CHAPTER VIII
THE VANISHING MAN
Del Mar had evidently, by this time, come to the conclusion that Elainewas the storm centre of the peculiar train of events that followed thedisappearance of Kennedy and his wireless torpedo.
At any rate, as soon as he learned that Elaine was going to her countryhome for the summer, he took a bungalow some distance from Dodge Hall.In fact, it was more than a bungalow, for it was a pretentious placesurrounded by a wide lawn and beautiful shade trees.
There, on the day that Elaine decided to motor in from the city, DelMar arrived with his valet.
Evidently he lost no time in getting to work on his own affairs,whatever they might be. Inside his study, which was the largest room inthe house, a combination of both library and laboratory, he gave anorder or two to his valet, then immediately sat down to his new desk.He opened a drawer and took out a long hollow cylinder, closed at eachend by air-tight caps, on one of which was a hook.
Quickly he wrote a note and read it over: "Install submarine bell inplace of these clumsy tubes. Am having harbor and bridges mined as perinstructions from Government. D."
He unscrewed the cap at one end of the tube, inserted the note andclosed it. Then he pushed a button on his desk. A panel in the wallopened and one of the men who had played policeman once for him steppedout and saluted.
"Here's a message to send below," said Del Mar briefly.
The man bowed and went back through the panel, closing it.
Del Mar cleaned up his desk and then went out to look his new quartersover, to see whether everything had been prepared according to hisinstructions.
From the concealed entrance to a cave on a hillside, Del Mar's man whohad gone through the panel in the bungalow appeared a few minutes laterand hurried down to the shore. It was a rocky coast with stretches ofcliffs and now and then a ravine and bit of sandy beach. Gingerly heclimbed down the rocks to the water.
He took from his pocket the metal tube which Del Mar had given him andto the hook on one end attached a weight of lead. A moment he lookedabout cautiously. Then he threw the tube into the water and it sankquickly. He did not wait, but hurried back into the cave entrance.
. . . . . . .
Elaine, Aunt Josephine and I motored down to Dodge Hall from the city.Elaine's country house was on a fine estate near the Long Island Soundand after the long run we were glad to pull up before the big house andget out of the car. As we approached the door, I happened to look downthe road.
"Well, that's the country, all right," I exclaimed, pointing down theroad. "Look."
Lumbering along was a huge heavy hay rack on top of which perched afarmer chewing a straw. Following along after him was a dog of apeculiar shepherd breed which I did not recognize. Atop of the hay theold fellow had piled a trunk and a basket.
To our surprise the hay rack stopped before the house. "Miss Dodge?"drawled the farmer nasally.
"Why, what do you suppose he can want?" asked Elaine moving out towardthe wagon while we followed. "Yes?"
"Here's a trunk, Miss Dodge, with your name on it," he went on draggingit down. "I found it down by the railroad track."
It was the trunk marked "E. Dodge" which had been thrown off the train,taken by Del Mar and rifled by the motor-cyclist.
"How do you suppose it ever got here?" cried Elaine in wonder.
"Must have fallen off the train," I suggested. "You might havecollected the insurance under this new baggage law!"
"Jennings," called Elaine. "Get Patrick and carry the trunk in."
Together the butler and the gardener dragged it off.
"Thank you," said Elaine, endeavoring to pay the farmer.
"No, no, Miss," he demurred as he clucked to his horses.
We waved to the old fellow. As he started to drive away, he reacheddown into the basket and drew out some yellow harvest apples. One at atime he tossed them to us as he lumbered off.
"Truly rural," remarked a voice behind us.
It was Del Mar, all togged up and carrying a magazine in his hand.
We chatted a moment, then Elaine started to go into the house with AuntJosephine. With Del Mar I followed.
As she went Elaine took a bite of the apple. To her surprise itseparated neatly into two hollow halves. She looked inside. There was anote. Carefully she unfolded it and read. Like the others, it was notwritten but printed in pencil:
Be careful to unpack all your trunks yourself. Destroy this note.--AFRIEND.
What did these mysterious warnings mean, she asked herself inamazement. Somehow so far they had worked out all right. She tore upthe note and threw the pieces away.
Del Mar and I stopped for a moment to talk. I did not notice that hewas not listening to me, but was surreptitiously watching Elaine.
Elaine went into the house and we followed. Del Mar, however, droppedjust a bit behind and, as he came to the place where Elaine had thrownthe pieces of paper, dropped his magazine. He stooped to pick it up andgathered the pieces, then rejoined us.
