The Machine
When Carton hurried a little later for the second time down the long
hall of the physics building of America University, his steps were
quickened by the sight of a little knot of men outside the door of
the rooms he had visited on the preceding day. There was Burns, his
fellow-reporter of the _Courier_, two blue-clad policemen, and another
man in plain clothes. All turned as he approached.
"Carton here saw it the same as I!" Burns was declaring. "He can tell
you, Sergeant Wade!"
The detective-sergeant turned toward Carton, greeting him with a nod.
He was familiar to the reporter, a sleepy-eyed, soft-moving man who
chewed gum unceasingly and slowly.
"What is it I'm supposed to have seen?" Carton demanded. "And where's
Dr. Grantham? And what's happened?"
"One thing at a time, Carton," soothed the sergeant. "Dr. Grantham's
had a nasty crack on the head, and a doctor's in there fixing him up.
In the meantime Burns here has been telling me a story about this
Grantham making something invisible here yesterday with some machine?"
"Don't you read the papers, Wade?" Carton asked. "If you did, you'd
have read last night that Dr. Grantham did just that."
"I never read what you fellows write," the detective assured him. "And
I think I'll do so even less from now on. Making things invisible--you
two haven't had any cracks on the head, have you?"
"Laugh on, ignorance," Carton told him as the other smiled slowly.
"You're the sap, Wade, not to believe it. Grantham pulled the thing not
only in front of three of us but also in front of President Ellsworth
of the university himself."
"President Ellsworth, eh?" queried Wade keenly. "Same that's in there
with Grantham now."
"In there?" they both asked, and the detective nodded. "Yes, it seems
he was the one that found Grantham. And you say he saw this stunt
pulled the same as you?"
He seemed to consider that. Carton was about to riddle him with
questions when the door opened and an elderly man beckoned them inside.
Carton and Burns slipped in with Sergeant Wade, and found Grantham
leaning back in a chair with a thick bandage round his head, his eyes
half-closed, and President Ellsworth bending anxiously over him. The
doctor who beckoned them turned to the detective.
"Simple enough," he stated, "a blow on the skull with something blunt,
more from the side than from behind. He says he was turning when it
came--it probably saved him from concussion."
Who Did It?
Wade nodded quickly, and as the doctor passed out moved over to the
seated scientist, Carton and Burns close behind him.
"Feeling better?" he asked. "Just take your time, Dr. Grantham--but
we'd like to hear something about it."
"There's nothing to tell," said Grantham, spreading his hands
helplessly. "Gray--that's my assistant--and I, had been working almost
all day yesterday on a cabinet-projector of the light-curving force.
We finished it after midnight, and then gave it its first tests on
ourselves. It worked perfectly, as I had been sure it would, giving
complete invisibility for either of us when the cabinet was strapped to
his back."
"Just a moment," interrupted the detective. "Do you mean that this
machine really made you or your assistant quite invisible?"
"Of course," the physicist said, with some wonder. "It was simply a
larger development of the small projector we showed these reporters
yesterday morning. When Gray wore it and turned it on he was absolutely
invisible to me, and it was the same when I tested it. We were both
very tired by then, and I told Gray he could go. When he had gone
I was starting to lock up the projector for safe-keeping, when I
heard a quick step behind me. I turned but was half-around when a
crashing blow descended on my head. As I lost consciousness I felt the
cabinet-projector being torn out of my hands, and then I knew nothing
more until I awoke an hour ago with President Ellsworth bending over
me."
Wade shifted his gum thoughtfully. "And you, sir?" to Ellsworth.
"I'm afraid I can tell you even less," said the President. "I knew
Grantham was working late last night and wanted to see him. It must
have been about three o'clock that I came in, and found him lying on
the floor stunned. I called the doctor first, and then the police."
"You saw no one leaving when you entered?"
"No one."
"But isn't three in the morning a rather unusual time for you to visit
your professors?" Wade asked.
President Ellsworth seemed somewhat perturbed at the question, glancing
toward Grantham and then back to the detective. "My reason was a
private one, but I have no objection to telling you of it. The fact is
that I had become worried over this experiment or theory of Grantham's
during the evening. While perfectly aware of his integrity, I realized
that this work of his had a touch of the sensational that might reflect
upon our institution, and I wanted to ask him to go slowly with the
thing until his work was beyond any chance of criticism."
"Natural enough," Wade commented. "And what of this Gray? You said it
was just after he left that you were struck from behind?"
"Yes, but that hardly makes him the criminal," said Grantham. "Gray
has been absolutely devoted to this work of ours, and though somewhat
silent and forbidding is quite reliable."
