HANDS UNSEEN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 877, 22 January 1930, Page 5

HANDS UNSEEN

A New Grey Phantom Detective Story

By

HERMAN LANDON

Copyright by Street and Smith Corp. Serialised by Ledger Syndicate

CHAPTER X. —Continued. •Well, I’m a pretty good mind reader. You were wondering why, since Whipple is go brittle, I don’t put him across my knee and break him in two next time he comes.” ‘No. not that; ’but why couldn’t he be followed?” The fat man chuckled grimly. “It isn’t quite so simple as that. The gang we’re dealing with is too wise to be caught so easily. I won’t give you all the harrowing details, but I’ll tip you off to one thing. If we tried any tricks on Mr. Whipple, it would mean sure death for a certain old gentleman that you think a lot of.” Helen shuddered: then she reached across the table, and picking up pen and paper, wrote a brief note. After a moment’s hesitation she sealed the envelope and addressed it to Vanardy, then handed the letter to Wade. “Please see that the Grey Phantom gets it as soon as possible,” she urged. Wade promised, and she rose to go. The fat man followed her lumberingly to the door and closed it behind her. “She’s a queen!” he mumbled when ?he was gone. “A queen—but I can’t dope her out!” CHAPTER XT. MR. WHIPPLE Wind-blown sleet swirled in the air, •tinging her face like myriad needle points, when Helen emerged from the building and turned toward the little runabout she had left standing at the curb. Her wrist watch showed a little after 8. The lights in windows and at street corners glowed with a dimmed, yellowish sheen through the mist, emphasising the sense of unreality which the developments of the last hour had stamped on her mind.

Dark thoughts rushed through her head with an aching throb as she took her place at the wheel and started to manipulate the levers with an expert touch. She ran the car to the end of the block, made the turn through a tangle of trucks and taxicabs, and proceeded up the opposite side of the street. Out of the corner of an eye she caught a glimpse o£ a policeman on the corner, scanning the block with an exaggerated air of apathy. On the opposite corner stood another, and above the buffcoloured patrol box behind him was a bulb with a greenish light which siguilied that the dragnet had been spread for the capture of the Phantom. At a crawling pace she edged her way through the traffic jam until she came opposite the building she had left a few moments ago, and then a vagrant impression made her glance sharply at the huge plate-glass front of a restaurant. She caught a meagre glimpse of a man seated at a table In the garishly lighted interior, seemingly dawdling over his coffee and cigarette. He sat not far from the window, facing the street and. looking out upon it with a curiously intent expression. She drove on for a few paces, hut her impression of the man's face lingered disturbingly in her mind. "Where had the seen those hauntingly unpleasant features before? Twice she asked herself the question, and then, abruptly, her own reason supplied the answer. She had never seen the man before, but he had been described to her quite recently. A few phrases of Wade’s crude but telling delineation recurred to her: “Fishy oye—brick-red hair —no jaw She drew up to the sidewalk and stopped the car with a jolt. Uncertain what to do, hut urged on by a half-shaped impulse, she walked toward the restaurant. Out of jumbled thoughts came the realisation that it was far past her dinner hour and that she ought to eat something. In a tremor of excitement she entered the restaurant, sat down a few tables to the rear of the red-haired man and told the waiter to bring her tea and toast. While she ate, she studied the man’s back. He was dressed in a rather vivid brown suit. He had a peculiarly shaped head, long, narrow, and triangular, remotely suggesting a gorilla. She wondered why he was loitering in the restaurant. His position hinted that he was keeping the building across the street under surveillance. Perhaps lie had come to have a talk with Wade or the Phantom, but had been deterred by the discovery that something unusual was going on and was waiting until the commotion quietened down. Helen tried to compose herself for a wait. She knew it would be a long one if the red-haired man intended to stay there until the cordon was withdrawn. In all probability lie would have to go away and postpone his visit till a more favourable time. In the meantime she was trying to consider calmly the daring resolution that was burning in her mind. Wade had hiutt:d that dreadful things would happen to her father if an attempt were made to interfere with V. hippie s mo\ements, but doubtless Wade had exag-

gerated, being anxious to dissuade her from taking drastic action. She wished the turmoil in her head would cease, so that she could think clearly. For the immediate present, she told herself, there was nothing to fear. Though her suspense regarding her father was agonising, it was not likely that any harm would come to him for the time being. As for the Grey Phantom, she relied on Wade's emphatic assurance that he was safe. The dread she felt was of an indefinable hut none the less tormenting sort. Her life, ever since the Grey Phantom entered it, had been a constant round of alternating terrors and ecstasies. She had felt herself swept along irresistibly toward some unknown and stupendous destiny. There had been thrills and shivers in abundance, and she had enjoyed them all. Emotions, at once frightening and exalting, had filled her life to the brim. The exhilaration of it all had gone like wine to her head, and now, in retrospect, it seemed like a delirious dream.

She smiled in remembrance of the mad adventures she had shared with the Grey Phantom. Some day, in accordance with a plan they had often discussed, they would share the great adventure of life. But ail odd hesitancy had fallen over the Phantom during these discussions, and once or

twice he had confessed himself afraid —afraid of himself. Though the slate had been wiped clean, though he had lived down his past through a series of noble accomplishments, the shadow of other days still hung over him like a great black cloud, projecting a darkening wedge into the future. On occasions he felt the old fever in his blood and it frightened him. Some day the old temptations might stamp him and drag him down, and he did not wish to drag her with him. And so he hesitated. Helen raised her eyes and glanced furtively at the red-haired man, just then in the act of lighting a fresh cigarette. Though she could not see his face, she sensed an emanation of evil from him, a reflection of the sinister influences that had risen to engulf the Grey Phantom’s lofty resolutions. A feeling of loathing toward the man at the other table swept over her, coupled with a more sympathetic understanding of the Grey Phantom’s motives. Knowing him as well as she did, she could easily see how severely

lie had been tried. She could not ] : forget that It was his love for her that ! | had goaded the Phantom to one more • plunge into the black swirl of the old • : life. But he had drawn back just in time, on the very edge, i A smile, a trifle bitter, tinged her ' ; lips at the thought. His floundering : had been caused by the very passion ) that he had characterised as the most 1 ennobling influence of his life. Know- [ ing this, she could harbour neither bitterness nor reproaches in her heart, l only a dumb, aching dread, t Whipple, the red-haired man, was l beginning to show’ signs of restivej ness, and it brought her mind back l to her immediate problem. Should ; she follow him when he left the rest- > aurant on the chance of learning - where her father was being kept? 1 She could not know w’hat Whipple’s j r plans were, but it was possible she j : would learn something of value by fol- | 5 lowing him. W r ade had warned her j 5 that it would be dangerous to do so, j •’ but she was inclined to believe that

he had spoken with her own personal j safety in mind, and she was willing to risk that. Besides, there was a restlessness in her that clamoured for action* Moreover, in the notes he had left with Wade she had urged the Phantom to be true to his promise to her, no matter what happened, thus taking upon herself the entire respon- i sibility for her father’s safety. PURSUIT She was still wavering when Whipple rose from the table, forcing | her to make a quick decision. She waited until he had paid his check and left the establishment, and then she swallowed her doubts and yielded herself to the blind impulse that had seized her when she first glimpsed the red-haired man in the restaurant. j ! I