"I hope you'll excuse me," said Elaine brightly. "We've just arrivedand I haven't a thing unpacked."
Del Mar bowed and Elaine left us. Aunt Josephine followed shortly. DelMar and I sat down at a table. As he talked he placed the magazine inhis lap beneath the table, on his knees. I could not see, but he was inreality secretly putting together the torn note which the farmer hadthrown to Elaine.
Finally he managed to fit all the pieces. A glance down was enough. Buthis face betrayed nothing. Still under the table, he swept the piecesinto his pocket and rose.
"I'll drop in when you are more settled," he excused himself, strollingleisurely out again.
. . . . . . .
Up in the bedroom Elaine's maid, Marie, had been unpacking.
"Well, what do you know about that?" she exclaimed as Jennings andPatrick came dragging in the banged-up trunk.
"Very queer," remarked Jennings, detailing the little he had seen,while Patrick left.
The entrance of Elaine put an end to the interesting gossip and Mariestarted to open the trunk.
"No, Marie," said Elaine. "I'll unpack them my self. You can put thethings away later. You and Jennings may go."
Quickly she took the things out of the battered trunk. Then she startedon the other trunk which was like it but not marked. She threw out acouple of garments, then paused, startled.
There was the lost torpedo--where Bertholdi had stuck it in her haste!Elaine picked it up and looked at it in wonder as it recalled all thoselast days before Kennedy was lost. For the moment she did not knowquite what to make of it. What should she do?
Finally she decided to lock it up in the bureau drawer and tell me. Notonly did she lock the drawer but, as she left her room, she took thekey of the door from the lock inside and locked it outside.
. . . . . . .
Del Mar did not go far from the house, however. He scarcely reached theedge of the grounds where he was sure he was not observed when heplaced his fingers to his lips and whistled. An instant later two ofhis men appeared from behind a hedge.
"You must get into her room," he ordered. "That torpedo is in herluggage somewhere, after all."
They bowed and disappeared again into the shrubbery while Del Marturned and retraced his steps to the house.
In the rear of the house the two emissaries of Del Mar stole out of theshelter of some bushes and stood for a moment looking. Elaine's windowswere high above them, too high to reach. There seemed to be no way toget to them and there was no ladder in sight.
"We'll have to use the Dutch house-man's method," decided one.
Together they went around the house toward the laundry. It was only afew minutes later that they returned. No one was about. Quickly one ofthem took off his coat. Around his waist he had wound a coil of rope.Deftly he began to climb a tree whose upper branches fell over theroof. Cat-like he m
ade his way out along a branch and managed to reachthe roof. He made his way along the ridge pole to a chimney which wasdirectly back of and in line with Elaine's windows. Then he uncoiledthe rope and made one end fast to the chimney. Letting the other endfall free down the roof, he carefully lowered himself over the edge.Thus it was not difficult to get into Elaine's room by stepping on thewindow-sill and going through the open window.
The man began a rapid search of the room, turning up and pawingeverything that Elaine had unpacked. Then he began on the littlewriting-desk, the dresser and the bureau drawers. A subtle smileflashed over his face as he came to one drawer that was locked. Hepulled a sectional jimmy from his coat and forced it open.
There lay the precious torpedo.
The man clutched at it with a look of exultation. Without anotherglance at the room he rushed to the window, seized the rope and pulledhimself to the roof, going as he had come.
. . . . . . .
It did not take me long to unpack the few things I had brought and Iwas soon back again in the living-room, where Aunt Josephine joined mein a few minutes.
Just as Elaine came hurriedly down the stairway and started toward me,Del Mar entered from the porch. She stopped. Del Mar watched herclosely. Had she found anything? He was sure of it.
Her hesitation was only for a moment, however. "Walter," she said, "mayI speak to you a moment? Excuse us, please?"
Aunt Josephine went out toward the back of the house to see how theservants were getting on, while I followed Elaine up-stairs. Del Marwith a bow seated himself and opened his magazine. No sooner had wegone, however, than he laid it down and cautiously followed us.
Elaine was evidently very much excited as she entered her dainty littleroom and closed the door. "Walter," she cried, "I've found the torpedo!"
We looked about at the general disorder. "Why," she exclaimednervously, "some one has been here--and I locked the door, too."
She almost ran over to her bureau drawer. It had been jimmied open inthe few minutes while she was down-stairs. The torpedo was gone. Welooked at each other, aghast.
