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肩書を与える: Doctor 無 and Others Author: Paul Chadwick * A 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia eBook * eBook No.: 0604081h.html 版: 1 Language: English Character 始める，決める encoding: Latin-1(ISO-8859-1)--8 bit Date first 地位，任命するd: July 2006 Date most recently updated: July 2015 This eBook was produced by: Richard Scott 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia eBooks are created from printed 版s which are in the public domain in Australia, unless a copyright notice is 含むd. We do NOT keep any eBooks in 同意／服従 with a particular paper 版. Copyright 法律s are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright 法律s for your country before downloading or redistributing this とじ込み／提出する. This eBook is made 利用できる at no cost and with almost no 制限s どれでも. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the 条件 of the 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia License which may be 見解（をとる）d online at http://gutenberg.逮捕する.au/licence.html
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CONTENTS:
DOCTOR ZERO
MISTRESS OF SNARLING DEATH
THE THING THAT KILLED
SKYSCRAPER HORROR
CROSS WORDS FOR CROOKS
The night glowed purple! From the 黒人／ボイコット 丸天井 of the heavens （機の）カム a hissing ball of purple light. As if 所有するing uncanny human 知能, it ロケット／急騰するd straight for the 犠牲者 it had 示すd. The police were helpless before that 悪意のある sphere of Doctor 無's. And now, Wade Hammond, explorer and 犯罪の 捜査官／調査官, had stepped into the eerie glow of the Purple 危険，危なくする.
"WHAT'S that?" 探偵，刑事 O'Conner's 発言する／表明する was a nasal bleat. His 注目する，もくろむs bulged under the brim of his soft felt hat. His dank cigarette slipped from trembling fingers. He 星／主役にするd off into the 不明瞭 across the wide lawn of Gordon Munn's 郊外の house.
A fellow 刑事, one of a 非常線，警戒線 thrown around the place to 保護する its owner from the mysterious menace of "Doctor 無," shook his 長，率いる. He also was 星／主役にするing in amazement.
"It looks like a ロケット／急騰する," O'Conner went on. "No--it's coming nearer. Hell, we せねばならない 警告する Munn."
He started off across the lawn at a 板材ing gallop. The sky behind him had turned into a vivid violet. There was a strange, hissing sound in the 空気／公表する. A fantastic ball of eerie purple light was descending toward the house. It moved as though some unseen 力／強力にする were directing it--moved with horrible certainty toward the window of Munn's 熟考する／考慮する.
O'Conner waved his 武器 and shouted. At that instant the ball of purple 解雇する／砲火／射撃 touched the window panes. There （機の）カム a noise like the 割れ目 of a 巨大（な） whip, then a deafening concussion that 粉々にするd every piece of glass in the sash, sending gleaming slivers inward and outward and searing the boards along the 味方する of the house.
A stinging needle of glass struck the 探偵，刑事. He bawled loudly and clutched at his 直面する. Men were shouting to each other out on the lawn now. A half-得点する／非難する／２０ of plainclothes men （機の）カム running up, converging on the house from three 味方するs. A babble of 発言する／表明するs sounded.
"It's a 爆弾--who threw it?"
"See if Munn's 傷つける!"
"Turn in an alarm!"
Questions, orders and explanations 宙返り／暴落するd over each other. Then O'Conner spoke again. "There's another one coming--look out!"
The ball this time seemed to 急襲する out of the 黒人／ボイコット night sky like a 悪意のある will-o'-the-wisp. It appeared first as a pinpoint of light, hardly distinguishable from the 星／主役にするs. It might have been a 狙撃 星／主役にする as it flashed across the sky.
But as it （機の）カム nearer its 速度(を上げる） 減らすd. Again there was that uncanny 影響 of diabolical 知能. The hissing, whirling ball of purple 解雇する／砲火／射撃 followed its 前任者. The first one had （疑いを）晴らすd the way. The second 急落（する），激減（する）d through the gaping 穴を開ける of the 粉々にするd window while 探偵，刑事s 叫び声をあげるd a 警告.
They heard a muffled 爆発 this time. Lurid tongues of light speared from the window, dancing like an aurora borealis. The room inside looked for a moment to those 星／主役にするing from the 不明瞭 like the mouth of some fantastic inferno such as the 手渡す of a Doré might have 描写するd.
Above the noise of the concussion they heard a 選び出す／独身, horrible cry. Then blackness descended and the night seemed to の近くに in, bringing silence with it. The 発言する／表明するs of the 探偵，刑事s grew hushed with amazement and the awe of the unknown.
O'Conner entered the house with his men behind him. They 設立する the servants 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるd into a 脅すd, whispering group 近づく the hall stairway. Then they climbed to the 床に打ち倒す above, entered Munn's 熟考する／考慮する and swore 厳しく at the thing they saw.
Gordon Munn, director in a 広大な／多数の／重要な and powerful bank, and 株主 in a dozen 会社／団体s, was lying 直面する downward on the rug, his 着せる／賦与するing in singed tatters, his 団体／死体 新たな展開d and blackened into an unsightly caricature of a man.
THREE miles away in Wade Hammond's apartment the French-type telephone jangled into life. The curio-lined 塀で囲むs of the living room threw the sound 支援する 厳しく. The stuffed 長，率いるs of big game, collected in a dozen far corners of the world, 星／主役にするd 負かす／撃墜する with unblinking 注目する，もくろむs as though listening.
Hammond, sprawled in a big armchair, dropped his cigarette into an ashtray, untangled his 脚s and got up. He crossed the room in four quick strides. Ten years of newspaper and police work had taught him to answer phone calls 敏速に. But his 深く，強烈に tanned 直面する was impassive as he 選ぶd the 器具 up. People were always giving him a buzz for one thing or another. His lips below their thin mustache line barely moved in the mouthpiece.
"Hello! Hammond speaking."
Words （機の）カム from the other end of the wire in an excited quaver.
"Listen, Hammond--this is Sergeant O'Conner. All hell's popping. Gordon Munn's been knocked off in spite of us."
"Gordon Munn?"
"Yeah--the bank man. You know who he is. Can you come out? The 長，指導者 wants you. Follow Parkway Boulevard and make the first turn to your 権利. It's the big yellow house with the アイロンをかける 盗品故買者 in 前線 of it. Step on it!"
"O.K." Again Wade's lips moved. No use asking questions now. The 麻薬 would come later after he got to the scene of the 殺人，大当り. When 視察官 Thompson called, it meant there was a 堅い nut to be 割れ目d.
Wade's movements in the next few seconds were like those of a 井戸／弁護士席-oiled machine--a machine taut with blued steel springs and rapidaction 機械装置. But the springs were his muscles and the 動機づけるing 機械装置 was the flashing 力／強力にする of his quick-解雇する／砲火／射撃 brain.
He threw off his dressing gown, pulled on a coat, stuck his feet into shoes, 押すd a flat, wicked-looking (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃 into his pocket and grabbed a hat. Three minutes later 勝利，勝つd was whistling past the radiator cap on the 戦艦 nose of his sport roadster.
He held the button on the steering column 負かす／撃墜する at every 交差点, 反抗するing traffic lights and making the night raucous. Twice he 解除するd a gloved 手渡す at red-直面するd 警官，（賞などを）獲得するs who 星／主役にするd belligerently. The fighting 表現s left their 直面するs when they saw who it was.
It was known that Wade Hammond carried a special 捜査官／調査官's card 耐えるing the 署名 of the commissioner himself. It was also known that it didn't 支払う／賃金 to 干渉する with him.
He swung into the driveway of the Munn 広い地所. Gravel snapped under fat balloon tires as he roared up to the 前線 steps. The headlights of his car goggled into the shrubbery. Almost before the モーター stopped ticking over he was up the steps and inside the house.
視察官 Thompson, the grizzled 長，指導者 of the City 殺人 Bureau, was coming 今後 through the hallway to 会合，会う him, his 表現 owlish as always.
"Sorry to dig you out of bed, Hammond. They caught me at a 祝宴--権利 in the middle of a steak, smothered with onions. It's 堅い when a fellah can't enjoy his grub."
"堅い is 権利. What's going on here, 長，指導者? O'Conner sounded fussed when he called."
"Why wouldn't he? Didn't he tell you Munn had got his?"
Wade nodded grimly. Thompson's features suddenly reddened. His 発言する／表明する was 厚い with 怒り／怒る.
"I'm going to 燃やす up somebody for this. Munn asked for 保護. I sent enough men out here to guard the sub-財務省--and they let that devil rub him out anyway."
"Who?"
"Doctor 無."
Wade shook his 長，率いる.
"You'll have to start from scratch, 長，指導者. You've been 持つ／拘留するing out on me. Who's Doctor 無?"
"I wish I knew. That's what he calls himself. He tried to get cash out of Munn--sent him a 脅す letter--and a bundle."
"A bundle? What was in it?"
"Come here, I'll show you."
THOMPSON turned and Wade followed him. They climbed to the second 床に打ち倒す, to the room where Munn had been killed. The place was filled with （警察，軍隊などの）本部' men; 探偵，刑事s, the 医療の examiner and his assistant, and 専門家s from the 爆弾 squad. Munn was still sprawled on the rug 近づく a （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, pieces of glass all around him from the 粉々にするd window. Thompson spoke in Wade's ear.
"Look here."
The 視察官 was 解除するing an 半端物-looking contraption from a pasteboard box. There was a handful of thin, 崩壊（する）d rubber; a small metal ball 大（公）使館員d to it, and a long 厚かましさ／高級将校連 cylinder with a tube at its end stoppered by a 厚かましさ／高級将校連 弁.
"What is it--a 爆弾?" Wade spoke grimly.
"No, a balloon, Hammond--with a 戦車／タンク of compressed gas to fill it, and a place to put the cash."
"A 現在の from Doctor 無, eh?"
"Yeah. Munn was supposed to put fifty thousand dollars into that tea-ball gadget and send the balloon up when it got dark. I don't know how the hell 無 推定する／予想するd to get it 支援する. It might land any place within a thousand miles. He must be a nut."
Wade did not answer. He was looking 利益／興味d, 星／主役にするing at the balloon 熱心に, and fingering the small 一連の会議、交渉／完成する cash box. It was made of some lightweight metal. There was a 塗装 on it. Some sort of waterproof paint 明らかに.
"Munn would have done better to have followed 指示／教授／教育s," he said. Thompson swore under his breath and nodded.
"He had plenty of dough, but he didn't want to send fifty thousand of it sky-hooting all over the landscape--you can't 非難する him. He sat tight and called on us. Now it'll get out that the department fell 負かす／撃墜する on the 職業. It's going to raise a stink."
Wade 解雇する／砲火／射撃d a sudden question. "What sort of a 爆弾 did Doctor 無 use and where did it come from?"
Thompson shrugged. "Nobody knows yet. Carmichael and Parks are working on it now. The fellahs who saw it say it wasn't a 爆弾 at all. It floated through the 空気／公表する, they say. It seemed to come from the sky--sort of purple 解雇する／砲火／射撃."
Wade spoke quickly, his 発言する／表明する hard.
"This Doctor 無 is no nut, 長，指導者. You can bet on that. He must have known what he was doing when he sent that balloon. We've both heard of 科学の 犯罪のs, and read yarns about them. Now we're up against one. It's the smartest ゆすり，強要 ゆすり I've ever bumped into, with 殺人 as a 味方する line. Some guy who's half genius and half devil is behind this--and he must want the money bad."
Thompson grunted and Wade spoke again.
"We won't learn much here. That's a cinch. Mind if I go off with that balloon?"
"I can't let you, Hammond." Thompson spoke 残念に. "My men have got to have it to trace the 構成要素--see where it was bought."
Wade made an impatient gesture.
"They'll have a good time doing it. Let me have a few scrapings then. I think there's something queer here--and 深い, too."
視察官 Thompson 星／主役にするd uncomprehendingly while Wade took a penknife from his pocket and 捨てるd some of the paint and metal off the ball-like cash receptacle の上に a paper. He stuffed this into his pocket and spoke slowly.
"That's the angle I'm going to work on first, 長，指導者. I got a hunch about something. I think--"
He stopped suddenly. A girl was standing in the door of the room; a girl with blonde hair, 脅すd 注目する，もくろむs, and 無血の lips. She made a little whimpering sound in her throat, and moved 今後; but a 探偵，刑事 held her 支援する.
"Better not look at him, 行方不明になる. It won't do any good."
The girl burst into a spasm of crying, her わずかな／ほっそりした shoulders shaking.
"That's Munn's daughter, Arlene," Thompson whispered. "She must have just come. We'll have to get her out."
Wade followed the 視察官, and as they 近づくd the doorway he saw a man standing behind the girl. Thompson was speaking in a kindly 発言する／表明する.
"We'd better go downstairs, 行方不明になる Munn. There was an 爆発--you'd better remember your father the way he was."
He led the girl gently out into the hall while Wade sized up her 護衛する. The man was thin and aristocratic looking with features so clean-削減（する） as to be almost 厳しい. He was dressed elegantly, and wore an aloof 表現. Wade had seen the 直面する somewhere before.
Arlene Munn 回復するd enough to introduce him when they got downstairs. The 形式順守s had been bred into her.
"Professor Ornstein," she said. "We were dancing at the Belmont when they paged us--and told me about father." She choked again.
"I （機の）カム here as 急速な／放蕩な as I could," Ornstein said. "It's a terrible thing. I'm awfully sorry." His words were 同情的な, but his トン sounded casual. Wade's thoughts were active, building up impressions, remembering 捨てるs of （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状）.
He had Professor Harold Ornstein checked now. The man was connected with the 科学技術の 学校／設ける--a brilliant scientist 専攻するing in physics; a dapper society light when he cared to be, and a person of 独立した・無所属 means. It was an 半端物 combination. Wade 解任するd Ornstein's 指名する in 関係 with a 最近の 違反-of-約束 控訴. The man, who was at least twenty years older than Arlene Munn, had a bad 評判 with women. Science was his life work; philandering his recreation. He had won the Nobel Prize for his 研究s into the nature of 事柄, and the "ignoble" prize in his 取引 with the ladies. Wade smiled grimly at the bad pun.
But he didn't like Ornstein, and sensed a 確かな 敵意 in the man. Still, the professor was a genius in his line. He might even be able to help in this strange 事例／患者. Wade started to speak, but Arlene Munn interrupted, weeping again.
"I can't stand it!" she said. "I can't! Take me away from here, Harry."
"That's a good idea," said 視察官 Thompson. "We can talk to you later, 行方不明になる Munn."
"I'll take her to her aunt's," said Ornstein 滑らかに. "She'll feel better when she's had a drink and 静かなd 負かす／撃墜する a bit. If I can be of any service let me know."
The two of them moved toward the 前線 door; Arlene slender and wilting, Ornstein tall and bland, looking somehow like a suave Satan.
"A pretty 悪賢い bird," said Thompson. "If there's science mixed up in this as you say, Hammond, we'd better check up on him. I wonder if he was at the Belmont with 行方不明になる Munn all evening?"
Thompson called one of his men and had a low-発言する／表明するd conversation with him. Then he whirled, 直面するing Wade and listening.
Shouts had suddenly come from outside, then the sound of two ピストル 発射s in quick succession. Wade was already 長，率いるd for the door.
"Come on, 長，指導者," he said. "This seems to be our busy night!"
WHEN Wade Hammond reached the 幅の広い 味方する veranda of Munn's house he saw three 人物／姿／数字s coming up the steps. Two of them were 探偵，刑事s. The man in the middle seemed to be their 囚人. They had him by the 武器 and were 押し進めるing him 強制的に 今後.
One of the 探偵，刑事s, a man with a red, perspiring 直面する, turned to 視察官 Thompson and spoke.
"We 設立する this bird snooping around outside, 長，指導者. He started to run and 法案 had to pull a gun on him. He's lucky he didn't get bumped off. He would have if I'd done the 狙撃."
"Bring him in the house," said Thompson. "Who is he?"
"You've got me, 長，指導者; but he looks like a bad actor."
The two plainclothes men 押すd their 囚人 into the lighted hallway. Wade 星／主役にするd at the man はっきりと. He was young, somewhere in his 早期に twenties 明らかに, and he had the gangling look of a student with bookish 傾向s. This was accentuated by the 激しい 爆撃する-rimmed spectacles he wore. His 直面する had a sullen 表現 as he stood blinking his 注目する，もくろむs in the light.
"What's your 指名する?" asked Thompson 厳しく. "What were you doing out there on the lawn?"
The young man continued to blink. Then he spoke in a surly monotone.
"I was just looking around. I'm Zadok Smith."
"Looking around!" The 視察官's 発言する／表明する was sarcastic. "What were you looking for--did you lose a nickel or something?"
Smith's 直面する reddened. He 圧力（をかける）d his lips together and shook his 長，率いる. Thompson ゆらめくd up.
"You won't talk, eh? You're one of those tightlipped guys! Frisk him, Ed, and see if he's heeled."
The red-直面するd 探偵，刑事 began going through Zadok Smith's pockets with professional thoroughness. He gave an excited exclamation as he drew something from the young man's coat where a 目だつ bulge had showed. It was an oblong leatherette 事例／患者 with two button fasteners. Thompson took it out of his 手渡す and opened it while Wade 星／主役にするd over his shoulder.
Inside the 事例／患者 were two 一連の会議、交渉／完成する glass dials with a knurled screw 長，率いる in the 中心. Needle-形態／調整d 指示する人（物）s behind the glass of the dials were quivering. Wade spoke tensely.
"That's a galvanometer, I think. The other's a compass. They seem to be hitched together. It's a funny-looking gadget."
"What's a galvanometer?" asked Thompson peevishly.
"It shows when there's an electric 現在の," said Wade. "What were you doing with this thing, Smith?"
Smith 星／主役にするd at Wade as sullenly as he had at the 視察官. "It's my 商売／仕事," he said. "I wasn't 傷つけるing anybody, was I?"
The cords in 視察官 Thompson's neck swelled. "No?" he shouted. "井戸／弁護士席--somebody 傷つける Gordon Munn here tonight--killed him! You've got a lot of explaining to do, Smith. You'd better answer our questions."
Wade nodded. "It'll save you trouble," he said. "Tell us what you know, Smith. You wouldn't be carrying that thing around if you weren't in on something. There's been a 殺人 in this house---and 殺人 can't be laughed off."
Smith's sullen 直面する turned pale, but he 持続するd a stony silence. Wade shrugged. "Have it your own way. You'll talk later if you don't now."
"You bet he will," said Thompson 怒って. "Take him 負かす／撃墜する to （警察，軍隊などの）本部, Ed. We can find a way to unbutton his lip 負かす／撃墜する there."
Thompson, Wade saw, was still smarting under the knowledge that the police department had fallen 負かす／撃墜する in its 試みる／企てる to 保護する Munn. The 視察官 手渡すd the leatherette 事例／患者 to one of the 探偵，刑事s.
"Give this to Carmichael and Parks. They're going 負かす／撃墜する with that balloon contraption. They can take Smith along with them. Go out and see if anybody else is snooping around here."
The two 探偵，刑事s turned their 囚人 over to Parks and Carmichael who were just coming 負かす／撃墜する the stairs with the cardboard box 含む／封じ込めるing the balloon. Wade spoke.
"I think I'll follow after them, 長，指導者. There's not much I can do here--and I'm curious about that gadget of Smith's. He wasn't carrying it just for fun."
Wade left the house with the two （警察，軍隊などの）本部 men and their 囚人. He had no （疑いを）晴らす picture of the 罪，犯罪 in his mind as yet. He'd taken an active part in many other strange 殺人 事例／患者s; but this 殺人 gave 指示，表示する物s of 存在 the most 悪意のある and fantastic he'd ever bumped into. His mind 逆戻りするd to the sprawled and blackened form of Gordon Munn and to the weeping 人物／姿／数字 of Arlene as he had first seen her in the doorway of the room where her father had met death. What human fiend was behind this? Who was Doctor 無, and what did Zadok Smith know about the 事例／患者 that he was not willing to tell?
