Otis Adelbert Kline

“ Miss Van Loan reminded him.
“Your dog,” he said, “had hydrophobia. As I found a bottle of the virus which produces this disease in the house occupied by Mr. Hegel, I don’t think it at all remarkable that the dog was infected. No doubt it was acquainted with and friendly toward your cousin, who found an opportunity to inoculate it when it was ranging on your estate. The queer behavior of the dog, thereafter, is common to all animals that contract the disease. ”

“ Although she maintained a brave, calm demeanor, I noticed that the hand of Miss Van Loan was trembling as I took it in mine. The doctor, also, must have noticed this, for he quickly transferred his long, slim fingers to her pulse.
“Has anything happened?” he asked consulting his watch.
“Nothing yet, but I have been oppressed by a horrible feeling which I cannot explain. I have worried, too, for fear something might prevent your coming.”
“You are a very brave young woman,” he said, pocketing his watch and releasing her wrist, “but you have been under exceptionally severe nervous strain. ”

“ I have theories, of course, but they are, after all, only theories.”
“Do you believe it was the ghost of Uncle Gordon that we saw in the living room last night?”
“I don’t believe in ghosts.”
“Then what was it? What could have caused it? What could have caused doors to lock and unlock, to open and close without the touch of human hands? What could have caused the intense cold—the poker to creep across the floor as if it were alive? What drove my dog mad with fear?”
“The dog,” I replied, “showed symptoms of hydrophobia.”
“That is what Dr. Dorp thought, although he was not sure. ”

“ Directly behind the house we unwrapped two of the packages. One proved to be a set of surveyor’s instruments which the civil engineer quickly assembled. The other looked very much like a radio set with its loop aerials and dials, although there was no speaker or headphone with it. The radio set was placed on a small folding table, and Mr. Easton sighted from that point, while I acted as roadman and Mr. Brandon as chainman. We measured off a distance of two thousand feet in a straight line along the beach, the doctor following with the other package. ”

“ Caution Miss Van Loan, when she is inside the house, to address Mr. Easton by my name. Do not, under any circumstances, tell her this while you are in the house. When you hear my motor racing outside, come out. Mr. Easton will remain. Rafferty will then go in to take your place. Is everything clear?”
“Perfectly.”
We found Miss Van Loan on the porch, and I whispered our plans to her while Easton adjusted his whiskers. He was about the same build and height as the doctor, and thus disguised, bore considerable resemblance to him. ”

“ The slight breeze moving the small hairs on one’s hand or arm gives the sensation of one having been lightly touched while the coldness of the breeze makes it appear that one has been touched by something cold. The closet, in which I came so near being asphyxiated and frozen to death, is equipped with a similar refrigeration plant, and it is probable that we shall find more of them which have not been used, in other rooms.
“The matter of the lights going out and again being turned on will be settled as soon as we can find the radio-controlled rheostat and switch which operates them. ”

“ Van Loan, I understand, had only been dead a little more than a month.”
“I made a few investigations today which cleared up that point,” replied the doctor. “It is a matter of common knowledge that Gordon Van Loan died from cancer of the stomach. Mr. Van Loan was not aware that he had this disease, although both his niece and nephew had been apprised of the fact nearly a year before his death by the family physician. They had also been informed that an operation would be fruitless and fatal, and were told almost to the day just how long their uncle would live. ”

“ A comparatively short time ago it was the equivalent of a death warrant to be bitten by a rabid animal. Modern science, however, has made death from hydrophobia a rarity when treatment is administered in time.”
The remainder of the day was spent quite pleasantly, strolling about the grounds and on the white, foam-edged beach, or lolling on the large, conformable porch.
We had dinner at six, and I was enjoying a cigar in the swing shortly thereafter, when I heard the throb of a motor in the driveway and the big car of Dr. Dorp came into view. ”

“ He has bristled and growled repeatedly, for no apparent reason. Although he has always been a most friendly and playful pet, he now slinks about the house like some vicious creature of the jungle, or mopes in corners, avoiding all human companionship and barely tasting food and water. ”

“ The gas is imprisoned in small, thin globes of ice which shatter when they strike the rug, and melt in a few seconds, leaving no trace other than a few drops of water which quickly evaporate or are absorbed by the rug fibres. These globes are kept in a small refrigeration plant which is just above my head, and which is probably quite thoroughly insulated against heat. The intense cold in this plant is produced by a substance which is not new to science, but the use of which for this particular purpose is quite new. ”

“ A luminous footprint can thus be made to appear on the rug by the simple expedient of turning on the current in the Crookes Tube and sliding back the upper plate in such a manner that the toe prints will first be visible, then the ball of the foot, and finally the heel. I’m sure that if we remove more squares of plasterboard we will find a row of these contrivances about two feet apart, leading to a point beneath the center of the room, where two of them will be found side by side. For the present, however, we will go upstairs to continue our investigation in other directions. ”

“ Turning south on the Milwaukee road at Halfday, we covered another three miles of road before the doctor slowed his terrific pace.
“Take the wheel now, will you?” he requested, “and drive slowly.”
We changed places, and I started off at a speed of about ten miles an hour. The doctor lifted a small portable radio set from behind the back seat, adjusted the tuning dials, and slowly moved the loop aerial back and forth until there was an angry buzz from inside the machine. ”

