The Gray Phantom's Return

  CHAPTER XXV--IN A CIRCLE OF LIGHT

  She looked as though her whole being had frozen into rigidity, and theglacial stare of her eyes sent a chill through the Phantom's veins. In amoment he was on the running board, wrenching the door open. He did notnotice that the car gathered speed just as he tumbled in.

  "Helen!" he cried, throwing himself into the seat beside her. "What'sthe matter? What has happened? Can't you speak?"

  Her body swayed slightly with the motions of the car, but otherwise shedid not stir. She sat erect and immobile, with her face turned stonilyto the window, as if neither hearing nor seeing. He took one of herhands. It was cold, clammy, and limp. A groan broke from his lips.

  Then, from a corner of the car, two shadows leaped upon him with asuddenness that dazed him. The pistol was still in his hand, but astinging blow over the knuckles made him drop it to the floor. HelenHardwick's face, terribly still, held him under a spell while his armswere twisted behind him and his wrists secured with a stout cord thatbit into his flesh. Not until his legs had also been manacled did aglimmering of the truth force itself through his numbed senses; but eventhen he could think of nothing but the woman at his side.

  "Is she--dead?" he asked.

  Someone laughed. "Oh, no! She will come out of it presently. We needed adecoy, and she refused to accommodate us, so we gave her a hypodermicinjection. It worked fine."

  He braced his muscles as a vivid realization of what had happenedflashed upon him, but the cords about his wrists and ankles held hislimbs. Again he had walked into a trap, but for once he did not blamehimself for his lack of caution. With eyes open he would have rushedinto a thousand traps if Helen Hardwick was the bait. He glanced out ofthe window, noticing that the car was gliding swiftly through dark anddeserted streets.

  A hand reached out and pulled down the blind, cutting off the view. Thecar was making numerous turns, and he soon lost all sense of direction.The man's explanation of Helen Hardwick's condition had removed acrushing weight of horror from his mind, and once more his head wasfunctioning clearly.

  "Another of the Duke's tricks, I suppose?" he remarked.

  "You suppose correctly," was the answer. "You have slipped out of ourhands often enough, but this time we have you. You haven't a chance inthe world."

  The Phantom was silent for a time, realizing that his captors had turnedthe trick neatly and with dispatch. Evidently they were men of muchfiner mental caliber than Matt Lunn and Dan the Dope. It had been aclever ruse, and they had set the trap very deftly.

  "What's the programme?" he inquired.

  "You will see soon enough."

  The Phantom asked no more questions. Suddenly he remembered Granger, andhe wondered whether the reporter had been able to follow the speedingcar. It was doubtful, he thought, unless Granger had been lucky enoughto find a taxicab in a hurry. Yet the fellow was resourceful andkeen-witted, and it was possible----

  His thoughts were rudely interrupted. The car slowed down, and almost inthe same instant a hand gripped him around the throat and shoved himback against the cushion. Another hand put a cloth over his mouth, andhe became conscious of a cloying, sickeningly sweetish odor. Graduallyhis sensations drifted into chaos as his head grew heavier and heavier.He heard voices, but they sounded as if coming from a great distance,and he had an odd feeling that the car was sliding down a bottomlessabyss. Then a great void seemed to swallow him up, and he knew nothingmore.

  Finally, after what seemed a lapse of hours, his mind drifted out of thestupor. There was a burning sensation in his throat and he felt sick andweak. He tried to move, but something restrained him, and he had a dullimpression that he was roped to a chair and that the chair itself wasclamped to the floor. His eyelids fluttered weakly, and he closed theminstinctively as a door opened behind him.

  Two men were entering the room, and one of them was chuckling gleefully,as if he had just heard a good joke. Though his thoughts were wanderingin a haze, it occurred to him that it might be well to feignunconsciousness. He closed his eyes tightly and sat motionless in thechair. The two men advanced until they stood in front of him. ThePhantom felt their eyes on his face.

  "Capital!" exclaimed one of them, and he thought there was somethingfamiliar about the voice. "Too bad the Duke can't be here and see this!It would do his soul good to see his old enemy strapped to a chair.Well, Somers, I guess this will be the end of the Gray Phantom."

  The words stung the listener's senses like a whiplash. He tried toidentify the voice, but he was unable to recall where he had heard itbefore.

  "We've got him just where we want him," remarked the man addressed asSomers, "and I don't think he'll get away from us this time. It will bea miracle if he does."

  "Not even a miracle can save him. The Phantom is done for. You did agood job, Somers."

  "Oh, it was easy enough. All we had to do was to shoot some dope intothe moll, pose her in the window of the car, and drive past the placewhere we had been tipped off we would find the Phantom. I was justwondering how to get him out of the joint, when he walks out of adoorway, catches a glimpse of the skirt, and rushes blindly into thetrap. It worked like greased lightning. Looks as though he'd be dead tothe world for quite a while yet."

  The Phantom repressed a smile. His superb constitution was alreadyshaking off the effects of the chloroform.

  "How is the little doll?" inquired the first speaker, who seemed to be aman of authority in the Duke's organization.

  "Chipper as a wild cat. She came to shortly after we got here. That kidhad spunk, and she's all there on looks. I don't blame the Gray Phantomfor falling for her. I would myself."

  "Sentiment and business make a bad mixture," was the other's drycomment. "Don't let a pretty face bedevil you, Somers. The young lady ishere to serve our purpose. After that----"

  He stopped, and the ensuing pause somehow impressed the Phantom asominous.

  "Well, then what?" asked Somers, and there was a slight catch to hisvoice.

  "She is a shrewd young thing and she knows too much for our good. Oursafety demands that--but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it." Helaughed again, as if to rid his mind of unpleasant thoughts. "I canscarcely realize that the Gray Phantom is in our power at last. It'salmost too good to be true."

  "It is true, though. Say, won't he get a jolt when he comes out of thedaze and finds himself strapped to a chair?"

  "That isn't the only jolt that's in store for him. We'll give him aglimpse of the big show, just for the moral effect it will have on him.Just a little eye teaser, you know, Somers. Is everything ready?"

  "Ready to a dot. Want to have a look?"

  The other answered affirmatively, and the two men left the room. Thelast part of the conversation had been unintelligible to the Phantom,and he did not try to puzzle it out. The unfinished sentence and itstrain of vaguely disturbing thoughts haunted him. Helen Hardwick was toserve some mysterious purpose. After that--he wondered why he felt achill as he tried to imagine the rest. The words left unspoken suggestedterrifying possibilities.

  He opened his eyes. Evidently the two men had extinguished the lightsupon leaving, for the room was dark. With the fragmentary sentence stillechoing in his ears, he tore at the ropes, but the attempt only bruisedhis wrists.

  Suddenly he sat still, his eyes fixed on a tiny light that had appearedin the back of the room. The point of luminance grew larger and larger,swelling into a circle of pale radiance, and in its center he sawsomething that caused him to wonder whether he was dreaming a madman'sdream.