WADE was still asking himself these questions as the police car 含む／封じ込めるing Parks, Carmichael and their 囚人 turned out of the driveway. He followed it in his own 急速な／放蕩な roadster. He 手配中の，お尋ね者 to be on 手渡す when an 専門家 in the 犯罪の 調査 bureau 診察するd the 器具 that Smith carried.
The tail-light of the police car 星／主役にするd unwinkingly out of the 不明瞭 ahead like the 注目する，もくろむ of some monster. They passed other rich men's 広い地所s; big houses 始める，決める far 支援する on 井戸／弁護士席-kept lawns. An indefinable 棺／かげり of horror seemed to blend with the 影をつくる／尾行するs of the night.
The police car 近づくd Parkway Boulevard with Wade's roadster a hundred feet behind. There were no other cars in sight. For a distance equaling two city 封鎖するs an 堤防 rose on either 味方する of the road and the 政治家 lights were spaced far apart.
Wade, 占領するd with his own thoughts, became aware suddenly of an unnatural glow on the distant horizon. Eerie reflections danced on the vibrating windshield of his roadster. His 注目する，もくろむs, 登録（する）ing that glow and those faint reflections, telegraphed a 警告 to his subconscious mind. A sensation that was like the touch of 冷気／寒がらせる fingers ran up his spine.
Then he cried out. The glow had 深くするd. It was concentrated in a pinpoint of light like a 狙撃 星／主役にする--a 星／主役にする that was coming nearer and which shed a lurid, uncanny radiance.
Wade heard a sudden squeal of ブレーキs ahead. Then a 叫び声をあげる of human terror sounded, followed by the noise of breaking glass. The police car swerved toward the 味方する of the road, and, in the glare of his own car's headlights, Wade saw a gangling, bespectacled form jump from the 自動車 in 前線 of him.
He 認めるd it as Zadok Smith. He saw Smith つまずく and 減少（する） to his 膝s. Pinpoints of orange 炎上 speared the 不明瞭 over his 長，率いる as one of the 探偵，刑事s 解雇する／砲火／射撃d at the escaping 囚人. Then with an ぎこちない leap Smith 消えるd into the 影をつくる／尾行するs of the shrub-着せる／賦与するd 堤防. Behind him the night was made 恐ろしい by another unearthly 叫び声をあげる.
The 原因（となる） of Smith's terror was plain now. It wasn't his 恐れる of the 探偵，刑事s' 弾丸s. It was that dancing, fantastic pinpoint of light which had now become a ball of purple 解雇する／砲火／射撃 長，率いるd straight toward the police car.
Wade heard one of the 探偵，刑事s shout a 警告. They, too, had become aware of their 危険，危なくする. He saw the police car slew around and leap 今後 under the powerful thrust of a suddenly 速度(を上げる）d モーター.
Carmichael and Parks were trying to escape their doom.
Wade held his breath in horror. That lethal willo'--the-wisp of light had changed its course now.
Some hidden 知能 事実上の／代理 through unknown physical 軍隊s was guiding it. It curved 負かす／撃墜する in a 強硬派-like 急襲する and followed the 飛行機で行くing police car. For seconds that seemed to Wade like an eternity the terrible purple death 追求するd the スピード違反 乗り物. It 伸び（る）d foot by foot, hovered over the car for an instant, then dropped like a 落ちるing meteor.
WADE hadn't been on the scene when Munn was killed. But he heard a ripping, crackling burst of sound now. Then a terrible detonation 爆破d the 空気／公表する like an 爆発するing 爆弾. He saw the 最高の，を越す of the police car 崩壊する in a 棺／かげり of smoke and 炎上 and ジグザグの streamers of light.
The 速く-moving car swerved from the road and 長，率いるd up the 堤防. He got a blurred glimpse of churning wheels, 飛行機で行くing grass and thrashing bushes. Then the car swerved again in its erratic course. It turned 海がめ and （機の）カム rolling 支援する 負かす／撃墜する the bank, where it lay, a smoking, 新たな展開d 廃虚 beside the 溝へはまらせる／不時着する.
The 不明瞭 of the night の近くにd in, and Wade, feeling momentarily sick and weak for all the violent deaths he had seen in his life, brought his own roadster to a 停止（させる）. He got out and walked 今後 unsteadily.
A man was lying dead in the roadway. It was one of the 探偵，刑事s, blown （疑いを）晴らす of the car when the fireball had 爆発するd, 粉々にするing the 乗り物's 最高の，を越す. Another man, whom Wade identified with a shudder, as Parks, was half-pinned under the 乱打するd 難破. He, too, had been killed 即時に.
Wade wiped beads of sweat from his forehead. The thing he had just seen was enough to shake any man's 神経s. He remembered Zadok Smith then. Smith's frantic, terrified 叫び声をあげるs seemed still to （犯罪の）一味 in his ears. The young man had sensed his danger in time to jump from the car. His 恐れる of the Purple 危険，危なくする had driven him to 危険 the 探偵，刑事s' 弾丸s.
Any 証拠 that the police car had 含む／封じ込めるd had been destroyed.
Wade went 支援する to his roadster and pulled a flashlight from under the 前線 seat. He walked along the road to the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す where he'd seen Smith dive from the moving car. The dirt here was kicked up, showing the 示すs of Smith's 膝s. Up the 堤防 the 支店s of a number of bushes were broken, 場内取引員／株価 the 追跡する of Smith's mad flight to escape death.
Then Wade caught his breath. His 調査（する）ing flashlight had 明らかにする／漏らすd a gleam of metal in the shrubbery. He 焦点（を合わせる）d the beam and stooped 負かす／撃墜する.
A small fraternity pin with some sort of cabalistic 場内取引員／株価s on it was lying at his feet. It had 明らかに been 小衝突d from Zadok Smith's 着せる／賦与するing. Wade 選ぶd it up and slipped it into his pocket.
There seemed to be little use in trying to follow Smith now. He should be a half-mile away by this time. Terror had lent 速度(を上げる） to his feet and the 不明瞭 would 行為／法令／行動する as an all-隠すing curtain.
Wade had been the 単独の 証言，証人／目撃する of this grisly 二塁打 殺人. He 解除するd the 団体／死体 of the 殺害された 探偵，刑事 from the road and laid it beside the 廃虚s of the police car.
Then he got into his roadster. He 手配中の，お尋ね者 to reach the nearest telephone quickly and let 視察官 Thompson know that the 悪意のある 手渡す of Doctor 無 had brought death again.
He （機の）カム to a filling 駅／配置する a mile 負かす／撃墜する the road and stopped. There was a telephone in it. Wade's own 発言する／表明する was hoarse as he talked to the 視察官 over the wire.
Images of the 殺人，大当り he had 証言，証人／目撃するd and echoes of Zadok Smith's terrified 叫び声をあげるs still seemed to pulsate through his brain.
He felt as though the whole thing were a mad nightmare--but he knew it wasn't. In 簡潔な／要約する 宣告，判決s he gave the 詳細（に述べる）s of the 二塁打 殺人 to Thompson. He 負傷させる up with his own 結論s.
"We're 取引，協定ing with a 殺害者 who kills as unemotionally as a machine. He had nothing against Parks and Carmichael 本人自身で. He killed them because they carried 証拠 which might be dangerous."
Thompson's 発言する／表明する （機の）カム 支援する with a （軽い）地震 in it.
"I can't have my men knocked off like this. We've got to find Doctor 無."
WADE knew that the 視察官 wasn't taking the deaths of his two assistants lightly. The old 罪，犯罪-hunter 隠すd human emotion under a bluff, hardboiled exterior. Parks and Carmichael had been with him for years.
"We'll find him," said Wade grimly. "There's a question 示す after his 指名する now--but it'll be a death 宣告，判決 before we're through."
"What'll you do next, Hammond--try to trace Smith?"
"Yes. Then I want to have a talk with Professor Ornstein. Have you any more 麻薬 on him, 長，指導者?"
"He stayed at the Belmont all evening with 行方不明になる Munn, as he told us. He left her only once to make a short telephone call. The house 探偵，刑事 helped us check up on him. His アリバイ is watertight."
"You and I've seen アリバイs break 負かす／撃墜する before," Wade said. "Smith has an アリバイ, too, now. He was in the police car when the fireball （機の）カム, But he hasn't explained yet what he was doing prowling around Munn's house at the exact time of the 殺人."
"No--and here's another angle I've just thought of," said Thompson with a snap in his 発言する／表明する. "It didn't take more than three minutes for those balls that killed Munn to 減少（する） out of the 空気／公表する and 爆発する. Ornstein's call was made somewhere around the same time. We don't know what sort of thing we're 取引，協定ing with."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning that if there's science mixed up in this, as we think, we've got a 堅い 職業 on our 手渡すs."
"堅い is 権利, 長，指導者." There was a humorless smile on Wade's 直面する as he spoke.
It was after eleven when Wade drove to the campus of the 科学技術の 学校／設ける and asked to be directed to Professor Ornstein's ４半期/4分の1s. A night watchman 星／主役にするd at him, then pointed across the campus grounds to where lights were 燃やすing in the third story of a modernistic looking building.
"He's up there," the watchman said. "That's where he 作品. I saw his car go by ten minutes ago."
Wade 診察するd the building that housed Ornstein's 研究室／実験室. It surprised him to find the man at work so late at night. Ornstein, he 人物／姿／数字d, must have left Arlene at her aunt's, then come 支援する here. And he must be a man with stout 神経s to go calmly 支援する to work after 存在 at the scene of Munn's 殺人 such a short time before.
A 解雇する／砲火／射撃 escape snaked 負かす／撃墜する the 味方する of the building, passing Professor Ornstein's windows. Wade noticed this and also saw the light in the 前線 vestibule was 燃やすing. An (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃 elevator connected with the さまざまな 床に打ち倒すs.
Wade took the elevator to Ornstein's 床に打ち倒す and knocked. Ornstein himself （機の）カム to the door. He had slipped a white coat over his evening 着せる／賦与するs and looked 削減する and efficient. For a moment he 星／主役にするd at Wade blankly. Then he smiled in 承認.
"Hammond," he said. "I remember now. Come in."
"Sorry to interrupt your work, professor."
"Don't mind that. I'm always puttering around. I've got so I can't sleep if I don't amuse myself for a while before going to bed."
Wade 熟考する／考慮するd the man for a second, then spoke.
"There was another 殺人 after you left--a 二塁打 one. Two 探偵，刑事s were killed. I want to ask you about a man 指名するd Zadok Smith. Ever hear of him?"
Ornstein whistled. Then an 半端物 look （機の）カム into his 注目する，もくろむs. His sharp features had the 悪魔の（ような） 質 that Wade had noticed before.
"I know young Smith too 井戸／弁護士席," Ornstein said. "He's a student here--one of Professor Hartz's, 専攻するing in mineralogy and analytical chemistry. 率直に I don't like him. He's an impertinent young devil. He has a habit of coming in here uninvited and making a nuisance of himself. I think he imagines he's 秘かに調査するing on my work. He's annoyed Arlene, too."
"So 行方不明になる Munn knows him then?"
"Yes, わずかに. She's good-hearted enough to 許容する his mooning around."
Wade nodded.
"Smith was 設立する prowling outside the Munn house just after the 殺人. He had a queer 器具 in his pocket--a compass and a galvanometer hitched together 明らかに. Two men started 支援する to （警察，軍隊などの）本部 with him. Then another of those fireballs dropped out of the sky. Smith jumped and escaped and the two 探偵，刑事s were killed. Have you any theory, professor, as to what Smith might have been doing?"
A 隠す of 疑惑 seemed to 減少（する） over Ornstein's 直面する for a moment. He laughed uneasily.
"You're connected with the police, Hammond," he said. "I wouldn't want to commit myself. I'd advise you, though, to find out all you can about Smith. Talk to Professor Hartz tomorrow. Smith's 活動／戦闘s have certainly been queer."
"What about those fireballs?" said Wade. "I've got a theory that they may be 電気の. You're a physicist. You せねばならない know."
"You mean you think they're controlled 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金s of static, like 雷?"
"Something of the sort."
"Look here!" Ornstein walked across the room quickly and opened a door. Through it Wade saw the コンビナート／複合体 paraphernalia of a modern 科学の 研究室／実験室. There were 棚上げにするs of 化学製品s, さまざまな 電気の apparatus, 含むing static machines of the Whymshurst type, Geissler tubes, and delicate 器具s to 論証する the composition of 事柄.
ORNSTEIN threw a small knife switch which sent 現在の into the 終点s of a ten-インチ 誘発する coil. The pungent, pleasant smell of オゾン filled the 空気／公表する as miniature 雷 ゆらめくd between the gaps. A 殴打／砲列 of 失敗させる／負かす-covered condensers were 存在 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d. の近くに to them was an apparatus with adjustable electrodes. At the moment they were spaced four feet apart. The 底（に届く） one consisted of a 巡査 plate two インチs square.
"Watch," said Ornstein. "Here's 雷 for you."
He reached into a box on a shelf and drew out a ありふれた walnut. He placed the nut on the 巡査 electrode and stepped 支援する.
"Call that nut a house," he said. "The electrode above is the sky. Now we have a 雷雨. The electrode becomes a cloud."
He was speaking in his best classroom manner. Suddenly he turned off the 総計費 lights, then 圧力（をかける）d another switch 大（公）使館員d to a 柔軟な cord.
There （機の）カム a sharp, crackling 報告（する）／憶測 as a streak of violet light 発射 負かす／撃墜する from the 最高の，を越す electrode. It struck the plate below in the millionth part of a second, passing through the walnut and sending 粉々にするd pieces of 爆撃する 飛行機で行くing in all directions.
"In the General Electric 研究室／実験室s at Schenectady," said Ornstein, "they've made 雷 that can 粉々にする a 封鎖する of hardwood. I use this little machine to give practical demonstrations to my students."
"There's more than one 肉親，親類d of 雷," said Wade. "This sort is known as chain, I believe. Could ball 雷 be made in a 研究室／実験室, too, professor?"
Ornstein 発射 Wade a quick look, then smiled.
"Ball 雷 is a rare 現象, Hammond. Its 存在 has been proven, but unusual atmospheric 条件s 原因（となる） it and it has never been 再生するd artificially. Nothing is impossible, though, in the light of modern science. 雷 is the result of an 電気の 騒動 in the 原子s of the 空気／公表する. The 原子s in turn are made up of 電子s. If a man 設立する a way of controlling the 電子s themselves he might do wonders. Professor Osterhout of Harvard 見積（る）s that there is enough 可能性のある electronic energy in a teaspoonful of water to 運動 a train across the continent."
Wade nodded, 星／主役にするing around him. There seemed to be other rooms connected with the main 研究室／実験室, but Ornstein didn't 申し込む／申し出 to show them. Wade sensed that the man was an adept at disguising his real thoughts. He was something of an enigma, always disarmingly pleasant.
Wade thanked the professor for his （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） and was 準備するing to go when the telephone in the outer room jangled. Ornstein 選ぶd the 器具 up, then his 直面する suddenly 強化するd.
"My God--no!"
It was the first time Wade had seen any 調印する of emotion on Ornstein's part. The professor held the receiver to his ear for nearly a minute, then whirled around. He spoke tensely.
"Arlene--行方不明になる Munn--has been kidnapped. I left her at her aunt's. She was going to spend the night there. A maid went to her room a few minutes ago and 設立する her gone. The window was open and a ladder was leaning against it from the outside."
ORNSTEIN began slipping out of his white jacket. He put on his overcoat, and in a moment he and Wade were descending in the elevator together. Two minutes later they turned out of the campus driveway in Wade's car and began スピード違反 through the night toward the home of Arlene Munn's aunt.
When they reached it Wade saw more 証拠s of wealth, though the house wasn't やめる as pretentious as Gordon Munn's. The dead man's sister, a large, florid woman of about forty, was in the 製図／抽選 room with a 瓶／封じ込める of smelling salts in her 手渡す. She was の近くに to hysteria, and the servants were running about panic stricken.
"Have you called the police?" asked Wade. The woman nodded. Her 発言する／表明する was a wail.
"This is terrible, terrible, terrible! Arlene （機の）カム to me for 保護--and now the poor girl is gone, and my poor dear brother, too!"
"She's not dead yet," said Wade. "We'll get her 支援する."
With a flashlight in his 手渡す he went outside. He saw that nothing had been touched. The window was still open in the room Arlene had been given for the night. The ladder still leaned against the house.
He walked carefully so as not to 乱す any 足跡s before men from the bureau of 身元確認，身分証明 （機の）カム with their cameras and 手段ing 器具s. He stooped over once, and a puzzled look flashed into his 注目する，もくろむs. Two imprints of a girl's high-heeled slipper showed in a 位置／汚点／見つけ出す where the grass was thin. It looked to him as though Arlene Munn had walked calmly away from the house.
He waited till the police arrived, then left them to their methodical search for clews of the 行方不明の girl and drove Ornstein 支援する to his ４半期/4分の1s 近づく the 科学技術の 学校／設ける. Behind the professor's 静める exterior Wade was aware of nervous tenseness. But Ornstein 辞退するd to 収容する／認める that he was worried.
"Arlene has a lot of spirit," he said. "She can 一般に take care of herself."
THE next day Wade began systematically checking up on Zadok Smith. No trace of Smith had been 設立する as yet. Arlene Munn hadn't been 位置を示すd, and the 殺人，大当り of Gordon Munn was still 隠すd in mystery.
The morning 版s of the papers had run the stories of the Purple 危険，危なくする and newsboys were still shouting in the streets. The whole city was agog with dread 利益／興味 over the 悪意のある 一連の 殺人s which had taken place the previous night. The police department was coming in for a 嵐／襲撃する of 批評 and 視察官 Thompson was beside himself.
At a little after nine Wade Hammond drove into the campus grounds of the 科学技術の 学校／設ける again. He went 直接／まっすぐに to the 行政 office and asked to see Professor Hartz.
"The police are anxious to check up on one of the students here 指名するd Zadok Smith," he told the girl at the desk. "Perhaps you've seen the morning papers. I believe Smith's 指名する is について言及するd."
The girl nodded. There was a 脅すd look in her 注目する，もくろむs.
"Professor Hartz has his 研究室／実験室 in No. 14, Newton Hall," she said. "Follow the walk at the 権利 as you go out."
Wade did as directed and 設立する Hartz 位置を示すd in the 最高の，を越す of one of the old brick buildings which had formed the 核 of the 学校／設ける before modern 新規加入s had been made. The Professor, with his woolly, white hair and his long, benign 直面する, seemed as much a fixture as the building itself. He was dressed with comfortable 簡単 in a baggy gray 控訴. The only touches of ornateness about him were the large diamond （犯罪の）一味 on his finger and the diamond scarf pin in his tie. These looked like heirlooms. A morning paper was carefully 倍のd on the desk before him.
Wade introduced himself, 陳列する，発揮するing his special 捜査官／調査官's card.
"Sit 負かす／撃墜する," said Hartz in a rumbling bass 発言する／表明する. "I suppose you've come about young Smith, one of my students. I see he's got his 指名する in the papers." There was, thought Wade, a 公式文書，認める of sadness in the professor's 発言する／表明する.
He nodded.
"Smith's 手配中の，お尋ね者 as a 証言，証人／目撃する in 関係 with the 殺人 of Gordon Munn and those two 探偵，刑事s. He's technically under 逮捕（する） now. What's your opinion of his character?"
Hartz shook his white 長，率いる slowly, and tapped the paper.
"They already have him branded as the 殺害者 here," he said. "He was a brilliant student but an erratic one. I don't know what to say. It's hard to believe he'd do a thing like this."
"Where is he, then?" asked Wade. "What made him 辞退する to answer questions, and what was he doing on Munn's lawn?"
"I can't imagine where he is," said Hartz. "Curiosity might have led him to the scene of the 殺人; but 非，不，無 of it looks 権利."
"Professor Ornstein says that Smith is inclined to be impertinent," said Wade.
Hartz smiled and shrugged. His トン was わずかに bitter.
"There's jealousy even in the halls of learning, Mr. Hammond. I いつかs think Professor Ornstein 恐れるs Smith as a 未来 競争相手. Ornstein is a little erratic himself at times. He 作品 too hard---often late at night. And he goes in for social life a 広大な／多数の／重要な 取引，協定. We all wonder how he stands up under it."
