THE DEVIL WORSHIPPERS
Elaine was seated in the drawing room with Aunt Josephine one
afternoon, when her lawyer, Perry Bennett, dropped in unexpectedly.
He had hardly greeted them when the butler, Jennings, in his usual
impassive manner announced that Aunt Josephine was wanted on the
telephone.
No sooner were Elaine and Bennett alone, than Elaine, turning to him,
exclaimed impulsively, "I'm so glad you have come. I have been longing
to see you and to tell you about a strange dream I have had."
"What was it?" he asked, with instant interest.
Leaning back in her chair and gazing before her tremulously, Elaine
continued, "Last night, I dreamed that father came to me and told me
that if I would give up Kennedy and put my trust in you, I would find
the Clutching Hand. I don't know what to think of it."
Bennett, who had been listening intently, remained silent for a few
moments. Then, putting down his tea cup, he moved over nearer to Elaine
and bent over her.
"Elaine," he said in a low tone, his remarkable eyes looking straight
into her own, "you must know that I love you. Then give me the right to
protect you. It was your father's dearest wish, I believe, that we
should marry. Let me share your dangers and I swear that sooner or
later there will be an end to the Clutching Hand. Give me your answer,
Elaine," he urged, "and make me the happiest man in all the world."
Elaine listened, and not unsympathetically, as Bennett continued to
plead for her answer.
"Wait a little while--until to-morrow," she replied finally, as if
overcome by the recollections of her weird dream and the unexpected
sequel of his proposal.
"Let it be as you wish, then," agreed Bennett quietly.
He took her hand and kissed it passionately.
An instant later Aunt Josephine returned. Elaine, unstrung by what had
happened, excused herself and went into the library.
She sank into one of the capacious arm chairs, and passing her hand
wearily over her throbbing forehead, closed her eyes in deep thought.
Involuntarily, her mind travelled back over the rapid succession of
events of the past few weeks and the part that she had thought, at
least, Kennedy had come to play in her life.
Then she thought of their recent misunderstanding. Might there not be
some simple explanation of it, after all, which she had missed? What
should she do?
She solved the problem by taking up the telephone and asking for
Kennedy's number.
I was chatting with Craig in his laboratory, and, at the same time, was
watching him in his experimental work. Just as a call came on the
telephone, he was pouring some nitro-hydrochloric acid into a test tube
to complete a reaction.
The telephone tinkled and he laid down the bottle of acid on his desk,
while he moved a few steps to answer the call.
Whoever the speaker was, Craig seemed deeply interested, and, not
knowing who was talking on the wire, I was eager to learn whether it
was anyone connected with the case of the Clutching Hand.
"Yes, this is Mr. Kennedy," I heard Craig say.
I moved over toward him and whispered eagerly, "Is there anything new?"
A little impatient at being interrupted, Kennedy waved me off. It
occurred to me that he might need a pad and pencil to make a note of
some information and I reached over the desk for them.
As I did so my arm inadvertently struck the bottle of acid, knocking it
over on the top of the desk. Its contents streamed out saturating the
telephone wires before I could prevent it. In trying to right the
bottle my hand came in contact with the acid which burned like liquid
fire, and I cried out in pain.
Craig hastily laid down the receiver, seized me and rushed me to the
back of the laboratory where he drenched my hand with a neutralizing
liquid.
He bound up the wounds caused by the acid, which proved to be slight,
after all, and then returned to the telephone.
To his evident annoyance, he discovered that the acid had burned
through the wires and cut off all connection.
Though I did not know it, my hand was, in a sense at least, the hand of
fate.
At the other end of the line, Elaine was listening impatiently for a
response to her first eager words of inquiry. She was astounded to
find, at last, that Kennedy had apparently left the telephone without
any explanation or apology.
"Why--he rang off," she exclaimed angrily to herself, as she hung up
the receiver and left the room.
