_Live Steam_
The Black Hood had reached a dead-end in the trail which had led him
from the Weedham Industries plant. The gray sedan in which the fleeing
criminals were riding had vanished, apparently into thin air. Black Hood
had spent thirty minutes of search at break-neck speed in an attempt to
pick up the trail of the gray sedan again. He had driven the roadster
which belonged to Jeff Weedham in and out of alleys in a trial and error
effort to sight the killers' car, but all without success.
It occurred to him then that it was entirely possible that the rob and
kill boys had not left the suburban town at all. Perhaps this was their
hideout. With that in mind, he parked Jeff Weedham's car and stepped out
into the rain, his black cape wrapped around him. He felt that he could
walk the streets in comparative safety in spite of his costume, for it
would have required close inspection under direct light to distinguish
the garb he wore from the standard poncho and rain-hood worn by the
traffic police in bad weather.
After an hour or more of leg work that yielded him no information so far
as a possible hideout for the criminals was concerned, Black Hood came
across the drunk. The drunk was in a dismal alley, leaning up against
the wall of a tavern which he had evidently just left. He was a young
man, and he wore some sort of a uniform--that of a chauffeur, taxi
driver, or something of the sort. When Black Hood put in his appearance,
the young man started to move along up the alley, staggering as he
walked.
"Wait a minute," Black Hood called.
"'S all right, officer," the drunk said, mistaking Black Hood for a cop.
"I'm on my way. I'm goin' home."
"You think you'll get there, weaving around that way?" Black Hood asked,
catching up with the man. "If you don't fall asleep under the wheels of
a truck you'll be mighty lucky."
"Only live a block from here," the drunk explained. "I'll make it. I
gotta skin full, all right. Never been drunk before, so help me,
officer. But Burkey fired me because he said I was drunk when I wasn't.
A man's gotta live up to his reputation, don't he?"
"Who's Burkey?" Black Hood asked. He was determined to see that the
young drunk got safely home.
"Runs the Super-Charged Gasoline Station two blocks south of here. He
said he wouldn't have a drunk working for him, but I was cold sober when
it happened."
"When what happened?" Black Hood linked his arm with that of the young
man.
"I was out at the gas pumps when a gray sedan barreled into the station
and in onto the wash rack," the young man explained. "Burkey brought the
doors down in the wash room and turned on the steam. About ten minutes
later, the gray sedan drove out the other side of the wash room, and it
wasn't gray any more. It was blue--blue with red wheels."
At the mention of a gray sedan traveling fast, Black Hood's interest
increased.
"Maybe," he suggested, "there were two cars in the wash room."
"Can't be," the young man said. "There's only room for one at a time. I
went to Burkey and asked him how it happened that a car would change
color like that. He said it hadn't changed color and if I thought it had
I must be drunk. So he fired me. But I was cold sober, I tell you. And
I'd like to know what I'm going to do and what my widowed mother is
going to do with me out of a job."
Black Hood reached inside his cape. The broad black belt which he wore
contained many secret pockets, and from one of these he extracted a
ten-dollar bill. He pressed the money into the young man's hand.
"That'll tide you over until you can find a job," he said. "Think you
can get across the street all right?"
They had reached the end of the alley by this time, and the young drunk
had said that his home was just on the other side of the street. The
drunk stared at the crumpled bill in his hand. Then he raised his eyes
to Black Hood's face. In the glow from a nearby street lamp he could
clearly see the black mask that covered the upper part of Black Hood's
face to the tip of his nose. The drunk was startled.
"Who--who are you?" he stammered.
Black Hood laughed. "Never mind, son. Just forget you ever saw me." Then
he turned and ran back along the alley to walk quickly in the direction
of the gas station where the drunk had worked, two blocks to the south.
The overhead door of the car washing room was open, and as Black Hood
entered it he glanced through the glass pane of the door connecting this
portion of the service station with the office. A big, shaggy-haired man
in brown overalls had just picked up the telephone from his battered,
grease-stained desk. This man would be Burkey, the owner of the station.
Black Hood's keen eyes flicked around the room in which he now stood. At
the back, near a stand that racked a number of grease guns, he saw a
second telephone fixed to the wall. An extension of the one in the
office, he wondered?
He crossed to the wall phone and gently removed the receiver from its
hook and held it to his ear. He heard a gruff voice which might well
have been that of the man Burkey, say: "Is this the Eye?"
* * * * *
Black Hood's eyes narrowed. The voice that came back over the wire was a
toneless whisper.
"This is the Eye speaking."
Burkey said, "Delancy came through here about a couple of hours ago."
"Delancy?" the Eye said. "Yes, I know."
"I changed paint jobs for him according to instructions," Burkey
explained. "But what I called you about, I got a young fellow working
here, grinding gas. He saw the gray sedan roll in here and he saw that
it was blue when it went out. He came to me to ask how come."