After his interview with Professor Hartz, Wade got 許可 to search Zadok Smith's 寄宿舎 room. He hoped to find a diary, or papers that might throw more light on his character. But he 設立する only an endless 量 of 科学の 公式文書，認めるs written in Smith's painfully neat 手渡す.
The room was neat, too, and Smith's few personal 所持品 had been chosen with care. He was evidently a serious-minded student who felt that he had a career before him.
Wade spent the 残り／休憩（する） of the day going over every 詳細（に述べる） of the 事例／患者 with 視察官 Thompson.
A 足跡 had been 設立する outside the window of Arlene Munn's room, just beside the ladder. It compared with another 足跡 discovered on the lawn of Munn's house. Both had been made by Zadok Smith 明らかに. This led to the belief that he had kidnapped her. A police 大捜査網 was thrown out in an 成果／努力 to 罠（にかける） the 行方不明の man.
Wade went 支援する to his apartment late that evening and for a time paced the 床に打ち倒す in 深い thought.
He wondered grimly if the Purple 危険，危なくする would strike again. Would the police find the man who hid behind the 指名する of Doctor 無 before another 犠牲者 had been （人命などを）奪う，主張するd?
HE went to bed toward eleven that night and read a 調書をとる／予約する for half an hour before dropping off to sleep. His brain was tired but restless from （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing against the blank 塀で囲む that had been reached in the Munn 殺人 事例／患者.
いつか after midnight he woke up suddenly. His 神経s were tingling oddly and he had a strange feeling--a sense that someone or something had been in the room with him while he slept.
Was it a dream brought on by the happenings of the past twenty-four hours? Or had someone really entered his apartment?
He got up, half ashamed of himself, and snapped on the lights. So far as he could see nothing had been 乱すd. There was no one hiding in the place, and the doorway into the hall was locked. But he had used 骸骨／概要 重要なs often enough himself to know that locks were not invulnerable. Someone might have entered.
He took the 警戒 now of snapping the special night latch on his door into place. Then he turned off the lights and went 支援する to bed again.
But he couldn't sleep. 支援する in his mind was a feeling of uneasiness that 辞退するd to be shaken off. Something else was growing out of it--an intangible sense of menace which 深くするd 刻々と like a thickening gray cloud.
He tried to ignore it, tried to tell himself that it was only his imagination playing tricks on him. But he kept on 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするing restlessly.
He turned on his pillow for the tenth time and 直面するd the window. Then suddenly his 団体／死体 緊張したd and his 注目する，もくろむs grew wide with horror.
The oblong patch of sky that he could see was growing はしけ, turning from the dark of night into a weird purple.
He leaped out of bed and reached the window with one bound. There, over the housetops, he could see it plainly now--a strange pinpoint of light like a 狙撃 星／主役にする. As he watched, it 伸び（る）d in size, 回転するing itself into a whirling, eerie ball of 解雇する／砲火／射撃.
The Purple 危険，危なくする! The beacon of death itself!
With 冷淡な fingers clutching at his heart, Wade Hammond realized that the 悪意のある ball of light was coming straight toward the window of his own apartment!
HE 星／主役にするd for seconds at the onrushing messenger of doom, unable to move. The ball （機の）カム nearer, hovered 総計費 for an instant, then began a parabolic 急襲する toward earth. As it did so Wade's brain whipped the 麻ひさせるd muscles of his 団体／死体 into 活動／戦闘.
He'd been a 闘士，戦闘機 all his life. Now he had a fight on his 手渡すs against the unknown 軍隊s of Doctor 無.
He jumped to the window and slammed it shut, then turned and grabbed for his coat on the 塀で囲む. He pulled it over his night 着せる／賦与するs and reached the door in three strides. To stay in that room meant 存在 爆破d into eternity as Gordon Munn had been.
He snapped the lock open, stepped into the hallway and banged the door shut behind him. At the instant he did so the fireball reached its 示す.
There （機の）カム again that sound like a 巨大（な） whip 存在 割れ目d, then a jarring concussion and the noise of 粉々にするing glass. The door 緊張するd on its hinges and slivers of glass tinkled against it.
Wade went 負かす／撃墜する the apartment house stairs three at a time. He 手配中の，お尋ね者 to reach the street and see if another ball were coming. His brain was grappling with the mystery of the thing. It looked as though this visit had something to do with the deadly certainty of the fireball's approach.
He ran across the dimly lighted foyer, stepped out into the street and looked up. A purple glow was 明白な again. Another of the lethal spheres was on its way. The street was 砂漠d; but lights were beginning to show in nearby windows.
The glow 深くするd as Wade watched. Then the ball flashed into sight. It was coming across the housetops like a 惑星.
Wade 星／主役にするd, and his 直面する whitened in horror. The ball hung 総計費 for an instant as the first one had done, then curved downward, a darting will-o'-the-wisp of 破壊. But it wasn't 長，率いるd for his window now. Its 選び出す／独身 glowing 注目する，もくろむ was moving straight toward him with terrible 目的, as though it 所有するd human 知能.
Dampness broke out on Wade's forehead as he dashed headlong up the street. The ball dropped past his window and reached the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す where he had been a second before. It hung over the pavement, a glowing, incandescent globe of death. Then it floated after him in the same way that it had 追求するd the police ear.
叫び声をあげるs （機の）カム from those looking on 総計費. Wade's breath whistled through his teeth in labored, horrified gasps. He zigzagged, trying to escape the terror that followed him like 運命／宿命 itself. He could feel the heat of it の近くに behind him now. Any instant it might make 接触する with his 団体／死体 and 遂行する its work of 破壊. His feet seemed 負わせるd with lead and his flapping overcoat 妨害するd him.
Then he noticed something he hadn't been conscious of before. The left pocket of his coat seemed to 下落する. He thrust his 手渡す in. His groping fingers の近くにd over a piece of oblong metal, 冷淡な to the touch.
He hadn't put it there himself. What was it? Where had it come from? A strange look （機の）カム into his 注目する，もくろむs. He ちらりと見ることd over his shoulder and saw the purple ball of light の近くに behind. He could hear the hissing, crackling noise it made as it swept through the 空気／公表する.
His 手渡す （機の）カム out of his pocket しっかり掴むing the oblong piece of metal. With a 猛烈な／残忍な gesture he flung it away--and then a 奇蹟 seemed to happen.
The purple ball flashed off at a sudden tangent, hissing and whirling as it went, then dropped toward the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す where the strange metal had skidded to a stop.
Wade threw himself flat on the pavement as the 空気／公表する behind him seemed to 爆発する with a roar. A wave of deafening sound （機の）カム, followed by a 乱打するing 現在の of 勝利，勝つd. 石／投石するs and asphalt flew up in 粉々にするd pieces.
Where the metal had been all was 不明瞭 except for a few glowing 誘発するs. These faded, and Wade, panting for breath, 解除するd himself to his feet.
He understood now. Someone had visited his room. Someone had dropped that piece of metal into his coat. Doctor 無 had visited him and 示すd him for death with this element that would attract the Purple 危険，危なくする.
WADE went grimly 支援する to his apartment with the ripping, crackling sound of the 爆発するing fireball still （犯罪の）一味ing in his ears. An alarm had been turned in by someone. He could hear a 解雇する／砲火／射撃 engine 涙／ほころびing up the street with its サイレン／魅惑的な shrieking.
Bric-a-brac around the apartment had been broken by the 爆発, and the telephone had been knocked off its （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. Wade 選ぶd it up and called 視察官 Thompson's number. Thompson would want to know that he was all 権利 when 報告（する）／憶測s of the attack （機の）カム. The 発言する／表明する of the 視察官 reached him over the wire, sleepy and peevish.
"A hell of a time to get a man out of bed, Hammond."
"That's what I thought just now when Doctor 無 tried to bump me off," said Wade. "He pretty nearly 後継するd, 長，指導者. My room here looks like a Texas サイクロン had struck it."
He heard Thompson's gasp of surprise.
"He tried to get you, Hammond? Did you find out anything?"
"Yes, it's 科学の stuff we're 取引，協定ing with all 権利. I'm going to see someone about it."
"Who?"
"Professor Ornstein, 長，指導者. He can tell me a lot of things if he wants to, I'll bet."
Wade was dressed at the end of five minutes and on his way downstairs again. A 抱擁する （人が）群がる had collected in the street outside. People were 星／主役にするing up at his broken windows, at the 粉々にするd glass, and at the 穴を開ける in the pavement.
He shouldered his way through them and got his roadster out of the garage. He 押すd the accelerator 負かす／撃墜する to the floorboards as he 長，率いるd for the 科学技術の 学校／設ける campus.
This time he parked his car outside the grounds and went toward Ornstein's 研究室／実験室 without letting the night watchman see him. Lights were 燃やすing in Ornstein's place again. The professor was evidently hard at work.
Wade started to go in the 前線 way; then hesitated and walked around to the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 escape. He wondered if he could jump up and reach the 底（に届く） ladder which was balanced and hung up from the ground by a 負わせる. Then suddenly he shrank 支援する into the 影をつくる／尾行するs. He had heard the sound of footsteps on the アイロンをかける rungs. Someone was coming 負かす／撃墜する.
A moment more and Wade got a glimpse of a muffled 黒人／ボイコット form descending the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 escape. As he watched, the man stepped on the ladder which automatically lowered itself as the 負わせる went up. Rusty pivots squeaked in 抗議する. The 人物／姿／数字 in 黒人／ボイコット seemed hardly more than a 悪意のある 影をつくる／尾行する.
Who was he and what was he doing there?
Wade leaped 今後. But a flower box の近くに to the building and hidden by the 不明瞭 caught his foot. He half-tripped over it, fell to his 膝s on the grass, and his shoe clattered on the box.
The man on the ladder gave a muttered 悪口を言う／悪態. He leaped sidewise, 上陸 on his feet on the grass below, then turned and darted away, blending with the night 影をつくる／尾行するs before Wade could reach him.
Wade didn't try to give chase. There were a 得点する／非難する／２０ of places on the campus where the blackrobed stranger could hide. Wade ran into the building and 圧力（をかける）d the button controlling the (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃 elevator.
He waited impatiently while the car はうd up. Who was this stranger he had seen? Was it Ornstein himself?
He ran along the 回廊（地帯） and knocked loudly on Ornstein's door. He waited, knocked again, but there was no answer. Then he 診察するd the door. He could see a thin glow of light coming from beneath it. Someone must be inside--unless the man he had seen had been Ornstein--or unless---
Wade suddenly reached into his pocket and drew out a bunch of 骸骨／概要 重要なs. They were marvelously delicate. One was more than a 重要な. It was a 複雑にするd little 道具 with an adjusting screw at the end and teeth that could be 始める，決める into any size lock. It was Wade's own 発明.
He thrust it into the lock on Ornstein's door, turned the knurled screw 長，率いる with 極度の慎重さを要する fingers, and in a moment had the door open.
The lights in Ornstein's 研究室／実験室 were still 燃やすing brightly. He 星／主役にするd around, then his 注目する，もくろむs suddenly （機の）カム to 残り／休憩（する） on the far end of the room. They 広げるd in horror.
The 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるd 人物／姿／数字 of Professor Ornstein was lying on the 床に打ち倒す, his white coat thrown open. And at one 味方する of the coat was a 悪意のある circle of spreading crimson!
"MURDERED!" Wade's lips でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れるd the word silently.
The man whom he had more than half-嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd of 存在 the 殺し屋 was now lying dead at his feet! The 扱う of a small, sharp knife 事業／計画（する）d from Ornstein's 味方する.
It was a knife that Wade remembered having seen on a shelf at the time of his former visit. Ornstein had used it as a paper 切断機，沿岸警備艇.
There were no 調印するs of a struggle. The 殺し屋 must have taken Ornstein by surprise.
Then Wade saw a half-open door into the next room. He walked to it, opened it さらに先に, and saw that it gave into a small 研究室／実験室 with a window 開始 on a 解雇する／砲火／射撃 escape.
Something was lying in the 中心 of the 床に打ち倒す. It was a crumpled cambric handkerchief. He 選ぶd it up, then whistled. In one corner of the handkerchief were the 初期のs "Z.S."
He went to the window and 星／主役にするd at it tensely. A square had been 削減（する） cleverly out of the pane and the glass 押し進めるd in so that someone could reach the lock. It had been done so neatly and 静かに that Ornstein in the next room hadn't heard anyone enter.
Wade 診察するd the 辛勝する／優位s of the 削減（する） pane. The 削減（する）s were 深い but uneven. They hadn't been made by any 正規の／正選手 glass 切断機，沿岸警備艇; but they had been 効果的な.
He went 支援する into the main 研究室／実験室, 選ぶd up the telephone and called Thompson's number again.
"You might 同様に stay out of bed, 長，指導者," he said. "You won't get any sleep tonight. Ornstein has been bumped off now. Not a fireball this time. Someone こそこそ動くd up and stabbed him with his own knife. You'll want to come over and take a look."
In fifteen minutes the サイレン／魅惑的な of a 急速な／放蕩な police car made complaining echoes over the campus grounds. Wade had spent those fifteen minutes prowling around Ornstein's 研究室／実験室. But he hadn't 設立する anything of 利益／興味. The still, marblewhite 直面する of the professor kept its secret. There was surprise rather than 恐れる written on his dead features.
When Thompson arrived Wade told him all that he had seen and 設立する, 含むing the handkerchief with the 初期のs Z.S. on it.
"It's Smith all 権利," said Thompson grimly. "But how to find him? He must have a （犯人の）隠れ家 somewhere 近づく here."
The 視察官 turned and snapped orders to two of his men.
"追跡（する） around the campus. Look for his 跡をつけるs. If you find one of his 足跡s 近づく the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 escape we'll have him nailed as the 殺害者. Then we'll smoke him out of his 穴を開ける if it takes a year."
He sent two other men on the run to Smith's 寄宿舎.
"We've had the place 影をつくる／尾行するd," he said. "But he may have こそこそ動くd in."
All over the campus, lights were springing up as the news of the 殺人 spread to students and sleepy faculty members.
Wade began to 診察する the window again with Thompson at his 味方する. Then the telephone in the outer 研究室／実験室 began （犯罪の）一味ing 厳しく.
A 探偵，刑事 選ぶd it up, listened, then held the 器具 out. There were 緊張した lines in his 直面する.
"Someone's calling for help!" he said.
Wade, stepping 今後 first, snatched the phone from the man's 手渡す and put the receiver to his ear. A 発言する／表明する he 認めるd at once （機の）カム over the wire.
"For God's sake--I'm 存在 attacked--here in my 研究室／実験室--help--I--"
The 発言する／表明する 追跡するd off in a wheezing gasp. It was Professor Hartz speaking.
Wade 立証するd this from the 脅すd 操作者 downstairs. Hartz had called the 学校／設ける switchboard and the 操作者 had transferred the call to Ornstein's room, knowing the police were there.
"Come on," said Wade, turning to Thompson. "I know where Hartz is. Someone is up there with him--Doctor 無, I think."
He went downstairs with Thompson and a 探偵，刑事 at his 味方する. They ran across a section of the campus and Wade led them to the building, on the 最高の，を越す 床に打ち倒す of which Hartz had his place.
Thompson ガス／煙d with impatience as the oldfashioned elevator in Hartz's building went skyward sluggishly.
"Hell," he said, "this place is like the Ark. He'll be dead by the time we get there."
But Hartz wasn't dead. A muffled 発言する／表明する called out in answer to their knock.
"Come in!"
HARTZ was on the 床に打ち倒す, his 長，率いる and shoulders 残り／休憩（する）ing against a couch. His collar and tie were ripped open. He was fingering his neck and gasping hoarsely. The room was in 完全にする disorder with 調書をとる／予約するs and papers scattered around and a 議長，司会を務める tipped over. The window was open. Hartz pointed toward it.
"He （機の）カム through there--and left the same way." Hartz's 発言する／表明する was a hoarse croak. "I didn't see him. He grabbed me from behind."
Wade ran to the window. A 解雇する／砲火／射撃 escape zigzagged 負かす／撃墜する here, too, and night 影をつくる／尾行するs obscured its 底（に届く）.
Thompson 解除するd Hartz の上に the sofa, then went and got him a drink of water from the cooler.
"Was it young Smith? Didn't you get a glimpse of him?"
Hartz shook his white 長，率いる.
"No, but it was his 手渡すs I felt. The poor boy must have gone insane."
"Ornstein was 殺人d a few minutes ago," said Thompson. "We've got to 位置を示す Smith now. He and Doctor 無 are the same man."
Hartz nodded.
"An egomaniac," he said. "A man with a Napoleonic コンビナート／複合体."
Wade 認めるd phrases from the terminology of popular psychology. He was 星／主役にするing around Hartz's 研究室／実験室. A skylight window lighted it in the daytime. 殴打／砲列s of powerful bulbs hung 負かす／撃墜する with silvered reflectors behind them to make the place 有望な at night. On three 味方するs of the room the 塀で囲むs were lined with 調書をとる／予約するs and 閣僚s 含む／封じ込めるing minerals and 化学製品s.
Wade seemed suddenly to loose 利益／興味 in Hartz and what he was 説. He walked over to a bookshelf and began taking 負かす／撃墜する 容積／容量s. The professor turned his white 長，率いる to 星／主役にする at Wade's 支援する. 視察官 Thompson turned, too. His 発言する／表明する was sarcastic.
"We've got a 殺人 調査 on our 手渡すs, Hammond. If you want to read why don't you join a library?"
But Wade wasn't reading. He couldn't seem to find a 調書をとる／予約する that 満足させるd him. He was pulling them out now and piling them on a nearby （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. Thompson spoke again.
"What the hell's the 事柄 with you, Hammond? Have you gone nuts? Leave those 調書をとる／予約するs alone!"
Professor Hartz 解除するd his feet off the sofa and banged them 負かす／撃墜する on the 床に打ち倒す. His 表現 had suddenly changed.
"Keep away from my 調書をとる／予約するs," he snapped. "Leave them alone, young man."
厳しい lines had come into the professor's 直面する all at once. They were lines of poisonous bitterness; lines that seemed to have been etched there by hidden, unhealthy emotions and secret hell 解雇する／砲火／射撃s.
He rose and moved toward Wade, one claw-like 手渡す stretched out and his 注目する，もくろむs 炎ing. For Wade had paid no attention to either him or Thompson. He was pulling out more 調書をとる／予約するs and reaching in behind them.
Suddenly he grabbed two large red 容積／容量s. They left a 穴を開ける in the shelf, and Wade's 手渡す darted in. For a moment his fingers groped. Then there （機の）カム a click of metal.
Wade stepped 支援する and 視察官 Thompson gasped. The 棚上げにするs of 調書をとる／予約するs covering the whole 味方する of the room were swinging outward, 公表する／暴露するing a door in the 塀で囲む behind them.
"My God, Hammond--what's this?"
Thompson was 星／主役にするing in amazement at the secret door.
Professor Hartz seemed suddenly to have turned into a madman. He leaped toward Wade, his withered old features a hideous mask of hate. His 注目する，もくろむs seemed 残忍な in their ferocity. He wasn't the 冷静な／正味の scientist now. His 手渡すs reached toward Wade's throat like talons. But Wade stepped aside and whirled. He gave Hartz a sudden violent 押し進める that sent him staggering 支援する across the room.
"Watch him, 長，指導者. See that he doesn't pull a gun or a knife. I want to take a look in here."
WADE spoke with an 空気／公表する of 信用／信任 that left Thompson speechless. He pulled the hidden door open and stepped into the room behind it after snapping on a light switch. The room was another 研究室／実験室, compact and efficient, with a 固く結び付ける 床に打ち倒す and a strange, squat piece of 機械装置 crouching in the 中心 like an evil monster.
"Look!" Wade was pointing up toward the skylight.
There were windows up there which could be slid 支援する on rollers, and, の近くに to them, was the end of a telescoping metal 軸 which had its base in the strange machine.
"I'm not enough of a scientist to tell you just what it is," said Wade. "But here's where those fireballs that killed Munn and the two 探偵，刑事s （機の）カム from. It's an electro-原子の 発生させる人（物） of some sort, 有能な of creating ball 雷 which can be directed by means of a 放射性の metal."