She rejoined her Aunt Josephine and Bennett who had been chatting
together in the drawing room, still wondering at the queer rebuff she
had, seemingly, experienced.
Bennett rose to go, and, as he parted from Elaine, found an opportunity
to whisper a few words reminding her of her promised reply on the
morrow.
Piqued, at Kennedy, she flashed Bennett a meaning glance which gave him
to understand that his suit was not hopeless.
In the center of a devious and winding way, quite unknown to all except
those who knew the innermost secrets of the Chinese quarter and even
unknown to the police, there was a dingy tenement house, apparently
inhabited by hardworking Chinamen, but in reality the headquarters of
the notorious devil worshippers, a sect of Satanists, banned even in
the Celestial Empire.
The followers of the cult comprised some of the most dangerous Chinese
criminals, thugs, and assassins, besides a number of dangerous
characters who belonged to various Chinese secret societies. At the
head of this formidable organization was Long Sin, the high priest of
the Devil God, and Long Sin had, as we knew, already joined forces with
the notorious Clutching Hand.
The room in which the uncanny rites of the devil worshippers were
conducted was a large apartment decorated in Chinese style, with highly
colored portraits of some of the devil deities and costly silken
hangings. Beside a large dais depended a huge Chinese gong.
On the dais itself stood, or rather sat, an ugly looking figure covered
with some sort of metallic plating. It almost seemed to be the mummy of
a Chinaman covered with gold leaf. It was thin and shrunken, entirely
nude.
Into this room came Long Sin attired in an elaborate silken robe. He
advanced and kowtowed before the dais with its strange figure, and laid
down an offering before it, consisting of punk sticks, little dishes of
Chinese cakes, rice, a jar of oil, and some cooked chicken and pork.
Then he bowed and kowtowed again.
This performance was witnessed by twenty or thirty Chinamen who knelt
in the rear of the room. As Long Sin finished his devotions they filed
past the dais, bowing and scraping with every sign of abject reverence
both for the devil deity and his high priest.
At the same time an aged Chinaman carrying a prayer wheel entered the
place and after prostrating himself devoutedly placed the machine on a
sort of low stool or tabourette and began turning it slowly, muttering.
Each revolution of this curious wheel was supposed to offer a prayer to
the god of the netherworld.
A few moments later, Long Sin, who had been bowing before the metallic
figure in deepest reverence, suddenly sprang to his feet. His glazed
eye and excited manner indicated that he had received a message from
the lips of the strange idol.
The worshippers who had prostrated themselves in awe at the sight of
their high priest in the unholy frenzy, all rose to their feet and
crowded forward. At the same time Long Sin advanced a step to meet
them, holding his arms outstretched as if to compel silence while he
delivered his message.
Long Sin struck several blows on the resounding gong and then raised
his voice in solemn tones.
"Ksing Chau, the Terrible, demands a consort. She is to be
foreign--fair of face and with golden hair."
Amazed at this unexpected message, the Chinamen prostrated themselves
again and their unhallowed devotions terminated a few moments later
amid suppressed excitement as they filed out.
At the same time, in a room of the adjoining house, the Clutching Hand
himself was busily engaged making the most elaborate preparations for
some nefarious scheme which his fertile mind had evolved.
The room had been fitted up as a medium's seance parlor, with black
hangings on the walls, while at one side there was a square cabinet of
black cloth, with a guitar lying before it.
Two of the Clutching Hand's most trusted confederates and a hard-faced
woman of middle age, dressed in plain black, were putting the finishing
touches to this apartment, when their Chief entered.
Clutching Hand gazed about the room, now and then giving an order or
two to make more effective the setting for the purpose which he had in
mind.
Finally he nodded in approval and stepped over to the fire place where
logs were burning brightly in a grate.
Pressing a spring in the mantelpiece, the master criminal effected an
instant transformation. The logs in the fireplace, still burning,
disappeared immediately through the side of the brick tiling and a
metal sheet covered them. An aperture opened at the back, as if by
magic.
