The unknown seven A detective story
professor? I used all my spare time during three or four months working
out that interesting angle. It was quite fascinating, I assure you. Do
you know, professor, I sometimes wonder if the late lamented Doctor
Price was not about two hundred years ahead of his time? From the very
beginning of our experiments I suspected that Doctor Price’s secret—the
secret which he never divulged—was a sort of electronic reaction
applied to chemical compounds. When I learned how to use that reaction
in the process we had under way, my problem was solved.”
Carmody regarded him narrowly. “The electron wasn’t known in Doctor
Price’s day.”
“And that’s why I say he was about two centuries ahead of his time.
At any rate, I am satisfied he stumbled upon something which closely
resembles our modern discoveries. Nothing else explains the marvelous
achievement that he took with him to his grave.”
“And you claim to have resurrected his discovery, Latham?”
“I am not in the habit of making claims,” said the doctor modestly,
with an air of mysteriousness that was well calculated to impress
Carmody. “I prefer to let facts speak for themselves.”
Carmody pondered, his sharp, greedy little eyes wandering from one face
in the group to another.
“You made memoranda of your experiments, of course?”
“Naturally.”
“Where are your notes?”
Latham smiled blandly. “In two places. Here,” tapping his head, “I
carry the whole process. My written memoranda are in a safe place, a
place which I shan’t divulge to you until you have given us reasonable
guarantees in regard to our safety.”
Professor Carmody scowled. “You are hardly in a position to dictate
terms.”
“Do as you like,” said Latham with a shrug. “If you reject my
conditions, I shall follow Doctor Price’s example and take my little
secret with me to my grave.”
“And what about Miss Brownell?”
The physician winced, but before he could answer the girl spoke for
herself.
“Don’t mind me,” she said spiritedly. “Doctor Latham, why don’t you
tell the professor that he is beneath contempt?”
Carmody turned his head and regarded her with a look of lofty disdain.
“Haughty little devil!” he muttered under his breath, then faced
the physician again. “Well, Latham, what would you call reasonable
guarantees?”
“Cole and myself will remain here for the present. As far as Miss
Brownell is concerned, I’ll be satisfied when she telephones me from
her home in town that she has arrived there safely. Does that strike
you as reasonable, Cole?”
“Perfectly.”
Carmody scratched his jaw perplexedly. “It is a very difficult
situation. I shall refer it to the leader of our organization.”
With that he backed cautiously toward the door, his automatic gripped
tightly in his thin, gnarled hand. In a moment the door closed behind
him, then came the sound of a heavy bolt turning in the lock, and the
two men and the girl were alone.
CHAPTER XXIV
CORNERED
Cole turned to the window and verified his impression that the
shutters were strong enough to bar their exit in that direction. For
a few moments he stood there, listening to the remote booming of the
waves, the fretful whine of the wind, the creaking and groaning of
timbers in the old house. With these sounds there mingled another, a
faint but ecstatic humming and whirring that seemed to come from some
subterranean crypt.
“Gold!” it seemed to say with a dull, sinister intonation. “Gold!”
Cole shrugged and moved away. Next he hurled himself against the
door, but its solid resistance told him the effort was useless. The
doctor stood in the middle of the room, pulling thoughtfully at his
black beard and now and then sending Miss Brownell a glance out of his
strange, flashing eyes.
“You handled the professor superbly,” Cole told him. “He is guessing
now, and when a man is guessing he is at a distinct disadvantage.”
The doctor smiled musingly. “But don’t build too high hopes on his
state of mind,” he cautioned. “It is best not to underrate the enemy’s
resources.”
“What about that choice morsel you handed him in regard to an
electronic reaction?” Cole wanted to know. “Anything in it?”
“Absolutely nothing. But it sounded impressive enough to give the
professor something to worry about. As for Doctor Price, he wouldn’t
have recognized an electron if he had seen one with the naked eye. I
hardly expected Carmody to swallow it, but he did. When you tell a fib,
it is always best to tell the kind that the other fellow is prepared to
believe.”
Cole laughed; there was something irresistible about the doctor’s
stoicism. “I hope,” he fervently declared, “that the swallowing of that
electron will give the professor a severe attack of cramps. What do you
propose to do next, Latham?”
“Heroics were never in my line,” the doctor asserted in a tone that was
meant to be cynical. “When one is caught, the thing to do is to yield
as gracefully as possible. I suggest we surrender to the enemy. Why
stand on pride when one is headed for a tumble?”
“In other words, you mean to build up a magnificent bluff on the
electron Carmody swallowed?”
“Precisely,” said Latham, casting a sidelong glance at Miss Brownell.
The girl got up, limped uncertainly across the floor, and placed a hand
on the physician’s arm.
“You are a good man, Doctor Latham,” she murmured. “You are quite
transparent, however. You intend to keep up this bluff, as you call it,
until I am at a safe distance. You fail to consider what is going to
happen to you and Mr. Cole when they discover you have tricked them.”
“Oh, we will cross that bridge when we come to it,” said Latham with an
air of profound assurance.
“You aren’t candid with me,” the girl protested. “You know they will
kill you both as soon as they realize they have been imposed upon. You
intend to sacrifice yourself for my sake. I won’t have it!”
