"It is the voice I heard last night," exclaimed Brixton. "By the Lord Harry, do you know, it is Janeff the engineer who has charge of the steam heating, the electric bells, and everything of the sort around the place. My own engineer--I"ll land the fellow in jail before I"ll--"
Kennedy raised his hand. "Let us hear what he has to say," remonstrated Craig calmly. "I suppose you have wondered why I didn"t just go down there last night and grab the fellow. Well, you see now. It is my invariable rule to get the man highest up. This fellow is only one tool. Arrest him, and as likely as not we should allow the big criminal to escape."
"h.e.l.lo, Kronski!" came over the detectaphone. "This is Janeff. How are things going?"
Wachtmann"s chauffeur must have answered that everything was all right.
"You knew that they had discovered the poisoned wall-paper?" asked Janeff.
A long parley followed. Finally, Janeff repeated what apparently had been his instructions. "Now, let me see," he said. "You want me to stay here until the last minute so that I can overhear whether any alarm is given for her? All right. You"re sure it is the nine-o"clock train she is due on? Very well. I shall meet you at the ferry across the Hudson.
I"ll start from here as soon as I hear the train come in. We"ll get the girl this time. That will bring Brixton to terms sure. You"re right.
Even if we fail this time, we"ll succeed later. Don"t fail me. I"ll be at the ferry as soon as I can get past the guards and join you. There isn"t a chance of an alarm from the house. I"ll cut all the wires the last thing before I leave. Good-bye."
All at once it dawned on me what they were planning--the kidnapping of Brixton"s only daughter, to hold her, perhaps, as a hostage until he did the bidding of the gang. Wachtmann"s chauffeur was doing it and using Wachtmann"s car, too. Was Wachtmann a party to it?
What was to be done? I looked at my watch. It was already only a couple of minutes of nine, when the train would be due.
"If we could seize that fellow in the closet and start for the station immediately we might save Yvonne," cried Brixton, starting for the door.
"And if they escape you make them more eager than ever to strike a blow at you and yours," put in Craig coolly. "No, let us get this thing straight. I didn"t think it was as serious as this, but I"m prepared to meet any emergency."
"But, man," shouted Brixton, "you don"t suppose anything in the world counts beside her, do you?"
"Exactly the point," urged Craig. "Save her and capture them--both at once."
"How can you?" fumed Brixton. "If you attempt to telephone from here, that fellow Janeff will overhear and give a warning."
Regardless of whether Janeff was listening or not, Kennedy was eagerly telephoning to the Woodrock central down in the village. He was using the transmitter and receiver that were connected with the iron tube which he had connected to the two regular house lines.
"Have the ferry held at any cost," he was ordering. "Don"t let the next boat go out until Mr. Brixton gets there, under any circ.u.mstances. Now put that to them straight, central. You know Mr. Brixton has just a little bit of influence around here, and somebody"s head will drop if they let that boat go out before he gets there."
"Humph!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Brixton. "Much good that will do. Why, I suppose our friend Janeff down in the storeroom knows it all now. Come on, let"s grab him."
Nevertheless there was no sound from the detectaphone which would indicate that he had overheard and was spreading the alarm. He was there yet, for we could hear him clear his throat once or twice.
"No," replied Kennedy calmly, "he knows nothing about it. I didn"t use any ordinary means to prepare against the experts who have brought this situation about. That message you heard me send went out over what we call the "phantom circuit.""
"The phantom circuit?" repeated Brixton, chafing at the delay.
"Yes, it seems fantastic at first, I suppose," pursued Kennedy calmly; "but, after all, it is in accordance with the laws of electricity. It"s no use fretting and fuming, Mr. Brixton. If Janeff can wait, we"ll have to do so, too. Suppose we should start and this Kronski should change his plans at the last minute? How would we find it out? By telepathy?
Believe me, sir, it is better to wait here a minute and trust to the phantom circuit than to mere chance."
"But suppose he should cut the line," I put in.
Kennedy smiled. "I have provided for that, Walter, in the way I installed the thing. I took good care that we could not be cut off that way. We can hear everything ourselves, but we cannot be overheard. He knows nothing. You see, I took advantage of the fact that additional telephones or so-called phantom lines can be superposed on existing physical lines. It is possible to obtain a third circuit from two similar metallic circuits by using for each side of this third circuit the two wires of each of the other circuits in multiple. All three circuits are independent, too.
