Anthony M. Rud

“ As I followed Masters' pointing finger, I felt the icy chill of fear course down my spine! I veritably believe that my hair came as near to standing on end as lies within the possibilities. Printed plainly in red on the brown of the earth was the spoor of a gigantic human foot!
“It's nearly two feet long!” I cried aghast, feeling in my veins the curdling that the sanest man feels when he rubs elbows with unexplained horror. “Surely no man alive has feet like that!” ”

“ It was the squat fiend I was seeking, Maurice Morris. He was armed, so I wasted no time in pulling the trigger. No explosion occurred! Hastily I lifted the other gun and fired, but this was empty.
“Tarrant!” he yelled, recognizing me. He fired wildly, knocking the plaster from the wall a foot above my head.
Hurling my useless automatic at him to disconcert his next shot, I ran to him. The bullet stung my thigh, but I knew in a rush of fierce exultation that I had him! Before he could shoot I had knocked his arm up and twisted the wrist until his gun dropped to the floor. ”

“ THE far-away throbbing of a marine engine caused me to look up. Midway between the distant lighthouse and the shore a white chip of a motorboat was dancing on the rollers. It was headed in my direction, and as I gazed, the idea flashed through my mind that a connection might exist between my victim and the little craft. I thought immediately of the golf ball, and feverishly explored the pockets of his overalls for this. ”

“ No, Chotty was not thinking of what he would do to Bill Halliday. After water would come a jug of Old Ramon’s twice distilled maguey juice, a beverage three lusty swigs of which would make a sand tortoise stand up on its hind legs and make passes at a sidewinder.
With mescal or tequila sufficient, Chotty could think and plan. Meanwhile, even his rudimentary brain could envision six or seven satisfying things to do to that half dead little tenderfoot Kurtt whose rich stores almost had provided Chotty with a grubstake. Not that he would have used the grubstake himself. Far from it. ”

“ Rich rugs covered polished hardwood floors; divans of wicker held velours pillows which I envied; and there were soft floor- and table-lamps of the same shade of old rose as the rugs and the velours. Tobacco-smoke, rich as incense and too pungent for the eyes, filled the air.
My first distinct sensation was of this smarting. I opened my eyes, to look squarely into the face of the hook-nosed chap I had followed. The moment he saw I was awake, he gave a sharp order in Italian, and two men lifted me, propping me against the door. ”

“ I had been born to accomplish great things. Weak compromise, or weaker yielding to delights of the mind and body, could but heap fresh fuel on the flame which consumed me when I got off by myself. I fought against it months longer, but in the end I had to yield. With fear and trepidation struggling with ambition and lust within me. I took a trip to a distant town of New York State, procured a fine, blooded mare, and repeated the experiment which had lost me the friendship of Guarneresi and my Parisian contemporaries. ”

“ I answered, positive now that I was making perhaps the greatest mistake of my life. “I know that you will think me insane, but I am not. Something has come up that I cannot explain that makes it necessary for me to act most strangely. I have come to ask you to marry me, Elise!” Then, as I saw her eyes widen and the color leave her cheeks, my tongue loosened and I told her of my love. For the life of me I cannot recall the things I said, for I watched her eyes. From fright and wonder they changed to bewilderment, and then—and I despaired—to something akin to anger. ”

“ I had heard of fanatics existing for forty days without food, but even my fevered imagination could not picture me stalking about the Loop for that length of time. From the bottom of my heart I envied Jules, the deaf-mute who used to scrub the floor of our airdrome mess-room. He at least ate heartily and commanded the respect of the men around him. I could do neither, thanks to Morris. A detective agency had trailed him to Chicago for me, but there he had vanished.
When I am alone with thoughts of revenge they work me up to a white heat of anger. ”

“ And Remington shook his clenched fist at the body, almost as though he would have wreaked upon it the recrudescence of his long-cherished anger.
“I understand,” said Barron quietly. “But how was it you never asserted yourself; never brought down vengeance of the law upon Conover?”
“Law!” replied Remington” with scorn. “Can the law repay forty lives sacrificed to ambition—forty men burned or drowned? What greater punishment could be given him upon this earth than the torture meted out to him by those who had witnessed the untold- agonies and deaths of those forty men? ”

“ Beginning with the top floor, Masters went over every desk, every file, every nook and corner of the building. Except for one trifling discovery,—O'Sann and I both catalogued it as trifling at the time,—the brush was a complete failure. One of the iron lockers in the men's dressing-room on the second floor seemed to give out just the slightest, most evanescent of rays. ”

“ A bicyclist far ahead heard the cannonade of our approach and backed his flimsy machine far into the grassy ditch at the side of the road. In a sort of exalted bravado I jammed my left foot on the cut-out as we swirled by, and the answering super-salvo thrilled me to the very bone.
“Seventy-eight—eighty!” yelled Masters, almost in my ear. “Slow down now: First crossroad to the right!”
Reluctantly I removed my foot from the accelerator, and the big racer quieted down to a more ordinary rate of speed. ”