"You know where he lives?"
"Of course--not a thousand yards from here--in the rooming house
diagonally opposite this corner of the campus."
Sergeant Wade turned to one of the blue-clad officers and spoke quickly
to him. When the man had left he turned back to the physicist.
"This Gray, though, knew all about your projector just finished,
something but a handful of people did. And since he had seen it
make a man perfectly invisible, he must have been aware what powers
its possession would give anyone who wanted to go in for criminal
activities?"
"Anyone would have been aware of that," Dr. Grantham rejoined.
"President Ellsworth remarked on it at our demonstration yesterday."
"You cannot say, however, that it is impossible that Gray, after
leaving, crept back into the laboratory and struck you down and took
the projector?" Wade pursued.
Gray Did Not Return
Dr. Grantham considered. "No," he said slowly, "but I would say that it
sounds impossible to anyone who knew Gray."
Wade was silent, apparently revolving something in his mind, but before
he could ask another question there entered the officer he had sent
below, who spoke to him briefly in low tones. When he had done, Wade
turned again to the physicist.
"How is it, then, that Gray did not return to his rooms when he left
here, and has not been seen there since he left yesterday morning.”
"Good Lord!" Carton burst in excitedly. "Then it's Gray that--"
Dr. Grantham's face showed his astonishment and trouble. "Gray was not
a criminal type," he persisted. "I simply cannot believe that it was
he. More likely by far some thief who found the building's door open
and who, seeing me about to lock up the projector, struck me down to
get it."
"Well, Gray or another," Wade remarked, "someone is loose in New York
at this moment with a thing which, if you're right, can give him the
power to walk its streets unseen."
"But you'll endeavor to catch him?" President Ellsworth interposed
anxiously. "I know but little about Grantham's mechanism, but surely it
will be a terrible threat until whoever has it is captured?"
"We'll do what we can," Wade told him gloomily. "But it's going to be
pretty hard to keep the force looking for someone they can't see! Even
if they believe in the story at all. But I wouldn't worry about the
thing, sir--visible or invisible, a crook can only keep free so long
when thousands are concentrating on finding him."
"I sincerely hope you're right," said President Ellsworth as he
turned to the door, hat in hand. "I'll see you tomorrow about it,
Grantham--and take care of yourself until then."
When he had gone Dr. Grantham said quietly, "I am glad that he does not
fully realize the appalling nature of this thing. I did not want to
worry him to no purpose. Whether it was Gray who took the projector or
another, is really immaterial now. The fact, the great fact, is that
someone has it who has proved himself ruthless. And with it, he can
loose such a terror upon New York--yes and upon the nation--as might be
utterly without precedent!"
"One man?" asked Wade, skeptically.
"One man--but an invisible one!" Grantham exclaimed. "Have you realized
what this means? It means that there are no limits to this man's power,
whoever he is. It means that he can strike down any he wishes though
that person surround himself with a thousand body-guards. It means that
there is no fortress or strong-room that can keep him out, nothing
that he cannot take for himself in full light of day. He can be, if he
desires, an invisible tyrant ruling the world with terror!"
Wade's face was graver as he turned with Grantham, and with Carton and
Burns to the door.
"Well, the most we can hope for now is to get him before he can use the
thing," he said. "Whether it's Gray or another, we ought to be able
somehow to----"
He halted, and his hand shot forward to a little table just inside the
door. On it rested a big square white envelope addressed in a bold hand
to "Dr. Grantham."
Wade's countenance was impassive as he grasped it. "This wasn't here
when President Ellsworth left," he said. "I saw him take his hat from
that table. Is that Gray's handwriting?"
"That or a good imitation of it," said Grantham slowly.
Who Came In
The detective turned to the two officers lounging outside the door.
"Have you seen anyone come through this door since President Ellsworth
left?" he asked them.
They shook their heads. "No one in or out since then."
Wade looked from Grantham to Carton and Burns for a moment, then
handed the envelope to the former. The physicist tore it open and read
silently the single sheet enclosed, then read aloud to the others.
_My dear Dr. Grantham:_
_It has amused me very much to hear your conversation with these
worthy officers, but I really must be going. (You really should
offer chairs to your guests, whether visible or invisible). I
am obliged to you for developing the projector which now makes
me invisible, but I warn you that any attempt on your part to
regain it or to capture me will end disastrously for you. I am the
Invisible Master, and I begin now my reign of this city. My rule of
it will become evident to all in it soon, for in it from now onward
my will shall be supreme._
_The Invisible Master._