“Now, Miss Brownell——”
“I won’t accept such a sacrifice,” she declared vehemently. “That’s
absolutely final.”
Latham gazed at her in an embarrassed way. He tried to smile, but it
was a pathetic effort. “Youth is always that way,” he declared. “Always
butting its head against stone walls. Don’t you see, Miss Brownell,
that——”
“No, I don’t,” she interrupted. “And, so you won’t be tempted to give
it for my sake, let me tell you that I intend to fight this crowd of
cowardly ruffians till the end. Even if you should surrender, I would
not, so your sacrifice would be in vain.”
Latham stroked his beard reflectively. A flippant remark was on the tip
of his tongue, but he seemed unable to utter it. He assisted the girl
back to her chair.
Cole had watched them in silence. Something stirred gently within him
as he witnessed the scene between the doctor and the girl. There was
a touch of the sublime in the physician’s determination to sacrifice
himself for the object of his hopeless devotion. But to Cole it all
seemed very futile. He doubted strongly that the leader of the gang
would accept Latham’s terms. Knowing that she had discovered several
important things in regard to the organization’s activities, they would
not be likely to let the girl out of their clutches. Their logical
move would be an effort to obtain by other means the secret which they
supposed was in Latham’s possession. Nevertheless, the little drama
enacted before his eyes touched him deeply. Now he shrugged off his
hopeless feeling and strode briskly across the floor.
“It isn’t time to sing the funeral hymn just yet,” he declared. “There
is another fight in us still. I propose that we——”
What he had to propose was not made clear, for the door opened, and
with his usual stiff and dignified gait Professor Carmody walked once
more into the room. He had dropped his mock affability and carried
himself with a stern and dignified air.
“I have talked with the chief,” he announced, addressing Doctor Latham.
“The arrangement you suggested is flatly impossible.”
“Just as I thought,” muttered Cole under his breath.
“You can see for yourself how unreasonable it is,” Carmody went
on in an argumentative tone. “Miss Brownell is in possession of
information which, if used against us, might harm us greatly. Under the
circumstances it would be extreme folly on our part to permit her to
leave this place for the present.”
“Then what do you propose?” asked the doctor.
“That you listen to reason. In a few days, a week or two at most, our
present enterprise will be finished, and we shall be in a position
where nothing can hurt us. You, Latham, can hasten developments, if you
wish, by giving us the formula you have worked out. It isn’t essential,
but we prefer to make use of it. The sooner you choose to oblige us,
the sooner you and your friends will be permitted to depart.”
The doctor regarded him with a half-humorous, half-contemptuous gaze.
“Is that all?”
“By no means. If you decide to accommodate us, you shall share in
the golden harvest we soon expect to reap. Think of it, Latham. By
complying with a simple request you will make yourself enormously
wealthy. Never before in the world’s history was such a magnificent
reward offered for a comparatively small service. Never since——”
“You are waxing rhapsodical, professor,” interrupted Latham curtly. “I
am always suspicious of a man who makes flowery promises. Will you tell
me in plain words—the plainer the better—what will happen if I should
reject your magnanimous offer?”
“I do not like to contemplate it,” said Carmody, his face full of
sadness. “Especially in view of Miss Brownell’s connection with the
matter. But you will not do anything so foolish, Latham. Remember
that we are powerful enough to get what we want, and that we do not
hesitate to use extreme measures when necessary. We can bend even such
a stubborn will as yours. I am waiting for your answer. Will you give
us the formula voluntarily, or must we resort to unpleasant forms of
coercion?”
Maintaining a firm hold on his pistol, he struck an expectant attitude.
Cole, who had remained a silent but attentive listener, could see that
Latham’s position in the scientific world, together with the work he
had previously done for the organization, had convinced the professor
that he really possessed a formula that would be of great value to
the gang. Latham, on the other hand, seemed in a quandary as to how
he might best use his precarious advantage. Already it was slipping
away from him, and soon, unless an unforeseen development came to his
rescue, it might be turned against him.
“You are taking a long time,” complained the professor.
“It is a weighty question,” rejoined Latham.
“Perhaps I can help you to arrive at a decision,” said Carmody, a
faint, cruel smile parting his bloodless lips. Suddenly he shifted the
aim of the pistol so that the barrel pointed straight to Miss Brownell.
“I believe you are a man of your word, Latham. I shall count ten.
Unless you give me a favorable reply before I reach ten, Miss Brownell
will go to a better world.”
The sardonic grin that had twisted the doctor’s lips froze into a
ghastly look of horror. Miss Brownell straightened a little in her
chair, her face turned a shade paler, but there was no fear in the
eyes she leveled at the professor. Critical as the moment was, Cole’s
dominant sensation was admiration for her courage.
Carmody began to count in his thin, brassy voice: “One—two—three—four——”
Cole gazed narrowly into his face, as impassive as if carved out of
wood. There seemed to be no doubt but what Carmody meant to carry out
his monstrous threat. He flexed his muscles for a spring while the
professor went on counting.
“——five—six—seven—eight——”
Cole lunged forward, staking everything on the chance of snatching