Behind us, however, we did not see the keen and watchful eyes of DelMar, opening the door and peering in. As he saw us, he closed the doorsoftly, went down-stairs and out of the house.
. . . . . . .
Perhaps half a mile down the road, the farmer abandoned his hay rackand now, followed by his peculiar dog, walked back. He stopped at apoint in the road where he could see the Dodge house in the distance,sat on the rail fence and lighted a blackened corn-cob pipe.
There he sat for some time apparently engrossed in his own thoughtsabout the weather, the dog lying at his feet. Now and then he lookedfixedly toward Dodge Hall.
Suddenly his vagrant attention seemed to be riveted on the house. Hedrew a field-glass from his pocket and levelled it. Sure enough, therewas a man coming out of a window, pulling himself up to the roof by arope and going across the roof tree. He lowered the glasses quickly andclimbed off the fence with a hitherto unwonted energy.
"Come, Searchlight," he called to the dog, as together they moved offquickly in the direction he had been looking. Del Mar's men were comingthrough the hedge that surrounded the Dodge estate just as the farmerand his dog stepped out in front of them from behind a thicket.
"Just a minute," he called. "I want to speak to you."
He enforced his words with a vicious looking gun. It was two to one andthey closed with him. Before he could shoot, they had knocked the gunout of his hand. Then they tried to break away and run.
But the farmer seized one of them and held him. Meanwhile the dogdeveloped traits all his own. He ran in and out between the legs of theother man until he threw him. There he stood, over him. The manattempted to rise. Again the dog threw him and kept him down. He was atrained Belgian sheep hound, a splendid police dog.
"Confound the brute," growled the man, reaching for his gun.
As he drew it, the dog seized his wrist and with a cry the man droppedthe gun. That, too, was part of the dog's training.
While the farmer and the other man struggled on the ground, the torpedoworked its way half from the man's pocket. The farmer seized it. Theman fell back, limp, and the farmer, with the torpedo in one hand,grasped at the gun on the ground and straightened up.
He had no sooner risen than the man was at him again. Hisunconsciousness had been merely feigned. The struggle was renewed.
At that point, the hedge down the road parted and Del Mar stepped out.A glance was enough to tell him what was going on. He drew his gun andran swiftly toward the combatants.
As Del Mar approached, his man succeeded in knocking the torpedo fromthe farmer's hand. There it lay, several feet away. There seemed to beno chance for either man to get it.
Quickly the farmer bent his wrist, aiming the gun deliberately at theprecious torpedo. As fast as he could he pulled the trigger. Five ofthe six shots penetrated the little model.
So surprised was his antagonist that the farmer was able to knock himout with the butt of his gun. He broke away and fled, whistling on apolice whistle for the dog just as Del Mar ran up. A couple of shotsfrom Del Mar flew wild as the farmer and his dog disappeared.
Del Mar stopped and picked up the model. It had been shot into anunrecognizable mass of scrap. In a fury, Del Mar dashed it on theground, cursing his men as he did so. The strange disappearance of thetorpedo model from Elaine's room worried both of us. Doubtless ifKennedy had been there he would have known just what to do. But wecould not decide.
"Really," considered Elaine, "I think we had better take Mr. Del Marinto our confidence."
"Still, we've had a great many warnings," I objected.
"I know that," she persisted, "but they have all come from veryunreliable sources."
"Very well," I agreed finally, "then let's drive over to his bungalow."
Elaine ordered her little runabout and a few moments later we climbedinto it and Elaine shot the car away.
As we rode along, the country seemed so quiet that no one would everhave suspected that foreign agents lurked all about. But it was justunder such a cover that the nefarious bridge and harbor-mining workordered by Del Mar's superiors was going ahead quietly.
As our car climbed a hill on the other side of which, in the valley,was a bridge, we could not see one of Del Mar's men in hiding at thetop. He saw us, however, and immediately wigwagged with hishandkerchief to several others down at the bridge where they wereattaching a pair of wires to the planking.
"Some one coming," muttered one who was evidently a lookout.
The men stopped work immediately and hid in the brush. Our car passedover the bridge and we saw nothing wrong. But no sooner had we gonethan the men crept out and resumed work which had progressed to thepoint where they were ready to carry the wires of an electricconnection through the grass, concealing them as they went.
In the study of his bungalow, all this time, Del Mar was stridingangrily up and down, while his men waited in silence.
Finally he paused and turned to one of them. "See that the coast isclear and kept clear," he ordered. "I want to go down."
The man saluted and went out through the panel. A moment later Del Margave some orders to the other man who also saluted and left the houseby the front door, just as our car pulled up.
