"Oh, all right, Walter," he replied indulgently. "I"ll meet you as soon as I can and help you out."
I hung up the receiver with an air of satisfaction. At least now I would get an explanation of the woman"s queer story.
"I"ll clear this thing up," I said confidently. "My friend, Craig Kennedy, the scientific detective is coming out here."
"Good! That fellow who attacked me ought to be shown up. All women may not be as fortunate as I."
We waited patiently. Her story certainly was remarkable. She remembered every detail up to a certain point--and then, as she said, all was blankness.
The bell rang and the woman hastened to the door admitting Kennedy.
"h.e.l.lo, Walter," he greeted.
"This is certainly a most remarkable case, Craig," I said, introducing him, and telling briefly what I had learned.
"And you actually mean to say that a kiss had the effect--" Just then the telephone interrupted.
"Yes," she rea.s.serted quickly. "Excuse me a second."
She answered the call. "Oh--why--yes, he"s here. Do you want to speak to him? Mr. Jameson, it"s the Star."
"Confound it!" I exclaimed, "isn"t that like the old man--dragging me off this story before it"s half finished in order to get another. I"ll have to go. I"ll get this story from you, Craig."
The day before, in the suburban house, the Clutching Hand had been talking to two of his emissaries, an attractive young woman and a man.
They were Flirty Florrie and Dan the Dude.
"Now, I want you to get Kennedy," he said. "The way to do it is to separate Kennedy and Elaine--see?"
"All right, Chief, we"ll do it," they replied.
"I"ve rigged it so that you"ll reach him through Jameson, understand?"
They nodded eagerly as he told them the subtle plan.
Clutching Hand had scarcely left when Flirty Florrie began by getting published in the papers the story which I had seen.
The next day she called me up from the suburban house. Having got me to promise to see her, she had scarcely turned from the telephone when Dan the Dude walked in from the next room.
"He"s coming," she said.
Dan was carrying a huge stag head with a beautifully branched pair of antlers. Under his arm was a coil of wire which he had connected to the inside of the head.
"Fine!" he exclaimed. Then, pointing to the head, he added, "It"s all ready. See how I fixed it? That ought to please the Chief."
Dan moved quickly to the mantle and mounted a stepladder there by which he had taken down the head, and started to replace the head above the mantle.
He hooked the head on a nail.
"There," he said, uns.c.r.e.w.i.n.g one of the beautiful brown gla.s.s eyes of the stag.
Back of it could be seen a camera shutter. Dan worked the shutter several times to see whether it was all right.
"One of those new quick shutter cameras," he explained.
Then he ran a couple of wires along the moulding, around the room and into a closet, where he made the connection with a sort of switchboard on which a b.u.t.ton was marked, "SHUTTER" and the switch, "WIND FILM."
"Now, Flirty," he said, coming out of the closet and pulling up the shade which let a flood of sunlight into the room, "you see, I want you to stand here--then, do your little trick. Get me?"
"I get you Steve," she laughed.
Just then the bell rang.
"That must be Jameson," she cried. "Now--get to your corner."
With a last look Dan went into the closet and shut the door.
Perhaps half an hour later, Clutching Hand himself called me up on the telephone. It was he--not the Star--as I learned only too late.
I had scarcely got out of the house, as Craig told me afterwards, when Flirty Florrie told all over again the embroidered tale that had caught my ear.
Kennedy said nothing, but listened intently, perhaps betraying in his face the scepticism he felt.
"You see," she said, still voluble and eager to convince him, "I was only walking on the street. Here,--let me show you. It was just like this."
She took his arm and before he knew it, led him to the spot on the floor near the window which Dan had indicated. Meanwhile Dan was listening attentively in his closet.
"Now--stand there. You are just as I was--only I didn"t expect anything."
She was pantomiming someone approaching stealthily while Kennedy watched her with interest, tinged with doubt. Behind Craig, in his closet, Dan was reaching for the switchboard b.u.t.ton.
"You see," she said advancing quickly and acting her words, "he placed his hands on my shoulders--so--then threw his arms about my neck--so."
She said no more, but imprinted a deep, pa.s.sionate kiss on Kennedy"s mouth, clinging closely to him. Before Kennedy could draw away, Dan, in the closet, had pressed the b.u.t.ton and the switch several times in rapid succession.
"Th-that"s very realistic," gasped Craig, a good deal taken aback by the sudden osculatory a.s.sault.
He frowned.
"I--I"ll look into the case," he said, backing away. "There may be some scientific explanation--but--er--"
He was plainly embarra.s.sed and hastened to make his adieux.
Kennedy had no more than shut the door before Dan, with a gleeful laugh, burst out of the closet and flung his own arms about Florrie in an embrace that might have been poisoned, it is true, but was none the less real for that.