by Van Powell
Chapter 7 SCIENCE TO THE RESCUE
When he heard Doctor Ryder's startling plea, Roger's clear, gray eyeslighted with a fire of hope and excitement.
To be involved in a mystery in the laboratory was thrilling; but to havea share in restoring the Eye of Om, evidently a priceless gem, would bemore so.
His quick mind flashed over the fascinating prospect; but with equalquickness he saw the reason why Grover sat so silent and unimpressed.
A man accused, anxious to return a jewel, would merit help. A man whoknew the real taker of the gem and wanted it restored meant possibletrouble. He might want them to help him get the gem away from itspossessor.
That was not their duty. It was police work.
"Please be more definite," Grover said.
"I don't want you to help me 'steal' the gem from anybody," the medicalexperimenter declared. "I need financial help to buy it."
"To buy it," Roger exclaimed. "That would take a lot of money. Would thepeople in Tibet pay you?"
"They would pay a handsome profit, Roger. But it would not cost such avast sum as you may think. You see, the one who has it is not aware ofits value."
"That is curious," remarked Grover.
"What happened was this: I went to the temple with a native priest tosee the marvel I had heard of. While we were entering, a figure slippedaway out of another door to the sacred crypt. As we approached the greatfigure of Buddha, I saw a vacant hole in it and realized that thepriceless jewel was gone. Terrified at the thought of being caught,suspected or in some way associated with the crime against their holiesttreasure and venerated religious symbol, the priest and I hurried awayjust as other temple attendants discovered the situation."
Without being certain, the rest of the gem's history was assumed to bethat the thief, terrified, had thrown away his loot. One of his campstaff, an ignorant, though strong pack-carrying youth from an Americancity, whose way the doctor had paid for his ability to obey orderswithout trying to improve on them, had found the gem, in a fissure ofthe great mountain pass they traversed in escaping.
He had evidently taken it to be only a beautiful native art object andhad put it in his pack, apparently, without mentioning it, meaning tobring it back to America to "give to his sweetheart," as the medicalexperimenter supposed.
"At any rate," Doctor Ryder summed up, "he is living here in the city,his sweetheart had forgotten him, he has that treasure, put away, and Idare not go and talk to him about it. I know he has it because he hasshown it, as a souvenir, to people who have recognized its worth withoutknowing just what it is. He would probably sell it for a fairly goodsum, if approached by someone from a museum; but if he was told itshistory, and knew its real value, he might sell it to some gem dealerwho would put it beyond my reach in some private collection. And my lifewould be forfeit, because I cannot prove, in the circumstances, myinnocence to the Tibetan Dalai Lama and his vindictive, fanaticalsubordinates."
Grover, as Roger watched him eagerly, anxiously, considered thesituation thoughtfully.
"I suppose that there are complications," he said, finally. "Someinternational jewel thieves must know the affair."
"Exactly." The other man nodded. "That accounts for the entry, here,night before last. From the use of a kangaroo I would assume that anAustralian is interested----"
"An ape would mean somebody from Africa," Roger argued.
"While the strange projection of the Voice of Doom implies that theTibetans are preparing to strike at me," Doctor Ryder added.
Grover sat considering the matter.
"With that all granted," he said, finally, "it is easy to see whatcaused the queer ghost-figures in our film. I assume that the purpose ofusing the trained boxing kangaroo with a pouch to carry its young, alsotrained to 'rescue' from fire, was to furnish a novel way of hiding andremoving the gem which evidently the thieves think, as do the Tibetans,that you have."
"Certainly. In your safe."
"And whoever came," Roger was able to fill it all in, now, "with thekangaroo, meant to get into the safe, get the gem, put it in theanimal's pouch, and then, to make it go away safely, he had to turn onthe fire alarm that rang a bell, the way it must ring in the act, forthe kangaroo's signal to rescue the rats. It rescued them, and hoppedaway, to its attendant, just the way it would in the theatre."
"And what about the film?" asked Doctor Ryder.
"Some was probably in the 'sound camera' by the cage. Either in tryingto shut it off or in an accidental knock against it by the animal, the'continuous' lever was thrown. Focused with a diaphragm opening to catchthe white rats' movements under a vivid light, the lens got only anunder-exposure in the light from the ceiling!"
