He
had heard me coming and had fled to the drawing room. As we
finished our struggle in the library, he rose hastily from behind
the divan in the other room where he had dropped and had quietly
and hastily disappeared through another door.
Laughing and breathing hard, they helped me to my feet. It was no
joke to me. I was sore in every bone.
"Well, where DID he go?" insisted Bennett.
"I don't know--perhaps back there," I cried.
Bennett and I argued a moment, then started and stopped short.
Aunt Josephine had run downstairs and now was shoving the letter
into Craig's hands.
We gathered about him, curiously. He opened it. On it was that
awesome Clutching Hand again.
Kennedy read it. For a moment he stood and studied it, then slowly
crushed it in his hand.
Just then Elaine, pale and shaken from the ordeal she had
voluntarily gone through, burst in upon us from upstairs. Without
a word she advanced to Craig and took the letter from him.
Inside, as on the envelope, was that same signature of the
Clutching Hand.
Elaine gazed at it wild-eyed, then at Craig. Craig smilingly
reached for the note, took it, folded it and unconcernedly thrust
it into his pocket.
"My God!" she cried, clasping her hands convulsively and repeating
the words of the letter. "YOUR LAST WARNING!"
CHAPTER III
THE VANISHING JEWELS
Banging away at my typewriter, the next day, in Kennedy's
laboratory, I was startled by the sudden, insistent ringing of the
telephone near me.
Pages:
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52