Through this opening Clutching Hand made his way quickly and
disappeared.
Emerging on the other side of the peculiar fireplace, Clutching Hand
pushed aside a curtain which barred the way and looked into the Chinese
temple, taking up a position behind the metallic figure on the dais.
The Chinamen had by this time finished their devotions, if such they
might be called, and the last one was leaving, while Long Sin stood
alone on the dais.
The noise of the departing Satanists had scarcely died away when
Clutching Hand stepped out.
"Follow me," he ordered hoarsely seizing Long Sin by the arm and
leading him away.
They passed through the passageway of the fireplace and, having entered
the seance room, Clutching Hand began briefly explaining the purpose of
the preparations that had been made. Long Sin wagged his head in
voluble approval.
As Clutching Hand finished, the Chinaman turned to the hard-faced woman
who was to act the part of medium and added some directions to those
Clutching Hand had already given.
The medium nodded acquiescence, and a moment later, left the room to
carry out some ingenious plot framed by the master mind of the criminal
world.
. . . . . . . .
Elaine was standing in the library gazing sadly at Kennedy's portrait,
thinking over recent events and above all the rebuff over the telephone
which she supposed she had received.
It all seemed so unreal to her. Surely, she felt in her heart, she
could not have been so mistaken in the man. Yet the facts seemed to
speak for themselves.
In spite of it all, she was almost about to kiss the portrait when
something seemed to stay her hands. Instead she laid the picture down,
with a sigh.
A moment later, Jennings entered with a card on a salver. Elaine took
it and saw with surprise the name of her caller:
MADAME SAVETSKY, MEDIUM
Beneath the engraved name were the words written in ink, "I have a
message from the spirit of your father."
"Yes, I will see her," cried Elaine eagerly, in response to the
butler's inquiry.
She followed Jennings into the adjoining room and there found herself
face to face with the hard-featured woman who had only a few moments
before left the Clutching Hand.
Elaine looked rather than spoke her inquiry.
"Your father, my dear," purred the medium with a great pretence of
suppressed excitement, "appeared to me, the other night, from the
spirit world. I was in a trance and he asked me to deliver a message to
you."
"What was the message?" asked Elaine breathlessly, now aroused to
intense interest.
"I must go into a trance again to get it," replied the insinuating
Savetsky, "and if you like I can try it at once, provided we can be
left alone long enough."
"Please--don't wait," urged Elaine, pulling the portieres of the doors
closer, as if that might insure privacy.
Seated in her chair, the medium muttered wildly for a few moments,
rolled her eyes and with some convulsive movements pretended to go into
a trance.
Savetsky seemed about to speak and Elaine, in the highest state of
nervous tension, listened, trying to make something of the gibberish
mutterings.
Suddenly the curtains were pushed aside and Aunt Josephine and Bennett,
who had just come in, entered.
"I can do nothing here," exclaimed Savetsky, starting up and looking
about severely. "You must come to my seance chamber where we shall not
be interrupted."
"I will," cried Elaine, vexed at the intrusion at that moment. "I must
have that message--I must."
"What's all this, Elaine?" demanded Aunt Josephine.
Hurriedly, Elaine poured forth to her aunt and Bennett the story of the
medium's visit and the promised message from her father in the other
world.
Aunt Josephine, who was not one easily to be imposed on, strongly
objected to Elaine's proposal to accompany Savetsky to the seance
chamber, but Elaine would not be denied. She pleaded with her aunt,
urging that she be allowed to go.
"It might be safe for Elaine to go," Bennett finally suggested to Aunt
Josephine, "if you and I accompanied her."
All this time the medium was listening closely to the conversation.
Elaine looked at her inquiringly. With a shrug, she indicated that she
had no objection to having Elaine escorted to the parlor by her friends.