"Logically," Grover finished up for his younger cousin, "the man knewthe camera had been running. He took out that magazine, took the blankfilm from the new can to replace it, making as many snaps as had beenmade of the rats, jarred the continuous-take lever on by accident,giving us the clue of claws-on-glass as his animal came to the cage,with the ringing of the alarm bell."
"Science to the rescue!" Roger exclaimed. "Now we know it must be theanimal trainer who is the key-man. If he did it for his own greed, wecan protect ourselves from him in the future."
"If he was a hired accomplice of others, as I assume to be most likely,"Grover added, "he can be compelled to tell us the facts."
Declaring that he would interview the man in person, bidding Roger toadd to the few hours of sleep secured before their midnight watch, thelaboratory head, as the staff began to arrive, urged Doctor Ryder to saylittle, and to wait until consideration could be given to his plea thatthey help him get the Eye of Om.
On the emergency couch, in a small combination of rest-and-first-aidroom, Roger stretched out without feeling the least bit drowsy.
The excitement was still keeping him alert.
"Science to the rescue," he mused. "Modern apparatus is wonderful andunderstanding how it works and what can be done with it ought to helppeople solve many mysteries. They have developed instruments to measurenerve responses and other things. There is the lie-detector for onedevice to help fight crime.
"And if scientific appliances, and scientific understanding, both can becoupled with Cousin Grover's axiom about ignoring appearances anddigging to the heart of truth, analyzing down to the basic element of acomplex combination, it will be even better."
He thought back along the course of the many happenings, and of all theclues that scientific apparatus and wisdom had opened up.
He sat up suddenly.
"Science to the rescue!" he repeated to himself. "We don't need to waitto see if the animal trainer will tell the truth. We can find out rightaway."
In the files he found the enlargements made the day before, from the"routine" wide-angle and close-up views Potts had taken.
The folder full of pictures, and the rolls of film from the cabinet hestudied carefully.
Roger's study was concentrated on the close-up and magnified detail ofdoor locks, window catches and all openings.
If any catch had been moved the picture should show to thescreen-observing youth, some abrasion, or some disturbance of rust, orat least a displacement of the accumulated dust.
Nothing. Nothing in any picture, on any film!
"That tells me that the entry was made through the skylight, as we hadthought," he decided, but added:
"Or--does it tell more?"
An ape, he felt sure, could not have been trained, or have sense, toswing so as not to touch a magnetized and super-charged metal plateconcealed by being painted the same color as the wooden floor under theskylight.
A man, dressed as an ape, might. But it seemed like a long way to goaround to get through, when a more simple possibility was open.
Roger assumed that it might be possible that one of the peopleinterested in securing that priceless treasure which could be supposedto be in their safe, could work there!
The fact tha
t no pressure from outside had given its clue in thepictures, showed him that some "insider" might have opened the onlypossible place to get the kangaroo in--the coal chute.
His examination, with a high-powered, beam-focusing light and amagnifying lens, revealed that rust under the bolt had been scraped.
But the pictures had shown no sign of the use of "jimmy" or otherimplement for prying back bolts!
An "insider" was responsible for opening that chute trap.
It would be simple to associate kangaroos with Australians, apes withAfrica, possibly India. It would be just as easy to narrow it down towhether any of the staff connected-in with either place.
A man from Australia would naturally think of a kangaroo and itspeculiar qualities and usefulness for his plan. A man familiar with acountry wherein apes were found might see the usefulness of that animal,or would resort to a costume for disguise that a man from the coalcounties of Pennsylvania, for instance, would not have thought of.
To the office files Roger hurried. All the data concerning each employe,such as age, experience and so on, was there.
When he had looked, Roger put away the sheets of data carefully, andwaited eagerly for Grover to return from interviewing the trainer.
Two sheets had told him much. One had given its maker's experience on anexpedition to India for a power-plant construction job. There was India,ape country. Roger knew that in many sections of India, apes weresacred.
The other sheet had told him that its maker had worked in Australiaunder Government chemists, studying the inroads of a destructive insect.
He had two names to give Grover.
Science, with brains, _had_ come to the rescue.