Del Mar, the moment the man was gone, put on his hat and moved towardthe panel in the wall. He was about to enter when he heard some onecoming down the hall to the study and stepped back, closing the panel.It was the butler announcing us.
We had entered Del Mar's bungalow and now were conducted to hislibrary. There Elaine told him the whole story, much to his apparentsurprise, for Del Mar was a wonderful actor.
"You see," he said as she finished telling of the finding and thelosing of the torpedo, "just what I had feared would happen hashappened. Doubtless the foreign agents have the deadly weapon, now.However, I'll not quit. Perhaps
we may run them down yet."
He reassured us and we thanked him as we said good-bye. Outside, Elaineand I got into the car again and a moment later spun off, making alittle detour first through the country before hitting the shore roadback again to Dodge Hall.
On the rocky shore of the promontory, several men were engaged insinking a peculiar heavy disk which they submerged about ten or twelvefeet. It seemed to be held by a cable and to it wires were attached,apparently so that when a key was pressed a circuit was closed.
It was an "oscillator", a new system for the employment of sound forsubmarine signalling, using water instead of air as a medium totransmit sound waves. It was composed of a ring magnet, a copper tubelying in an air-gap in a magnetic field and a stationary centralarmature. The tube was attached to a steel diaphragm. Really it was asubmarine bell which could be used for telegraphing or telephoning bothways through water.
The men finished executing the directions of Del Mar and left,carefully concealing the land connections and key of the bell, while wewere still at Del Mar's.
We had no sooner left, however, than one of the men who had beenengaged in installing the submarine bell entered the library.
"Well?" demanded Del Mar.
"The bell is installed, sir," he said. "It will be working soon."
"Good," nodded Del Mar.
He went to a drawer and from it took a peculiar looking helmet to whichwas attached a sort of harness fitting over the shoulders and carryinga tank of oxygen. The head-piece was a most weird contrivance, withwhat looked like a huge glass eye in front. It was in reality asubmarine life-saving apparatus.
Del Mar put it on, all except the helmet which he carried with him, andthen, with his assistant, went out through the panel in the wall.Through the underground passage the two groped their way, lighted by anelectric torch, until at last they came to the entrance hidden in theunderbrush, near the shore.
Del Mar went over to the concealed station from which the submarinebell was sounded and pressed the key as a signal. Then he adjusted thesubmarine helmet to his head and deliberately waded out into the water,further and further, up to his head, then deeper still.
As he disappeared into the water, his emissary turned and went backtoward the shore road.
. . . . . . .
The ride around through the country and back to the shore, road fromDel Mar's was pleasant. In fact it was always pleasant to be withElaine, especially in a car.
We were spinning along at a fast clip when we came to a rocky part ofthe coast. As we made a turn a sharp breeze took off my hat and whirledit far off the road and among the rocks of the shore. Elaine shut downthe engine, with a laugh at me, and we left the car by the road whilewe climbed down the rocks after the hat.
It had been carried into the water, close to shore and, still laughing,we clambered over the rocks. Elaine insisted on getting it herself andin fact did get it. She was just about to hand it to me, when somethingbobbed up in the water just in front of us. She reached for it andfished it out. It was a cylinder with air-tight caps on both ends, inone of which was a hook.
"What do you suppose it is?" she asked, looking it over as we made ourway up the rocks again to the car. "Where did it come from?"
We did not see a man standing by our car, but he saw us. It was DelMar's man who had paused on his way to watch us. As we approached hehid on the other side of the road.
By this time we had reached the car and opened the cylinder. Inside wasa note which read:
"Chief arrived safely. Keep watch."
"What does it mean?" repeated Elaine, mystified.
Neither of us could guess and I doubt whether we would have understoodany better if we had seen a sinister face peering at us from behind arock near-by, although doubtless the man knew what was in the tube andwhat it meant.
We climbed into the car and started again. As we disappeared, the mancame from behind the rocks and ran quickly up to the top of the hill.There, from the bushes, he pulled out a peculiar instrument composed ofa strange series of lenses and mirrors set up on a tripod.
Eagerly he placed the tripod, adjusting the lenses and mirrors in thesunlight. Then he began working them, and it was apparent that he wasflashing light beams, using a Morse code. It was a heliograph.