"What did you do?" the Eye whispered.
"Told him he was drunk and fired him," Burkey replied.
"That was careless of you," the voice whispered after the pause of a
moment. "Very careless. You should have silenced this man at once."
Burkey said, "How the hell could I do that?"
"That is your problem," the whisperer said. "But you must dispose of him
immediately, do you understand?"
"Is that an order?"
"That is an order," the Eye whispered grimly, and broke the connection.
Black Hood hung up quietly. Then crouching low, he crossed the room to
where the strainer top of the sewer drain was placed in the concrete
floor. It was in this room that Delancy's get-away car had changed paint
jobs, and in about ten minutes. How was such a thing possible?
He dropped to his knees, nerves tense as he lifted the strainer plate.
Dove gray particles clung to the sewer opening beneath--particles of
some sort of paint that was soluble in water or perhaps live steam. A
glint of understanding came into his eyes. Delancy had driven the
get-away car into this room. The car actually was not a gray car at all.
It was a blue car, the paint covered with this gray, steam soluble
substance. All that was necessary to convert the car which Black Hood
had been following into a blue car which he certainly would have missed
was a good bath of steam. It wouldn't have required more than ten
minutes at the outside.
A rumbling sound that did not originate in the thunder caps above jerked
Black Hood's attention from the drain. His glance darted toward the
overhead doors which were dropping swiftly into place. His eyes turned
toward the door leading into the service station office. Burkey, the
proprietor, was standing at the door, watching Black Hood through the
glass. There was a diabolical grin on the face of the station owner.
Black Hood straightened as the overhead doors fell into place and
locked. He took two long, springy strides toward the door. But he never
quite reached that door. With an explosive hiss, gray jets of live steam
erupted from pipes around the edge of the room. Scalding steam that
could burn and blister and boil human flesh.
Black Hood fell back from the door, staggered by his first contact with
that hissing gray hell. He threw back his head, looked above at steam
pipes that criss-crossed overhead. And then Burkey manipulated the valve
that controled the overhead pipes, and the steam poured down upon Black
Hood from above.
He couldn't see now, because of the steam. He dared not open his eyes
lest the heat blind him permanently. But in that brief glimpse upward,
Black Hood had marked the location of one of the steam pipes. He
crouched, nerves and muscles tense, controled in spite of the torturous
cloud of scalding vapor that pressed close to him. Suddenly, he
unleashed all the pent-up power of flexed legs, leaped into the air, one
gauntlet protected hand out-thrust for the pipe which he knew was there
even if he could not see it. Fingers grasped, held like steel hooks. He
drew himself up with one powerful arm until his other hand could join
its mate.
The intense heat penetrated the leather palms of his black gauntlets.
Still he hung on, drawing himself upward to hook a leg over the very
pipe that threatened to boil him alive. He understood now why the
Hermit, that wise old man who had nursed him from the very jaws of
death, had been so insistent upon regular muscular exercise. The power
to save himself was there in the muscles of back, legs and arms. It was
there, waiting for just such moments of danger as these.
Gradually, he hauled himself to the pipe above, got his feet onto the
pipe and stood erect, his hands reaching up to the rafters to maintain
his balance. And there he waited in that hot gray cloud that pressed to
the roof where it condensed and fell like warm rain. His body was safe
from direct contact with the blistering jets of steam.
At last the steam was shut off, the gray clouds dissipated. Cautiously,
Burkey unlocked the door which connected the car washing room with his
office. He stepped out, doubtless expecting to find Black Hood curled up
on the floor, all consciousness driven from him by the pain of countless
steam burns. The Black Hood, watching from the pipes above, showed white
teeth in a wide grin.
"Look up, Burkey!" he sang out.
And as the big service station proprietor raised startled eyes, the
Black Hood let go of the rafters, took a dive from the pipe straight at
the man below. He caught Burkey at the throat and shoulders with his
hands. The driving weight of him crushed the big man to the floor,
knocked the breath out of him. And for a moment Black Hood just sat
there on top of Burkey, holding him in his powerful grasp.
"How does it feel to be utterly helpless, Burkey?" he said quietly. "You
see what I can do with you? I can choke the life out of you this way."
The fingers of his right hand constricted on Burkey's throat until the
man's eyes crawled a little way out of their sockets. Then he eased his
grip a little.
"Or I could dash your brains out against the floor like this."
And Black Hood seized Burkey's shaggy hair and bounced the filling
station operator's head against the floor a couple of times.
* * * * *
Burkey said nothing. Black Hood slapped him hard across the side of the
face with his gauntlet covered hand. Burkey winced, squirmed a little.
Then realizing that he was completely at the Black Hood's mercy, he lay
still.
"Talk!" Black Hood said. "Who is the Eye?"
"I don't know," Burkey croaked. "I've never seen him. I don't know who
he is. You could kill me maybe, but you couldn't make me talk."