At last Aunt Josephine, influenced by Elaine's pleadings and Bennett's
suggestion, gave in and agreed to join in the visit.
A few moments later, in the Dodge car, Elaine, the medium, and her two
escorts started for the Chinese quarter.
. . . . . . . .
At the house, the medium opened the door with her key and ushered in
her three visitors.
Long Sin who had been watching for their arrival from the window now
hastily withdrew from the seance room and disappeared behind the black
curtains.
Entering the room the medium at once prepared for the seance by pulling
down the window shades. Then she seated herself in a chair beside the
cabinet, and appeared to fall off slowly into a trance.
Her strange proceedings were watched with the greatest curiosity by
Elaine as well as Aunt Josephine and Bennett, who had taken seats
placed at one side of the room.
The room itself was dimly lighted, and the curtains of the cabinet
seemed, in the obscurity, to sway back and forth as if stirred by some
ghostly breeze.
All of them were now quite on edge with excitement.
Suddenly an indistinct face was seen to be peering through the black
curtains, as it were.
The guitar, as if lifted by an invisible hand, left the cabinet,
floated about close to the ceiling, and returned again. It was eerie.
At last a voice, deep, sepulchral, was heard in slow and solemn tones.
"I am Eeko--the spirit of Taylor Dodge. I will give no message until
one named Josephine leaves the room."
No sooner had the words been uttered than the medium came writhing out
of her trance.
"What happened?" she asked, looking at Elaine.
Elaine reported the spirit's words.
"We can get nothing if your Aunt stays here," Savetsky added, insisting
that Aunt Josephine must go. "Your father cannot speak while she is
present."
Aunt Josephine, annoyed by what she had heard, indignantly refused to
go and was deaf to all Elaine's pleadings.
"I think it will be all right," finally acquiesced Bennett, seeing how
bent Elaine was on securing the message. "I'll stay and protect her."
Aunt Josephine finally agreed. "Very well, then," she protested,
marching out of the room in a high state of indignation.
She had scarcely left the house, however, when she began to suspect
that all was not as it ought to be. In fact, the idea had no sooner
occurred to her than she decided to call on Kennedy and she ordered the
chauffeur to take her as quickly as possible to the laboratory.
. . . . . . . .
Kennedy had not been in the laboratory all the day, after my experience
with the acid and I was impatiently awaiting his arrival. At last there
came a knock at the door and I opened it hurriedly. There was a
messenger boy who handed me a note. I tore it open. It was from Kennedy
and read, "I shall probably be away for two or three days. Call up
Elaine and tell her to beware of a certain Madame Savetsky."
I was still puzzling over the note and was just about to call up Elaine
when the speaking tube was blown and to my surprise I found it was Aunt
Josephine who had called.
"Where is Mr. Kennedy?" she asked, greatly agitated.
"He has gone away for a few days," I replied blankly. "Is there
anything I can do?"
She was very excited and hastily related what had happened at the
parlor of the medium.
"What was her name?" I asked anxiously.
"Madame Savetsky," she replied, to my surprise.
Astounded, I picked up Craig's note from the desk and handed it to her
without a word. She read it with breathless eagerness.
"Come back there with me, please," she begged, almost frantic with fear
now. "Something terrible may have happened."
. . . . . . . .
Aunt Josephine had hardly left Savetsky when the trance was resumed
and, in a few minutes, there came all sorts of supernatural
manifestations. The table beside Elaine began to turn and articles on
it dropped to the floor. Violent rappings followed in various parts of
the room. Both Elaine and Bennett who sat together in silence were much
impressed by the marvellous phenomena--not being able to see, in the
darkness, the concealed wires that made them possible.
Suddenly, from the mysterious shadows of the cabinet, there appeared
the spirit of Long Sin, whose death Elaine still believed she had
caused when Adventuress Mary had lured her to the apartment.
Elaine was trembling with fear at the apparition.
As before, a strange voice sounded in the depths of the cabinet and
again a message was heard, in low, solemn tones.
