Quest drew the Instrument towards him. "I have your message," he signaled. "Be brave! 1 am watching for Craig. Through him I shall reach you before long. Send me a mesage every now and then." T" *QuesI again took up his vigil in front of the window. Once more his eyes swept the narrow street with its constant stream of passers-by. Then suddenly he found himself gripping the window sill in a momentary thrill of rare excitement. His vigil was rewarded at last. The man for whom he was waiting was there! Quest watched him cross the street, glance furtively to the right and to the left, then enter the club, lie turned back to the little wireless and his lingers i worked as though inspired. "I am on Craig's track," he signaled. "Ro brave." He waited for no reply, but opened the door and, stealing softly out of the room, suddenly confronted Craig in the deserted hallway. Before he could utter a cry Quest's left hand was over his mouth and the cold muzzle of an ftAltnniJit P' llisstol W ??a nroaofiil * /-? l>ia V. v. L' tj vv ? f? Ud J-?i OOVU \.\J 1J 4 D ribs. "Turn round and mount those stairs, Craig," Quest ordered. Craig turned slowly round and obeyed. He mounted the steps with reluctant footsteps, followed by Quest. "Through the door to your right," the latter directed* "That's right! Now sit down In that chair facing tne." Quest closed the door carefully. Craig sat where he had been ordered, his Angers gripping the arms of the chair. In his eyes shone the furtive, terrified light of the trapped criminal. "What do you want with me?** Craig naked doggedly. "First of all," Quest replied, "I want to know what you have done with my assistant, the girl whom you carried off from the professor's garage." Craig shook his head. "1 know nothing about her." w _ "She locked you in the garage," wot BOX Mips Oppcnheim mo Name. Produced by the Universal urtng Company. Quest continued, "and sent for me. When I arrived I found the garage door open, Lenora gone and you a fugitive." Bewilderment struggled for a moment with blank terror in Craig's depression. "How do you know that she locked me in the garage?" Quest smiled, stretched out his right arm and his long lingers played softly with the pocket wireless. "In just the same way," he explained, "that I am sending her this message at the present moment?a j message which she will receive and understand wherever she is hidden. Would you like to know what I am telling her?" The mail shivprpd T-Tla pvoo though fascinated, watched the little instrument. "I am saying this, Craig," Quest continued. "Craig is here and in my power. He is sitting within, a few feet of me and will not leave this room until he has told me your whereabouts. Keep up your courage, Lenora. You shall he free in an hour." The trapped man looked away from the instrument into Quest's face. There was a momentary flicker of something that might have passed for courage in his tone. "Mr. Quest," he said, "you arc a wonderful man, but there are limits to your power. You can tear my tongue out from my mouth, hut you cannot force me to speak." Quest leaned a little farther forward in his chair, his gaze became more concentrated. " That is where you are wrong, Craig. That is where you make a mistake. In a very few minutes you will be telling me all the secrets of your 1. x M iit*ari. Craig shivered, drew back a little ! in his chair, tried U) rise and fell back again helpless. "My God!" ho cried. "Leave me alone!" "When you have told me the truth," Quest answered swiftly, "and you will tell me all I want to know in a few minutes. . . . Your eyelids are getting a little heavy, Craig. Don't resist. Something which is like sleep is coming over you. You see my will has yours by the throat." Craig shook his head. A very weak ; smile of triumph flickered for a moment at the corners of his lips. "Your torture chamber trick won't work on me!" he exclaimed. "You j call never? The VhoTe gamut of emotions seamed, already to have spent themselves in the man's face, but at that moment there was a new element, an i element of terrified curiosity in the j expression of his eyes as he stared j towards the door. "Is this another trick of yours?" he muttered. ... ?... .? 1 wutai, ioo, xurneu nis nead and sprang instantly to his feet. From underneath the door came a tittle puff of smoke. There was a queer sense of heat of which both men were simultaneously conscious. Down in tho street arose a chorus of warning shouts, increasing momentarily in "Mount Thooe 8taira, Craig." volume. Quest threw open the door ! and closed it again at once. I "The place is on flro," he announced briefly. "Pull yourself together, man. THE HOR&Y HER We shall have all we can do to get out of this." Craig turned to the door, but staggered back almost immediately. "The stairs are going!" he shrieked. "It 1b the kitchen that is on fire. We are cut off! We cannot get down!" Quest was on his hands and knees, fumbling under his trucklebed. He pulled out a crude form of fire escape, a rough sort of cradle wtyh a rope attached. "Know how to use this?" he asked Craig Quickly. "Here, catch hold. Put your arms inside this strap." Yard by yard, swinging a little in the air, Craig made his descent. When he arrived