Anthony M. Rud

“ Masters looked as nearly uncomfortable as lay within the realm of possibility for him. “Ye-e-s, it does,” he admitted. “In the ordinary course of things Parker will, of course, be apprehended. He then will tell some wild story to account for his flight—”
“Or confess to the murder,” I interrupted.
“No, he wont!” said Masters gravely but decidedly. “I'll admit to you, Bert, that I have led Becker, Hadley and the constables of a half-dozen towns to believe that I want Parker for Stanwood's killing, but I haven't the slightest idea in the world that Parker is guilty! ”

“ His voice sank lower.
“But why did you go through all the nonsense about the huge feet?” asked Masters.
“Two reasons,” came the terse answer. “Back at Kauai I used them to scare the natives with when they threatened insubordination. I knew I could scare the hick police with them. Then, I can walk better in them now,” he added dryly. “You see, I don't own toes any more, and the long things keep me from stumbling. If I'd had sense enough to kill you when you were at that Stanwood place, I'd be free now. But why should I want to be free, anyway?” The voice sank lower with weakness. ”

“ The peculiar and immensely important fact about these footprints is that they were made by an abnormal foot—sixteen inches long from heel to big toe, and shaped more like the hand of a gigantic simian than like an Aryan foot. Becker pronounced it immediately the foot of a giant negro.
“That's far enough,” broke in Masters, seeing that I had read the essentials. “The rest of it is mere imagination.”
“That is horrible, grotesque!” I exclaimed, handing back the clipping. “There isn't any creature living to-day which possesses a foot sixteen inches long, is there?” ”

“ A premonitory faintness seized me; so I turned abruptly. “Who—who is the murdered man? Do you know?” I asked.
“Yes, I thought of course you knew. It's Parker.”
“Parker! Then he would have been better off in jail, after all!” I flashed back one last glance at the grim scene as we started through the brush. “How did this murderer ever find out that you were after him?” I asked.
Masters smiled oddly. “I think now that the story I told Mrs. Stanwood must have had more truth in it than I imagined! I can see no other way to it than that 'S' was in the house at the time I got the notebook. ”

“ We were ready to go back—for more than one reason: We had found out in the meantime that Bhalanoku was losing his hair and his finger-nails! You know what that means in the tropics.
“A kind of terror hit the whole bunch of us, for when leprosy gets into a camp of Chinks and Kanakas, it aint long before all of 'em have it.
“Well, to cut it short, Stanwood and Parker beat it that night, with all the pearls, leaving me and Bhalanoku and all the others to rot there on Kauai! You see what it did to me!” Shackleford smiled grimly, and his eyes fell on his wrists. ”

“ Masters must have suffered terribly from the speed and his cramped position, but he gave no sign.
As the first cross-pike came into view, Masters held up his hand. I understood, and throttled down the car to eight miles an hour. Masters jumped to the ground and hastily examined the crossing. I heard him give a yell of exultation, and stopped.
“Down this road!' yelled Masters, and I backed and turned around. As I threw in the clutch again, he jumped into the seat beside me.
“I'm on familiar ground now,” he said. “Selkirk is the first town—fourteen miles. Drive like the devil!” ”

“ We'll get one of the Stanwoods' cars and go out toward Parker's house.”
AN unpleasant surprise was in store for us at Cheshire Hills, however. What must have been a beautiful country house was now ablaze from basement to garret.
Masters gave one low cry of surprise, but instead of making for the little crowd who were vainly trying to subdue the flames, he caught my arm and made me run with him to the garage.
“He thought to destroy all the evidence!” Masters growled. “He beat us here. There, take the big car! It's a Peugeot.” ”

“ I think he has just cause for revenge against both Stanwood and Parker, and the experiences I have had with him thus far lead me to believe that he has an extraordinary ability.”
“How did you hear of him first?”
Masters smiled. “I invented a fairy tale. You see, when I got to Asburnham, Mrs. Stanwood and her two daughters had arrived. She is a fussy, society-loving old lady, and the girls are just as finicky. They were properly horrified at what had occurred, of course, but were not at all enthusiastic about an inquest and an investigation of the case. ”

“ Masters bent over and thrust his hand into the side pocket of our victim's jacket. He drew it forth slowly and impressively, holding a thin steel wire about five feet in length. It was looped just as Masters had predicted, and was evidently the instrument that had caused the death of Stanwood and Parker. ”

“ He stopped dead in his tracks and faced me, a frown of beginning exasperation wrinkling the folds of loose skin on his forehead. Gripping me by the arm, he led me back slowly toward the apartment-building we just had quitted. “I—I must confess, Hoffman,” he said at length, “that I was a trifle rattled. Did you, by any chance, notice that bomb particularly before it left your hands?” ”

“ There were three of us, Stanwood, Parker and myself—that was long before Stanwood was the respected gent that lived at Cheshire Hills. We were all fore the mast on the tramp steamer Alexandria—a South Sea bummer. At Honolulu we all deserted.
“We had gotten hold of a Kanaka who told us some yarns about the enormous pearls we could get up near one of the smaller islands—Kauai, it was. It sounded good to us ”