Weird Tales volume 28 number 02

by Wright, Farnsworth, 1888-€“1940

  And exactly in these positions they remained, for minute after minute.

  During that time Madame Sin looked at them; and her smile now was a thing

  to chill the blood. You couldn't have told why. Her face was as serene-looking as ever, and there were no tangible lines of cruelty in evidence in her face. Yet she looked like a she-fiend as she stared around.

  She walked to the croupier, who stood gazing at his wheel, with his mouth open in the beginning of a yawn,

  Down the hall came the clang of elevator doors, and the sound of laughter and voices. Madame Sin glided toward the door. There she paused, then went purposefully back to the table. She went swiftly from one to another of the frozen, stark figures in their life-like but utterly rigid positions, then back to the door.

  Smiling, she left the room, passing five or six people who were about to enter it for a little gambling. She was almost to the elevator shafts when she heard a woman's scream knife the air, followed by a man's hoarse shout that expressed almost as much horror as the scream had done.

  Still smiling, utterly composed, she stepped into an elevator—and the elevator boy shivered a bit as he stared at her. He had not heard the scream, did not know that anything was wrong. He only, knew that something in this lovely woman's smile sent cold fingers up and down his spine.

  Ir was a grim, white-faced trio that sit in the conference room of the Blue Bay Hotel at eleven next morning.

  Chichester nor Gest nor Kroner—none had had a moment's sleep all night. They had been in Doctor Grays' suite with Weems when a shivering man—a well-known young clubman, too, which was unfortunate—stumbled up to tell of the dreadful thing to be seen in the roulette room.

  With horror mounting in their breasts,

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  half knowing already what they would see, the three had gone there.

  Nine more, counting the croupier, in a state like that which Weems was in! Nine more people with all life, all movement, arrested in mid-motion! Ten now with some kind of awful paralysis gripping them in which they did not move nor seemingly breathe—ten who were dead by every test known to science, but who, as even laymen could see at a glance, were yet indubitably alive!

  "Blue Bay Development is ruined," ground out Kroner. It had been said a dozen times by every one of the three; but the words made the other two look at him in frantic denial just the same.

  "If we can keep it quiet—just for a little while—just until "

  "Until what?" snapped Kroner. "If we only had an idea when this mysterious sickness would leave these people! We could stall the news perhaps for a day, or even two days—// we could have some assurance that at the end of twenty-four or forty-eight hours they'd be all right again. But we haven't. They may be like that for months before they die—may even die in a few hours. Grays can't tell. This is all beyond his medical experience. So it seems to me we might as well make public announcements now, face ruin on the resort development, and get it over with."

  Chichester spoke, almost in a whisper,

  "This Doctor Satan, whoever he is, gives us assurance in his note. He says that if we pay what he demands, the ten will recover, and everything will be all right."

  "And if we pay what he demands, we'll be ruined just the same as though we'd been killed by publicity," objected Gest.

  Kroner glared at the wizened treasurer. •

  "I'm surprized you'd even suggest that, Chichester. But you've not only suggest-

  ed it—you've pled for it all night long! Do you get a cut from Doctor Satan or something?"

  "Gentlemen," soothed Gest, as Chichester half rose from his chair. "We're in too serious a jam to indulge in petty quarrels. We've got to decide what to do "

  "I move we call in the police," growled Kroner. "I still can't believe that any human being could induce such a state of catalepsy, or living death, or whatever you want to call it, in other human beings. Not unless he's a wizard or something. Nevertheless, in view of this threat note from Doctor Satan, there may be a definite criminal element here that the cops should know about"

  "Let's wait on the police," objected Gest. "We have already done better than that in summoning this Ascott Keaoe to help us."

  Chichester's dry skin flushed faintly.

  "I still say that that was a stupid move!" he snapped. "Ascott Keane? Who is he, anyhow? He has no reputation for detective work or any other kind of work. A rich man's son—loafer— dilettante. What we should have done was contact Doctor Satan after his first note, after Weems was stricken. Then we would have saved the nine in the roulette room, and at the same time saved our project here."