"I am Keka, and I have with me Long Sin. His blood cries for vengeance."
Elaine was overcome with horror at the words.
From the cabinet ran a thick stream of red, like blood, from which she
recoiled, shuddering.
Then a dim, ghostly figure, apparently that of Long Sin, appeared. The
face was horribly distorted. It seemed to breathe the very odor of the
grave.
With arms outstretched, the figure glided from the cabinet and
approached Elaine. She shrank back further in fright, too horrified
even to scream.
At the same moment, the medium drew a vapor pistol from her dress, and,
as the ghost of Long Sin leaped at Elaine, Savetsky darted forward and
shot a stream of vapor full in Bennett's face.
Bennett dropped unconscious, the lights in the darkened room flashed
up, and several of the men of the Clutching Hand rushed in.
Quickly the fireplace was turned on its cleverly constructed hinges,
revealing the hidden passage.
Before any effective resistance could be made, Elaine and Bennett were
hustled through the passage, securely bound, and placed on a divan in a
curtained chamber back of the altar of the devil worshippers.
There they lay when Long Sin, now in his priestly robes, entered. He
looked at them a moment. Then he left the room with a sinister laugh.
. . . . . . . .
It was at that moment that I, little dreaming of what had been taking
place, arrived with Aunt Josephine at the house of the medium.
She answered my ring and admitted us. To our surprise, the seance room
was empty.
"Where is the young lady who was here?" I asked.
"Miss Dodge and the gentleman just left a few minutes ago," the medium
explained, as we looked about.
She seemed eager to satisfy us that Elaine was not there. Apparently
there was no excuse for disputing her word, but, as we turned to leave,
I happened to notice a torn handkerchief lying on the floor near the
fireplace. It flashed over me that perhaps it might afford a clue.
As I passed it, I purposely dropped my soft hat over it and picked up
the hat, securing the handkerchief without attracting Savetsky's
attention.
Aunt Josephine was keen now for returning home to find out whether
Elaine was there or not. No sooner had she entered the car and driven
off, than I examined the handkerchief. It was torn, as if it had been
crushed in the hand during a struggle and wrenched away. I looked
closer. In the corner was the initial, "E."
That was enough. Without losing another precious moment I hurried
around to the nearest police station, where I happened to be known,
having had several assignments for the Star in that part of the city,
and gave an alarm.
The sergeant detailed several roundsmen, and a man in plainclothes, and
together we returned to the house, laying a careful plan to surround it
secretly, while the plainclothesman and I obtained admittance.
. . . . . . . .
Meanwhile, the Chinese devil worshippers had again gathered in their
cursed temple and Long Sin, in his priestly robe, appeared on the dais.
The worshippers kowtowed reverently to him, while at the back again
stood the aged Chinaman patiently turning his prayer wheel.
Two braziers, or smoke pots, had been placed on the dais, one of which
Long Sin touched with a stick causing it to burst out into dense fumes.
Standing before them, he chanted in nasal tones, "The white consort of
the great Ksing Chau has been found. It is his will that she now be
made his."
As he finished intoning the message, Long Sin signaled to two young
Chinamen to go into the anteroom. A moment later they returned with
Elaine.
Frightened though she was, Elaine made no attempt to struggle, even
when they had cut her bonds. She was busily engaged in seeking some
method of escape. Her eyes travelled ever the place quickly.
Apparently, there was no means of exit that was not guarded. Long Sin
saw her look, and smiled quietly.
They had carried her up to the dais, and now Long Sin faced her and
sternly ordered her to kowtow to the gruesome metallic figure.
She refused, but instantly the Chinamen seized her arm and twisted it,
until they had compelled her to fall to her knees.
Having forced her to kowtow, Long Sin turned to the assembled devil
dancers.
"With magic and rare drugs," he chanted, "she shall be made to pass
beyond and her body encased in precious gold shall be the consort of
Ksing Chau--forever and ever."