“ Macey bowed. “Yes, all the time at night. Not very often in the day. Different noises, different places each time! Shrieks—growls—rattling of chains—blood!”
“Blood?” Masters half rose from his chair in surprise, and my own mouth framed an exclamation.
“Yes, big splotches of it,” assented Macey. Then he shuddered at the remembrance. “Oh, it's horrible! It's unreal!”
“No,” contradicted Masters. “Not unreal if you actually saw blood. Very serious, though.”
“It was right in the middle of the dining-room table,” went on Macey, disregarding the implied doubt in Masters' words. ”

“ Then I started among the darkies and Cajans. A whole day I listened to yarns of the days which preceded Cranmer's escape from Elizabeth Ritter Hospital—days in which furtive men sniffed poisoned air for miles around Dead House, finding the odor intolerable. Days in which it seemed none possessed nerve enough to approach close. Days when the most fanciful tales of medieval superstitions were spun. These tales I shall not give; the truth is incredible enough. ”

“ And now to exist until the outlaw gunman came again! Max ran over to the same barrel cactus which Chotty had chopped in half for the use of his burro. The pulp had not hardened too much. Max delved, and found the juicy, water-bearing stuff just what he needed. Perhaps the rasping roughage of it contained no real nourishment, yet it would enable him to stave off the immediate pangs of hunger and thirst until Chotty came again. And after this next visitation Max either would be alive and alone, or dead and uncaring. ”

“ In that second I thought of my delinquent boyhood, of dozens of cruel impulses since practically forgotten—of the mutilated, dying beetles which had been instrumental in embarking me upon an art career.
"Blood rose in torrents to my own temples. A fever consumed me. There was life and there could be death. I could renew the inspiration of those tortured beetles."
"WITH agitated stealth, I glanced out into the empty hallway, locked the door of the studio, drew four shades over windows through which I might be seen, and crept to the rabbit cage. ”

“ All the pain and shame that man had caused me rose in one insufferable gust of anger. Jerking my automatic from my pocket, heedless of the fact that Elise was beside me, I ran to the doorway. Murder was in my heart, and had I reached Morris I do not believe I even should have cried to him to surrender. I have called my desire the wish to murder, but there must be some other name for it. If ever a man deserved to die it was he. ”

“ Speculation died in my throat. At that moment Conover’s chauffeur had slumped downward from his seat and fallen across the gear and brake levers. I caught him up, lifting him back on the seat for purposes of examination. He was dead, beyond doubt. When I lifted off his stiff cap, which had been crammed closely over his brows, I found the top center of his skull riven through by a heavy instrument. He doubtless had not known what hit him.
Conover seemed much less concerned over the luckless driver than over the poison needles in back, though. ”

“ A minute later, shoes in hand, and shivering despite the warmth of the night, Landrigan preceded his captor through the gallery doorway, down the steps, and out into the enshrouding, moon-checkered jungle.
"Sit down and put on your shoes!"
Landrigan obeyed. But with the re-turn of leather to covet his tender soles, something of self-possession came as well. He began to talk indignantly, though in a low tone. What did Smith think he was doing? Had the man gone mad?
"I ought to kill you," interrupted Smith coldly. "If ever a white man deserved death, you do—yellow dog!" ”

“ No wonder she seems persistent at times! Just let a man run into a life-sized mystery, however, and watch him! If he can imagine a score of wires to pull he does so forthwith. If he cannot, he chafes under the restriction and shows just how fiery his curiosity is.
I unlocked the door to my suite, thinking to be alone. I was anxious to get hold of Hoffman and 'J. M.' in order to tell them about the shriek in the tunnel and the actual murder I had witnessed. Imagine my consternation, then, on opening the door, to find Mitsui there before me! ”

“ Chicago, on a frosty evening in late October, is singularly unconcerned over the fate of any penniless male, no matter what his age.
That evening I faced the raw lake wind until ten o'clock. Then I turned in on a straight-backed bench in the La Salle Street Station. Next evening I was in exactly the same predicament, only much hungrier. Even good thick water of the kind Chicago drinks does not assuage hunger effectually. ”

“ Masters drew a deep breath and faced the business man squarely. “You are an intelligent man, and I can afford to be perfectly frank with you. Your company is face to face with either a condition of affairs that will kill you all in the course of time, or else with a criminal genius who has this same object! I can say truly that this is the first time in my career that I have spent ten hours on a case without being able to state positively whether or not it is a criminal I am seeking.”
O'Sann waited, his lips compressed. ”

“ Though I was thoroughly worried, fatigue of body overcame my anxiety. I just remember hearing the door slam as he went out.
Unspeakable dreams harassed me from the moment I closed my eyes. One of these stood out clearly from the fuddle. I was chasing a taxi that ran round and round in a big circle. Elise was inside, and I thought she was dying. Of a sudden, just as I hopped on the running board and tried to open the door, a yellow giant flourishing a war cross weighing many tons pushed the taxi, with me hanging on desperately, into the river. ”

“ I knew that Masters would call me the moment he had need of my services, and guessed that in the meantime he would prefer not to be troubled by Macey. So when he quietly stepped out the front door a short time later without asking my company, I made no move to follow.
Less than ten minutes later he was back, his eyes shining with triumph. “Come on!” he cried. “I've got the ghost!”
Macey jumped to his feet and stared about in bewildered fashion. “Got him? Caught him?” he asked. ”