Whispers at Dawn; Or, The Eye

by Roy J. Snell

  CHAPTER XVII "THE EYE"

  As we have said, it was dark when Johnny Thompson finally returned to the"Street of Mystery," as he had come to call it. Felix's answer to hisexcited questioning at an earlier hour had been strange. Yes, he knewwhere the men were that Johnny had seen in that animated picture--atleast, he knew where they had been when Johnny looked at them; they werein the house down the street where he and Johnny had planted wires andinstruments. Had Johnny really seen the men?

  "Seen them!" Johnny fairly raved. "I recognized one of them as surely asif he had been my brother!"

  "That's fine!" Felix smiled blandly. "That proves the thing will work."

  "But these men!" Johnny exploded. "We must get them!"

  "Oh, must we?" Felix showed surprise.

  "Sure we must. They are robbers, murderers. They have bonds in theirpossession that broke a bank."

  "Oh!" Felix stared. "Well--that's not in our field. We are inventors, notdetectives."

  "I will get Drew Lane, Tom Howe and Captain Burns." Johnny was poised torush away.

  "As you like. Here's the key." Felix extended his hand. "Be sure to lockthe door. We are responsible for that."

  "Lock the door," Johnny grumbled to himself as he hurried away "Queerestfellow I ever saw, that Felix. Smart, though. Shouldn't wonder if hisinventions would do a lot of good. Think of being able to look right inupon a pack of thieves and you half a block or half a mile away!

  "Lock the door!" he repeated. "May be so riddled with bullets before weget through that it won't even shut."

  In this last he was wrong. When the little band, Johnny, Drew, Tom andthe hulking Spider, reached the place, they found it dark. There was noanswer to the bell, nor to repeated rapping. When they unlocked the doorand, flashlights in left hands, guns in right, made the rounds of theplace, they found it deserted and still. The rooms were rented furnished.The furniture was there, but not a garment, not a scrap of paper, not asingle article that told of occupation.

  "They are gone for good," was Drew's pronouncement.

  "And yet I saw them this very afternoon," Johnny said soberly. "Saw thebonds, too. To think I once had them and I lost them so easily!"

  "We all make mistakes," Drew consoled. "We're getting hotter and hotteron their trail. We'll get them, you'll see, and that very soon."

  They left the place in silence, locking the door behind them.

  They made their way to the "House of Magic," where Felix joined them.

  "Find anyone?" he asked.

  "Gone!" was Johnny's reply.

  "I was afraid they might be. But that thing worked--that's the best ofit. A little more work on it and we'll be ready to turn it over to thosewho can make the best use of it."

  "By the way, Johnny," Drew Lane put in, "you should have a phone in yourroom. You may have something to report any time."

  Johnny had not told Felix of the Whisperer's message. Felix had manysecrets, why not he?

  "I'll put a phone in at once," Felix assured him.

  "Well, goodnight, then." Drew Lane and his companions disappeared intothe dark, leaving Johnny and Felix standing on the steps of the "House ofMagic."

  "Easy to put a phone in," Felix said. "House is full of wires."

  "And of eyes," Johnny added.

  "Yes--'House of a Thousand Eyes,'" Felix chuckled. "Want to know about'em?"

  "Do I!"

  "Well, watch." Felix rang the bell. The door opened itself. "An eye didthat," he said quietly. "An electric eye. Step inside."

  Johnny did so. As on that other occasion, the narrow space was filledwith a strange light; then he saw skeletons, his own and Felix's,wavering before him.

  "Eye does that," Felix explained again. "The electric eye and X-ray. Eyeturns on the current that starts the X-ray going. Quite a convenience. Ifyour would-be visitors carry hard things like guns or knives, you seethem and need not admit them unless you want to.

  "We are seeing ourselves now," he chuckled, "as we have never been, butas we shall be. Come inside." The skeletons vanished. The next dooropened.

  "In five minutes the 'eye' will have made us a cup of cocoa." Felix satdown.

  "It's really very simple," he went on after a moment. "The electric eye,or photo-electric cell, is a vacuum tube treated chemically on theinside. A peep hole admits light. When light strikes the chemicals itstarts a small electric discharge. This electric discharge, when steppedup, will start any piece of mechanism you may wish it to.

  "It works as well when I cut off the light as when I turn it on. So, whenI pass before a light in the wall that plays on one electric eye, itcauses the door to open. Another closes the door, and so forth.

  "Just now an 'eye' turned on the current under a pan of milk. When themilk is hot and rises in the pan, a second eye slides the pan aside andadds the cocoa and sugar. So we have steaming cocoa with no trouble atall.

  "Impractical?" He threw back his head and laughed. "Yes, but it's lots offun.

  "But the eye is revolutionizing the world, for all that!" he added,handing Johnny his cocoa. "I told you we fixed up a rig for sorting acarload of beans a day. That is done by thousands of electric eyes.Pineapples are sorted the same way. In school rooms an eye watches thelight. When it gets too dark the eye throws on the lighting switch. Theeye umpires bowling matches and would umpire a baseball game, call a balla ball, a strike a strike, and never be wrong. And that certainly wouldbe something!

  "Guess that's enough for tonight. I'll get that phone." He hurried away.

  It was not enough, not half enough for Johnny. He wanted to ask if theeye had helped him see what he had seen that afternoon, if the eye couldhave anything to do with the whispers at dawn. He wanted to ask a hundredquestions. But Felix was gone.

  When Johnny mounted to his room, he found the telephone in its place on astand by his bed, but Felix was nowhere to be seen.