He made another sign and several pots and braziers were brought out and
placed on the dais beside Elaine. She was, by this time, completely
overcome by the horror of the situation. There was apparently no escape.
With callous deviltry, the oriental satanists had made every
arrangement for embalming and preserving the body of Elaine. Pots
filled with sticky black material were slowly heated, amid weird
incantations, while other Chinamen laid out innumerable sheets of gold
leaf.
At last all seemed to be in readiness to proceed.
"Hold her," ordered Long Sin in guttural Chinese to the two attendants,
as he approached her.
Long Sin held in his hand a small, profusely decorated pot from which
smoke was escaping. As he approached he passed this receptacle under
her nose once, twice, three times.
Gradually Elaine fell into unconsciousness.
. . . . . . . .
While Elaine was facing death in the power of the devil worshippers, I
had reached the house of Savetsky next door with the police, and the
place had been quietly surrounded.
With the plainclothesman, a daring and intelligent fellow, I went to
the door and rang the bell.
"What can I do for you?" asked the medium, admitting us.
"My friend, here," I parleyed, "is in great business trouble. Can your
controlling spirit give him advice?"
We had managed to gain the interior of the seance room, and I suppose
there was nothing else for her to say, under the circumstances, but,
"Why--yes,--if the conditions are good, the control can probably tell
us just what he wants to know."
Savetsky set to work preparing the room for a seance. As she moved over
to the window to pull down the shades, she must have caught sight of
one or two of the policemen who had incautiously exposed themselves
from the hiding places in which I had disposed them before we entered.
At any rate, Savetsky did not lose a jot of her remarkable composure.
"I'm sorry," she remarked merely, "but I'm afraid my control is weak
and cannot work today."
She took a step toward the door, motioning us to leave. Neither of us
paid any attention to that hint, but remained seated as we had been
before.
"Go!" she exclaimed at length, for the first time showing a trace of
nervousness.
Evidently her suspicions had been fully confirmed by our actions. We
tried to argue with her to gain time. But it was of no use.
Almost before I knew what she was doing, she made a dash for something
in the corner of the room. It was time for open action, and I seized
her quickly.
My detective was on his feet in an instant.
"I'll take care of her," he ground out, seizing her wrists in his
vice-like grasp. "You give the signal."
I rushed to the window, threw up the shade and opened the sash, waving
our preconcerted sign, turning again toward the room.
With a sudden accession of desperate strength, Savetsky broke away from
the plainclothesman and again attempted to get at something concealed
on the wall. I had turned just in time to fling myself between her and
whatever object she had in mind.
As the detective took her again and twisted her arm until she cried out
in pain, I hastily investigated the wall. She had evidently been
attempting to press a button that rang a concealed bell.
What did it all mean?
. . . . . . . .
Elaine, now completely unconscious, was being held by the Chinamen,
while her arm was smeared with sticky black material from the cauldron
by Long Sin. As the high priest of Satan worked, the devil worshippers
kowtowed obediently.
Suddenly the aged Chinaman with the prayer wheel stopped his incessant,
impious turning, and rising, held up his hand as if to command
attention.
Amid a general exclamation of wonder, he walked to the dais and mounted
it, turning and facing the worshippers.
"This is nonsense," he cried in a loud tone. "Why should our great
Ksing Chau desire a white devil? I, a great grandfather, demand to
know."
The effect on the worshippers was electric. They paused in their
obeisance and stared at the speaker, then at their high priest.
Shaking with rage, Long Sin ordered the intruder off the dais. But the
aged devotee refused to go.
"Throw him out," he ordered his attendants.
For answer, as the two young Chinamen approached, the old Chinaman
threw them down to the floor with a quick jiu-jitsu movement. His
strength seemed miraculous for so aged a man.
Furious now beyond expression, Long Sin stepped forward himself. He
seized the beard and queue of the intruder. To his utter amazement,
they came off!