A noise interrupted his words. It was the sound of 強くたたくing feet. Someone was kicking on 支持を得ようと努めるd. It （機の）カム from the door of a nearby closet. Wade walked over and flung it open. His 直面する showed little surprise; but Thompson muttered in amazement.
Inside the closet a young man with a gag in his mouth was tied 手渡す and foot and lying on the 床に打ち倒す. He had drawn his 膝s up and was 強くたたくing his heels against the 塀で囲む lustily. It was Zadok Smith.
Wade took a penknife from his pocket, reached 負かす／撃墜する and 解放する／自由なd the young man. Smith was willing to talk this time. Words 宙返り／暴落するd over each other, "What did that old buzzard mean--tying me up? Did Ornstein put him up to it--and what's this place here?"
"This," said Wade softly, "is Doctor 無's 研究室／実験室. Our old friend, Hartz, has a 二重の personality. He's Doctor 無, master 犯罪の, with a brain 解雇する／砲火／射撃d by ambitious 計画／陰謀s, and Professor Hartz, Ph.D., savant of science. You've been 熟考する／考慮するing with a versatile man, Smith. You should feel 栄誉（を受ける）d."
"Good God--you don't mean it! Hartz has been doing all this?"
"Yes, look over there, Smith. Even I can guess what he was doing here besides making lethal ball 雷. That was a 味方する 問題／発行する."
Wade was pointing toward one 味方する of the secret 研究室／実験室. A big electric furnace stood on a metal （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. There was a 冷静な／正味のing 戦車／タンク beside it and a shelf of glass jars 含む／封じ込めるing hundreds of 炭素 水晶s.
"I knew he was bugs on the notion of making 人工的な diamonds," said Smith. "But I didn't guess he'd ever tried it."
"That was the 動機 behind his 殺人，大当りs," said Wade. "He had to have money and lots of it for his 実験s. It was why he thought of his ゆすり，強要 陰謀（を企てる） against Munn. He was nuts on diamonds. I felt when I first met him that those two 石／投石するs he wore were somehow out of character. He even used a diamond to 削減（する） the glass on Ornstein's window. He must have thought Ornstein was getting 怪しげな and he went there to 工場／植物 a chunk of metal as he did in my apartment and then send a couple of fireballs to do the trick. Ornstein caught him at it and Hartz used a knife to cover his 跡をつけるs. He used you, Smith, to 秘かに調査する on Ornstein's 電気の work and keep 跡をつける of him."
Smith stammered and 紅潮／摘発するd.
"I thought Ornstein was the 殺害者," he said.
"Yes," said Wade. "You thought you were 存在 a pretty clever amateur 探偵，刑事 with that gadget of yours. I suppose you 設立する that the fireballs （機の）カム from the direction of the 学校／設ける."
"Yes, I thought Ornstein was sending them."
"So did I for a while," said Wade. "Hartz was clever. His 事実上の／代理 just now showed that. He knew we'd 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う Ornstein and you. He dropped your handkerchief when he went to Ornstein's place to make sure."
Thompson 辛勝する／優位d 今後. "There's one thing I don't get," he said. "Who kidnapped 行方不明になる Munn? Where is she?"
Wade nodded toward Smith. "I've got an idea you can answer that," he said.
Smith nodded and turned red again.
"I didn't 誘拐する her," he said. "I 警告するd her that she was in danger and got her to hide for a while in a 安全な place. She was 脅すd. She didn't like Ornstein as much as she seemed to. She always 信用d me. She's in a hotel in the country."
"That's another 推論する／理由 I began to think Smith wasn't the 犯罪の," said Wade. "I 人物／姿／数字d by the 跡をつけるs that Arlene Munn had left her aunt's willingly. Then that 手がかり（を与える） of the handkerchief in Ornstein's place was a little too obvious. That and the diamond scratches on the window made me think that Hartz was the 殺害者. With Ornstein dead and Smith out there seemed to be no one else. This room of Hartz's didn't look big enough to （問題を）取り上げる all the space here. I 人物／姿／数字d there was another room behind one of those 調書をとる／予約する 棚上げにするs."
Thompson wiped his 直面する.
"You've done a swell 職業, Hammond. We may not land Hartz in the hot seat. They may send him to the bughouse instead. But with Doctor 無 out of the way we'll be able to get a good night's sleep again and the department will have some peace."
STEPHEN DEMEREST stopped when he saw the 人物／姿／数字 coming toward him across the desolate, rain-drenched fields. It was his first glimpse of a human 存在 since his car had 苦境に陥るd in the 厚い mud of the country road.
He was on foot now, lost in a dreary 地域 of 砂漠d farms and rocky fields, from which all fertility seemed to have been 圧力（をかける）d by the 負わせる of ages. Even the spring rain had brought no life 支援する to the barren, eroded earth.
He waited beside the rough path he'd followed. The 人物／姿／数字 was only a dimly moving 形態／調整 in the dusk, at first. Then, it materialized into a human form enveloped in some sort of dark cloak, with a stiff, wide-brimmed hat standing out queerly from the 長，率いる, reminding him of a fantastic 人物／姿／数字 out of the もやs of antique Spanish legend. But this was New England he was in, not 古代の Spain, and the approaching 人物／姿／数字 was incongruous.
Then Stephen Demerest started. For the lowering sunset clouds broke apart a little. A sulphurous glow （機の）カム through them, touching the wet landscape with a weird, sickly saffron light. And he saw that the person coming toward him was a woman.
She moved with stately grace. There was something so 半端物 about her presence in this lonely 位置／汚点／見つけ出す, something so 逮捕（する）ing in her 衣装, that Demerest 星／主役にするd in growing wonder.
She got closer. He saw that she was youthful, hardly more than a girl. A girl with pale, impassive features, beautifully molded, and 広大な／多数の／重要な dark 注目する，もくろむs that were strangely 直す／買収する，八百長をするd upon him.
He stood speechless, breathless. She was 直接／まっすぐに opposite before he pulled himself out of his trance 十分に to speak. "Can you tell me," he said, "if I'm anywhere 近づく the Benjamin Halliday house?"
Her 注目する，もくろむs remained 直す／買収する，八百長をするd upon him, but she didn't answer. Demerest hurriedly explained: "My car got stuck in the mud. I had to leave it. I thought I was taking a short-削減（する） across country to the Halliday house, but 明らかに I'm lost."
Still she was silent, her oval, cameo-（疑いを）晴らす 直面する unchanging in its 表現, her dark, unfathomable 注目する，もくろむs 星／主役にするing at him as though he were something いっそう少なく than human.
Demerest, wet, 冷淡な, 疲れた／うんざりした and annoyed, stepped quickly toward her--and at once stopped with a stifled gasp. For a sound reached him that he hadn't heard before--the soft, rustling patter of many feet. He saw suddenly that the girl wasn't alone.
Behind her, their shaggy 団体／死体s almost invisible against the dark ground, six 広大な／多数の／重要な 黒人／ボイコット dogs padded two abreast in somber 護衛する. Their 抱擁する muzzles hung の近くに to the earth. They rolled their 注目する，もくろむs 上向き, until a dozen points of 悪意のある, greenish 解雇する／砲火／射撃 glared at Demerest. He stood transfixed, spellbound, feeling his spine はう with horror.
Yet they were only dogs after all, he 推論する／理由d, and this girl 構成するd his one hope of finding his way out of the wilderness before night （機の）カム.
He took another step toward her. The dogs, as though obeying a quick, unspoken 命令（する）, broke their strange 形式 and suddenly （犯罪の）一味d him, the 巨大（な） leaders slinking around to his 支援する, the others 駅／配置するing themselves one on each 味方する and two in 前線. They stood stiff-legged, fangs 明らかにするd, the fur on their necks 解除するing up in savage hackles.
Demerest felt a moment of 直感的に, cringing dread. He wasn't a coward. But his good sense told him that he stood in the presence of violent death. In a 一致した attack these dogs would 引き裂く out his throat, literally 涙／ほころび him to pieces.
The girl stopped, too. Tall, imperious, and lovely in spite of her grotesque garb, she regarded him searchingly for many seconds, her 広大な／多数の／重要な, dark 注目する，もくろむs ぐずぐず残る on his 直面する. Then her lips moved. She made a clucking sound to the dogs.
They fell out of their （犯罪の）一味 形式 as quickly as they had assumed it, and slunk behind her again, に引き続いて with silent obedience as she moved away.
Demerest stood weak and trembling, a light sweat beading his forehead, as the weird cavalcade passed on. The dogs appeared to 消える almost at once, their 広大な／多数の／重要な 形態／調整s blending with the 不明瞭 of the ground.
For a 十分な minute he watched the girl move off, and got a suggestion of the lithe loveliness of her 人物／姿／数字 beneath her cloak, the exquisite grace of her carriage. He 星／主役にするd until her imperious shoulders blurred and disappeared in the 集会 dusk.
Then, resolutely, he turned and followed. She had 辞退するd to speak to him. Her dogs had menaced his life. She'd 扱う／治療するd him as something to be ignored or 軽蔑（する）d. But there must, he 推論する／理由d, be some human habitation in the direction she had taken.
DARKNESS （機の）カム. The sulphurous glow faded from the west, 消滅させるd by the dying day, and blotted out by the low-seeping rain clouds that were 集会 again. A 勝利，勝つd whimpered across the soggy fields like a 拷問d spirit. Demerest 逸脱するd from the path several times.
He bumped into jagged 激しく揺するs, scratched himself on ground-粘着するing bushes. At the end of half an hour it was pitch-黒人／ボイコット. His small flashlight, with its 殴打／砲列 nearly exhausted and its bulb already weakly red, shed hardly enough 照明 for him to see a yard ahead. Finally he caught sight of a 病弱な 微光 in the 不明瞭.
He moved toward it, seeing in imagination the 形態／調整s of the 広大な／多数の／重要な 黒人／ボイコット dogs creeping の近くに. The 微光 became an old-fashioned porch lantern swinging above the door of a 大規模な 石／投石する house.
Demerest stooped and groped for a stick. If the 黒人／ボイコット beasts served as watch dogs for this mansion, they might attack him.
He got closer, 星／主役にするd at the 課すing 前線 of the building, and realized that this must be the Halliday place. A sudden sense of the strangeness of his 使節団 （機の）カム to him. It was deeper, more eerie than when he'd received the letter in his pocket, every word of which he remembered 明確に. It read:
Dear Stephen:
You probably have forgotten me, but your dear father and I were very の近くに friends. And now, because I'm in desperate trouble, I'm turning to you, his son.
I've heard that you're engaged in 無線で通信する work. Please come to my country home at once. Pretend you're nothing more than a 無線で通信する 修理 man whom I've 召喚するd. Don't 収容する／認める that you know me. Be formal when we 会合，会う, unless we get a chance to talk alone. Guard every 活動／戦闘, every word. Be ready to help me when the signal is given. There's no one else on the outside I'd dare turn to.
I've made many mistakes. I've been a wicked, selfish old fool. But, for the sake of one I love more than life itself, I ask you to help me. The enclosed check for five hundred dollars will defray expenses.
Thinking 支援する, Stephen Demerest shook his 長，率いる. He had no inkling of the letter's meaning. He remembered Benjamin Halliday only dimly, 解任するing, however, that he had once been his father's friend. Only a few 不十分な bits of （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） had come to him about Halliday. The man had grown 豊富な in Europe. He had married brilliantly but unhappily. His wife had run off with another man, leaving him with an 幼児 daughter. Then no その上の 報告（する）／憶測s of Halliday had reached Demerest until, two years ago, he'd seen a 簡潔な／要約する notice in the paper of Halliday's arrival in America.
What the man's trouble now was, why he had buried himself in the wildest part of New England, Demerest could not imagine.
But the size of the house before him 示すd wealth. He believed it was Halliday's place. He approached the door, 解除するd the old-fashioned knocker and heard the hollow thud of it echo far inside the house.
Footsteps approached. The door was opened and Demerest froze into startled wonder. It was as though the mouth of some fantastic sub-議会 of hell had opened. Never had he seen such a revoltingly ugly man as the one who stood in the threshold.
A 選び出す／独身, glaring 注目する，もくろむ gazed out of a scarred, pockmarked 直面する. The man's nose had been eaten away by 事故 or 病気. His mouth was 新たな展開d into a misshapen 穴を開ける that showed two broken teeth. The place where his other 注目する，もくろむ should have been was a gaping, horrible cavity in his cadaverous 直面する.
Demerest made an 成果／努力 to keep his 発言する／表明する 安定した. "Is this Mr. Halliday's house?" he asked.
For almost a minute the 選び出す／独身 注目する，もくろむ of the man before him searched his 直面する, 調査（する）d like a 有望な gimlet, trying, it seemed, to read his thoughts. Then the ugly 長，率いる bobbed. The man stood waiting.
"I'm a 無線で通信する specialist," went on Demerest. "Mr. Halliday asked me to come to do some 修理ing. My car, with all my 道具s in it, got 苦境に陥るd in the mud. I'll have to get it in the morning. I wonder if I can stay here for the night?"
Again the noseless 直面する bobbed. The man could understand, but seemed incapable of speech. It （機の）カム to Demerest with another pang of horror that he was not only disfigured but also mute.
The hideous servant stood aside and 動議d for Demerest to enter. Demerest did so and 設立する himself in a richly decorated hall. He started to look about him, then jumped as a 発言する／表明する suddenly spoke at his 味方する. "This way if you please!"
He had seen no one else come in, but when he looked around, there was another man almost as ugly as the first--a gnome-like 人物／姿／数字 with immensely 幅の広い shoulders and 武器 that nearly reached the 床に打ち倒す. His simian, 残虐な 直面する appeared hardly human, yet it was he who had spoken. He 追加するd gruffly: "You can't see Mr. Halliday now. The doctor's with him. Wait in here."
The gnome-man 勧めるd Demerest into a big 製図／抽選-room, then turned and left him. Demerest nervously drew a cigarette from his coat and lit it. But he'd barely taken a puff when a shuffling step sounded.
He whirled, went の近くに to the door. An old man carrying a 内科医's 黒人／ボイコット satchel （機の）カム slowly 負かす／撃墜する the stairs. He, too, was hideously ugly, chinless, with a 広大な／多数の／重要な 事業／計画（する）ing nose like the beak of some bird, and a pompadour of stiff white hair, giving him the look of an evil, crested parrot. He nodded at the servant, turned red-rimmed 注目する，もくろむs on Demerest.
Demerest shuddered. Every human 存在 he had seen in this fantastic place had been ugly as Satan.
The gnome-man saw the doctor to the door, then （機の）カム 支援する and 工場／植物d himself in 前線 of Demerest. "You may now go up and see Mr. Halliday," he said, 厳しく. "I understand he's 推定する／予想するing you."
Demerest didn't answer. He moved up the stairs, heard the gnome-man's step の近くに behind him. The servant was dogging his footsteps like an evil 影をつくる／尾行する.
"権利 here!" The servant held open a door and followed Demerest into a room where there was a 抱擁する, old-fashioned canopied bed.
Demerest's 注目する，もくろむs swung to the 人物／姿／数字 on it, then to the two others who stood beside it.
THE man in the bed was 明白に Halliday. That wrinkled, crafty 直面する, 未熟に 老年の, stirred vague memories in Demerest's mind. The other two, a youngish, fair-haired couple, were the first civilized-looking people he'd seen in the house. The woman had fair 肌, a shapely 団体／死体 and washed-out but still attractive blue 注目する，もくろむs. The man bore a striking resemblance to her. Both seemed 井戸／弁護士席-bred, 静かな.
Halliday turned feverish 注目する，もくろむs on his 訪問者. Demerest could sense the hideous, gnome-like servant standing の近くに behind him; and Halliday's 表現 seemed to 嘆願d craftily for Demerest to be 控えめの.
"You've come about the 無線で通信する," said Halliday in a thin, flat 発言する／表明する. "I'm glad. It hasn't been 事実上の／代理 権利. I'm an old man, bedridden, helpless. The 無線で通信する, which keeps me in touch with the outside world, is one of my few 楽しみs."
"I won't be able to 直す／買収する，八百長をする it until tomorrow," Demerest said. "My car, with all my tubes and 実験（する）ing 器具／備品, is stuck in the road a mile from here. If you'll let me spend the night, I'll start on the 無線で通信する tomorrow."
"I 推定する／予想するd you to spend the night," said Halliday. "We're far from things here--孤立するd, as you see." He waved his thin 手渡す toward the man and the woman. "My good friends, Eric and Nana Larsen! They and my daughter, Gail, are taking turns nursing me."
Demerest looked into the faded blue 注目する，もくろむs of the man and the woman, and knew that these two must be brother and sister.
The woman 好意d him with a smile that made her look younger and glamorously 控訴，上告ing, in a foreign sort of way. "Please to 会合，会う you," she said, with a slight, becoming accent. Then her 注目する，もくろむs fell on the hideous gnome standing behind Demerest. The smile left her 直面する and she shuddered. An 空気／公表する of tenseness settled over the room.
Halliday's features, now that the first 成果／努力 of 迎える／歓迎するing was over, had become 病弱な and corpselike, their only 表現 one of inscrutable, deepseated terror. He said, listlessly: "Dinner will soon be ready. I'm sorry I can't join you; but I shall not be alone. Either Eric or Nana will stay with me."
The 招待 to dinner seemed also 解雇／（訴訟の）却下. The hideous servant, standing so の近くに behind Demerest that he could feel the man's breath on his neck, said: "Come, Mr. Demerest. I'll find you a room."
Demerest had only a small 支配する with him. He followed the squat-団体／死体d servant 負かす／撃墜する a long hall. The man thrust open a door, lighted an oil lamp and 好意d Demerest with a curious leer. He said: "Here's where you'll sleep."
There was another canopied bed in the room---like the one Halliday had. The house was 明白に 古代の, all the furnishings dating 支援する to 植民地の times. The servant withdrew, then 突然の thrust his ugly 直面する 支援する around the door. "Dinner will be ready in ten minutes," he growled.
Demerest unpacked his things, went out into the hall, and saw Nana Larsen descending the staircase. She had changed her gown, as though for his especial 利益. Her low-削減（する） dress 明らかにする／漏らすd the shapeliness and alluring whiteness of her shoulders.
But a moment later the pale beauty of Nana Larsen was （太陽，月の）食／失墜d by the lush, dark loveliness of the girl who entered the hall below, through another door.
Demerest started, 星／主役にするd, felt his heart 契約. For he was again looking at the classic, inscrutable features of the mystery girl, whose 広大な／多数の／重要な dogs had menaced his life.
Nana Larsen smiled. "行方不明になる Halliday, this is Mr. Demerest, your father's 無線で通信する man."
The mystery girl's dark 注目する，もくろむs searched Demerest's 直面する. She nodded 簡潔に, 認めるing the introduction. There was something both haughty and 悲劇の in her 耐えるing. She に先行するd them into the dining room, and Demerest noticed that she was dressed almost as strangely as before. Her gown was individual and exquisitely becoming, but old-fashioned, Victorian in its 削減（する）, as though the girl were 衣装d for some part in a play.
A third repulsive and gnome-like servant, seeming to be a brother of the one who had given Demerest his orders, was in the dining room. Gail Halliday seated herself with all the hauteur of a princess. Nana Larsen smiling slid into her 議長，司会を務める. Demerest took a place 直面するing the two women.
He had a strange feeling of unreality. No one spoke. The candles on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する shed a light that barely 侵入するd to the corners of the big 植民地の room. The presence of the monster-like servants cast a damper on the meal. Demerest could feel their 注目する，もくろむs boring into him, watching his every move.
Each time one of them went 近づく Nana Larsen, to 現在の a dish, she cringed away, as though the white, 明らかにする 肌 of her 武器 and shoulders shrank from any possible 接触する with their simian 手渡すs.
GAIL HALLIDAY kept her 注目する，もくろむs 確固に on her plate. Demerest 設立する himself watching her with ever-増加するing fascination. He'd never seen a girl like her, never beheld such a mixture of strange beauty and 冷気／寒がらせる aloofness. Once, when she raised her dark 注目する，もくろむs and ちらりと見ることd at him, he had a sense of hidden, unaroused depths, 悲劇の and exciting. He was attracted by her and afraid of her, at one and the same time. Nana Larsen made conversation finally by asking him about his trip from the city, slurring soft words in her peculiarly accented 発言する／表明する.
