The Master Strikes
Carton, two days later, came into the _Inquirer's_ city-room to find it
a babel of excitement. His city-editor hailed him through it.
"Carton! Get to the Vance National Bank double-quick--the Invisible
Master's been there--a robbery!"
"A robbery!" Carton exclaimed. "Then he's struck!"
"Get there and get the dope--Collins and Jansen have already started
and we're holding the presses for the story--get going!"
As Carton hurried into the street and through the throngs that surge
each afternoon in the city's financial section, his excitement was
high. From the crowds about him he heard cries and calls, and as
he neared the giant building of the Vance National Bank on Broad
Street, saw a dense crowd gathered at its doors, held back by a row of
policemen. The news was spreading out over the city like flame. The
Invisible Master had struck!
For two days the Invisible Master had been almost the single center
of New York's interest. The newspapers had made known to all that
Dr. Grantham had been struck down and his projector stolen, and that
the criminal who had done that had had the audacity to venture back
into the very room where he had attacked Grantham, made invisible by
the projector, and to leave a mocking note for the scientist in the
very presence of the police! And in that note the Invisible Master
had promised to make use of his power of invisibility to make himself
supreme in the great city!
The police had been nonplussed. They had searched far and wide for
Gray, the assistant of Grantham whom all held to be the daring thief
of the projector, but they had found no trace of him. But the public
was interested only in the Invisible Master, whether he was Gray or
another. Was there actually such a man as that walking New York's
streets unseen? And if there was would he carry out his threat to make
himself ruler of the city by his power?
Those had been questions of supreme interest in those two days. The
newspapers carried pages concerning the Invisible Master and what he
might do. He could steal, slay and burn with impunity. Nothing was
safe from him, no treasure and no life. A thousand absurd methods were
suggested for capturing him, but when nothing had been heard of him in
the two days, a great part of the city doubted his existence, despite
Grantham's warnings. But there seemed few doubters now, Carton grimly
told himself, as he fought his way through the crowd to the great
bank's doors.
There his badge let him through the circle of sweating policemen who
were holding back the excited crowds. He hurried on into the great
bank's lobby. Blue-clad figures were stationed everywhere at its doors.
The many cages along the marble and brass counters were empty of their
occupants now, but in front of one cage was gathered a group of men.
There were some of the bank's officials, elderly, anxious-looking men,
two or three police officers among whom Carton recognized Sergeant
Wade's sleepy-eyed and gum-chewing countenance, and, somewhat to his
surprise, Dr. Grantham, whom he was later to learn had been summoned
with the police at the robbery's occurrence.
Vanished Money
Carton saw that the center of interest of the group of officials and
police and reporters was a young, immaculately-dressed man whose face
was flushed and who was ejaculating excitedly.
"It was he, I tell you!" he was exclaiming. "It couldn't have been
anyone or anything else but the Invisible Master--the package vanished
right before my eyes!"
"Who's the youngster?" Carton asked of one of the reporters beside him.
"Harkness, the teller," said the other. "He's claiming that a package
of fifty one-thousand dollar bills vanished in front of his eyes,
and it looks as though he's going to have a hard time convincing his
bosses," added the other cynically.
Grantham was calming the excited young teller. "Let's just hear all
about it," he told him. "We know that the thing's unprecedented, and no
one thinks you took the money."
Harkness made an effort to appear calm. "It was just half an hour
ago," he said. "I was arranging some entries in my sheets and the
package was lying with some others beside me, just inside the grille's
opening. It was really in reach from outside, of course, but there was
no danger because everyone knows how impossible it is to snatch money
in a bank and escape with it. I thought I heard someone step up to my
window and looked up, but there was no one there. Then in a minute it
happened--the whole front of the grille and counter seemed to vanish
for a second and then reappear. But when they reappeared the package of
thousand-dollar bills was gone! I could only stare, stupefied, for no
one had been at the window, and then suddenly I remembered about the
Invisible Master and gave a shout. The guards came running--but there
was no one there by then. It was the Invisible Master--and he had gone!
And it was he--I tell you it must have been!"
Harkness' calm broke down at the end of his story, but Grantham
encouraged him with a few words and then turned to Wade.
"The boy's telling the truth, Wade," he said simply. "It was the
Invisible Master--and he's given us the first sample of what his being
loose in this city means!"