in the street there were a hundred willing hands to release him. Quest drew up the rope quickly, warned by a roar of anxious voices. Then he commenced to descend, letting himself down hand over hand, always with one eye upon that length of rope that swung below. Suddenly, as he reached the second floor a lit| tie cry from the crowd warned him of what had happened. Tongues of flame curling out from the blazing building had caught the rope, which was being burned through not a dozen feet away from him. He descended a little farther and paused in midair. A shout from the crowd reached him. i "The cables! Try the cables!" He glanced round. Seven or eight, feet away, and almost level with him, was a double row of telegraph wires. Almost as ho saw them the rope below him burned through and fell to the ground. He swung a little towards the side of the house, pushed himself vigorously away from it with his feet, and at the farthest point of the out-) ward swing jumped. His hands grappled the telegraph wires safely. Even in that tense moment he heard a little sob of relief from the people below. Hand over hand he made his way to the nearest pole and slipped easily to the ground. The crowd immediately surged around him. "Where is the man who came down before me?" he asked a bystander. "Talking to the police in the car over yonder," was the hoarse reply. "Say, guv'nor, you only just made that!" Craig pushed his way through the crowd to where Craig was speaking eagerly to French. He stopped short and stooped down. He was near enough to hear the former's words. "Mr. French, you saw the man come down the ropes and swing 011 the ca- i bles? That was Quest, Sanford Quest, the man who escaped from the Tombs prison. He can't have got away yet." ' HM/Nni .1 *- 1 - * wucdi uiov uu nis coat, turned it inside out and replaced it swiftly. He coolly picked up a hat someone had lost in the crowd and pulled it over his eyes. He passed within a few i feet of where Craig and the inspector were talking. "Say, boys, Sanford Quest is in the crowd somewhere. He's the man who jumped on the cable lines. A bun- ; dred dollars for his arrest!" Quest turned reluctantly away. Men were rushing about in all directions for him. , CHAPTER XV. . ?? ... , The professor swung round in his chair and greeted Quest with some surprise, but also a little disappointment. "No news of Craig?" he asked. "I got Craig, all right," he replied. "He came to the Servants' club, where I was waiting for him. My lu k's out, though. The place was burned to the ground last night. I saved his life and then the brute gave me away to the police. I had to make my es cape as best I could." T';? professor tapped the table peevishly. "This is insufferable," he declared. "1 have had no shaving water; my coffee was undrinkable; I can find nothing. 1 have a most important lecture to prepare and I cannot find any of the notes I made upon the subject." Quest smoked in silence for a moment. "Any mail for me, professor?" ho asked abruptly. The professor opened a drawer and handed him a telegram. "Only this!" Quest opened it and read it through. It was from the sheriff of a small town in Connecticut: "The men you inquire^! for are both here. They have sold an automobile and seem to be spending the proceeds. Shall I arrest?" Quest studied the message for a moment. "Say, this is rather interesting, professor," he remurked. "These are the two^ thugs who set upon me at the section house. They killed the signal man, who could have been my alibi, and swiped my car, in which, as it cannot bo found, French supposes that I returned to New York. With their arrest the case against me collapses. I tell you frankly, professor," Quest continued frowning. "I hate to leave the city without having found that girl; but I am not sure that the quickest way to set things right would not be to go down, arrest these men and bring them back here, clear myself, and then go tooth and nail for Craig." "I agreo with you most heartily," the professor declared. "I recommend any course which will insure the return of my man Craig!" "1 cannot promise you that you will ever have Craig here again," Quest observed grimly. "I rathe** fancy Sing Sing will be his next home." ****** Quest stepped off the cars at Bethei a little before noon that morning. Tlu sheriff met him at the depot and greeted him cordially but with obvious surprise. "Say, Mr. Quest," he exclaimed, as they turned away, "I know these men are wanted on your charge, but 1 thought?you'll excuse me for saying so?that you were in some trouble yourself." Quest nodded. "I'm out of that?came out yesterday. The momeift my car is identified and Red Gallagher and his matt arrested every scrap of evidence against me goes." "Well, here's the garage and the man who bought the car," the sheriff remarked, 'and there's the car itsell In the road. It's for you to say whether it can be identified." Quest drew a sigh of reiief. "That's mine, right enough," he declared. "Now for the men." "Say, I want to tell you something," the sheriff began dubiously. "These two are real thugs. They ain't going to take it lying down." "Where are they?" Quest demanded. "In the worst saloon here," the sheriff replied. "They've been there pretty well all night, drinking, and they're there again this morning, hard at it. They've got firearms, and though I ain't exactly a nervous man, Mr. Quest?" "You leave it to me," Quest interrupted. "This is my Job and I want to take the men myself." "You'll never do it," the sheriff der.larpH "Look here," Quest explained, "if I let you and your men go in, there will be a free fight, and as likely as not you will kill one, if not both of the men. I want them alive." "Well, it's your show," the sheriff admitted, stopping before a disreputable looking building. "This is the saloon." "Well," Quest decided. "I'm going In, and I'm going in unarmed. You can bring your men in later, if I call for help or if you hear any shootKg.