He replaced the valise beside the bush where he had first found it. Then he glided close to the rear porch.
Voices murmured in the bungalow, apparently in the living room. Nace tried the porch door, and it opened silently.
They entered. Nace kept his grip on the girl. But she moved with a stealth equal to his own. They advanced until the voice murmur became distinguishable words.
“That is too bad,” growled Baron von Auster. “It is possible the green skull is not concealed here after all!”
“That is conceivable,” admitted another voice. “We can only search. And since we have combined forces, our chances of finding it are considerably greater!”
The girl brought her lips close to Nace’s ear, breathed, “Reel!”
Nace nodded. He had guessed the two in the front room were Reel and the baron.
“Joining hands was a wise move for both of us!” Baron von Auster agreed. “It is regrettable that each of us thought the other was using that green skeleton to murder!”
“Yeah,” muttered Reel. “Which one do you think is really the killer — the girl, or that detective, Nace?”
“I do not know. One or the other, it is obvious!”
Nace scowled blackly. It seemed those two had put their heads together and decided he or the girl was the green-skeleton killer. He looked down sidewise at the dark-eyed girl. He could see her face faintly in the dim glow from the front room. Her features were pale, set.
She glanced up at him, shook her head, shrugged, breathed, “I did not do it!”
The door into the front room was about half-open. Nace took a chance and looked through the crack.
The two men were systematically taking the room apart and slicing paper off the walls and digging beneath with knife points. Each had a pistol thrust in his belt, where it could be gotten at handily.
A spike-snouted, silenced automatic lay on a table. This was one of the unusual guns Moe and Heavy had carried earlier in the night.
Nace considered briefly. Then he flung himself into the room. He scooped up the gun on the table before the two men could move.
“Catch a couple of high balls!” he rapped.
The two might not be baseball fans, but they understood the lingo. Reel’s hands went up. But Baron von Auster only glared.
“Nein!” he sneered. “The gun is empty! We drew the cartridges before we placed it there!”
Leering, Nace squeezed the automatic trigger.
Chung! It was loaded, all right. The bullet streaked so close to Baron von Auster’s head that he ducked wildly. His hands went up.
Advancing gingerly, Nace disarmed the pair. Because there was no place else, he stuffed their guns in the belt of his trousers.
The girl stood back, dark eyes thoughtful, and watched.
Nace frowned at her. “I have a hunch you know where that green skull jigger is hidden! You and your brother got it from these two. Don’t you think it is about time you were digging it up?”
She surprised him by nodding agreeably. “I’ll get it!”
She stepped to the radio. It took most of her strength to twist the heavy cabinet out from the wall.
“The thing should be hidden in a spare tube in the radio,” she explained.
She reached into the instrument with both hands. Her left hand brought out a vacuum tube. The silvered glass of the bulb concealed what was inside.
Her right hand whipped out a small automatic which had been hidden in the cabinet. She pointed the weapon at Nace.
“I’d hate to shoot you!” she said grimly.
He blinked. He had not expected anything this desperate. He had his silenced gun trained in her direction. But he greatly disliked the idea of firing upon a woman.
“What are you going to do now?” he asked angrily.
“Get out of here!” she retorted. She hefted the silvered vacuum tube. “I’m going to dispose of this to the agent who is here from Europe to purchase it. Then I shall hunt you up, after waiting a sufficient time to permit the agent to get out of this country, and tell you the whole story.”
“Yeah?” Nace was not sure whether to believe her or not.
She backed for the door.
Then disaster came. She had her back to Baron von Auster and Reel, all her attention riveted on Nace.
Baron von Auster sprang. He seized the girl, using her for a shield from Nace’s bullets. With a free hand, he trapped her automatic. Twisting, he got it.
The thing happened in flash seconds. Nace suddenly found himself looking into the snout of the little automatic.
“You will drop your weapon, mein Herr!”
Nace did not debate long. He might have plinked Baron von Auster through the skull — except that the gun in his hand was unfamiliar and felt unnatural. He did not trust himself to miss the young woman.
He dropped his gun.
Chapter VI
The Green Skull
Laughing a bit hysterically, Reel came over and relieved Nace of his weapons.
Nace gave the girl the blackest look he could manage, “You fixed things up nicely!”
She shivered. “Thanks!”
“That was no compliment!” he snorted.
“I mean — thanks for not shooting and maybe hitting me! That took nerve.”
He grinned in spite of himself and the undoubted danger. This young woman not only had nerve, but it was evident she had walked the paths of danger before.
“Ruhig!” gritted Baron von Auster. “Quiet! Now we will inspect the contents of that radio tube!”
Together, he and Reel worked on the tube. They gave it a twist. The glass bulb came free of the base — it had merely been glued in place. The bottom of the bulb was open; the filament, plate and grid elements had been removed. The silvered coating of the tube still concealed what was inside.
Reel shook the bulb. An object wrapped in tissue was jarred out. He tore off the tissue. The green skull was disclosed.
The thing was not what Nace had expected. It was flat, not unlike a silver dollar, except that it was enameled green. On the face was a raised design of a skull.
“This is it, mein Herr!” chortled the baron.
Nace watched intently. He saw Reel place the plate between his palms and give a twisting motion, as though loosening the crystal of a watch. The plate screwed apart!
It was composed of several flat, thin discs. The surface of these discs had a strangely dull look.
Reel scrutinized the surface of the discs.
“It will take a powerful microscope to read the inscribed data,” he declared.
He went into the kitchen. There was a sound of glass breaking. When Reel came back, he had the bottom of a milk bottle in hand.
“This will magnify sufficiently to show whether the disc is genuine.”
He held the bulging glass over the discs. “Yes, it is the real thing! All the information is here! Location of frontier fortifications, size and number of guns—”
Nace’s jaw sagged. He saw it all now. This disc — or the several discs — held writing engraved with a special mechanism which reduced the letters to such smallness that they were invisible to the naked eye!
The idea was not new — Nace knew of a novelty shop in New York where one could purchase ordinary pins upon the heads of which was engraved entire poems.
The discs held military information! The location of secret fortifications in some European country! Reel was an espionage agent. Baron von Auster, Moe, Heavy, Hoo Li — all had been working with him.
As for the girl and her brother — Nace eyed the young woman.