"Craig," she murmured, "you--you've saved my life!"
Her tone was eloquent.
"Elaine," he whispered, still gazing into her wonderful eyes, "the
Clutching Hand shall pay for this! It is a fight to the finish
between us!"
CHAPTER IV
"THE FROZEN SAFE"
Kennedy swung open the door of our taxicab as we pulled up, safe
at last, before the Dodge mansion, after the rescue of Elaine from
the brutal machinations of the Clutching Hand.
Bennett was on the step of the cab in a moment and, together, one
on each side of Elaine, they assisted her out of the car and up
the steps to the house.
As they mounted the steps, Kennedy called back to me, "Pay the
driver, Walter, please."
It was the first time I had thought of that. As it happened, I had
quite a bankroll with me and, in my hurry, I peeled off a ten
dollar bill and tossed it to the fellow, intending to be generous
and tell him to keep the change.
"Say," he exclaimed, pointing to the clock, "come across--twenty-
three, sixty."
Protesting, I peeled off some more bills.
Having satisfied this veritable anaconda and gorged his dilating
appetite for banknotes, I turned to follow the others. Jennings
had opened the door immediately. Whether it was that he retained a
grudge against me or whether he did not see me, he would have
closed it before I could get up there.
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