The officials and reporters were silent, Wade thoughtful. "Would it be
possible for him to make the whole front of the counter disappear for
an instant like that?" he asked Grantham.
The physicist nodded. "Quite possible. You see, the projector when
attached to the body, projects a force for a radius of a few feet
around the body and makes all in that radius invisible as well as
the person wearing it. Thus when the Invisible Master stepped close
up to the window, it and everything in the projector's radius became
invisible for a second, and in that second he needed only to grasp the
package of bills and then step quickly back and walk out."
"It's a tough problem," Wade admitted. He and Grantham had stepped
aside from the group, who were now sharply questioning Harkness, and
Carton had followed them.
"But how are you going to deal with it?" Grantham demanded. "For all
we know, Wade, the Invisible Master may be even now going through bank
after bank. It's not a question of doing anything about this robbery so
much as of preventing others."
"Well, I can't see anything to do but to follow our regular methods,"
Wade said slowly. "We'll send word out to the banks and stores to watch
for this method of robbery as well as possible, and we'll put a man to
look into Harkness and his story, and broadcast a list of the bills'
numbers if we can get them."
When Fear Broods O'er Us
Grantham shook his head impatiently. "Wade, these ordinary police
methods of yours are utterly useless in a case like this. It's all
right to gather fact after fact and slowly apprehend an ordinary
criminal in that way, but this is not a case of catching a criminal so
much as a case of war! War between this city and the Invisible Master!
And the one hope of catching him lies in making the whole city realize
that the Invisible Master is at large in it, and so put them on their
guard against every unusual incident that may point his presence."
"It seems to me," Wade said dryly, "that when Carton here and his
colleagues get through with this story there's going to be mighty few
in the city who don't know that the Invisible Master's at large."
And by that night, indeed, all New York was aware through the screaming
newspapers that the Invisible Master had begun his threatened
activities. He had, apparently, deliberately chosen for his first
exploit one most calculated to win for himself the city's amazed
attention, in his astounding robbery of the great bank in the full
light of day. The thing was stupefying. It was the one subject of
excited discussion in the city that night.
It was the Invisible Master's work, that was certain. But when would
he strike again, when would he make another of these astounding coups?
Imagination ran riot in the depiction of the things that the Invisible
Master might do. People were warned to go always on the assumption
that he was near, for caution's sake. Scientists and pseudo-scientists
gave forth sensational interviews on how the Invisible Master might be
caught.
The newspapers sought above all else for information from Dr. Grantham,
the man who had unwittingly loosed the terror upon the city. It
was announced late that day that Grantham was foregoing all other
activities to devise a plan for curbing or capturing the Invisible
Master. Some suggested even that he was making another projector with
which one invisible man could hunt the other, forgetful of the fact
that Dr. Grantham's first projector had been the work of months, as he
admitted.
Carton, sent that night for information from Grantham, had evidence
of the importance attached to him in the policemen at the door of the
physics building, and knot of reporters lounging outside. They hailed
him noisily and called after him when Carton, after sending his name
in, was admitted inside.
He found Grantham in his laboratory's ante-room, with Sergeant Wade.
"Carton, I'm glad to see you," the scientist greeted him. "You were
here with us last night when the Invisible Master came in and went out,
and I'd like to hear what you think of a scheme that I've devised for
combatting him."
"You've found a way to capture him?" Carton burst out.
Grantham shook his head. "No, but a way of curbing his activities, I
think. Suppose that inside that bank he robbed today there had been
a steel barrier, and that entrance to the bank was only through a
turnstile like a subway turnstile. Then a guard standing beside it
could watch it and if it turned with no one in sight he would know the
Invisible Master had entered and could give the alarm. There could be
entrance and exit turnstiles like that, and in stores and the like as
well as banks. It would stop these snatch-robberies on the part of the
Invisible Master, to some extent, at least."
"It sounds feasible," Carton admitted. "But it will slow business--do
you think the banks will adopt it?"
"They will," Wade said shortly. "They're scared stiff down in the
financial district over this Vance National robbery today, and they'll
catch at any straw to keep the Invisible Master away from their
vaults."