-"' "You're asking for trouble," the sheriff warned him. "I've got to do this my own way," Quest insisted. "Stand by now." He pushed open the door of the saloon. There were a dozen men drinking around the bar and in the center of them Red Cfallagher and his mate. Quest walked right up to the two men. "Gallagher," he said, "you're my , prisoner. Are you coming quietly?" j Gallagher's mate, who was half \ drunk, swung round and fired a wild shot in Quest's direction. The result was a general stampede. Hod Gallagher alone remained motionless. Grim and dangerously silent, he held a pistol within a few inches of Quest's forehead. "ir my number's up," he exclaimed ferociously, "it won't he you to take me." "I think it will," Quest answered. "Put that away." Gallagher hesitated. Quest's influence over him was indomitable. "Put it away," Quest repeated firmly. "You know you daren't use it. Your account's pretty full up, as it j is." Gallagher's hand wavered. From outside came the shouts of the sheriff and his men, struggling to light their way in through the little crowd who were rushing foi safety. Suddenly Quest backed, jerked the pistol up with his right elbow, and with almost the same I movement struck Red Gallagher un- ! der the jaw. The man went over with a crash. His mate, who had been staggering about, cursing viciously, fired another wild shot at Quest. who swayed and fell forward. "I've done him!" the man shouted. "Get up, Red! I've done him, ali right! Finish your drink. We'll get out of this!" He bent unsteadily over Quest. Suddenly the latter sprang up, seized him by the leg and sent him sprawling. The gun fell from his hand. Quest picked it up and held It firmly out, covering both men. Gallagher was on his knee?, groping for his own weapon. "Get the handcuffs on them," Questdirected the sheriff, who with his men had at last succeeded In forcing his j way into the saloon. I Crouching in her chair, her pale, terror-stricken faco supported be ?w You Daren't Use It." tween her hands, Lenora, her eyes filled with hopeless misery, gazed at the dumb instrument upon the table. Her last gleam of hope seemed to be passing. Her little friend was silent. Once more her weary fingers spelled out a final, despairing message. "What has happened to you? I am waiting to hear all the time. Has Craig told you where I am? I am afraid!" There was still no reply. Her head sank a little lower on her folded arms. Even the luxury of tears seemed denied her. Fear, the fear which dwelt with her day and night, had her in its grip. Suddenly she leaped, screaming, from her place. Splinters of glass fell all around her. Her first wild thought was of release; she gazed upwards at the broken pane. Then very* faintly from the street below she heard the shnut nf n lmvV angry voice: "You've done it now, Jimmy! You're a fine pitcher, ain't you? Lost it, that's what \ou've gone and done!" The thoughts formed themselves mechanically in her mind. Her eyes sought the ball which had come crashing into the room. There was life once more in hor pulses. She found a scrap of paper and a pencil in her pocket. With trembling fingers she wrote a few words: "Police headquarters. I am Sanford Quest's assistant, abducted and imprisoned here in the room where the ball has fallen. Help! I am going mad!" She twisted tho paper, looked around the room vainly for string, and finally tore a thin piece of ribbon from her bosom. She tied the message round the ball, set her teeth and threw it at the empty skylight. Tho first time she was not successful and the ball came back. The second time it passed through the center of the opening. She heard it strike the sound portion of the glass outside, heard it rumble down the roof. A few seconds of breathless silence! Her heart almost stopped beating. Had it rested in some ledge or fallen into the street below? Then she heard the boy's voice: "Geo! Here's the ball come back again!" A hew light shone into the room. She seemed to be breathing a different atmosphere?the atmosphere of hope. She listened no longer with horror for a creaking upon the stairs. She walked backwards and forwards until she was exhausted. . . . Curiously enough, when the end came she was asleep, crouched upon the bed and dreaming wildly. She sprang up to find Inspector French, with a policeman behind him, standing upon the threshold. "Inspector!" she cried, rushing towards him. "Mr. French! Oh, thank God!" Her feelings carried her away. She threw herself at his