CLOSING TIME
The Ear Detective, more favored than ever because he had been the means
of listing sound-clues, one of which had completely linked Ryder into
his crime, was busy.
Astrovox, well recovered from his blow on the temple, was going to
"shoot" the stars as they crossed over the lens of his telescope and
Roger was getting a sound-film into a camera.
"Why in the world did Ryder have to go to all that trouble?" the old
star-reader inquired. "How much simpler to have come in his own clothes.
More freedom for his hands, that way, and no need to bring the ape to
unlace his animal skin."
"He knew," Roger explained, "about out protective device, and by wearing
the skin and bringing the dancing ape, he would never be photographed
and he would fool us all the more."
"Well," remarked Astrovox, "you'll remember that Neptune--the planet of
deception--was opposed by Saturn, the planet of obstruction, and there
was an opposition of Mars, ruling explosives, with Uranus, which is, you
might say, the planet that brings up the unexpected."
Roger smiled to himself.
Good old Astrovox, he mused, with his oppositions and "aspects" and all,
was, still, a very clever scientist, and must be humored.
"Yes," he chuckled, "and if I remember all you told me, something like
this was in the 'horoscope' that day. The 'sixth house' has to do with
animals--smaller animals, and Neptune with larger ones."
"That is my astrological teaching."
"Well, Neptune is in that sixth house, and if Saturn is the planet of
obstruction it shows why the false doctor in his deceptive disguises,
would be obstructed or caught."
"Rats!" Tip snapped.
"Rats are under the sixth house," Astrovox seriously persisted in
apparently preposterous ideas, "and Neptune showed how the gas was used
and also how the acid test, when Grover applied it to the shoes Ryder
had worn, revealed in the paraffin cast the exploded gas of the torpedo
he had stepped on to attract attention just when I ran in and recognized
him."
"What explains _my_ denseness?" Grover arrived, with a special quartz
lens for some prism-and-spectroscope color work, "I was put off the
track at first because Ryder knew my favorite axiom, 'dig past
appearances that can be falsified, to find truth which is ever the
same.' He deliberately hid the culture tubes in his own racks, and I
fell into his trap, trusting him, thinking he was being victimized by
some one else. It made it possible for him to be here, operate the trick
with the Voice of Doom and hand Roger the prepared film supposed to be
unexposed, carrying his animal pictures that he took at a special
performance given him for good pay by the animal trainer."
"Your density was because Mercury was in the twelfth house, and squared
the moon in the third--wrong deductions."
"Maybe those 'houses' are true," chuckled Grover, "I know one house _I_
am going to occupy. My own home. For a good sleep. How about you,
Roger?"
"After I see that all our apparatus is fixed for the night."
"You go ahead," Potts grinned fondly at his chum, all suspicions
forgiven, "I'll see that everything er--uh--coagulates!"
THE END
The Mystery
of the
15 Sounds
_By
Van Powell_
When Roger's uncle offered him an opportunity to help in his scientific
laboratory while the boy's parents were in Europe, Roger jumped at the
chance. His uncle's laboratory--one of the most perfectly equipped--was
the most fascinating place in the world.
Even the latest scientific devices, however, could not keep out the
"Voice of Doom" which sounded hollowly through the laboratories in the
dead of night, or prevent the ghostly antics of the phantom kangaroo and
his ape-like companion. These and many other occurrences make THE
MYSTERY OF THE 15 SOUNDS one of the best boys' mystery stories of the
year.
_Books for Boys_
In selecting the books of this series we, as publishers, have tried to
present a varied assortment, which will stir the imaginations of all
boys. At the same time we have kept these stories from being
nerve-wreckers.
Herman M. Appel
Secret of the Flambeau, The.
William Dixon Bell
Sacred Scimiter, The.
Moon Colony, The.
Secret of Tibet, The.
Walter Butts, Jr.
Brothers of the Senecas.
Graham M. Dean
Agent Nine and the Jewel Mystery.
Agent Nine Solves His First Case.
Circle 4 Patrol.
Daring Wings.
Herb Kent, West Point Cadet.
Herb Kent, West Point Full Back.
Slim Evans and His Horse "Lightning."
Treasure Hunt of the S-18.
Edwin Green
Air Monster.
Secret Flight.
William Heyliger
Big Leaguer.
Detectives, Inc.
Fighting Blood.
Loser's End, The.
Norton H. Jonathan
Dan Hyland, Police Reporter.
Gilbert A. Lathrop
Whispering Rails.
Mystery Rides the Rails.
George Morse
Circus Dan.
Extra.
Vanishing Liner.
John A. Moroso
Nobody's Buddy.
Ambrose Newcomb
Eagles of the Sky.
Flying the Coast Sky Ways.
Sky Detectives.
Trackers of the Fog Pack.
Van Powell
Mystery of the 15 Sounds.
Warren F. Robinson
"G" Man's Son, The.
"G" Man's Son, at Porpoise Island.
Phantom Whale, The.
Lieut. Noel Sainsbury
Bill Bolton and the Flying Fish.
Bill Bolton, Flying Midshipman.
Bill Bolton and Hidden Danger.
Bill Bolton and Winged Cartwheels.
Harold M. Sherman
Captain of the Eleven.
Down the Ice.
Interference.
In Wrong Right.
It's A Pass.
Over the Line.
Strike Him Out.
Tahara, Among African Tribes.
Tahara, Boy King of the Desert.
Tahara, Boy Mystic of India.
Tahara, in the Land of Yucatan.
Under the Basket.
Wayne Whipple
Young Abraham Lincoln.
Young Franklin Roosevelt.
THE GOLDSMITH PUBLISHING CO.
CHICAGO, ILL.
Transcriber's Notes
--Copyright notice provided as in the original--this e-text is public
domain in the country of publication.
--Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and
dialect unchanged.
--In the text versions, delimited italics text in _underscores_ (the
HTML version reproduces the font form of the printed book.)
End of Project Gutenberg's The Mystery of the Fifteen Sounds, by Van Powell