The Second Blow
"Even this, though," Grantham said broodingly, "won't completely stop
the Invisible Master. The best it can do is to curb him for a time
until we find some way of--"
He stopped as the phone-bell rang, and when he had answered, turned the
receiver over to Wade. Carton saw the detective's sleepy eyes widen a
trifle as he listened to the excited voice on the other end, though his
jaws moved his gum as imperturbably as ever. When he turned back to the
other two they were waiting in breathless silence.
"Headquarters," he said simply. "Less than a half-hour ago the
Invisible Master took forty thousand from the pay-office of the Etna
Construction Company, up in the Bronx, and shot and killed one of the
pay-clerks."
"Good God!" Grantham exclaimed. "And they're sure it was he?"
"No one else," said Wade laconically. "The office is a small wooden
building on the construction lot. The two clerks, Taylor and Barsoff,
had the money ready to pay out through a window in one side. There were
three guards around the building, armed, and one of them saw the door
fly suddenly inward and then heard the shot and scream from inside.
They rushed to the office but when they got there Barsoff was dead,
shot through the heart, and Taylor could only stammer that the door had
flown open, the money had suddenly disappeared, and that Barsoff had
been shot out of empty air when he had grasped after it. The guards and
Taylor searched the lot and called the police instantly but they've
found no trace of him."
"Lord!" Carton exclaimed. "The city will go crazy over this--the
Invisible Master striking again on the same day!"
"It will go more than crazy," Wade commented grimly. "This is going to
make everyone in this town handling money panic-stricken!"
"It is the start of the Invisible Master's rule!" said Grantham
solemnly. "From now on no one in New York is safe from him! He is
deliberately terrorizing the city, and at the same time enriching
himself!"
The door opened and President Ellsworth burst inside, his ordinarily
genial face twisted with emotion. "Grantham!" he exclaimed. "Have you
heard of this latest outrage of this assistant of yours--this Invisible
Master?"
Grantham nodded somberly. "We've just heard."
"But this is horrible!" Ellsworth cried. "To think that Gray, so quiet
and sane to all appearances, should become this unseen thief and
killer!"
"Why should Gray be so crazy after money, anyway?" Wade asked him.
"They tell me he was a scientific rather than business type."
"I think I can understand it," President Ellsworth said. "Gray has long
wanted funds for independent research--even he and Grantham here have
been terribly hampered in their work by lack of money. He has seen the
millions that are spent each year in this city on luxury and pleasure,
has reflected how much good might result to the human race were part of
it applied to scientific research, and has started out with this weapon
of invisibility to get it!"
"You sound almost as though you were in sympathy with him," Wade said.
"My dear sir!" Ellsworth was visibly shocked. "I may believe that a
fraction of the city's riches would be better applied in research, but
I would never condone the murder of helpless clerks to obtain it."
"I was only joking," Wade apologized. "Grantham and I think we have
found a way to curb the Invisible Master's activities, at least."
"Indeed?" asked Ellsworth curiously.
"Yes." And Wade explained the idea of the turnstiles, which the
President at once approved.
A City Terrified
"But it seems that will only limit his activities," he said. "Is there
no chance of capturing him completely? Are you sure, Grantham, that the
projector he stole might not suddenly cease to function and make him
visible?"
"No chance of that," said Grantham hopelessly. "The batteries in its
case are small but enough to keep it running for weeks, at intervals.
And since it's Gray that took it, he'll know how to replace them."
President Ellsworth nodded. "I suppose so. But he'll have to be
captured soon or the city will be in panic."
Grantham shook his head. "This second crime is enough to send it into
panic, almost, without further aid, Ellsworth. And if the Invisible
Master should strike again soon--"
And by morning, Carton saw, Grantham's words were nearly fulfilled
already, since it was panic indeed that had almost settled upon the
city. The newspapers were in a state approaching frenzy. The Invisible
Master had struck again, had followed his daring daylight bank-robbery
by another robbery and cold-blooded murder as terrible. He was abroad,
he was invisible, and he was a killer!
A thousand alarms of the Invisible Master's presence were pouring into
police headquarters from citizens who had heard inexplicable sounds or
the like. The police sought to track down some of these, but were near
the limit of their efforts. They had broadcast photographs of Gray in
case he should assume visibility at times, had endeavored to have a
watch kept for the larger bills stolen, but more they could not do.
