by Van Powell
Chapter 38 THE VIGIL
"Blue glow," Roger gasped. "Are _you_ going to have fireworks too?"
"No. You will adjust the big sun-lamp so it sends rays upward. Put theblue filter from the star-reader's plant beds on it. It is only fairthat part of his equipment should help catch and round up the one whostruck him."
Roger, with nothing but thoughts to occupy him, went to prepare thesignal. He could hear Grover making calls. To a police Bureau. To hisstaff men. To Falcon's patrol agency.
To Roger it appeared to be as dense a mystery as ever; but to hisbrilliant cousin something had torn aside the fog.
He tried to fathom that evasive clue. He went over his ideas. Claws onglass? No! Then what, besides? Something he should recognize in thelight of what he knew. Something that the miscreant had imagined himbright enough to have guessed, perhaps.
It escaped him, eluded his every attempt to read that riddle.
Only a short time was he allowed to concentrate.
There were hookups to be made. A chair in the store-room was to be wireddown two legs, positive and negative wiring, a plate of metal as thin aspossible was to be found and put on the seat, with small clamps to holdit in place under a thin covering cloth. It was to be left where itstood, but two wires must be taken from a wall outlet, led to small,flat disks like microphone diaphragms, tacked onto the floor at a placeGrover designated.
With that done and the wires fixed in a plug-in to fit the outlet, Rogerleft the circuit disconnected as ordered, and busied himself leadingwires from the sun-lamp, with its blue cover-glass, to the stock-roomshelves where they must be so set that a can of film, shifted anddropped over them by hand, would complete the circuit, act as a switchto light up the sun-lamp.
Grover came up, inspected, and pronounced the work well done.
"Now, get a nitric acid test-bath ready, in a big container--and havesome wax melted and ready for the test for exploded gases."
"Whose hands did we overlook?"
"No hands. Feet." Grover answered, alertly, and with asmile--mystery-solving seemed to transform him from a staid,self-contained scientist into an eager, boyish experimenter.
"Shoes?"
"Exactly."
"His?"
"Right."
"Then--whose?"
"If you are too dull to have read your own sound clues, Ear Detective,far be it from me to dull your wits by telling. Think!"
Presently Millman, Zendt, Ellison, Hope and several other staff men, inpairs or alone, arrived. They were eager, excited as they questioned.Grover, picking Roger's list of clues out of his file, presented it andsuggested that what he had learned they could learn, while Rogerrecounted his own experiences up to date.
That was done; and they pored over his list. Grover, getting a lot ofamusement out of their guesses, chuckled to himself; but his youngercousin felt that he was watching them to see when the guilty one wouldcrack and admit that he was cornered.
Who, besides, could be guilty? Doctor Ryder was in hospital; so wasAstrovox. So, in jail, Toby Smith was out of the night's excitement.
To his amazement, a police car, arriving, brought an officer who broughtin the last captive he had been thinking about--Toby.
The men seemed to have found no light in Roger's list.
Roger, who had heard their sane, or wild surmises, suddenly sat up.
Some brain cell, stimulated by the continual stress of cogitation, spokeits concealed message.
"I know--Grover--how dumb I've been."
He scribbled a name on a slip from the office desk.
Grover nodded.
"You should have seen--heard the right answer long ago."
"I left it for the Mystery Wizard, so he could keep up his reputation,"grinned Roger.
The Tibetans walked past, identifying their presence, but went on downthe street. Grover, watchful, looking out of the window, made a signalthat he had noticed them, and then suggested that they all go up to thestock room.
There, in the silence, with no light except that in the monitor-panelwhich Roger had set up to show which entrance was used when they couldexpect callers, they sat around, puzzling and trying to make Groverspeak, although any one of them could have been suspicious of any other,the way they talked. A light announced the arrival of a visitor, butGrover did not move. Potts, he knew, was coming; and his inference wasthe right one.
Potts, with a bagful of shoes, came in and dropped his find besideGrover's chair.
"Take this chair, old fellow," Grover was very grave and had an air oftrying to make up to his handy man for Roger's mistrust; but Roger knewthat the chair moved over so casually had been most carefully set on twosmall disks, not charged yet--but how easily so made active agents fortrapping the sitter!
"Now we must be patient," Grover stated, arranging the nitric-acid bath,paraffin heater and other apparatus on a table. "I shall test someshoes, presently, and I expect them to verify my judgment. In the dark,though, I shall give the miscreant one chance to secure his Eye of Ombefore I denounce him."
Someone, in the dark, shifted his feet, Roger imagined, uneasily.
"You don't mean to say you left it there!" It was Toby who made thegasping admission in his sudden excitement.
_He_ knew it was there!
"Still where, for all your seeming denseness, you worked out its place,"agreed Grover. "If you care to, you might apologize to Roger for tellingthe millionaire collector that _he_ had it. Of course it was to avertall suspicion from yourself."
"Aw--"
He did not have time to complete his denial or blustering cry.
A light in the tell-tale went out. The main door was opening.
"Nervy," commented Grover.
A strange, heavy thudding, or thumping, accompanied by something as muchlike the drag of a heavy rope as any other sound, told Roger that someweird development was coming. Could it be--really, a kangaroo?
And why, then, was there a strange chattering and jumping sound?
What would they see?
Those sounds grew louder. The stairway shook. Low growls or words ofcommand sounded.
Some animal, approaching. Or animals! No man--Roger was sure.