Anthony M. Rud

“ 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. ”

“ Rising, I saw Barron sitting with smoking pistol. Barron’s bullet had entered at the butler’s left ear and had emerged at the crown of his head.
“Didn’t want to do it,” Barron said cheerfully, “but it’s probably just as well. This is the murderer of Conover’s chauffeur, Belford, but not the killer of Conover. Draw your guns, men! All right, you behind the panel! As you doubtless know, police are in Horrocks’ room in the servants’ wing. Would you prefer to surrender to one of us or have us shoot you out?” ”

“ Slowly a section of the white paneling, painted to resemble tile, swung open, and a straight, dignified figure of a man stepped out. He was well into middle age, clean-shaven, and with calm, serious eyes. Though he, too, bore a revolver he made no effort to shoot, but flipped the weapon about in his hand and offered it to Barron with a bow. ”

“ Then Conover came along and sighted us.
“I imagine it must have been a terrific jolt to him to have to rescue us, after he had enjoyed visions of appropriating all my work as his own, but he did. Though I tried to thank him, he almost bit my head off. Twice or thrice later he snarled at me that he wished he’d left me on the berg to freeze, but I passed this up. One can’t quarrel with a man to whom one owes life.
“Would to Heaven I had quarreled—and killed the snake. For that is just what he was, a snake, cold, conscienceless, and cowardly. ”

“ The truth is, I was delighted when Kurt Barron arrived.
Annie, the maid, announced that a stranger in a wheel chair was downstairs, attended by seven young men. Could he be brought up? He acted most “pow’ful anxious.” I acceded with gladness. That would be Barron, although I never had heard of his visiting a case in person since his illness. The seven must be the crime clinic—all of us save myself, Jimmy Leffingwell who was out on the “Blinker” case, and Refton Keyes whom Barron had sent on a mission unknown to me as yet.
Barron was pale and anxious when he came in, wheeled by Bert Loder. ”

“ For some occult reason Nelson Conover seemed a trifle confused. “As I said, though, I want a man to come with me who can shoot quick and—ah—straight, when the mark is another man. If he comes with me and stays by my side while you close in upon the rear, we ought to get the assassin.”
Barron agreed, and he had me lead Conover to a chair in the next room. Then I returned for last instructions.
“I don’t like him, Ellsworth,” Barron told me rapidly, when the sound-proof door closed. “He is smug and fishy in spite of his white hair. Yet there is no doubt that his life is in danger. ”

“ Loder has demonstrated how no one could be scalded in that vapor bath. It is my belief one might stand in there for an hour with the tap opened wide and never experience any tremendous discomfort.
“And then, I call your attention to the victim’s skin. Though it does bear some resemblance to the effect of burn, I wish you to note the purplish welts. Has any one of you ever frozen his ears?” Then, without waiting for an answer, Barron smiled grimly about the circle of eager faces. “Gentlemen, Nelson Conover was not scalded, but frozen to death! Steam merely confused the issue!” ”

“ But go along, and be ready for surprises. It wouldn’t surprise me if there proved to be more than one criminal to deal with.”
The surprises Barron promised came fast when once I had quitted the audience chamber, where, behind the flowered tapestry wall, sat the rest of the crime clinic, making notes and observations.
Conover’s limousine waited at the curb, its driver slouched deep in his fur coat. Conover, aways a stickler for service from subordinates, growled something nasty about the worthlessness of a sleepy chauffeur. ”

“ Remington was surprised, but I saw that he interpreted Barron’s smile aright. “But he did,” continued the explorer. “Liquid air, of course. Under high pressure it shot down, filling the cabinet. Liquid air under pressure is at absolute zero, or near to it, you know. And, as all gas tends to become colder when its pressure is released, the whole inside of that bath cabinet went down to something like two hundred degrees below zero in about one minute. In the first few seconds Conover felt physical pain where the knifelike stream cut into him, but physical pain was not what I was after. ”

“ The servant’s wing is built adjoining the inside wall of Conover’s bath. I surmised that probably Horrocks would have the nearest room. If so, the entrance must lie there.”
“But how,” I asked impetuously, “how did you guess that before you had seen the bath? How did you know enough to station police on the other side?”
Barron smiled rather wanly. “My boy,” he asked, “did you see any police?”
I was forced to admit that I had not.
“Well, then, don’t believe all you hear—sometimes. They have a card game in this country known as poker. ”

“ The wall itself, in between, had a wide enough air space to hold my apparatus and to serve as an emergency hiding place for a man,
“And then I had Horrocks amuse himself by pretending to try to kill Conover. He turned on the illuminating gas, knowing Conover would smell it right away. He took a shot with a rifle at him and really came a little too close—as he did cut away part of an ear.”
“But the snake venom and the cyanide!” I cried, breaking in. “Surely they would have done the work?”
Remington smiled grimly, turning toward Barron. “You analyzed the ‘snake venom,’ didn’t you?” he asked. ”

“ Then, stumbling about blindly among the rose spray cabinets, electric baths, and other apparatus—for Conover’s private bathroom was equipped with every known variety of dinkus intended to separate man from bodily dirt—I found the source of the blinding vapor. It came from the vapor bath, a cabinet sunk in the floor! With difficulty I located the knobs and shut off the hot vapor. Then, by dint of Horrocks’ help, I managed to clear the air somewhat by swinging my jacket like a fan. ”

“ Otherwise I could not imagine a reason why he had not thrown back the cover and leaped out—unless some one had held him in, of course. This was impossible. No other human being had been in the room when we appeared, and no method of passing through those barred windows or locked doors was possible to conjecture. ”