"The third telephone current enters the wires of the first circuit, as it were, and returns along the wires of the second circuit. There are several ways of doing it. One is to use r.e.t.a.r.dation or choke-coils bridged across the two metallic circuits at both ends, with taps taken from the middle points of each. But the more desirable method is the one you saw me install this afternoon. I introduced repeating-coils into the circuits at both ends. Technically, the third circuit is then taken off from the mid-points of the secondaries or line windings of these repeating coils.
"The current on a long-distance line is alternating in character, and it pa.s.ses readily through a repeating-coil. The only effect it has on the transmission is slightly reducing the volume. The current pa.s.ses into the repeating-coil, then divides and pa.s.ses through the two line wires. At the other end the halves balance, so to speak. Thus, currents pa.s.sing over a phantom circuit don"t set up currents in the terminal apparatus of the side circuits. Consequently, a conversation carried on over the phantom circuit will not be heard in either side circuit, nor does a conversation on one side circuit affect the phantom. We could all talk at once without interfering with each other."
"At any other time I should be more than interested," remarked Brixton grimly, curbing his impatience to be doing something.
"I appreciate that, sir," rejoined Kennedy. "Ah, here it is. I have the central down in the village. Yes? They will hold the boat for us? Good.
Thank you. The nine-o"clock train is five minutes late? Yes--what?
Count Wachtmann"s car is there? Oh, yes, the train is just pulling in.
I see. Miss Brixton has entered his car alone. What"s that? His chauffeur has started the car without waiting for the Count, who is coming down the platform?"
Instantly Kennedy was on his feet. He was dashing up the corridor and the stairs from the den and down into the bas.e.m.e.nt to the little storeroom.
We burst into the place. It was empty. Janeff had cut the wires and fled. There was not a moment to lose. Craig hastily made sure that he had not discovered or injured the phantom circuit.
"Call the fastest car you have in your garage, Mr. Brixton," ordered Kennedy. "h.e.l.lo, h.e.l.lo, central! Get the lodge at the Brixton estate.
Tell them if they see the engineer Janeff going out to stop him. Alarm the watchman and have the dogs ready. Catch him at any cost, dead, or alive."
A moment later Brixton"s car raced around, and we piled in and were off like a whirlwind. Already we could see lights moving about and hear the baying of dogs. Personally, I wouldn"t have given much for Janeff"s chances of escape.
As we turned the bend in the road just before we reached the ferry, we almost ran into two cars standing before the ferry house. It looked as though one had run squarely in front of the other and blocked it off.
In the slip the ferry boat was still steaming and waiting.
Beside the wrecked car a man was lying on the ground groaning, while another man was quieting a girl whom he was leading to the waiting-room of the ferry.
Brixton, weak though he was from his illness, leaped out of our car almost before we stopped and caught the girl in his arms.
"Father!" she exclaimed, clinging to him.
"What"s this?" he demanded sternly, eying the man. It was Wachtmann himself.
"Conrad saved me from that chauffeur of his," explained Miss Brixton.
"I met him on the train, and we were going to ride up to the house together. But before Conrad could get into the car this fellow, who had the engine running, started it. Conrad jumped into another car that was waiting at the station. He overlook us and dodged in front so as to cut the chauffeur off from the ferry."
"Curse that villain of a chauffeur," muttered Wachtmann, looking down at the wounded man.
"Do you know who he is?" asked Craig with a searching glance at Wachtmann"s face.
"I ought to. His name is Kronski, and a blacker devil an employment bureau never furnished."
"Kronski? No," corrected Kennedy. "It is Professor k.u.manova, whom you perhaps have heard of as a leader of the Red Brotherhood, one of the cleverest scientific criminals who ever lived. I think you"ll have no more trouble negotiating your loan or your love affair, Count," added Craig, turning on his heel.
He was in no mood to receive the congratulations of the supercilious Wachtmann. As far as Craig was concerned, the case was finished, although I fancied from a flicker of his eye as he made some pa.s.sing reference to the outcome that when he came to send in a bill to Brixton for his services he would not forget the high eyebrowed Count.
I followed in silence as Craig climbed into the Brixton car and explained to the banker that it was imperative that he should get back to the city immediately. Nothing would do but that the car must take us all the way back, while Brixton summoned another from the house for himself.
The ride was accomplished swiftly in record time. Kennedy said little.
Apparently the exhilaration of the on-rush of cool air was quite in keeping with his mood, though for my part, I should have preferred something a little more relaxing of the nervous tension.
"We"ve been at it five days, now," I remarked wearily as I dropped into an easy chair in our own quarters. "Are you going to keep up this debauch?"
Kennedy laughed.