  "You'd pay this crook our entire surplus?" snarled Kroner. "You'd give him a million eight hundred thousand in cold cash, when you don't even know that he has had a hand in what ails the ten?"

  "It's worth a million eight hundred thousand to save our stake in Blue Bay," said Chichester obstinately. "As for Doctor Satan's having a hand in the horrible fate of Weems and the rest—he told you beforehand that it would happen, didn't he?"

  "Please," sighed Gest as for a second time the florid vice-president and the

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  wizened treasurer snarled at each other. "We "

  The door of the office suite banged open. The assistant manager of the hotel staggered into the room. His blue eyes were blazing with excitement. His youngish face was contorted with it.

  "I've just found out something that I think is of vital importance!" he gasped. "Something in the roulette room! I've been in there all night, as you know, looking around to see if I could find poison needles fastened to table or chairs, or anything like that, and quite by chance I noticed something else. The maddest thing! The roulette wheel! It's "

  He stopped.

  "Go on, go on!" urged Kroner. "What about the roulette wheel? And what possible connection could it have with what happened to the people in that room?"

  He stared at the young assistant manager, as did Gest and Chichester, with his hands clenched with suspense.

  And the assistant manager slowly, like a falling tree, pitched forward on his face.

  "My God "

  "What happened to him?"

  The three got to him together. They rolled him over, lifted his head, began chafing his hands. But it was useless. And in a moment that was admitted in their faces as they looked at each other.

  "Another victory for Doctor Satan," whispered Chichester, shuddering as though with palsy. "He's—dead!"

  Gest opened his mouth as though to deny it, but closed his lips again. For palpably the assistant manager was dead, struck down an instant before he could tell them some vital news he had uncovered. He had died as though struck by lightning, at just the right time to save disclosure. It was as though the beins who called himself Doctor Satan W. T—3

  were there, in that office, and had acted to protect himself!

  Shivering, Chichester glanced fearfully around. And Gest said: "God—if Ascott Keane were here "

  3. The Stopped Watch

  Down at the lobby door, a long closed car slid to a stop. From it stepped two people. One was a tall, broad-shouldered man with a high-bridged nose, long, strong jaw, and pale gray eyes under heavy black eyebrows. The other was a girl, equally tall for her sex, beautifully formed, with reddish brown hair and dark blue eyes.

  The two walked to the registration desk in the lobby.

  "Ascott Keane," the man signed. "And secretary, Beatrice Dale."

  "Your suite is ready for you, Mr. Keane," the clerk said obsequiously. "But we had no word of your secretary's coming. Shall we ■"

  "A suite for her on the same floor if possible," Keane said crisply. "Is Mr. Gest in the hotel?"

  "Yes, sir. He is in the tower office."

  "Have the boy take my things up. I'll go to the office first. Send word up there what suite you've given Miss Dale."

  Keane nodded to Beatrice, and walked to the elevators.

  "Sec
retary!" snorted the key clerk to the head bellhop. "What's he want a secretary for? He's never done any work in his life. Inherited umpteen million bucks, and plays around all the time. Wish I was Ascott Keane."

  The head bellhop nodded. "Pretty soft for him, all right. Hardest job he has is to clip coupons. . , ."

  Which would have made Keane smile a little if he could have heard, for the clerk and the bellhop shared the opinion of him held by the rest of the world; an

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  opinion he carefully fostered. Few knew of his real interest in life, which was that of criminal detection.

  He tensed as he swung into the anteroom of the office suite. Cest, one of the rare persons who knew of his unique detective work, had babbled something of a Doctor Satan when he phoned long distance. Doctor Satan! The mention of that name was enough to bring Keane instantly from wherever he was, with his powers pitched to their highest and keenest point in an effort to crush at last the unknown individual who lived for outlawed thrills.