“ And have you received the message, or something purporting to be the message?”
“Not exactly, but there have been indications of a strange and terrible presence in that house—an elusive, disembodied entity that, while not a creature of flesh and blood, exercises an uncanny power over material objects as well as living creatures.” ”

“ I asked, as we spun around onto Sheridan Road on two wheels.
“It marks the spot where I expect to find the source of Miss Van Loan’s troubles,” replied the doctor. “It isn’t far, as the crow flies, but there is no through road to it. ”

“ Dorp dozing in one of the porch chairs with a blanket around him, and Miss Van Loan, completely exhausted, asleep in the swing.
“Better try to get some rest in one of these chairs,” said the doctor. “There is nothing further we can do until morning.” ”

“ While she was gone, I alternately slapped, kneaded and rubbed the cold flesh of my friend. She returned in a few minutes that seemed like hours, with two hot water bottles and an armful of towels. Behind her toddled a stout, round-faced woman in a red kimono, with a steaming kettle of water in one hand and a bottle and glass in the other.
We applied the various articles with better will than skill, and a moment later Riggs appeared in bathrobe and slippers carrying four thick woolen blankets. Another ten minutes elapsed before we succeeded in even warming the flesh of our patient. ”

“ The bathroom was empty, and I had started for the door of the closet, when the lights suddenly went out. Once more I was conscious of the peculiar, dusty odor I had detected in the room below. The girl shrieked. ”

“ He cleared his throat and looked around with his well-known lecture-room air.
“Now that the author of the strange phenomena which have confronted us in this house has been apprehended,” he said, “explanations, and such further investigations as are needed to completely clear up the mystery, are in order.
“You are all aware that the manifestations we have witnessed were under the control of an operator established in an old farmhouse eight miles west of here, and that the mechanism he used was a powerful and complicated radio set. ”

“ The packages were placed on the porch, and the doctor presented his four companions, as Mr. Easton, civil engineer, Mr. Brandon, electrical engineer, and Messrs. Hogan and Rafferty, detectives. At a sign from the doctor, the two detectives immediately strolled out into the shrubbery.
“We’re going to make a few preparations for the show this evening,” he said, addressing me. “Want to come along?”
“Of course.”
“All right. Each man grab a bundle. We haven’t much time before dark.” ”

“ In the bottom plate is cut in miniature, the shape of a human footprint. The glass tube is what is known as a Crookes Tube, and the rays which emanate from it when an electric connection is established are known as X-rays. ”

“ The servants, too, have seen, heard, and felt the things that have affected me, but being spiritualists, they glory in them rather than fear them. Man and wife they have worked for my uncle for the past ten years, the man acting as gardener, chauffeur and butler, the woman as cook and housekeeper.”
“And your cousin, Ernest Hegel. ”

“ Dorp, who was sitting up, although still muffled in a blanket. “Miss Van Loan and I will be all right here on the porch until you get back.”
“Of course,” said the girl. “You have put your life in sufficient jeopardy as it is, Mr. Evans.”
Thus admonished, I got into the coupe with the young doctor, and we set out for the hospital.
“Queer thing the way that door shut and locked itself,” he said, when we emerged on the smooth paving of Sheridan Road. “The key must have been half turned in the lock when the wind blew it shut. The jar locked it and shook out the key.” ”

“ I again succeeded in maneuvering to a position in front of the door. Then I tramped about in front of it until my shoe struck a hard object. Stooping, I picked it up, and rejoiced to find that the doctor had been right. Again using one hand to manipulate the chair, I inserted the key in the lock and managed to turn it, though with considerable difficulty.
“Turn the knob,” I shouted, “and push.” ”

“ He walked to the door and opened it.
“This door,” he said, “shows no signs of having been tampered with in any way, yet I am convinced that there are at least two electric wires connecting it with the current which Hegel tapped somewhere in front of the meter—I have not yet discovered where.”
With his screwdriver, he removed the bottom hinge, while we crowded around him. Then he started to remove the top hinge, but found that the first screw he tried would not turn. Abandoning it, he removed all the other screws, then inserted the screwdriver beneath the hinge, and pried. ”

“ Dorp in my arms. Then I staggered out of the room, across the hall, down the creaking stairway, and out upon the porch, the girl following. As I laid the doctor in the swing where I had deposited the mistress of the house less than an hour before, the lights flashed on once more.
“Rouse the servants,” I said. “Telephone for a doctor. Then bring hot water, towels, blankets, hot-water bottles—and some brandy.” ”

“ At that point, the other radio-like machine was assembled and placed on a folding table. We left Mr. Brandon with this machine, and went back to the first one.
“Now, Evans,” said my friend. “You and Mr. Easton go back to the house and keep Miss Van Loan company. As soon as it begins to get dark go into the living room and occupy the same positions as last night. Mr. Easton has a false beard with him, and will be disguised to look like me. ”

“ There is nothing fantastic about it, and the thing can be duplicated by any good radio man today. Here, then, is a scientifiction story, thrilling, mysterious, and breathtaking, that we know you will enjoy.
“...As I bent over to examine the spot, I heard a cry of warning from the girl and a quick movement behind me. I turned, but could not move in time to avoid the heavy chair which was rushing toward me. It knocked me over and came back, apparently bent on my destruction.” Dr. Dorp looked up in annoyance when Mrs. ”