“Posing? Then where’s the real judge?”
“The real judge died — two days before election. We got Slawson — out of jail — set him up to pose as Farrell — to save the election. And then, he turned on us — killed us all off — so no one would be left alive who knew the secret — then he could go on as governor!”
Denvers’ brows knit in puzzlement. “But Farrell was attacked himself — by Kyle. How’s that?”
Thane’s face twisted in agony. Doctor Max lowered his head, said soothingly, “Go on. You’ll feel better in a moment, when the drug I gave you starts to work.”
Thane controlled himself by an effort, and answered the major’s question. “Rice got Kyle out of jail when we found that Slawson was — going— to kill us. It was for our own protection. But — Kyle failed. And Slawson came here to get us all. He — did!”
Plimpton and the trooper who had gone with him returned at that moment with a board that Doctor Max pronounced suitable. The doctor superintended the placing of the wounded man upon it, and watched him borne away toward the house.
“Careful,” he called after them. “Don’t jar him, or you’ll cause a hemorrhage!”
Denvers said to him, “Is there no chance for him at all?”
The old doctor looked at him over the rim of his glasses. “Every chance. I’m going in there and give him another hypo. He’ll live.”
“But — but I just heard you tell him he was dying!”
“Yes, of course. But I didn’t say when. I knew you wanted to ask him questions, and a man who knows he’s dying always answers truthfully.” The doctor smiled faintly. “I’ve seen much, major, and I’ve learned a trick or two.”
He hurried into the house after the improvised stretcher.
Denvers looked after him, puzzled, then turned to Betty. “This has been a terrible experience for you, Miss Dale. Have you phoned your paper yet?”
She shook her head. “I–I’ve been too upset. I think I’ll do it now.”
A few minutes later, Doctor Max came out of the house. “I’ve given him a dose of morphine. Lucky I brought a hypo along.” He was just putting the hypo away in a bag. “It’s one thing I always carry with me. The other things—” he snapped his fingers— “fol-de-rol! Stethoscopes — bah! Tongue depressors in waxed paper — bah! I’ve practiced for fifty years, and I did just as well by my patients before all these new-fangled devices came into use! It’s all bosh!” He took a card from his pocket, and gave it to Denvers. “I’m going home now. The ambulance from the hospital should be here any minute, and I can’t wait. I’ve got a delivery coming along any minute now.”
He bowed to Betty, and went swiftly toward the gate.
Denvers said to Betty, “Funny old man. The real old-style practitioner. Too bad there aren’t more of them—” He stopped, pointed at the mausoleum. “That’s queer — who put the light on over there?”
Betty saw that the electric light in the crypt was turned on. They went a few paces toward it, and saw the interior of the crypt through the wide open door.
Denvers exclaimed, “Somebody’s in there — looks dead to me!” They dashed inside, Betty only a step behind him.
Within the crypt he stopped short. “What the hell!”
TWO bodies lay there. One was calm, dignified in death, the other was bloated, hideous. On the middle finger of the right hand of the bloated body was the queer Egyptian ring.
A couple of troopers crowded in behind Betty and the major.
Betty said, her face white, “It’s — Judge Farrell!”
Denvers growled, “Yes. But who’s the other? He’s been dead at least a week, and he looks just like him!”
He knelt beside the bloated body, and detached several sheets of paper that had been pinned to the coat.
Betty read them over his shoulder.
The first two were papers that Betty had given to “X.” They contained a description of Sam Slawson. Across the first was written in a disguised hand. “Compare this man’s fingerprints with those of Sam Slawson.”
The second sheet was a record of the criminal activities of Slawson. It related, among other things, that Slawson had been arrested in the past, for impersonating various people, that the most daring of his impersonations had taken place recently, when he had walked into Judge Farrell’s stockbroker and withdrawn a large sum in securities, posing as the judge. He had never been caught for that, and there was nothing definite to prove that it was he who had committed the crime. He had later been arrested on a charge involving kidnaping, and was serving a long term when he had been mysteriously aided to escape a week before Kyle.
As Major Denvers read on, his amazement grew.
He turned to the third sheet, and he and Betty read the closely written, disguised handwriting. It said:
Dear Major Denvers: Perhaps this will make it easier for you to piece things together. There are three bodies here. The bloated one is that of Sam Slawson, whose record you have just read. You can check this with Slawson’s fingerprints. The other man’s body is that of the true Judge Farrell. He died a week ago. Slawson has been impersonating him since two days before election. Slawson is the one who tortured Crome, then killed him. Slawson wanted to make Crome reveal to him the hiding place of this other body — Judge Farrell’s. For if he got rid of it, there would be no evidence to prove that he himself was not Farrell — after the other four were killed. You will find another body in the tunnel underneath the crypt. It is that of the Princess Ar-Lassi. She was a Bulgarian adventuress who married the Egyptian prince, Mehemet Ar-Lassi, acquiring the title after she had murdered her husband. As your further investigation will disclose, she was once associated with Slawson, and recognised him. She threatened to expose him as an impostor, and he had to accept her as an ally. It was she who gave him the ring on his finger, as well as the Egyptian poison which he used so hideously. The poison is the venom of the giboon viper of Africa — deadly, horrible in its action. Slawson finally gave the princess a dose of her own poison. He didn’t need her any longer, for he had found the body of the governor-elect, and hidden it in the tunnel underneath. Trusting that will clear the matter up for you, I am, An Old Friend.
Major Denvers looked up from the note, whistled in amazement. And, as if in echo, there came from beyond the gates an eerie, chilling whistle, bearing a faint note of triumph.
Both the major and Betty thrilled to the strange sound of that whistle — but in different ways.
Major Denvers glanced down at the card which Doctor Max had given him, exclaimed, “What the hell!”
For all the letters on that card were disappearing, with the exception of the letter “X,” which stood out in bold relief.
Octopus of Crime
Chapter I
A FAST roadster came to a skidding stop at a spot where shadows lay like huge, ungainly serpents across the gray surface of the city streets. A tall man leaped out. He closed the car’s door quickly, moved along the sidewalk with swift, silent steps.
Walking the length of one block, he turned left down another, slowing when he reached a bright corner light that was holding at bay the night’s curtain of chill darkness.
Opposite this light, the big marble front of the Union Bank Safe Deposit Company rose in glittering magnificence. A special guard in horizon blue was on patrol duty here. The guard turned once, glanced at the lone pedestrian, turned away.
There was nothing about the man’s appearance at that distance to stir suspicion. He was quietly dressed in a gray suit and topcoat. Neat, respectable, middle-aged, he looked like some late office employee, a bookkeeper perhaps, hurrying home from work.