The Mystery of the Fifteen Sounds

by Van Powell

  Chapter 26 ROGER LISTS HIS CLUES

  During Grover's absence at the hospital, the staff began to arrive.Until the secretary should come to handle the switchboard Doctor Rydervolunteered to be monitor on calls, being extremely anxious concerningthe condition of the assaulted star-reader, as were the rest.

  Roger, as Toby Smith with a heavy suitcase arrived, turned over the fewrequisitions for stock to his willing assistant.

  He wanted very much to fill up the list of sounds he had begun in theoffice before going to Tibet.

  "Suits me fine," Toby agreed, "I got a lot more of Doctor Ryder's whathe calls compounds, that he is going to use to medicate the rats he isgoing to replace."

  The members of the staff, trained under the phlegmatic, scientificmethods of Grover, took very little time to discuss conditions. Theroutine work of scientific research had to proceed. They made it do so.Each took up his task. Mr. Zendt, with his new investigations, and theelectricians and other staff men, left the matter that had no bearing ontheir results in the hands of those most interested.

  Potts, while Roger located his "sound" list, speculated about thesituation.

  "That Ellison come out on top in the chemistry retroactivities," hebegan, and when Roger had substituted "reactions," he proceeded:

  "But are you so sure, Rog'?"

  "Well, the way Grover works, I am not sure and I am not un-sure. I'mgoing to dig to the heart of truth. Now, with our clues, we have a lotof circumstantial evidence-clues; and we have a heap of visible clues;but I think the audible ones will tell most, just as Grover does."

  "Circumstantial evidence? Such as what?"

  "People being at certain places. Here, maybe, when something happened.And like Mister Ellison arriving just when we least expected."

  "Then, what about visible ones?"

  "The animals on a film taken in a room with no animals in it. Theactions of people, if we could only read them. The picture in theoffice, last night, with a man's back turned, Astrovox scared, and thesmoke."

  "The others--the vocational clues----"

  "Do you mean 'vocal'?"

  "Uh-hum. Them I know most of. But there's ol--olle--something about afactory----"

  "Olfactory? Clues coming from smells? I think you've got something. Thepowder smell, for one."

  "And now, how will we coagulate 'em?"

  He was fond of that word, erroneously used, before--but to him adiscovery.

  "I don't know," Roger admitted, "there must be some link."

  He suggested that inasmuch as the man in the office shot had worngloves, as revealed on his outspread hands, no finger prints had beenleft when he had inadvertently pressed the desk button.

  "But there might be clues on the floor, if they haven't been tracked uptoo much," Roger suggested. "You do some micro-photography while Irevise my list."

  The list he located in their office file, behind the registrations hehad previously looked up to find the clue, as it had seemed, that Zendt,with Australian experiences, must know about kangaroos, whileEllison--there he cropped up again! could know, from India work, aboutthe ape they had seen in the film of the upper room.

  Looking over his list, in the light of what had happened, Roger wasinclined to drop out the seemingly unimportant fact that the case hadbegun when both the fire and the protective system alarms had rung. Hefelt that it had no discernible connection with his mystery, being soeasily accounted for by the fact that an ape and a kangaroo hadevidently gamboled around in the studio, setting off alarms unwittingly.

  Still, half-hesitant, he left it in, but re-wrote his list, so as to putwhat seemed important in order, rather than try to follow the successionof historical order, as he had done before.

  His list, thus revised and added to, ran this way:

  _Sound_ _Possible Meaning_

  1. Frying-grease-like Claws of animal. Radiator valve with steam clicks and hisses and coming in. A snake, with its scales pops. rattling. A lizard, like the big Iguanas. 2. Voice of Doom. Tibetans' trick to frighten. A recording made in Tibet. 3. Voice of Doom again. On a record supposed to be new. Query: how did Tibetans know all about our stock to substitute? Query, could Ellison have done it? 4. Doctor Ryder's talk Voice was his. We thought and he admitted it with man on record was Mr. Clark he was talking with. Query, with No. 3. we thought it was to conceal identity that Mr. Clark wrote; wonder if it was not a talk with him in room, if he telephoned instead? Is Mr. Clark completely cleared: he is a jeweler. 5. Clicks in headset. Could be so many electrical switch noises or relays, but why was it so close to hearing Voice of Doom? 6. Drip or click in Was just before safe was opened, but was it dark. the combination being worked by expert who could tell by sound when tumblers fell right? Does that make me think of Clark, a jeweler? Not Tibetans as we had thought from circumstances. Is Ellison able to work a combination "by ear"? 7. Thump or thud sound. Seemed to come in corner of room upstairs just before I took the film that produced the animal 'ghosts' after we had heard Voice of Doom from up there. I wonder how important it really is, or if it was just plaster or a film in a can? 8. A sort of thump on We thought he had been knocked down by a blow Record when Dr. Ryder with recorder operating. But it turned out vanished. he had gone away with Clark. Or so Clark said. Has Clark got some hold over Doctor Ryder that made him go after a telephone summons? Was that thump the telephone taken off hook? Not likely as it would be a click like what I heard in headset. Do these tell me anything? 9. The cry of fire and No fire, and no reason for cry. Wait! It was crackle of flame on like what old Astrovox said when we were unused record in my collecting old papers in upper room? Is it room. possible anybody made a record of it? But Potts was the only one who was fixing protection machines in my room. Yes, and Potts says he threw away what turns out to be the real Eye of Om. Oh, it can't be. 10. Both alarms went Can't mean anything but I feel like keeping off when mystery it on record. began. 11. Shot recorded in A brain-teaser. It was an explosive sound, the lab films at same that synchronized with flash in film: and time as flash. there was the smell of burned powder. How does it fit? Did Clark or Ellison do it to try to shoot the man at the desk? Or did either one do it at the other? 12. The Tibetan talked It _is_ 'sound' and might have some clue, he English. used English in a Tibet monastery, and in America again. 13. The whistle and Wind howling as it blew hard or gentle in moan in Tibet same as tunnel and Buddha-whistle. But no 'grind' on recordings. in Tibet. 14. Grind as if rocks Missing in real Tibet sound, as rock was on records, after counter-weighted and moved silently open Voice of Doom. and shut. Seems important, because it was on record probably made in Tibet and brought here by--Tibet lama? Clark? Ellison? Zendt? 15. Voice of Doom heard Was it record, same as others? Or what? I by Astrovox.
must ask when he recovers if it had grind at end of moan.

  Those, as far as he could recall, were his sound-clues.