  As soon as he opened the door, it was apparent that something was wrong. There was no one sitting at the information desk, and from closed doors beyond came the hum of excited voices.

  Keane went to the door where the hum sounded loudest and opened that.

  He stared in at three men bending over a fourth who lay on the floor, stark and motionless — obviously dead! Keane strode to them.

  "Who are you, sir?" grated Kroner. "What the devil "

  "Keane!" breathed Gest. "Thank God you're here! There has just been a murder. I'm sure it's murder—though how it was done, and who did it, are utterly beyond me."

  "This is your Ascott Keane?" said Kroner, in a slightly different tone. His eyes gained a little respect as they rested on Keane's light gray, icily calm eyes.

  "Yes. Keane—Kroner, vice president. And this is Chichester, treasurer and secretary."

  Keane nodded, and stared at the dead man.

  "And this?"

  "Wilson, assistant manager. He came in a minute or two ago, saying he had something of the utmost importance to

  tell us about the players in the roulette room. . . ."

  Keane nodded. He had been told of that just before he took a plane for Blue Bay. Gest swallowed painfully and went on:

  "Wilson had just started to explain. He said something about the roulette wheel, and then fell dead. Literally. He fell forward on his face as though he had been shot. But he wasn't. There isn't a mark on his body. And he couldn't have been poisoned before he came in here. No poison could act so exactly, striking at the precise second to keep him from disclosing his find."

  "Doctor's report?" said Keane.

  "Grays, house physician, is on his way up now. We sent the information girl to get him. Didn't want to telephone. You know how these things spread. We didn't want the switchboard girls to hear of this just yet."

  Keane's look of acknowledgment was grim.

  "The publicity. Of course. We'll have to move fast to save Blue Bay."

  "If you can save it, now," muttered Chichester,

  The door opened, and Doctor Grays stepped in, with consternation in his brown eyes as he saw the man on the floor.

  They left him to examine the body, and the three officials told Keane all the details the}* knew of the strange tragedy that had overtaken Weems and, two and a half hours later, the nine in the roulette room.

  They returned to the conference room. Grays faced them.

  "Wilson died of a heart attach" he said. "The symptoms are unmistakable. His death seems normal. . . ."

  "Normal — but beautifully timed," murmured Keane.

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  "Right," nodded the doctor. "We'll •want an autopsy at once. The police are on their way here. They're indirectly in our employ, as are all in Blue Bay; but they won't be able to keep this out of the papers for very long!"

  "Where are Weems and the rest?"

  "In my suite."

  "I'd like to see them, please."

  In Doctor Grays' suite, Keane stared with eyes that for once had lost some of their calm, at the weird figures secluded in the bedroom. This room was kept locked against the possibility of a chambermaid or other hotel employee coming in by mistake. An unwarned person might well have gone at least temporarily insane at the sudden sight of the ten in that bedroom.

  In a chair near the door sat Weems. He was bent forward a little as though leaning over a table. He stared unwink-ingly at space. In his hand was still a champagne glass, raised near his lips.

  Standing around the room were the nine others, each in the position he or she had been in when rigidity overtook them in the roulette room. They stared wide-eyed ahead of them, motionless, expressionless. It was like walking into a waxworks museum, save that these statuesque figures were of flesh and blood, not wax.

  "They're all dead as far as medical tests show," Grays said. There was awe and terror in his voice. "Yet—they're not dead! A child could tell that at a glance. I don't know what's wrong."

  "Why don't you put them to bed?" said Keane.

  "We can't. Each of the ten seems to be in some kind of spell that makes it impossible for his body to take any but that one position. We've laid them down— and in a moment they're up again and in the former position, moving like sleepwalkers, like dead things! Look."

  He gently pulled Weems' arm down.

  Slowly, it raised again till the champagne glass was near his lips. Meanwhile the man's eyes did not even blink. He was as oblivious of the touch as if really dead.

  "Horrible!" cjuavered Chichester. "Maybe it's some new kind of disease."