"What was that telephone number you just called?" Black Hood persisted.
Burkey's eyes rolled. "I can't tell you. The Eye would kill me if I
told."
Black Hood laughed harshly. "And what do you think I'm going to do if
you _don't_ talk?"
Burkey said nothing.
Black Hood got off the man, stood up. He told Burkey to get to his feet.
"And you'd better get your fists up, Burkey, because if you don't I'm
liable to knock your head off."
Possibly Burkey knew something about boxing. Possibly he had gone a
round or two with some second rate slugger some time in his life. But
certainly he had never fought with anybody who could equal the Black
Hood in speed and fire power. Black Hood's fists were everywhere at
once. His long arms were like rapiers, striking through Burkey's guard
to land time after time in the big man's face.
Finally, Burkey crumpled against the wall, one eye closed, the other
looking sleepy. Blood was dripping from nose and mouth.
"Talk!" Black Hood demanded, one closed fist raised like a hammer above
the man's head.
Burkey simply shook his head feebly and collapsed, unconscious.
Black Hood made a swift but careful search of the filling station office
without revealing anything in the way of incriminating evidence. If
Burkey knew the Eye's telephone number he apparently kept it in his
head.
Black Hood found a short length of chain and a padlock which was used to
keep anyone from tampering with one of the oil pumps that topped a steel
drum. He returned to the car washing room, scooped the keys out of the
unconscious Burkey's pockets. Then he chained and locked the filling
station man to the steel cross member of the wash rack. Then he went
into the office, telephoned police headquarters. When the desk sergeant
had answered, he said:
"If you will send men to the Super-Charged Gas station here in your
city, you will find the proprietor, a man named Burkey. I suggest that
he be questioned in conjunction with the activities of the criminal
organizer known as the Eye, and especially in his connection with the
killing and robbery at the Weedham Industries plant tonight."
"Who is this?" the desk sergeant demanded.
Black Hood chuckled. "You'll never find out!" And then he hung up, left
the station to vanish into the murk of the rain swept night.
It must have been at about this time that Joe Strong, that demon
photographer on the staff of Jeff Weedham's paper, _The Daily Opinion_,
made a startling discovery. He was in the dark room at the newspaper
office with Barbara Sutton, developing films which he had exposed at the
Weedham factory that night.
He turned from his developing traps to face Barbara. The broad grin on
his coarse features was illuminated by the ruby light hanging above
their heads.
"Honey," Joe said, "I got something that's going to set little old New
York right back on its heels. I've got positive proof that will identify
the dirty bum who's behind this crime wave. Positive evidence that will
point to the killer of that watchman at the Weedham plant tonight."
There was a skeptical gleam in Barbara's beautiful eyes. Since she had
been working on the newspaper with Joe Strong assigned as her pix man,
she had heard just such claims from Joe before. He was always turning up
a picture that was to be the scoop of the week and which usually
developed into a fogged film of no use to anybody.
She said, "Well, if you have you'd better turn it over to the editor
before you bungle the developing some way. Jeff Weedham is going to have
to pull something pretty soon to pick up circulation. He's got to prove
to his father that he can run this business. If he fails at this job as
he has at every other, I understand Mr. Weedham is going to cut Jeff off
from the Weedham fortune."
Joe stuck his thumbs in the arm holes of his vest.
"Jeff's worries are over, permanently. This is the scoop of the week. We
got the guy red handed. Take a look, beautiful."
Joe held up the negative strip which he had just developed. He pointed a
thick forefinger at the exposure near the end of the strip. Joe didn't
quite understand how he had got the picture unless that flare of
lightning had acted as a flashlight bulb and the lens of his camera had
been open at the time. But no matter how he had obtained it, there was
the picture.
It showed the unmistakable figure of Black Hood standing over Joseph,
the Weedham gate keeper. It showed more than that. It showed Black
Hood's gauntlet covered right hand grasping the knife that was plunged
into Joseph's throat.
Barbara raised her hand to her mouth to check a startled cry. She stared
at the negative and repeatedly shook her head.
"I don't believe it," she whispered. "He wouldn't do such a thing. It's
a trick, Joe. You're trying to trick me."
"Not me," Joe said. "Just because you're in love with Black Hood you're
trying to kid yourself. I always said that guy was a crook. And now
there's proof. He's the Eye. He's the brains behind all this robbery and
murder that resulted in looted banks and jewelry stores. The camera
don't lie, Babs. And this little picture catches Mr. Hood with the goods
on him."
Barbara's indrawn breath sounded like a sob. She turned quickly and ran
from the dark room. Was it true? Could it possibly be true? Black Hood
had always told her that he was an outlaw, and she had loved him in
spite of that because of the many good and brave things he had done to
defend people against the criminals of the underworld.
But if Black Hood _was_ guiltless--this had never occurred to Barbara
before--if he was actually guiltless, why had he never let her see his
face?