The meal ended at last. Gail Halliday slipped away as mysteriously, as silently, as she had come. Nana Larsen went upstairs and Eric Larsen （機の）カム 負かす／撃墜する. But he did not 試みる／企てる to talk to Demerest, and Demerest went to his room, after one cigarette.
There seemed nothing else to do. Halliday hadn't called him, and he 設立する himself wondering if the old man's strange letter had not been the 製品 of delirium.
As he went along the hall to his 議会, he caught sight of the most hideous of the servants, the one with the 選び出す／独身 燃やすing 注目する，もくろむ and noseless 直面する, watching him. The ugly mute 星／主役にするd, as though in secret, diabolical 憶測.
Demerest paced his room nervously, smoking cigarette after cigarette. The whimpering 勝利，勝つd rose outside to a 拷問d moan. Spurts of rain rapped against his window with a sound like bony knuckles. Demerest drew the shade, gazed out.
He started when he looked across to another wing of the house, where there were lighted shades, across which a 人物／姿／数字 moved--the tall, lithe, glorious 人物／姿／数字 of Gail Halliday. She was also pacing, appearing and 再現するing against the shades.
Then Demerest heard the throaty howling of dogs, a strange, clamorous, oddly 脅迫的な chorus, out in the 不明瞭 of the night. Somewhere on the other 味方する of the 法廷，裁判所, in the girl's wing of the house, the 広大な／多数の／重要な 黒人／ボイコット beasts were 拘留するd, stirred 明らかに by the noise of the 嵐／襲撃する, and by a macabre, ばく然と-felt restlessness that filled the 空気／公表する. Demerest suddenly had a sense that unknown, devilish 軍隊s were all about; that some 嵐／襲撃する other than the 勝利，勝つd and the rain was 集会, creeping closer and closer, 脅すing them all.
The girl finally stopped pacing. She disappeared from a window, then （機の）カム 支援する. For a moment he saw her 人物／姿／数字 eerily silhouetted without the strange gown on it; saw the chaste, proud lines of her 団体／死体. Then her light went out.
Demerest lay 負かす／撃墜する on his bed without undressing. 刻々と, above the 勝利，勝つd and rain, he heard the mournful howling of the dogs. He dozed into fitful slumber, their animal 発言する／表明するs （犯罪の）一味ing in his ears like some weird devil's chorus.
A 叫び声をあげる awakened him, brought him bolt upright in bed, then sent him 肺ing off it, straight toward the door. For there was terror, 怒り／怒る in the shrill cry, and it was in the hall outside.
Demerest flung the door open, leaped into the 回廊（地帯）. In the glow of a hanging lamp 近づく the stairway he saw two struggling 人物／姿／数字s. One was the hideous, apelike gnome-man who had spoken to him. The other was Nana Larsen.
She tried to break away as Demerest stood gaping. Her 直面する was convulsed in terror and loathing. The servant clutched her with 武器 that writhed like constricting pythons. He 解除するd her bodily, tried to carry her toward the stairs.
With a cry Demerest leaped 今後. But he stopped almost at once, as though steel cables were 宙返り飛行d about his wrists. He stooped and whirled, gasping, with the clutch of muscular fingers around his 武器. He looked 支援する, saw that the other gnome-man had こそこそ動くd up behind him.
THE 残忍な-appearing monster was incredibly strong, so strong that, with the surprise 持つ／拘留する he had taken, Demerest was helpless. He 悪口を言う／悪態d, kicked 支援する, but the gnome-man 新たな展開d his 武器 until they ached, 封鎖するing all movement.
Nana Larsen shrieked, trying 猛烈に to get 解放する／自由な. Demerest saw her frantic movements 涙／ほころび her gown, saw the gleam of 明らかにする flesh, white as alabaster. The gnome-man's fingers twined closer around her. He clutched her 猛烈に, jaws clenched, 注目する，もくろむs glaring, panting with his 成果／努力s.
Then the tall form of Eric Larsen bounded into the hall. His 注目する，もくろむs were 炎ing. He had a gun in his 手渡す. With a 神経 that Demerest admired, he took 目的（とする）, waited a 簡潔な／要約する instant till his sister's squirmings left a 部分 of the servant's chest 暴露するd. Then he 解雇する／砲火／射撃d, twice.
With a hideous howl, the ugly servant dropped the woman. He took three steps backward, clutched at his chest, 倒れるd 負かす／撃墜する the stairs, with death glazing his eyeballs. The man 持つ／拘留するing Demerest whimpered and broke away. He was quick as he darted along the hall, but Eric Larsen was quicker. He slapped a 弾丸 after the 退却／保養地ing 人物／姿／数字.
Demerest heard the spat of it against flesh, saw the gnome-man's arm jerk, heard his moan of 苦痛. Then the man was gone through a door. And Demerest turned and strode toward the fallen woman.
She was just 選ぶing herself up, her 着せる／賦与するs halftorn from her. But in her agitation she didn't seem to notice them. Her brother, Eric, was panting with fury, 直面する 緊張した and white. The sound of the 発射s had 誘発するd the dogs still more. Their barking rose to a frenzied pitch, blended with the moaning of the 勝利，勝つd. Nana shivered, 圧力（をかける）d her 武器 across her 団体／死体. Eric tensely said: "Stay here. 行方不明になる Halliday is in danger. I've got to see."
Demerest started to follow, but Nana clutched him. "No, stay with me! I've got to go 支援する to Mr. Halliday. He is in danger, too, but--" She suddenly turned, ran 負かす／撃墜する the stairs to where the fallen gnome-man lay in a 宙返り／暴落するd heap. Demerest saw her stoop and retrieve a small (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃, which the man had evidently taken from her. She （機の）カム running up the stairs, her torn 着せる／賦与するs flapping wide.
Eric Larsen had gone, and Nana 動議d Demerest to follow her into Halliday's room. Halliday was sitting up in bed, wild-注目する，もくろむd, 星／主役にするing. His 直面する whitened at sight of Demerest and Nana. He said in a strangled whisper: "What--what has happened?"
Nana went to him, laid her 手渡す on his forehead, and 押し進めるd him gently but 堅固に 支援する. "Nothing, my friend. Please 静める yourself. One of your servants attacked me, and Eric had to shoot him. The man was mad. But there is nothing to 恐れる. Eric has gone to see that Gail isn't 害（を与える）d."
An unearthly howling （機の）カム from the dogs, rising in a 盛り上がり louder than at anytime before. Halliday 押し進めるd himself up, 有望な feverish 位置／汚点／見つけ出すs 燃やすing in his gaunt cheeks, 注目する，もくろむs like living coals. "No, no!" he cried. "Something must be done. Demerest, go to Gail. Help her!"
Demerest turned toward the door, but a sudden icy 発言する／表明する checked him. "Fool--stay 静かな! Another step, and I'll kill you."
He whirled. Nana Larsen was clutching the (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃, had pointed it straight at his heart. Her pale blue 注目する，もくろむs were glittering and deadly, 冷気／寒がらせる as ice. Her voluptuous 団体／死体 was as rigid as a 人物／姿／数字 carved from snow. He saw her finger 強化する on the 誘発する／引き起こす as she read 反抗 in his 注目する，もくろむs, saw 殺人 on her 直面する.
He did the one thing possible, leaped sidewise and dropped flat. He heard the 報告（する）／憶測 of the gun, felt the fanning 炎上 of the 弾丸 above his 長，率いる. He caught 持つ／拘留する of a light 議長，司会を務める and flung it at her. As she leaped aside 叫び声をあげるing, he 急ぐd her in the 簡潔な／要約する instant that her gun was deflected.
She swung wildly, 衝突，墜落d two more 発射s his way. But she 行方不明になるd him. He の近くにd with her, thrusting her wrist downward and aside in a 支配する of アイロンをかける.
She fought like a 罠にかける panther. She kicked him, scratched him. When he 格闘するd the gun from her fingers, made her 減少（する） it, she bent suddenly and sank her white teeth into his arm.
He cried out, hugged her in a 制限するing 支配する that made her hardly able to move. She hissed like a cat, （機の）カム up out of her bursting dress, her 団体／死体 gleaming, and tried to scratch out his 注目する，もくろむs. Demerest, in the 緊張するing 緊急 of the moment, did something he'd never done before, something ungallant but necessary. He 衝突，墜落d a 握りこぶし to the point of her chin, dropping her, senseless, to the 床に打ち倒す.
He turned away, 選ぶd up her gun, and ran to the door, with Halliday shouting for him to hurry. He didn't know what weird 共謀 he had to 直面する. He only knew that Gail Halliday was in some sort of danger. He seemed to feel her dark, unfathomable 注目する，もくろむs upon him, no longer arrogant, but helpless and 控訴，上告ing.
He ran through the 回廊（地帯） 負かす／撃墜する a flight of stairs, around another hall into that other wing of the mansion. He heard a sound of 戦う／戦い, saw Eric Larsen struggling with the second gnome-like 人物／姿／数字. The servant had evidently jumped him, taken him by surprise. With his one good arm, he was trying to 持つ／拘留する Larsen, clutching both wrists, to 妨げる him from again using his 武器. Larsen was snarling, 悪口を言う／悪態ing, and the dogs in a nearby room were howling frightfully, leaping against a の近くにd door, scratching and whining with desperate claws.
DEMEREST ran straight toward the fighting 人物／姿／数字s. He raised the gun he had taken from Nana Larsen. Then Eric Larsen saw him. With a superhuman wrench, he broke away from the servant. He whirled, his gun 目的（とする）d straight at Demerest.
Demerest pumped the 誘発する／引き起こす of the small (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃. He felt a 簡潔な／要約する, sickening sensation inside when no 発射 sounded. The gun's magazine was empty.
He saw the quick flash of Larsen's ピストル, felt a hot, stinging 苦痛 at the 最高の，を越す of his 長，率いる. He sank to his 膝s, as though a 燃やすing アイロンをかける had been laid across his scalp. He sank inertly, saw Larsen turn and 解雇する／砲火／射撃 straight into the gnome-man's 直面する. The ugly creature went 負かす／撃墜する spouting 血.
Larsen turned and disappeared through a door. Demerest could still see. His 注目する，もくろむs were half-open. His mind was even 有能な of 登録（する）ing impressions. But the 素晴らしい 軍隊 of the 弾丸 that had laid his scalp open, almost seared his brain, made movement impossible. He could only 嘘（をつく） and 星／主役にする through half-の近くにd lids.
Dimly he heard a 叫び声をあげる, then silence--except for the fearful ゆすり of the dogs. A moment later, Larsen （機の）カム through the door. He was carrying Gail Halliday. There was a bruise on the girl's white forehead. She was in her nightdress, with her white 脚s 追跡するing. Larsen, without a 選び出す／独身 ちらりと見ること at Demerest, bore her along the hall and out into the night.
Demerest tried to rise. He fought within himself, as a man fights a horrible, 麻ひさせるing 軍隊; fought while his brain 燃やすd in agony, and hot 血 trickled 負かす／撃墜する his 直面する. But he couldn't rise. And he saw a 影をつくる／尾行する, as in a nightmare, creep along the hall when Larsen had gone.
It was the horrible, noseless servant with the 選び出す／独身 注目する，もくろむ. The 注目する，もくろむ was glaring now, 燃やすing with the 猛烈な／残忍な light of a devil's たいまつ. The man was shaking. His lips were moving, writhing across his broken teeth, though no sound （機の）カム from them.
He moved straight toward the door, from behind which the howling of the dogs sounded. He sprang a bolt, drew the door outward. He went 負かす／撃墜する writhing under a mad 急ぐ of 飛行機で行くing 黒人／ボイコット 団体／死体s.
Like the moving 略章 of some 悪魔の（ような） cyclorama, Demerest saw the snarling, wicked 長，率いるs of the 広大な／多数の／重要な 黒人／ボイコット dogs. He saw their green 注目する，もくろむs, their slavering lips, their 明らかにするd and glistening fangs. He saw them come straight toward him in a 殺到するing flood of fury. They ぼんやり現れるd as large as mammoths, their fangs were curving scimitars that seemed, to his dazed brain, to sweep the whole hallway. He already thought he felt them, rending, 涙／ほころびing at his throat, thought he felt his own hot 血 choking him.
But instead the dogs passed over him, unheedingly trampled him with their 飛行機で行くing paws, went by so 近づく him that he could feel their fetid breaths on his 直面する. They passed on along the hall, turned in a column and 急落（する），激減（する）d through the open doorway out into the night.
Demerest lay weakly, sheer terror bringing his numb brain slowly 支援する. He watched as the one-注目する，もくろむd, monstrous servant got to his feet. He saw a hideous, 悪意のある 表現 on the man's scarred 直面する. The servant disappeared for a 簡潔な／要約する moment, returned, and （機の）カム toward Demerest with something in his fingers.
Demerest cringed with returning consciousness, gasped and shrank 支援する in horror as the one-注目する，もくろむd servant 圧力（をかける）d a 冷淡な 実体 against his 直面する. Then 推論する／理由 主張するd itself. Demerest relaxed for an instant, trembling.
The one-注目する，もくろむd man was 圧力（をかける）ing a wet cloth to his 肌, trying to 生き返らせる him. Demerest helped, 戦う／戦いing the cloudy 苦痛 in his 長，率いる. The servant got two more cloths, then dragged Demerest to his feet. He plucked at Demerest's coat sleeve, made strange, inarticulate whimpers in his scarred throat, pointed out the door through which the dogs had gone.
Demerest understood that he was to follow them. The servant drew an old-fashioned lantern from a closet. He shuffled ahead of Demerest, still beckoning ひどく.
As he 近づくd the doorway, Demerest heard a sound he was never to forget, a sound of mortal, bloodcurdling horror coming out of the 不明瞭---a 叫び声をあげる torn from a human throat. Above it, he heard the snarling of the dogs like that of a pack of ravening wolves.
The one-注目する，もくろむd servant hurried 今後. Demerest, weak and trembling, followed. The 冷淡な rain on his 直面する helped to 生き返らせる him, washed the 血 from the crease along his scalp. The sound of the horrible 戦う／戦い ahead lent 速度(を上げる） to his feet.
Then under the glow of the lantern, he saw what was happening; saw a bloodstained 団体／死体 leap 上向き, like a 抱擁する white fish, above a sea of 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするing 黒人／ボイコット muzzles. The sea of savage animal forms was speared with green points of light, like 星／主役にするs 炎ing above water.
LARSEN, stripped from the waist up, his flesh torn already into awful 略章s, was striking 権利 and left with his gun butt. But the 猛烈な／残忍な dogs pulled him 負かす／撃墜する. His crimson-stained 支援する disappeared under a 高潮，津波 of furry 団体／死体s. He didn't appear again, and the sound of gurgling, 泡ing worryings that followed sickened Demerest.
The servant waved his skinny 武器, again making meaningless noises. The dogs snarled and broke away a little. Demerest caught sight of the still, shapeless thing that had a moment before been Larsen. Faint and sickened, he turned toward the 低迷d form on the ground a little way off.
The dogs, jaws dripping, 即時に sprang away from their dead quarry. Demerest thought for an instant they were going to 飛行機で行く at him. But they （犯罪の）一味d the form of Gail Halliday and snarled their menace at him until the clucking of the noseless servant made them draw off.
Then Demerest and the servant bent over Gail Halliday. She lay unconscious but feebly stirring, the thin, rain-soaked nightdress plastered to the lovely lines of her 団体／死体, beautiful, Demerest thought, as some reclining, fabled goddess. The servant plucked Demerest's arm, made 動議s for him to 選ぶ the girl up and carry her.
Demerest did so, feeling a strange, thrilling sense of 保護の tenderness as her warm 団体／死体 lay against his chest. Her 直面する was 上昇傾向d. Her 黒人／ボイコット, silky hair lay in damp, 甘い ringlets on her glorious shoulders.
As the servant led the way, Demerest bore her toward the house, leaving that grisly thing out in the dark. The dogs fell into step behind him, 護衛するing him now, as though in carrying their strange mistress he had become their master. Demerest thrilled with an exultant feeling of 力／強力にする as he heard their padding feet.
As he entered the house, and the light fell on Gail Halliday's 直面する, he stopped in wonder.
The 苦痛 in his 長，率いる seemed to turn to a quivering song; the （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 of tumultuous music. She was beautiful, so beautiful, that he bent irresistibly, as one in a dream, and 圧力（をかける）d his lips against her warm, damp ones. It was a tender kiss, respectful in its lightness, an impulse born of the whirling giddiness in his 長，率いる, and the 広大な／多数の／重要な 緊張する he'd been under.
But as he kissed her, Gail Halliday's 注目する，もくろむs opened. The lids ぱたぱたするd like moth wings for a moment, 暴露するing the dark, glorious depths that lay beneath. She lay still in his 武器 for a breathless second, looking up, while a slow, strange smile 軟化するd her 直面する. Childlike, 信用ing, her 武器 強化するd about his neck for the barest instant. Then color flooded her pale cheeks. She slipped from his しっかり掴む, said huskily: "We must go to my father. He may have been 傷つける. Those terrible people!"
She turned and ran 負かす／撃墜する the hall, her damp hair swinging against her neck. Demerest and the servant followed, around the wing of the house, up a stairway, into Halliday's room.
HALLIDAY was sitting up in bed, 直面する twitching, hoarsely calling out. Nana Larsen still lay crumpled.
Halliday sank 支援する gasping and held out his shaking 武器 to his daughter. She fled to them, said soft, 安心させるing things to 慰安 him. Then suddenly remembering her thin nightdress, she shrank shyly away into a corner.
Demerest 星／主役にするd at Halliday, and the sick man, finding his 発言する／表明する, spoke to his daughter. "Please go outside a minute, Gail. There are some things I want to tell our friend, Demerest--things he will want to know."
When the girl had gone, Halliday しっかり掴むd Demerest's 手渡す in his. "You have been 肉親，親類d," he said, "so 肉親，親類d to come here. You have saved us."
Demerest shook his 長，率いる. He pointed to the noseless servant. "Thank him. He saved things, just now, by turning the dogs on Larsen. Larsen 発射 the two others. He is dead, now, himself."
"If you hadn't come," said Halliday, "my servants would never have had the courage to 行為／法令／行動する. Your arrival was the signal."
"The signal for what?"
"To make an 試みる／企てる to 解放する／自由な ourselves from the bondage of the Larsens." Halliday bent 今後, his 発言する／表明する trembling. "You must have guessed that they had some 持つ／拘留する over me. I know I am dying; I can talk 自由に, now. There are many things I've done that I shouldn't, but I didn't deserve such 迫害. The Larsens were 犯罪のs, wicked people trying to steal my money--and Eric Larsen 手配中の，お尋ね者 Gail."
"I don't think I やめる understand," said Demerest.
"No, no, you wouldn't. But this will help to explain it. I killed the man who ran off with my wife--発射 him in a fair fight after he had 原因（となる）d her death by his 残虐な 治療. I am not a 殺害者, really--but the 法律 is いつかs cruel. It seemed best to leave Europe, quickly. I thought nobody knew, but the Larsens learned what I had done somehow. They followed me here to ゆすり，恐喝 me, bleed me. They 脅すd to expose me as a 犯罪の, unless I turned over everything I had. They knew I was old, dying, and when I was stubborn, Eric Larsen saw a way of 遂行するing his ends through Gail. He might have 後継するd---if you hadn't come. He would have taken her away--I don't know where."
Halliday lay 支援する breathing laboredly for a moment. Demerest could see the 拷問d 続けざまに猛撃するing of his heart, and knew that the man's days were numbered. Halliday went on slowly, huskily:
"In many ways, as I said in my letter, I've been a wicked, selfish fool. But after my wife, Grace, left me, after I'd brought up Gail from babyhood, nursed her, watched over her, I made up my mind that no man should ever take her from me. She had reached lovely young womanhood when I brought her here. I tried my best to see that no attractive man should ever 会合，会う her. I 雇うd the most hideous servants I could find. I saw to it that even our family doctor was old and ugly. I went その上の, and encouraged a 軽蔑（する） of men in Gail herself, told her never to speak to any stranger, gave her 着せる／賦与するs that were 慣習に捕らわれない, queer. Even the dogs were my doing. She's held in such terror by the few neighbors we have, that no man would go 近づく her.