Through all that morning a chill of terror hung over New York, the pall
of the Invisible Master's rule. Many stores and banks did not open on
that morning. Others that did had hastily-devised turnstiles and like
devices, and armed guards at every door. Crowds in streets and stores
were at a minimum. Every hour saw new panics as a cry went up that the
Invisible Master was present. All New York, Carton saw, was waiting
with nerves on the ragged edge to hear whether the dread unseen figure
stalking the city's ways would strike again.
Then just at noon fear-mad voices were shouting and presses were
roaring and newsboys were bawling as there came to the city the dread
word it awaited--the news of the Invisible Master's third crime.
Even Carton blanched at the horror of that crime, for in it three
men had gone to death. The three had been partners in the importing
firm of Van Duyck, Jackson, Sunetti and Allen, with offices on lower
Broadway. Upon that morning they had met to dissolve the partnership
in question, there having been some strong differences between them on
business policies. A large amount of cash and negotiable securities
had been brought to their office for the purpose. According to Allen,
the only one of the four to survive, they had been working out their
accounts when in the morning's mail had come a brief letter signed by
the Invisible Master.
He had said that the partners were to gather the sum of one hundred
thousand dollars in cash and securities, place it in a suitcase, and
appoint one of their number to sally forth along Broadway with it at
the exact hour of eleven, when he, the Invisible Master, would take
possession of it. Unless one went forth with it at that hour, he would
enter and their lives would pay the forfeit.
Allen said that when the note was brought in by an excited secretary
they had ignored its threat entirely and had gone on with their
accounts, thinking the thing the work of joking friends, or a crude
attempt to cash in on the dread the Invisible Master had stirred. They
had forgotten its menace by the time the hour of eleven came. At that
hour Van Duyck and Jackson and Sunetti had been seated on one side of
a table with Allen on the other, facing the door. Allen had looked up,
and had, he said, seen the door fly suddenly open and then shut without
anyone entering that he could see!
The Remembered Threat
In an instant he had remembered the Invisible Master's threat but
before he had been able to cry out three shots had crashed out and his
three partners had slumped dead with bullets through their skulls from
behind. In the next instant another shot had crashed out of empty air
and a bullet had buried itself beside Allen in the wall, but as that
shot came he had cried out and there had come cries from all in the
building who had heard. The door instantly had flown open and shut as
the Invisible Master had fled without stopping to grasp at the cash
and securities, and those who rushed in had found Allen standing still
beside the wall, and unable for minutes to speak. The unheeded threat
of the Invisible Master lay crumpled on the table by the dead men.
With that tragedy the chill fear that held New York dissolved into
stark terror, and as Carton pushed his way north to find Wade and
Grantham there was all about him a wild confusion of panic.
Great crowds were forming and rolling toward the City Hall to be held
back by the police and troops drawn up to guard it, where they shouted
their wild demand to the city's officials that the Invisible Master be
captured or killed or bought off at any price. There were wild rumors
of even more terrible crimes the Invisible Master had committed, rumors
of men done to death in the seething East Side, rumors of martial law
to be declared and troops brought to the city.
Had the great crowds that bellowed their terror but known it, the
city's officials were even then face to face with the Invisible
Master's purpose. For in an inner room at City Hall, with Grantham and
Wade there, and Carton too, they were reading the letter that had come
but minutes before to them.
_To the Mayor and Officials of New York:_
_Having shown in these last few days what the rule of the Invisible
Master means to your city, I am ready now without fear of disbelief
on your part to state the terms on which my reign of terror over
this city will end. Those terms are--the immediate payment of
five million dollars in assorted denominations. This money, in a
steel box of moderate size, is to be placed in the following spot:
Two miles north of the village of Pernview, on Long Island, on
the west road, is a milestone. In the forest three hundred yards
east of this milestone is a large oak. You will place the box on
the boulder beneath this tree on tomorrow night, between eleven
and twelve o'clock. You are at liberty to attempt to prevent me
from getting the box, but it will only result disastrously for
yourselves._
_If this is done my activities will cease. If it is not done I will
commence an even greater campaign of terror that will make a chaos
of New York in hours. No troops or forces are of any use against
me. I leave the raising of the money to you, but suggest that the
city's business men be called on for it. Either they pay or I will
make their city a desert of terror._
_The Invisible Master._