It was Kennedy!
With his automatic drawn, before the astounded devil dancers could
recover themselves, Craig stood at bay.
Long Sin leaped behind the big gong. As the Chinamen rushed forward to
seize him, Kennedy shot the leader of Long Sin's attendants and struck
down the other with a blow. The rush was checked for the moment. But
the odds were fearful.
Kennedy seized Elaine's yielding body and, pushing back the curtains to
the anteroom, succeeded in gaining it, and locking the door into the
main temple.
Bennett was still lying on the floor tightly bound. With a few deft
cuts by a Chinese knife which he had picked up, Kennedy released him.
At the same time, Chinamen were trying to batter down the door,
Kennedy's last bulwark. It was swaying under their repeated blows.
Kennedy rushed to the door and fired through it at random to check the
attack for a few moments.
. . . . . . . .
While Kennedy was thus besieged by the devil worshippers in the
anteroom, several policemen and detectives gathered in the seance room
with us, next door, where Savetsky was held a defiant and mute prisoner.
I had discovered the bell, and, taking that as a guide, I started to
trace the course of a wire which ran alongside the wall, feeling
certain that it would give me a clue to some adjoining room to which
Elaine might possibly have been taken.
To the fireplace I traced the bell, and, in pulling on the wire, I
luckily pressed a secret spring. To my amazement, the whole fireplace
swung out of sight and disclosed a secret passageway.
I looked through it.
It was almost at that precise instant that the door of the anteroom
burst open and the Chinamen swarmed in, urged on by the insane
exhortations of Long Sin.
To my utter amazement, I recognized Kennedy's voice.
In the first onslaught, Craig shot one Chinaman dead, then closed with
the others, slashing right and left with the Chinese knife he had
picked up.
Bennett came to his aid, but was immediately overcome by two Chinamen,
who evidently had been detailed for that purpose.
Meanwhile, Kennedy and the others were engaged in a terrible life and
death struggle. They fought all over the room, dismantling it, and even
tearing the hangings from the wall.
It was just as the Chinese was about to overpower him that I led the
police and detectives through the passageway of the fireplace.
It was a glorious fight that followed. Long Sin and his Chinamen were
no match for the police and were soon completely routed, the police
striking furiously in all directions and clearing the room.
Instantly, Kennedy thought of the fair object of all this melee. He
rushed to the divan on which he had placed Elaine.
She was slowly returning to consciousness.
As she opened her eyes, for an instant, she gazed at Craig, then at
Bennett. Still not comprehending just what had happened, she gave her
hand to Bennett. Bennett lifted her to her feet and slowly assisted her
as she tried to walk away.
Kennedy watched them, more stupefied than if he had been struck over
the head by Long Sin.
. . . . . . . .
Police and detectives were now taking the captured Chinamen away, as
Bennett, his arm about Elaine, led her gently out.
A young detective had slipped the bracelets over Long Sin's wrist, and
I was standing beside him.
Kennedy, in a daze at the sight of Elaine and Bennett, passed us,
scarcely noticing who we were.
As Craig collected his scattered forces, Long Sin motioned to him, as
if he had a message to deliver.
Kennedy frowned suspiciously. He was about to turn away, when the
Chinaman began pleading earnestly for a chance to say a few words.
"Step aside for a moment, you fellows, won't you please," Craig asked.
"I will hear what you have to say, Long Sin."
Long Sin looked about craftily.
"What is it?" prompted Craig, seeing that at last they were all alone.
Long Sin again looked around.
"Swear that I will go free and not suffer," Long Sin whispered, "and I
will betray the great Clutching Hand."
Kennedy studied the Chinaman keenly for a moment. Then, seemingly
satisfied with the scrutiny, he nodded slowly assent.
As Craig did so, I saw Long Sin lean over and whisper into Kennedy's
ear.
Craig started back in horror and surprise.