  "I think not," said Keane, voice soft but bleak. He looked at a night table, heaped with jewelry, handkerchiefs, wallets, small change. "That collection?"

  "The personal effects of these people," said Gest, wiping sweat from his pale face.

  Keane went to the pile, and sorted it over. He was struck at once by a curious lack. He couldn't place it for an instant; then he did.

  "Their watches!" he said. "Where are they?"

  "Watches?" said Gest. "I don't know. Hadn't thought of it."

  "There are ten people here," said Keane. "And only one watch! Normally at least eight of them would have had them, including the women with their jeweled trinkets. But there's only one. ... Do you remember who owned this, and where he wore it?"

  He picked up the watch, a man's with no chain.

  "That's Weems* watch. He had it in his trousers pocket."

  "Odd place for it," said Keane. "I see it has stopped."

  He wound the watch. But the little second hand did not move, and he could only turn the winding-stem a little, proving that it had not run down.

  The hands said eleven thirty-one.

  "That was the time Weems was— paralyzed?" said Keane.

  Gest nodded. "Funny. His watch stopped just when he did!"

  "Very funny," said Keane expression-lessly. "Send this to a jeweler right away and have him find out what's wrong with it. Now, you say your assistant

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  manager was struck dead just as he said something about the roulette wheel?"

  "Yes," said Gest. "It was as though this Doctor Satan were right there with us and killed him with a soundless bullet just before he could talk."

  Keane's eyes glittered.

  "I'd like to look over the roulette room."

  "The police are here," said Grays, turning from his phone.

  Keane stared at Gest. "Keep them out of the roulette room for a few minutes."

  He strode out to the elevators. . . .

  His first concern, after locking himself into the room where nine people had been stricken with something which, if it persisted, was worse than any death, was the thing the assistant manager had mentioned before death hit him. The roulette wheel.

  He bent over this, with a frown of concentration on his face. And his quick eyes caught at once a thing another person might have overlooked for quite a while
.

  The wheel was dish-shaped, as all roulette wheels are. In its rounded bottom were numbered slots, where the little ivory ball was to end its journey and proclaim gambler's luck.

  But the little ball was not in one of the bottom slots!

  The tiny ivory sphere was half up the rounded side of the wheel, like a pea clinging alone high up on the slant of a dish!

  An exclamation came from Keane's lips. He stared at the ball. What in heaven's name kept it from rolling down the steep slant and into the rounded bottom? Why would a sphere stay on a slant? It was as if a bowl of water had been tilted—and the water's surface had

  taken and retained the tilt of the vessel it was in instead of remaining level!

  He lifted the ball from the sloping side of the wheel. It came away freely, but with an almost intangible resistance, as if an unseen rubber band held it. When he released it, it went back to the slope. He rolled it down to the bottom of the wheel. Released, it rolled back up to its former position, like water running up-hill.

  Keane felt a chill touch him. The laws of physics broken! A bail clinging to a slant instead of rolling down it! What dark secret of nature had Doctor Satan mastered now?

  But the query was not entirely unanswered in his mind. Already he was getting a vague hint of it. And a little later the hint was broadened.

  The phone rang. He answered it.

  "Mr. Keane? This is Doctor Grays. The autopsy on Wilson has been begun, and already a queer thing has been disclosed. It's about his heart."

  "Yes," said Keane, gripping the phone.

  "His heart is ruptured in a hundred places—as though a little bomb had exploded in it! Don't ask me why, because I can't even give a theory. It's unique in medical history."

  "I won't ask you why," Keane said slowly. "I think—in a little while—I'll tell you why."

  He hung up and strode toward the door. But at the roulette table he paused and stared at the wheel with his gray eyes icily blazing.

  // seemed to him the wheel had moved a little!

  He had unconsciously lined up the weirdly clinging ball with the knob on the outer door, as he examined it awhile ago. Now, as he stood in the same place, the ball was not quite in that line. As if the wheel had rotated a fraction of aa inch!