feet. She was laughing and crying and talking incoherently, all at the same time. The inspector assisted her to a chair. "Say, what's all this mean?" he demanded. She told him her story, incoherently, in broken phrases. French listened with puzzled frown. Then he realized that she was on the point of a nervous breakdown and in no condition for interrogations. "That'll do," he said. "I'll take care of you for a time, young lady, and I'll ask you a few questions later on. My men are searching the house. You and 1 will be getting cn, if you can tear yourself away." ******* The plainclothes man, who was lounging in Quest's most comfortable easy chair and smoking one of his best cigars, suddenly laid down his paper. He moved to the window. A large, empty automobile stood in the street outside, from which the occupants had presumably just descended. He hastened towards the door, \Y-VltsiVfc tlf A n /I U/vntA?f AM 1* t- - <1 IIIV. 11 r? no U|icucu, IIV/ no VI , UC1UK! UtJ was halfway across the room. The cigar slipped from his Angers. It was San ford Quest, who stood there, followed by the sheriff of Bethel, two country policemen and Red Gallagher and his mate, heavily handcuffed. "Say, arent you wanted down yonder, Mr. Quest?" the man Inquired. "That's all right now," 'Quest told him. "I'm ringing up Inspector French myself. You'd better stand by the other fellows there and keep your eye on Red Gallagher and his mate." "I guess Mr. Quest is all right," the sheriff intervened. "We're ringing up headquarters ourselves, anyway." The plain-clothes man did as he was f a # told. Quest took up the receiver from hi ', telephone Instrument and arranged the phototelesme. "Pollco station No. 1, central," he pojd?"through to Mr. French's office, if you please. Mr. Quest wants to speak to him. Yes, Sanford Quest. No need to get excited! . . . All right I'm through, am IT . . . Hello, inspector?" A rare expression of joy suddenly transfigured Quest's face. He wa? gazing downward into the little mirror. ^ "You've found Lenora, then, inspector?" he exclaimed. "Bully for you! . . . What do I mean? What I say! You forget that I am a scientific man, French. No end of appliances here you haven't .had time to look at. I can see you sitting there, and Lenora and Laura looking as though you had them on the rack. You can urop that, French. I've got Red Gallagher and his mate, got them here with the sheriff of Bethel. They ** went ofT with my auto and sold it. We've got that. Also, in less than five minutes my chauffeur will be here, lie's been lying in a farmhouse unconscious, since that scrap. He can tell you what time he saw me last. Bring the girls along, French? and hurry!" Quest hung up the receiver. Jf&to Inspector French was as good, even better than his word. In a surprisingly short time he entered the room, nr followed by Laura and Lenorii. Quest gave them a hand each, but it was into Lenora's eyes that he looked. "I mustn't stop to hear your story, Lenora," Quest said. "You're safe? that's the great thing." "Found her in an empty house," ^ French reported, "out Grayson avenue way. Now, Mr. Quest, I don't want to come the oflicial over you too much, but if you'll kindly remember you're an escaped prisoner?" There was a knock at the door. A young man entered in chauffeur's livery, with his head still bandaged. Quest motioned him to come in. "I'll just repeat my story of that 4. morning, .Mr. French," Quest said. "We went out to find .Macdofigal, and succeeded, as you know. Just as I was starting for home those two thugs set upon me. You know how 1 made my escape. They went off in my automobile and sold it in Bethel. I arrested them there myself this morning. Here's the sheriff who will bear out what I say, also that they arrived at the place in my automobile." -A. Inspector French held out his hand. "Mr. Quest," he said, "I reckon we'll have to withdraw the case against you. No hard feelings, I hope?" "None at all," Quest replied promptly, taking his hand. Quest stood upon the threshold watching the sheriff and his prisoners leave the house. The former turned round to wave his adieux. ^ "There's an elderly guy out here," ho shouted, "seems to want to come in." W'iesi loaned iorward and saw the professor. "My dear Quest," he exclaimed, as he wrung his hand, "my heartiest congratulations! As you know, I always believed your innocence. I am delight- , ed that it has been proved." The professor sank wearily into an easy chair. "I will take a little whisky and one of your excellent cigars, Quest," he said. "I must ask you to bear with me if I seem upset. After more than twenty years' service from one whom I have always treated as a friend this sudden separation, to a man of my . "Inspector!" She Cried, Rushing Towards Him. age, is somewhat trying. I do not al- jlude, as you perceive, Mr. Quest, to ~ the horrible suspicion you seem to have formed of Craig," "All the same," the inspector remarked thoughtfully, "someone who is still at large committed those murders and stole those Jewels. What is your theory about the jewels, Mr. Quest?" "I haven't had time to frame one vet," the criminologist replied. "You've \ been keeping me too busy looking after myself. However," he added.