"But it was wrong, wicked. What has happened in the last few weeks has made me see it. She might, even in her loneliness, have been beguiled by that monster, Larsen. It was wrong, and I want to ask a 好意 of you, Demerest. I want to 支払う／賃金 you handsomely to see, after I'm dead, that Gail leads a more normal life: that she 会合，会うs some good young men and finds love and marriage, if that is her wish. Will you do that for me, in memory of the friendship that I bore your father?"
Demerest started to speak, then turned his 長，率いる. Gail Halliday had stolen 支援する into the room. She stood just inside the doorway, tall, white, lovely as a 見通し, her dark 注目する，もくろむs 直す／買収する，八百長をするd upon him, a strange, knowing smile 軟化するing her lips.
Demerest turned toward her father and 屈服するd his 長，率いる. "I think I can 約束 to take good care of Gail," he said. "Something tells me she and I are always going to understand each other, and be---dear friends."
WE didn't kill old Doc. The rotten 圧力（をかける） （選挙などの）運動をする against us is just low-負かす／撃墜する yellow journalism. The vicious attack of 地区 弁護士／代理人／検事 Gleason is a lot of political hooey, thrown out to catch a few extra 投票（する）s. Patsy Stevens and I are not 有罪の of the 殺人 of the world's greatest botanist, Dr. Heinrich Sigmund Bloch. Out of 尊敬（する）・点 for his family, and because I didn't want to chuck mud at the 指名する of a Nobel Prize 勝利者, I've kept my mouth shut up till now. I've 辞退するd to give the 詳細（に述べる）s of the craziest, creepiest 科学の 実験 ever pulled off. Before that nightmare evening when Bloch's mania for digging into the mysteries of life made him go hog-wild, he was 最高の，を越すs in science. I guess you know that his 熟考する／考慮するs in hybridism and his four-容積／容量 work, Osmotic 不正行為s の中で the Sarraceniaceous 工場／植物s, are classics. I still think of him myself as a sort of 知識人 dynamo, a 広大な／多数の／重要な botanical genius. And, in spite of the spine-揺さぶるing bumps he put me over, I can separate Bloch the experimentalist from Bloch the man.
But I can't 持つ／拘留する my tongue any longer. The only chance Patsy Stevens and I have of （疑いを）晴らすing away the cloud of 疑惑 that's making life 堅い for us is to tell the truth 率直に. Then maybe people will stop heckling us, stop whispering about us, stop pointing at us as if we were a couple of homicidal crooks.
It all began when I got Sigmund's 公式文書，認める, written in his crabbed, old-maid handwriting:
Dear Jerry: You're the fellow I need to help me in a 職業 of work I've got on 手渡す. It's terribly important. Please come out to my place this evening. And--this will probably seem 半端物 to you--don't tell a living soul you're coming. Destroy this 公式文書，認める, Jerry, if you still 尊敬（する）・点 your cranky old prof.
Yours affectionately,
Sigmund.
There were two 推論する／理由s why that 公式文書，認める bothered me. Doc was never one to be furtive about anything. He was so honest and open he would just as soon 手渡す his bankbook to a 信用／信任 man as not. Now he was 事実上の／代理 as 隠しだてする as a 秘かに調査する. And I couldn't see why he had 選ぶd on me to help him in a "terribly important" 実験, inasmuch as I nearly flunked two of his courses at school.
As Doc had once said himself, I was better at the "dynamic tropisms of the football field" than I was at lab work. There was something phony about the whole 始める，決める-up. But I was flattered up to my neck that he 手配中の，お尋ね者 me to help him.
Grinning, I touched a match to the 公式文書，認める and let the ashes 減少（する）. I wouldn't have grinned if I had realized that in 燃やすing that 公式文書，認める and 受託するing Bloch's 招待 I was letting myself in for a taste of unadulterated 科学の horror that would haunt me like a nightmare the 残り／休憩（する） of my life.
But then, as I've 示すd, I'm no mental 巨人. I'm just one of those chaps who, was thrown in the first 一連の会議、交渉／完成する by the Einstein theory and who's still fighting a losing 戦う／戦い with math.
I did what old Sigmund asked me to---said nothing to anybody about where I was going. I slipped away 権利 after supper and 長，率いるd my Lizzie, which runs in 反抗 of the 法律s of equilibrium, gravitation and the 自然保護 of energy, toward the Jersey hills where Doc has his hangout.
It's やめる a 捨てる, too. Some of his 産む／飼育するs of crazy 工場／植物s have been bought by nurserymen all over the country. Doc has 選ぶd up some dough to play with. He has put it into 温室s and buildings on his hundred-acre farm.
I got there just at sunset. Doc met me at the door and I thought at first it was the sunset light that made him look so queer. Then I 人物／姿／数字d he must be sick. For he was just about the color of the sheepskin I almost didn't get. It was a funny 肉親，親類d of paleness, as if he had a bad 事例／患者 of anemia.
HIS long nose was white and pinched. There were blue circles under his 注目する，もくろむs and his cheeks were sunken.
His 発言する／表明する was hearty enough when he said: "Hello, Jerry." But I noticed when he shook 手渡すs that his fingers trembled. He turned and led me into the house and I couldn't help seeing that his 脚s were 不安定な, too.
"You don't feel 井戸／弁護士席, do you, Prof?" I said.
He turned and gave me a funny look. There was something strange in it, something I'd never seen before. It was almost like 疑惑, or cunning.
"I never felt better in my life, Jerry," he said. "But I've been working hard; maybe not eating or sleeping やめる enough--and this 職業 of 地雷 is exacting."
I sensed suddenly that he was 存在 evasive.
"What's the 職業?" I asked.
He ignored that, led me through several doors into a 支援する room of the main house, and I noticed something else that struck me as funny. Every time he went through a door old Doc locked it after him.
He got more and more excited and 不安定な. By the time we reached his 支援する-room den, there were small hectic 紅潮／摘発する 位置／汚点／見つけ出すs on his paper-white 肌. I was more sure than ever that he was sick.
But he didn't talk like a sick or discouraged man. His 発言する／表明する held excitement, elation. He seemed to have some big secret under his hat.
"You're curious, aren't you, Jerry?" he said. When I nodded, he 追加するd: "I don't 非難する you. You've a 権利 to be eaten up with curiosity. But before I tell you about my work, I want to 準備する you a little. I don't want you to think I've become a crackpot."
He looked at me with an 半端物 mixture of 反抗 and 控訴，上告 as though he were begging me to be indulgent.
"Prof," I said. "I'd have 約束 in you if you told me you'd 移植（する）d strawberries to the moon. I'm only wondering why you 選ぶd out a dumbbell like me to help you when you might have got a whole bunch of sixteen-cylinder, 弁--in-the-長，率いる brain trusters."
"There's a 推論する／理由 for that," Doc said mysteriously. "I'll explain. But let me show you a few things first."
He drew a bunch of microphotographs from his desk and 押すd them toward me. They had things on them that looked like little boats with the 明らかにする ribs showing. There were others that were 一連の会議、交渉／完成する, like circular sections of honeycomb with perfectly formed hexagonal 独房s.
"You know what those are, Jerry?"
I nodded. "Diatoms. You can dredge them out of any pond. Every amateur microscopist in the country has squinted at them."
Doc chuckled.
"And you know, Jerry, that we botanists like to call them motile 工場／植物s. But--" he held up a trembling finger---"there's no 絶対の 保証／確信 that they're 工場／植物s except that they show traces of chlorophyl. Old-timers thought they were tiny 海洋 animals. They have siliceous 骸骨／概要s that withstand boiling in sulphuric 酸性の. They move around and behave very much like mollusks. They may be 工場／植物s or animals or both. They may be one of the 行方不明の links between the 工場／植物 and animal kingdoms."
Doc was on one of his favorite 支配するs. I nodded again.
"You used to tell us that in the classroom, Prof."
"許す an old man's lapse of memory," he murmured. "I just 手配中の，お尋ね者 to be sure you understood, Jerry. Here's another picture. You can identify that, too, of course."
"Sure, Prof," I said. "I'm no botanist, but we got several 見本／標本s of those when you took us out on field excursions. They're 投手 工場／植物s. Once we almost 溺死するd in a 押し寄せる／沼地, I remember, getting them."
"Yes, Jerry. Very 罰金 examples of Sarracenia. And you know, too, that they're carnivorous, like the sundews, butterworts and bladderworts. The 投手s have a gummy nectar in the 底（に届く） and hairs pointing in one direction. Insects can get in, but not out. The 工場／植物 devours them."
AS Doc said this I thought suddenly of all those doors he had locked behind me. A queer thought, but something in his 直面する or in the atmosphere, brought it to my mind.
Then I suddenly 星／主役にするd at Doc's wrist. His coat cuff had pulled up a little as he reached for the picture, and I saw that there was a strange--looking, bunchy scar on the 肌. A little higher up was a queer, lumpy 包帯.
"You've 傷つける yourself, Prof," I said.
He yanked at his cuff quickly.
"It's nothing," he answered. "Only a scratch."
For a second there was an embarrassed silence. For a 推論する／理由 I couldn't understand, Doc's 注目する，もくろむs 辞退するd to 会合，会う 地雷. Then he looked 負かす／撃墜する at the pictures and spoke.
"Jerry," he said, "both of the photos I've shown you 示す that the 工場／植物 and animal orders aren't so far apart as some people think. Some day--" He paused again.
"Some day what, Prof?"
"井戸／弁護士席, suppose, Jerry, that human 存在s could borrow some of the secrets that 工場／植物s 所有する? Food from the 空気／公表する; untold energy from the 日光; mineral salts and 窒素 from the 国／地域."
"We get all that by eating green stuff, Prof. Spinach, for instance--"
"I know, Jerry, but suppose a race of men were developed who could do their own direct 化学製品 synthesizing as 工場／植物s do? Think of the 広大な 可能性s! No food 不足s. No worry over 干ばつs. No 国際紛争s over land to 料金d growing 全住民s."
I began to feel a little queer. "I see what you're 運動ing at, Prof," I said. "But chlorophyl and haemoglobin are two different things. They--"
He stopped me, smacking his trembling 手渡す 負かす／撃墜する on his desk.
"That's it, boy--chlorophyl and haemoglobin! That's my angle. That's what I'm working on. That's the basis of an 実験 of 地雷 that will 始める，決める the world by its ears. I may not live to see it perfected--you may not. But centuries hence--"
He had a strange look on his 直面する, the look of a fanatic who is letting his mind chase along one line of thought till he sees everything else cockeyed. The world's 十分な of guys like that 権利 now--独裁者s who pop their 注目する，もくろむs and preen their mustaches, and make whole nations goose-step. I was sorry to see Doc, a scientist, getting lopsided, too. But he went on.
"You don't know what this means to me, Jerry. It's the 最高潮 of my whole life's work. I've already taken the first step across the threshold."
"You mean, Prof?"
"I mean I've got a 工場／植物 closer to the animal kingdom than either the diatom or the ありふれた Sarracenia. I want you to help me carry on, Jerry, where I've had to leave off."
His 発言する／表明する 滞るd. His 注目する，もくろむs dropped from 地雷 again. 突然の I had a strange, creepy feeling of uneasiness along my 支援する.
"You're young, Jerry," he 追加するd huskily. "You have enough 科学の curiosity to understand and 高く評価する／（相場などが）上がる, and enough physical stamina to 与える／捧げる... You were a football player. You're 強健な, 十分な-血d. You'll help me, won't you?"
"Sure," I said a little weakly. "Sure. But what is it you want me to do?"
"Come and I'll show you," he said.
He led the way to a flight of stairs which seemed to go 負かす／撃墜する to a cellar. He locked the door behind us, descended to a small, square hallway with 二塁打 glass doors in the middle, which I 認めるd as a sort of 空気／公表する lock. On the other 味方する of that the atmosphere suddenly got strange, unpleasant, and as 湿気の多い as the tropics.
There was another door with 有望な lights showing around the 辛勝する／優位s of it. As Doc opened this a girl in a white uniform （機の）カム toward us.
I HELD my breath because she was so pretty. She had a 集まり of 巡査-blond hair 削減（する） in a page-boy （頭が）ひょいと動く. Her features were like those of some goddess on an old Greek coin. Her 肌 was warm, rich, sun-tanned, and she had big, blue, long-攻撃するd 注目する，もくろむs.
It wasn't till I took a second look that I noticed the strange 表現 in those 注目する，もくろむs. The pupils were 拡大するd, 空いている, as though she were ひどく 麻薬d.
"This is Patricia Stevens, my assistant," Doc said. "She's a trained nurse and a very competent young woman. 行方不明になる Stevens, 会合，会う Jerry 小道／航路, a former pupil of 地雷."
The girl said nothing. Her only 返答 was a 簡潔な／要約する nod and a 空いている ちらりと見ること from her long--攻撃するd 注目する，もくろむs. I had the feeling that she was looking through me rather than at me. I saw suddenly that the lovely, sun-tanned complexion that made her look like an outdoors girl （機の）カム from a 殴打／砲列 of blinding flood-lights 総計費. They were sunlamps, 最高の-powerful ones, 燃やすing some 肉親，親類d of mercuty vapor, I guessed, in quartz 水晶 tubes.
Without any word from Doc she went to the 塀で囲む with the queer mechanical steps of a sleepwalker or an automaton, and pulled a switch. It was as though it were part of a 決まりきった仕事 職業 that she had been trained in till her subconscious mind directed her 活動／戦闘s.
As soon as the switch clicked the big flood--lamps dimmed to a yellow glow and I could see beyond them.
Then I forgot about the girl, forgot even about Doc. Little 冷淡な maggots seemed to はう up my spine.
For there was a 工場／植物 in the middle of that cellar room such as I've never seen before and never want to see again. It was a horrible, nightmare sort of 工場／植物. It had 幅の広い, 厚い leaves covered with thorns and hair and ending in whiplike tendrils. Some of the leaves were curled into 深い cups. The 茎・取り除く of the 工場／植物 was twisty and shiny. It was at least twelve feet high; almost as high as the room. And the color of the 茎・取り除く held me fascinated. That was a sort of blue-red, waxy and feverish.
I drew in my breath, then felt my heart begin to 大打撃を与える. For something else was happening.
As the lights went 薄暗い the 工場／植物 began to move. Not much--for it was rooted in a tub. But the 茎・取り除く began a slight, snaky undulation and the 広大な／多数の／重要な, 厚い leaves started groping in a way that made my spine はう.
One leaf that I watched seemed to open and shut like the palm of a 巨大（な）, fingerless 手渡す. There was a strange, eerie energy here. That moving leaf seemed to be a mute gesture out of the 冷気／寒がらせる, 先史の past before living forms on Earth had become differentiated as they are today.
A sweat broke out on my 直面する and I don't know how long I might have 星／主役にするd like a man in a dream if Doc hadn't spoken.
"Nepenthe Splendens!" he whispered, his 発言する／表明する shaking with pride. "Its ancestors were the 広大な／多数の／重要な Nepenthe 投手 工場／植物s from Malaya. It's taken five years of cross-産む／飼育するing to develop it. That's the living 実験 Jerry, that I want you to help me with."
I saw then that the 工場／植物's 茎・取り除く, low 負かす／撃墜する, almost at the base, was 分裂（する） a little and that a length of 柔軟な tubing was held in place there by carefully 負傷させる 禁止（する）d of linen tape. The other end of the tubing was coiled in a little box on the 床に打ち倒す. The end of it seemed to be forked. There were some dials and gadgets on the 床に打ち倒す, too, that I couldn't make anything of.
THE moving leaves of the 工場／植物 seemed now to be dipping 負かす／撃墜する toward that tubing in a strange, monotonous pulsation that was like the restless wings of a 広大な／多数の／重要な moth. The lowest leaves of all bent 負かす／撃墜する till they almost touched the tube.
I had a feeling that the 工場／植物 was struggling to make itself understood; that some blind instinct was 狙撃 powerful impulses through all its 独房s.
"It's hungry," said Doc 静かに. "Photosyntheses stops as soon as we turn the lights off. The 工場／植物 is growing very 急速な／放蕩な and has become accustomed to 協同組合 栄養 the instant its own chlorophyl 中止するs activity."
He looked at me to see if I understood.
I did understand, with a growing sense of horror, as though 冷淡な fingers were 圧力（をかける）d around my neck. I understood so 井戸／弁護士席 that I pretended dumbness, and 軍隊d myself to say:
"Better turn the lights on again and let the 工場／植物 do its stuff."
"No, Jerry. That wouldn't solve the problem now. This is a wonderful 事例／患者 of interdependence between two living orders--vegetable and animal. The 海洋 alga that finds its home on the 支援するs of horseshoe crabs is as nothing compared to this 共同. This is a true mingling of chlorophyl and haemoglobin in the most remarkable synthetic 協調 the world has ever seen. The 工場／植物 has reached the 行う／開催する／段階 where, without periods of 相互の 協調, it will die. It needs such 協調 now. I've served it faithfully. I must 残り／休憩（する） awhile now for the sake of my health. I'm asking you to take my place, Jerry, in the 利益／興味 of science."
"You mean--" My 発言する／表明する was trembling so I could hardly 認める it.
"I mean that I'm going to connect your veins with the 工場／植物's 独房s for a time just as I have done with my own veins for days."
He held up his 武器, let me see both wrists and I understood the 十分な meaning of those strange scars. I was silent, stunned. "It's no worse than a 輸血 that is done every day in a hospital," Doc said 静かに. "It's a small thing to 与える／捧げる to an 実験 that probably 階級s as the greatest in history."
"But--but--" I stammered. "You say this is a 事例／患者 of 協調. If my 血 循環させるs in the 工場／植物, then the 工場／植物's 次第に損なう will 循環させる in me?"
"正確に／まさに, Jerry. Your 血 will be thinned a little, but that is all. You will 交流 some proteins for other nutritive elements that the 工場／植物 製造（する）s," he spoke very expectantly.
I 星／主役にするd at Doc's sickly, transparent 肌 and felt my gorge rise. It didn't look as if he had got much out of his 共同 with the 工場／植物. He divined my thought and tried to 長，率いる me off it.
"I'm old, Jerry. My 協調 with the 工場／植物 has been わずかに onesided from the first. Because my stamina has 少なくなるd through the years I 港／避難所't been able to give 支援する my 株 of energy to Nepenthe Splendens. But you can. You and he should 達成する a perfect 化学製品 balance."
"Look here, Prof," I said. "I'd do almost anything for you--you know it. But this--this is crazy, suicidal. That 工場／植物 is growing 絶えず. You said so. It's twelve feet tall now, I won't be able to 料金d it long anyway. You're starting something you can't finish."
"Can't I!" he said. He chuckled then and got a strange glint in his 注目する，もくろむs. "I can get other men," he said.
I realized suddenly then, insofar as his 実験 was 関心d, he had slipped over the brink. He was so in the 支配する of his big idea that he had lost all 視野. He wouldn't let anything stop him--not even kidnapping, or 殺人. If I helped him in this wild 商売／仕事 now I'd just be 主要な him on to his own doom. He was 長，率いるd for terrible trouble as sure as 運命／宿命. But I made my 発言する／表明する soothing.
"You've 証明するd your point now, Prof," I said. "You've fed this 工場／植物 and you say the 工場／植物's fed you. That's about as far as you can carry the 実験 till you've gone into all the 化学製品 angles of it."
"You're 教えるing me in my own life's work, Jerry!"
His 発言する／表明する was 冷淡な, ironic for a moment. It was the first time I had ever heard Doc talk like that. But it's the way all fanatics get, 独裁者s 含むd. They don't want to be told anything.
"I was afraid you mightn't understand, Jerry, that's why--"
WHAT Doc did then was something I had not 推定する／予想するd or 心配するd. He moved faster than I had supposed an old, weak, shaking man could. His thin 手渡す dived into his coat pocket, （機の）カム out with what seemed to be a tiny toy ピストル.