Down the shore on the top of the next hill sat the man who had alreadygiven the signal with the handkerchief to those in the valley who wereworking on the mining of the bridge. As he sat there, his eye caughtthe flash of the heliograph signal. He sprang up and watched intently.Rapidly he jotted down the message that was being flashed in thesunlight:
Dodge girl has message from below. Coming in car. Blow first bridge she crosses.
Down the valley the lookout made his way as fast as he could. As heapproached the two men who had been mining the bridge, he whistledsharply. They answered and hurried to meet him.
"Just got a heliograph," he panted. "The Dodge girl must have picked upone of the messages that came from below. She's coming over the hillnow in a car. We've got to blow up the bridge as she crosses."
The men were hurrying now toward the bridge which they had mined. Not amoment was to be lost, for already they could see us coming over thecrest of the hill.
In a few seconds they reached the hidden plunger firing-box which hadbeen arranged to explode the charge under the bridge. There theycrouched in the brush ready to press the plunger the moment our cartouched the planking.
One of the men crept out a little nearer the road. "They're coming!" hecalled back, dropping down again. "Get ready!"
. . . . . . .
Del Mar's emissaries had not reckoned, however, that any one else mightbe about to whom the heliograph was an open book.
But, further over on the hill, hiding among the trees, the old farmerand his dog were sitting quietly. The old man was sweeping the Soundwith his glasses, as if he expected to see something any moment.
To his surprise, however, he caught a flash of the heliograph from theland. Quickly he turned and jotted down the signals. As he did so, heseemed greatly excited, for the message read:
Dodge girl has message from below. Coming in car. Blow first bridge she crosses.
Quickly he turned his glasses down the road. There he could see our carrapidly approaching. He put up his glasses and hurried down the hilltoward the bridge. Then he broke into a run, the dog scouting ahead.
We were going along the road nicely now, coasting down the hill. As weapproached the bridge, Elaine slowed up a bit, to cross, for theplanking was loose.
Just then the farmer who had been running down the hill saw us.
"Stop!" he shouted.
But we did not hear. He ran after us, but such a chase was hopeless. Hestopped, in despair.
With a gesture of vexation he took a step or two mechanically off theroad.
Elaine and I were coming fast to the bridge now.
In their hiding-place, Del Mar's men were watching breathlessly. Theleader was just about to press the plunger when all of a sudden abranch in the thicket beside him crackled. There stood the farmer andhis dog!
Instantly the farmer seemed to take in the situation. With a cry hethrew himself at the man who had the plunger. Another man leaped at thefarmer. The dog settled him. The others piled in and a terrificstruggle followed. It was all so rapid that, to all, seconds seemedlike hours.
We were just starting to cross the bridge.
One of the men broke away and crawled toward the plunger box. Our carwas now in the middle of the bridge.
Over and over rolled the men, the dog doing his best to help hismaster. The man who had broken away reached toward the plunger.
With a shout he pushed it down.
. . . . . . .
Our car had just cleared the bridge when we were startled by a terrificroar behind us. It was as though a thousand tire
s had blown out atonce. Elaine shut off the engine automatically and we looked back.
The whole bridge had been blown up. A second before we had been in themiddle of it.
As the explosion came, the men who had been struggling in the thicket,paused, startled, and stared out. At that instant the old farmer sawhis chance. It was all over and he bolted, calling the dog.
Along the road to the bridge he ran, two of the men after him.
"Come back," growled the leader. "Let him go. Do you want us all to getcaught?"
As the farmer ran up to the bridge, he saw it in ruins. But down theroad he could see Elaine and myself, sitting in the car, staring backat the peril which we had so narrowly escaped. His face lighted up inas great joy as a few moments before it had showed despair.
"What can that have been?" asked Elaine, starting to get out of thecar. "What caused it?"
"I don't know," I returned, taking her arm firmly. "But enough hashappened to-day. If it was intended for us, we'd better not stop. Someone might take a shot at us. Come. We have the car. We can get outbefore any one does anything more. Let's do it. Things are going onabout us of which we know nothing. The safest thing is to get away."
Elaine looked at the bridge in ruins and shuddered. It was the closestwe could have been to death and have escaped. Then she turned to thewheel quickly and the little car fairly jumped ahead.
"Oh, if Craig were only here," she murmured. "He would know what to do."
As we disappeared over the crest of the next hill, safe, the old farmerand his dog looked hard at us.
The silence after the explosion was ominous.
He glanced about. No one was pursuing him. That seemed ominous, too.But if they did pursue he was prepared to elude them. They must neverrecognize the old farmer.
As he turned, he deliberately pulled off his beard, then plunged againinto the woods and was lost.