Before I could even open my mouth he touched the 誘発する／引き起こす and there was a faint hiss of compressed 空気／公表する. I felt a tiny prick like a needle against my 味方する.
I reached 今後, took the gun away from Doc.
"What's the idea!" I said. "You're liable to put a guy's 注目する，もくろむ out. You must--"
I didn't get any その上の. All at once I began to feel funny. It was as though a 肉親，親類d of 厚い film was はうing over my 肌. My tongue felt 厚い, too.
"Why, Prof!" I said. "Now I get it! You've pulled a 殺人-mystery stunt! That was a 毒（薬） dart. I didn't think you--"
My tongue was so 厚い I couldn't go on. I tried to take a step toward Doc, stopped.
There were 涙／ほころびs running 負かす／撃墜する Doc's cheeks. I realized suddenly that he was putting up a 捨てる inside himself--the scientist and the man fighting; an experimentalist who wouldn't stop at anything, and one of the best-hearted guys that ever lived.
"It won't 傷つける you, Jerry!" he almost sobbed. "Don't be 脅すd. It's just a 害のない 麻薬. It will wear off. But I hoped I wouldn't have to--I thought you'd be willing--"
Either he was getting incoherent or else I couldn't understand him on account of that 麻薬 in my 団体／死体.
I was helpless now. I'd have fallen like a fool if Doc hadn't come 今後 and held me up. Then he signaled, and I dimly saw the white-覆う？ nurse, 行方不明になる Stevens, coming up, too. Her 直面する was a blank mask and her 注目する，もくろむs were still 空いている. The old boy, in his hog-wild 実験, had given her some other 肉親，親類d of 麻薬. She didn't look at me, didn't seem to feel much of anything. She just helped him get me into a 激しい, wheeled 議長，司会を務める.
That was ready and waiting, and it was plain to me, even in my dazed 明言する／公表する, that Doc had planned this thing in 前進する. That's why he had written that funny 公式文書，認める. It showed how 完全に obsessed he was--and how dangerous.
He had stopped crying now. His 注目する，もくろむs were like 有望な lights dancing before 地雷. I heard metal click, saw ひもで縛るs 存在 buckled. I felt my ankles and 武器 and 団体／死体 存在 fastened into that 激しい steel 議長，司会を務める. Then Doc rolled my sleeves up and 明らかにするd my wrists. 行方不明になる Stevens brought the tube 今後.
Doc worked like some 広大な／多数の／重要な 外科医. He was dexterous, swift. He made incisions in both my wrists 近づく large veins. His knife was so sharp that it hardly 傷つける at all. He slipped small metal suction cups on the ends of the tubes over the incisions, and he did it so quickly that hardly a 減少（する） of 血 流出／こぼすd. He clamped the cups to my 肌 with rubber wrist 禁止（する）d, then stepped 支援する.
All this time the big 工場／植物 had been moving more 速く. Its dipping, throbbing leaves were almost like the 武器 of a man or an ape, gesticulating. It bent toward me as I was strapped in the 議長，司会を務める and the suction cups were clamped on.
NOW the movements of the 工場／植物 stopped 突然の. Its leaves were 静かな. I could feel a 冷静な／正味の sensation in my wrists. There was very little 苦痛, but the coolness 増加するd, crept up my 武器, and was …を伴ってd by a strange dizziness and faintness.
I guess I was 脅すd, too. And I was like a man who stands outside himself and watches. I felt my mouth come open, heard sounds that must have been myself yelling.
行方不明になる Stevens was looking 負かす／撃墜する at me. For a moment my yells seemed to 押し進める aside the blank 隠す across her 注目する，もくろむs. There was compassion there, sympathy, understanding. Anyway it made me ashamed of myself, made some of the 影響する／感情s of the 麻薬 wear off.
I stopped yelling, relaxed and 星／主役にするd up into the blue 注目する，もくろむs of 行方不明になる Stevens while I felt the coldness of the 工場／植物 creep up my 武器 into my 団体／死体. I seemed to 沈む into a 深い pool of horror and dizziness. But I kept 星／主役にするing into her 注目する，もくろむs, and there my thoughts fell into another pool--a pool as （疑いを）晴らす and blue and 静かな as the skies in tenderest April.
Honestly, I could almost smell roses and hear birds sing.
"You've got the grandest 注目する，もくろむs I ever saw," I heard myself 説. "You're the sweetest--looking kid. I'm going to call you Patsy."
I was out of my 長，率いる, of course, 絶対 nuts, or I wouldn't have talked that way to a girl I'd never seen before in my life. But I was telling the truth, and people do go on that way when they're 麻薬d or crazy 脅すd. Ask any nurse who has ever worked in a hospital!
I 手配中の，お尋ね者 行方不明になる Stevens to 持つ／拘留する my 手渡す. As the 次第に損なう of Nepenthe Splendens began to filter through my 団体／死体 I tried to reach out. But my 手渡すs were strapped 負かす／撃墜する.
She seemed to get the idea, though, that I liked her. She laid her white 手渡す on my forehead, and smiled a funny, strange little smile, like a dopey kitten that wants to do the 権利 thing and can't やめる 人物／姿／数字 it out.
And because she was there, の近くに by, smiling, I didn't so much mind 存在 a partner to a devil 工場／植物 in a botanical hell that old Doc had 製造（する）d.
"Shoot the 作品, Prof, and see if I mind!" I heard myself say wildly, foolishly.
He did. That was the beginning of the strangest, wildest night I've ever spent. Every two or three hours I was unclamped from the 工場／植物 and the flood-lights were put on. When the 工場／植物 wasn't 交流ing 血 for 次第に損なう it was getting fed by 人工的な sunlight.
But I noticed that its leaves still waved a little and reached toward me even when the lights were on. Once it swayed toward my 議長，司会を務める and almost tipped the tub over, and Doc, who stayed in the cellar 研究室／実験室 絶えず, had to 削減（する） the photosynthetic period short and clamp me 支援する on the 職業.
Old Heinrich had a cot in the room, and I could see he was so 重要なd up over his 実験 that he ーするつもりであるd to sleep 権利 there. His 開会／開廷／会期s with the 工場／植物 before I arrived had made him weak and groggy. He was crying for sleep, and if it hadn't been for his wrought-up 条件, he would have keeled over.
Every now and then his excitement left him and his eyelids drooped. He kept up a running 解雇する／砲火／射撃 of 陳謝s to me for what he had done, mixed with wild conjectures as to where this 実験 was going to lead.
I didn't answer. Dumb as I may be I saw plainly where it would lead. After only six hours of "協調" with the 工場／植物 I was beginning to feel like a guy who has been drawn through a wringer. My 血 was thinned with that hellish 次第に損なう. I looked at my 手渡すs and saw that they had a greenish color already. Lord knew what that chlorophyl in my system would do.
But I knew I was 弱めるing 急速な／放蕩な. The 工場／植物 was huskier than when Doc had fed it. I saw that I was 長，率いるd for unconsciousness or a 決裂／故障, and that Dog-直面する would have to get some other sucker to help him. That would only be the beginning. If he got too desperate he might even decide to ひもで縛る Patsy in the 議長，司会を務める.
THAT thought made me desperate. Maybe you'll think it was part of my nutty 条件, but I'd fallen in love with the kid. Yes, fallen into those blue 注目する，もくろむs of hers just like a guy 落ちるing into a 井戸／弁護士席. And I suddenly 手配中の，お尋ね者 to get her out, just as I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to get myself out. She was too 甘い, too 罰金 to be mixed up in a hellish thing like this. If Doc hadn't 麻薬d her she would never have helped him, I knew.
I had to save her, but how? She had been trained in a mechanical 決まりきった仕事 as Doc's assistant. 権利 now she was more like a robot than a human 存在. There didn't seem to be anything I could do. Dog-直面する was 決定するd to 持つ／拘留する me, and Patsy was too much under his 支配（する）／統制する to unstrap me herself.
I tried talking to her once when Dog-直面する went out to get himself some cigars. I pleaded with her to unfasten the ひもで縛るs, even told her I'd fallen for her 長，率いる over heels, hoping that it would jar her out of her dopiness.
But it was no go. Her mind was a blank except for the orders Doc had given her. She was 始める，決める to carry them out. Nothing I could say would make any difference.
The hours ticked on and along toward morning Dog-直面する lay 負かす／撃墜する on his cot.
"I just want a wink of sleep, Jerry," he muttered. "Just a wink. Don't begrudge it to me, and don't think too 厳しく of me. I'm ashamed of what I've done, but--it had to be that way."
His 発言する／表明する was sincere. He meant what he said. によれば the lopsided way he had grown to look at things it was 必然的な that I be sacrificed in the 利益／興味s of science. That 工場／植物 was more important to him than my life. And somehow, knowing how he felt, I didn't get sore or anything.
I told him I forgave him, but even as I talked, I began to 陰謀（を企てる） 内密に how I could get loose. There must be some way, I kept telling myself---some way.
It's funny how 有望な even a dumb guy will get when it comes to a 事柄 of self-保護. I was 罠にかける, cornered, 脅すd stiff for myself and for Patsy Stevens, and I had an inspiration 権利 then that burst like a bunch of 原子s 爆発するing in my brain. My mind began to 焦点（を合わせる） on something Doc had once told me himself about 投手 工場／植物s in general--something I thought I'd forgotten, but which must have stayed 負かす／撃墜する in my subconscious all the time.
I 星／主役にするd up at one big cup-形態／調整d leaf of Nepenthe Splendens that hung almost over my 長，率いる.
Spooky-looking and weirdly developed as this nightmare 創造 of old Heinrich's was, it was still one of the Sarracenia family. Those leaf cups bore a resemblance to the ありふれた 投手 工場／植物s that I used to pull up in the 押し寄せる／沼地 when I was one of Doc's students.
And I knew there must be liquid inside it. The 空気／公表する of the room was ひどく 湿気の多い. Besides that, there was a water spray hitched to a 麻薬を吸う over by the 塀で囲む.
Yes, there was moisture in that cup so 近づく to me--and not just plain water either!
My heart began to 大打撃を与える, and my mind began to grope for words and phrases buried under a couple of 層s of 不振の gray 事柄. Enzymes! A proteolytic 酸性の, something like C14H10O9-2H2O. That was tannic 酸性の, and hadn't Doc once told us gaping students that all 投手 工場／植物s secreted this powerful proteolytic 酸性の from 確かな 独房s inside the cups? This, mixed with water 負かす／撃墜する below, 行為／法令／行動するd an an enzyme to digest the insects that fell in.
Look in your botany 調書をとる／予約する and see for yourself. A proteolytic 酸性の that will 軟化する and break up animal 事柄!
With my heart （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing a swingtime rhythm I 星／主役にするd from the cup over my 長，率いる to the ひもで縛る on my 権利 wrist. It was leather, and any 肉親，親類d of tannic 酸性の would 軟化する leather. Even water by itself was a softener, and if water alone would do the trick, how much better it would behave if it had 酸性の in it!
THAT'S what I was thinking as I watched Doc 嘘（をつく） 負かす／撃墜する for his nap. I was so excited suddenly I nearly keeled over. By the time Dog-直面する began really to relax I had it all 麻薬d out just how I was going to get that 酸性の 解答 in Nepenthe Splendens leaf cup 正確に／まさに where I 手配中の，お尋ね者 it. And I began to wonder 権利 then if I hadn't been wrong all my life in calling myself a dumb cluck. I leave it to you if what I did next didn't take some ドーム work.
You've heard of a tourniquet, used to 削減（する） off 血 循環／発行部数 and stop bleeding? 井戸／弁護士席, I 押すd my 武器 今後 and 新たな展開d both of them sideward, 肘s out, turning those ひもで縛るs on my wrists into tourniquets. They 傷つける like hell. The ひもで縛るs 圧力（をかける）d into my 肌 till I almost yelled. But I held them there, stopping the 血 循環／発行部数 in my arm veins through minutes that seemed like ages.
After awhile what I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to happen did happen. Nepenthe Splenden's 次第に損なう couldn't get through into my 血 any more. The big 工場／植物 began to show 調印するs of restlessness as its food was 削減（する） off.
It was eerie, horrible, to see that unholy quivering begin to start. Slow undulations convulsed the 茎・取り除く and the leaves began to 下落する and vibrate. The cup over my 長，率いる scooped lower and lower and the 厚い, flat leaf next to it opened and shut like a 恐ろしい, fingerless human palm.
Patsy Stevens had been trained in a strict mechanical 決まりきった仕事, as I've said. Her 麻薬d mind couldn't grapple with the 予期しない. The 工場／植物 was restless, sore as a boil. She could see that. But it wasn't time for the vapor lights to go on and the photosynthetic period to begin.
I was supposed to be feeding Nepenthe Splendens and somehow I wasn't doing it. Patsy didn't know what to do. She just stood by helplessly. And she didn't even try to stop me when the leaf cup dipped so low that I was able to 得る，とらえる it with the tips of my curled-up fingers.
I hung on like a bulldog with my fingernails, digging into the pulpy green flesh. And I held my breath, too, and even prayed I guess. For I had my own life there in my fingers and knew it.
Slowly I 緩和するd my 肘s in, drew the big leaf gently 負かす／撃墜する till the 投手 bowl tipped 今後 and 流出／こぼすd the 酸性の water over my wrist. Some of it splashed too wide, but most of it fell just where I had hoped--on the leather ひもで縛る around my arm.
I leaned 支援する then, weak and faint, let go of the leaf, let the 血 循環させる and let the 工場／植物 料金d again. But only for a few minutes. Moving my arm a little, I could already feel that the leather ひもで縛る was 軟化するing, stretching.
It 軟化するd more and more as the proteolytic 酸性の 侵入するd the leather 繊維s. I worked my wrist 支援する and 前へ／外へ, pulling till I was nearly dizzy. And then it happened! My 手渡す （機の）カム 解放する／自由な.
I yanked that 恐ろしい feeding tube off my wrist, and Patsy Stevens still stood by helplessly while I reached 負かす／撃墜する with my 権利 手渡す and unbuckled the other ひもで縛るs. I was out of the 議長，司会を務める the next instant and staggering across the room to get my 脚 muscles limbered.
PATSY followed me, looking uncertain, and I did something I hated to do, but which the occasion seemed to call for. I turned and slapped Patsy 権利 in the 直面する till her cheeks got red and she began to cry. It was one way I knew of to knock sense into a dopey person. I grabbed her by the arm then, walked her 支援する and 前へ／外へ till she stopped crying and till her 注目する，もくろむs got almost normal.
"We've got to get out of here quick, Patsy," I whispered.
She blinked a minute, shook her 長，率いる.
"We can't!" she whispered 支援する, "He'll wake up. He'll be mad at us both."
For answer I tiptoed over to the cot where Doc slept, slipped my 手渡す into his pocket, and pulled out his bunch of 重要なs. He was so sound asleep he never knew it. As a kidnaper Doc wasn't so hot.
I grinned as I stepped away from him. He looked so innocent and 静める sleeping like that! You'd never think that ドーム of his could have hatched such a thing as Nepenthe Splendens. I turned then and 星／主役にするd at the 工場／植物, and stopped grinning すぐに.
The thing 現実に seemed to sense that I was leaving for good and was sore. Its leaves had begun their monotonous waving again. The tendrils twitched and vibrated, giving out a faint rustling that was almost like the 捨てるing 規模s of a snake.
Patsy Stevens shivered. Her 注目する，もくろむs were wide now, 星／主役にするing at the 工場／植物.
"I'm afraid!" she gasped, as though she just seen it for the first time. "I want to leave this place, too."
"You bet!" I said. "Let's, before the old boy wakes up."
We went out of the cellar then with the rustle of the 工場／植物 still in our ears. I 打ち明けるd all the doors, and Patsy Stevens and I stole into the 早期に 夜明け. 非，不，無 of Doc's nurserymen was up yet. No one saw us go.
My old flivver was in Doc's garage. In it we drove 支援する to town and in a little hash-house in the 郊外s Patsy and I got really 熟知させるd over breakfast. We 交流d life histories the way kids do, said things with our 注目する，もくろむs that we were too shy to say with our tongues.
We got along swell, and I knew we were going to get along even better the more we saw of each other. We did, as things turned out--and now we're engaged to be married. But it's time to soft pedal all that part of it.
The important thing is what happened to old Doc. We never thought there would be any such startling 最高潮. When the story broke it knocked Patsy and myself 権利 between the 注目する，もくろむs.
We didn't hear anything about Doc all that morning or anything from him. But the afternoon papers carried wild headlines.
FAMOUS BOTANIST DEAD
BODY IN CELLAR LAB
BRUTAL MURDER HINTED
The story below the headlines read:
Dr. Heinrich Sigmund Bloch, Nobel Prize 勝利者 and one of the world's greatest 実験の botanists, was 設立する dead at noon today in a cellar that he used as a 研究室／実験室. The presence of a cot in the room 示すd that he slept there while he watched over some sort of 工場／植物 実験, 明らかに having to do with the 循環／発行部数 of 次第に損なう, about which he was an 当局.
The workmen on Dr. Bloch's hundred-acre farm could give no （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） 関心ing this 実験. They said Bloch had not taken them into his 信用／信任 on this particular 支店 of his work.
The 郡 検死官 gives as his opinion that some tramp may have broken into his 研究室／実験室 and killed him, with possible 強盗 as the 動機. A large 工場／植物 of unknown 種類 stood in a tub in the 中心 of the room. This was tipped over and Doctor Bloch's 直面する and 手渡すs were scratched by its thorns.
There were other 指示，表示する物s of a struggle, as if the doctor had fought with some marauder and been 殺害された by him. But there is also a 可能性 that the 工場／植物 may have fallen over on him accidentally while he slept, and that he was scratched trying to extricate himself from its thorns, and bled to death.
His 団体／死体 was 部分的に／不公平に covered by the 工場／植物 when his housekeeper 設立する him. It appeared that the mysterious marauder might have 試みる／企てるd to hide his 犠牲者's 死体 and then been 脅すd away by some sound in the house. The police are making a 徹底的な 調査.
THERE was a picture of Doc's 団体／死体 with the 工場／植物, now dead and wilted, half 隠すing him, and under it the caption:
MURDER OR ACCIDENT?
Patsy Stevens and I looked at each other. Her 直面する was white. We knew that the police would probably find 手がかり（を与える）s connecting us both with Dr. Bloch and 証明するing that we had been out there that night. That would be 平易な. Patsy had left some things behind, and so had I. The 跡をつけるs of my car could be traced--as the police afterward did do---giving the D. A. his chance to get 汚い.
But the police didn't know the 指名する of the real 殺害者, and wouldn't have believed us if we'd told them. They didn't know that Nepenthe Splendens, cheated out of a 協同組合 開会／開廷／会期 with its new 犠牲者, had tipped its own tub over, attacked Doc with its 厄介な leaves, and wilted to death when Doc's 血 had stopped 広まる.
You can't 非難する the police. I guess it's the first time in history a 工場／植物 ever killed a guy.
"Wade Hammond" Bucks the Egotist of 罪，犯罪
Paul Chadwick
THE 直面する of Daugherty, night watchman on the fiftieth 床に打ち倒す of the Empire Towers Building, was putty-hued. His 発言する／表明する was a rasping croak.
"There it is now--you can see it out there, Mr. Hammond!"
Leaning far out of the window he pointed with one trembling finger.
Wade Hammond, newspaper man and special 捜査官／調査官 of 罪，犯罪, bent 今後 熱望して. The 薄暗い light from a hallway bulb shone on his lean, tanned 直面する with its thin mustache line. His 注目する，もくろむs were steel hard.
He still had newspaper 関係s. He had come up here to 調査／捜査する a wild 噂する, a story which might make some good copy. His 態度 toward the whole thing had been jocular. But he wasn't smiling now. He, too, saw something moving along the 塀で囲む of this most 巨大（な） of 超高層ビルs. His scalp tingled and his heart （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 faster. It was 考えられない that any living thing could creep along the building's glass-smooth exterior.
The watchman's 発言する／表明する sounded hoarsely in his ear.
"It's the ghost of one of the workmen who was killed when they was putting 'er up. The place is haunted. No guy could はう around out there."
Wade clutched the man's arm tensely.
"It's 平行の with this 床に打ち倒す," he said, "about twenty windows away. You have the 重要なs. We'll see if we can't get closer."
The watchman shook his 長，率いる.
"It won't do any good, Mr. Hammond. It'll be gone when you get there. I tried it before. It's always gone when you get の近くに."
The eeriness of the night seemed to envelop them. The prickly sensation along Wade's scalp 増加するd. It was 静かな up here. The traffic noises （機の）カム in a sound that was no more than the faint wash of a distant sea. A maze of streets showed far below. The モーター cars were tiny beetles with phosphorescent 注目する，もくろむs. The people were infinitesimal dots, fusing and separating like microbes in a 研究室／実験室 culture.
"Give me the 重要なs anyway," said Wade.
With the watchman に引き続いて him shakily he ran 支援する along the hallway to a point opposite the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す where the mysterious 影をつくる／尾行する had shown itself.
He 設立する the 権利 重要な, 急落（する），激減（する）d it into the lock, and entered a large 控訴 of offices. He strode across a rug, reached a window and threw it up, then 慎重に thrust his 長，率いる out and 星／主役にするd along the 味方するs of the building. There was a tightness in his throat now, a feeling of tenseness and dread that he could not even explain to himself. What was that thing he had seen on the building's 直面する so high above the street?
There was nothing 明白な now. The smooth expanse of the 塀で囲む showed no ghostly blur. But he had seen it, and the watchman had seen it on other nights. It had been spoken of in whispers by the night 従業員s of the building. It had grown into a spine-冷気／寒がらせるing legend.
He swiveled his 注目する，もくろむs in all directions. Here and there on the 超高層ビル's gigantic 直面する, lights still showed in office windows where some busy (n)役員／(a)執行力のある or clerk was working late. Far 総計費, on the eightieth 床に打ち倒す, the windows of the 急上昇する Club, where hundreds of 楽しみ 探検者s （機の）カム nightly, emitted a corona-like 照明.
He drew in his 長，率いる and の近くにd the window, 深く，強烈に puzzled.
"I'll stick around and maybe we'll see it again," he said, turning to the watchman who had 追跡するd into the office after him. The man shook his 長，率いる.
"It 一般に don't show up more than once in a night. It gets 脅すd off I guess."
Wade laughed jerkily. "Then I'll go home and turn in. I'll 減少（する） in to see you again tomorrow night--and I'll bring the biggest electric flash I can lay my 手渡すs on."
He said good-night to the watchman, then descended to the ground 床に打ち倒す in one of the 急落するing elevators. It was a mystery all 権利, a big one, but, so far, the 罪，犯罪 element hadn't entered into it; and there was hardly enough 構成要素 for a story as yet.
ON the pavement, in the 行為／法令／行動する of lighting a cigarette, he stopped dead short. His 長，率いる jerked up. A familiar sound reached his ears, seeming to fill the whole 空気／公表する. It was a banshee-like wail echoing and re-echoing along the street's dark canyon. A サイレン／魅惑的な!
The sound （機の）カム closer. The traffic stopped to let a long blue-団体／死体d car with glaring headlights slip through. The next moment Wade drew in his breath. For the スピード違反 car was from police （警察，軍隊などの）本部 and it was 製図／抽選 up before the 入り口 of the chromium-sheathed Empire Towers Building.
Two plainclothes men sprang out, then a familiar 人物／姿／数字--an owlish-直面するd man of middle age. Wade stepped 今後 smiling.
"Hello, there--what's all the excitement, 視察官?"
視察官 Thompson, 殺人 Bureau 長，率いる, turned. His gimlet 注目する，もくろむs 焦点（を合わせる）d on Wade.
"What are you doing here?" he 反対するd.
"Looking for ghosts, 長，指導者--I just saw one uptop."
A strange 表現 crossed the 視察官's 直面する. He （機の）カム closer to Wade. His 発言する／表明する was grim.
"Ghosts, is it? That's not all that's been going on up there tonight. There's been a 殺人, Wade. You're at the 権利 位置／汚点／見つけ出す at the 権利 time. Come along."
The smile on Wade's 直面する faded. 冷淡な fingers seemed to pass over his flesh. Somehow his hunch had been 警告 him of a 悪意のある something in the 空気／公表する; a sense of 差し迫った 悲劇. He turned and followed the old man-hunter. Thompson and he had worked on some 堅い 事例／患者s together. Someone had dubbed them "Twins of Trouble," though there was thirty years' difference in their ages. He asked no questions, but he got the 詳細（に述べる）s as they 発射 skyward in an 表明する elevator.
Thompson spoke from the corner of his mouth, in abrupt 宣告，判決s.
"Jacob Schmelzer's been 殺人d--発射. You know who he is--the big-time meatpacker. He and his brother are the 中心人物s of the 産業. Rich is no 指名する for it. This is going to raise hell, Wade. I'm glad you're here. When a big guy's bumped off there's always a lot of publicity. That's why I （機の）カム--to see that my boys don't pull a boner. It's the sort of thing that's got to be cleaned up quick."
Wade nodded, still silent. What 関係, if any, did the ghostly 影をつくる／尾行する he had seen 耐える to this 殺人? And ought he to について言及する it to the practical-minded Thompson?
For a 十分な minute they stayed in the ロケット／急騰するing elevator, then changed to a second car. At the seventy-first 床に打ち倒す they got out and walked 負かす／撃墜する a 回廊（地帯） to the door of a palatial 控訴 of offices. Across the glass パネル盤ing the words "Schmelzer Bros." were written in 保守的な lettering. From inside （機の）カム a buzz of 発言する／表明するs.
The talking 中止するd as Thompson and Wade entered. The place was alive with men from the 殺人 Squad. A beefy-直面するd 警官，（賞などを）獲得する ぼんやり現れるd 近づく the door of the inner office. A pale, わずかな／ほっそりした girl was standing at one 味方する of the room, biting her lips and 星／主役にするing aimlessly about out of worried 注目する，もくろむs. A plainclothes man jerked his thumb toward her.
"That's 行方不明になる Crocker, 長，指導者--the stenog who heard the 発射. Her story sounds a little phony."
Thompson stepped 今後 and 直面するd the girl. "Tell us about it," he snapped.
Wade listened, 注目する，もくろむing the 長官 closely. Her 発言する／表明する trembled. She was 明白に wrought up.
"We were working late," she said. "Mr. Schmelzer told me to stay--to take a few more 公式文書，認めるs. I waited in the main office. An hour must have passed. Then I heard what sounded like a 発射. I ran to Mr. Schmelzer's door and tried to open it, but it was locked. So I phoned the building superintendent and he got a policeman. They broke open the door and--設立する--him."
Thompson nodded and pursed up his lips.
"Thanks, 行方不明になる Crocker, I'll want to talk to you again later."
He beckoned to Wade and together they entered Schmelzer's 私的な office.
Wade looked curiously at the 人物／姿／数字 sitting propped up before the big mahogany desk, 武器 sprawled out and 長，率いる hanging loosely.
Jacob Schmelzer's 注目する，もくろむs were open, glazed in death, and a trickle of crimson ran 負かす／撃墜する from his white 長，率いる to form a pool on the desk 最高の，を越す.
A 探偵，刑事 joined them.
"Someone propped him in his 議長，司会を務める after the 殺人，大当り, 長，指導者," he said. "There's some 位置／汚点／見つけ出すs of 血 over there 近づく the window."
Wade turned and looked. The smooth, velvety green of the expensive carpet was broken by dark, 悪意のある stains.
HE went closer and 診察するd the dead man. It was 理解できない to him why a 弾丸 負傷させる had been （打撃，刑罰などを）与えるd in such a 位置／汚点／見つけ出す. For the gaping 穴を開ける that had 原因（となる）d the millionaire's death was 直接／まっすぐに in the 最高の，を越す of his 長，率いる.
"It's like I phoned you, 長，指導者," the 探偵，刑事 said. "The door was locked on the inside. There ain't no other 出口s to this office but the windows."
"And this is seventy stories up! How could a guy come in by a window?"
As though to 納得させる himself of the impossibility of it, Thompson went over and threw the sash up. Wade saw that the window was 打ち明けるd. He joined the 視察官 and 星／主役にするd 負かす／撃墜する the 味方する of the building toward the streets far below.
"The 殺し屋 might have come 負かす／撃墜する a rope from one of the 床に打ち倒すs above," he said softly.
Thompson nodded. "I thought of that. It's the only explanation if the girl ain't lying."
"You don't think she could have 解除するd Schmelzer off the 床に打ち倒す and to his 議長，司会を務める?" asked Wade skeptically.
"Maybe she had a boyfriend."
"But the door was locked on the inside."
"That could have been 直す／買収する，八百長をするd. I've seen it done. We'll keep an 注目する，もくろむ on her."
Wade shrugged. "I'm going to take a look at the windows of the 床に打ち倒すs above this one."
"Go high enough and you'll strike the 急上昇する Club," said Thompson. "They've got the 最高の，を越す on a ten-year 賃貸し（する）."
Wade nodded. He remained silent about the thing he had seen--the "超高層ビル Horror" that crept along the building's 直面する. But he had a growing hunch that there was something weird and grotesquely 悪意のある about this 事件／事情／状勢; something unknown and unguessed.
With the help of the building superintendent he followed the 床に打ち倒すs up one by one. The office 直接／まっすぐに over Schmelzer's was empty and the dust on the windowsills had not been 乱すd. He could find no trace of an 侵入者 in any of the other offices he visited.
Before the police downstairs had finished their 決まりきった仕事 examination, Wade reached the level on which the nightclub was 位置を示すd. He 陳列する，発揮するd his special 捜査官／調査官's card to the 制服を着た attendant at the door. "I'd like to see the 経営者／支配人," he said.
A HEAD WAITER led him between 列／漕ぐ／騒動s of （米）棚上げする／（英）提議するs and around a dance 床に打ち倒す where couples were swaying to the 感覚的な 緊張するs of a jazz 禁止（する）d. They reached the large 私的な office where Russ Vogel, owner and 経営者／支配人 of the 急上昇する Club, 行為／行うd his 商売／仕事.
Vogel, suave and bald-長，率いるd, rose from his 議長，司会を務める. "What's this I hear--a 殺人 downstairs---old Schmelzer killed?"
Wade nodded. "You know about it, then?"
"It's all over the building. Manny's gone 負かす／撃墜する to get the 麻薬."
"Manny?"
"Yes--Manny Arden, my partner."
Wade 解任するd the 指名する of the ex-ギャング（個々） with a start. Manny Arden, so 噂する had it, had been connected with a booze ゆすり on a grand 規模, until he had やめる to join Vogel in an even more lucrative 商売／仕事.
For ten minutes Wade chatted with the 経営者／支配人, sizing him up. Then he took a look around the night club, 支払う／賃金ing particular attention to the windows on the 味方する of the building above Schmelzer Bros.' offices.
When he descended to the seventy-first 床に打ち倒す again there were three newcomers in the Schmelzer 控訴--Manny Arden, Jacob Schmelzer's brother, Manfred, and his 甥 Arnold Bassett.
Manfred Schmelzer was like the dead man in 外見, save that he was a bit stockier. Bassett, a thin blue-注目する，もくろむd young man, had a pleasant but aloof manner. It was Manny Arden who attracted Wade's 利益／興味.
The ex-ギャング（個々）, who was evidently 井戸／弁護士席 熟知させるd with the Schmelzers, had the look of his type. Under a surface polish there were 指示，表示する物s of cunning and brutality. He had hard 注目する，もくろむs, mean lips and wore a 隠すd 敵意を持った 表現.
Wade 交流d a few words, then drifted on to the group of 探偵，刑事s around 視察官 Thompson.
"Any luck, 長，指導者?"
Thompson turned. "Not much. The 動機 was 強盗. But that's all we've 設立するd."
"強盗?"
"Yes, Schmelzer's 安全な was opened and a thousand in cash was taken. His brother and 甥 agree to that. They remember that the money was sent in from the bank this morning."
"The 殺害者 went to a lot of trouble for one grand," said Wade, a shade of 疑問 in his 発言する／表明する.
Thompson ignored the 関わりあい／含蓄.
"Doctor Morgan is going to 成し遂げる an 検視 tonight," he said. "When we get the 弾丸 that killed Schmelzer we may have more to work on. I think that 長官 of his may 人物／姿／数字 in this. She isn't as dumb as she looks. Maybe it's a love triangle 同様に as 強盗. An old guy with a young sweetie, and all that sort of stuff."
Wade's 直面する was serious. He hung around while the police searched for 手がかり（を与える）s and cross-questioned 行方不明になる Crocker without shaking her story. He left at midnight, after Jacob Schmelzer's 団体／死体 had been 除去するd to a 位置／汚点／見つけ出す where the 医療の examiner could 調査（する） for the 弾丸.
THE clatter of the telephone jerked Wade out of 平和的な slumber. Milk wagons were 動揺させるing in the street outside. The clock showed six. He 選ぶd up the receiver, and the 発言する／表明する of 視察官 Thompson buzzed excitedly in his ear.
"Here's some news for you, Hammond, on that Schmelzer 殺人，大当り. It's hot stuff."
"Shoot! Don't keep me in suspense."
"Listen--and laugh this off if you can." There was a 劇の pause at the end of the wire, then Thompson spoke 厳しく. "Doc Morgan did his work on Schmelzer--and there wasn't any 弾丸! Get that, Wade, a guy 発射, and no lead in his 長，率いる!"
"No 弾丸!" Wade spoke explosively. Then he whistled. The 十分な significance of the thing grew on him. It was a weird turn of events. It made him think again of that (n)艦隊／(a)素早いing ghostly 影をつくる／尾行する that crept along the Empire Towers Building.
"The doc couldn't have made a mistake, I suppose," he muttered.
"No--he's not the type." Thompson's 発言する／表明する grew complaining, then sardonic. "We'll have to look for a gun that kills without 弾丸s. Let me know if you get any 有望な ideas."
After he had hung up, Wade paced the 床に打ち倒す of his apartment, smoking cigarettes. His gaunt, young-old 直面する looked troubled. Thompson's grim joke had 始める，決める him to thinking. A gun that didn't 解雇する／砲火／射撃 弾丸s! Where had he heard of such a thing?
A half-hour later he had dressed, breakfasted, and was on his way to the Empire Towers Building. He 上がるd to the fiftieth 床に打ち倒す where he had seen the "ghost" on the previous evening. He got in touch with the day superintendent and received 許可 to 診察する the outside of the structure.
With the help of one of the 管理人s and a piece of rope he climbed out of a window and lowered himself a few feet. He was 意図, oblivious of danger. He did not look 負かす／撃墜する. Then he nodded to himself as though in silent 協定 of some theory he had worked out.
Frowning intently, Wade climbed 支援する through the window. He 上がるd to the seventy-first 床に打ち倒す this time, to the Schmelzer offices. It was too 早期に for the office help to be there. The 団体／死体 of Jacob Schmelzer no longer reposed gruesomely in the 議長，司会を務める. But a couple of plainclothes men were on 義務, and the telltale bloodstains 近づく the window were still in 証拠.
Wade remembered his 約束 to the watchman, Daugherty. The ghost might walk again tonight, and if it did he ーするつもりであるd to be there.
A CURTAIN of 不明瞭 lay upon the city. It seemed to hang over the Empire Towers Building like a 悪意のある 棺／かげり. A clock in Madison Square にわか景気d eight times. A 冷気／寒がらせる 勝利，勝つd blew off the river, making Wade turn up the collar of his coat.
For half an hour he had been patrolling the ledge that ran around the building at the forty-fifth 床に打ち倒す. The street was far below, too far to give 援助（する） if he should be attacked; too far, in spite of its teeming myriads, to give him a feeling of human companionship.
But he was not alone tonight. At the other 辛勝する／優位 of the ledge, half the length of a city 封鎖する away, one of Thompson's 選ぶd men was 駅／配置するd; a 退役軍人 探偵，刑事 of the 殺人 Squad.
Wade knew he could depend on this man, Grady by 指名する; but he knew also that they were fighting something, some human fiend, whose methods were outside the realm of everyday police experience. And each time he walked to the 中心 of the ledge and saw Grady's rugged 本体，大部分／ばら積みの, he had a feeling of 救済. When they were on opposite ends, the night shut them in, 始める，決める them apart, and each man was thrown on his own 率先.
An hour passed, and Wade kept up his slow, 歩哨-like pacing. In the pocket of his overcoat was a long-バーレル／樽d flashlight and a 無視する，冷たく断わる-nosed Colt (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃. The rubber butt of it gave him a feeling of 安心. It had been with him on many a strange adventure.
Every few seconds he leaned over the low 石／投石する railing and gazed 負かす／撃墜する along the 味方する of the building, or looked up to where the 薄暗い light of the 星／主役にするs made the 直面するing 明白な. But clouds blew across the sky now, darkening it with 黒人／ボイコット wraithlike fingers. Still he could see the structure's smooth exterior, for here and there an office window was lighted. Manfred Schmelzer, with his brother's 長官, 行方不明になる Crocker, was at work tonight straightening out the 混乱 in the 事件／事情／状勢s of the company that Jacob's death had 原因（となる）d. The 力／強力にする of the Almighty Dollar must not be dimmed even by the Grim Reaper.
But a plainclothes man patrolled the 回廊（地帯） outside Schmelzer's door. Another was 駅／配置するd inside the office.
Wade felt the need of a cigarette. His fingers toyed with the 一括 inside his coat pocket. His brain toyed with the idea of smoking. Then suddenly he crouched and 強化するd.
Out of the night, in the gloom that hid 探偵，刑事 Grady from his 注目する，もくろむs, （機の）カム a 恐ろしい cry. It was the cry of a man in mortal terror; the cry of a man who is 直面する to 直面する with death. Like a mad thing Wade leaped 今後. Whipping his gun and flashlight out he dashed along the 狭くする ledge. He sent the long beam 調査（する）ing ahead.
The cry （機の）カム again, muffled and gasping. The ray of the flashlight 選ぶd out a struggling 人物／姿／数字--two--then magically one again. Wade 解雇する／砲火／射撃d into the 空気／公表する. His breath （機の）カム in gasps. His teeth were clenched.
A form was half over the 狭くする railing. A white 直面する struggling to 保持する its 持つ／拘留する on life was turned toward Wade. 手渡すs clutched at 石／投石する in an 成果／努力 to stay off the 急落（する），激減（する） that would （一定の）期間 破壊.
Wade reached the 味方する of the 探偵，刑事 before he slipped over. He pulled the man 支援する, heaved him の上に the ledge, where he lay gasping and almost sobbing.
"What happened? Where did he come from?"
Wade 投げつけるd the questions 厳しく; then saw that they were momentarily useless. Grady was too winded to answer, and on his forehead was a large lump, a bruise.
While the 探偵，刑事 was 回復するing his breath and 集会 his dazed faculties, Wade turned his flashlight up and 負かす／撃墜する the 直面する of the building. But the thing, the horror, had gone.
"It--slipped--負かす／撃墜する--from--above," croaked Grady. "It grabbed me, struck me, and tried to throw me over. I fought 支援する. If you hadn't come--"
"We'd better go inside," said Wade. "We'll call up （警察，軍隊などの）本部 and have a squad of men search every office in the building."
"Wait," said Grady. "I can't move yet."
It was five minutes before the big 探偵，刑事 could stand on his feet. With Wade's help he reached the nearest doorway to the ledge. The warm inside 空気／公表する touched their 直面するs. They walked into the glowing light of the 回廊（地帯）.
But a 人物／姿／数字 was running toward them--a 探偵，刑事, another （警察，軍隊などの）本部 man. His 直面する was drawn with excitement. He was waving his 武器.
"Did you see him?" he cried. "Did he come here?"
"Yes," said Wade grimly. "Why? What's happened?"
"Happened!" The 刑事 almost choked. "Plenty, Hammond--plenty! The other Schmelzer got it, too--殺人d. The nightclub's been robbed. There's hell to 支払う／賃金."
"What!" Wade ripped out the one word, then became electrified into 活動／戦闘. "I thought you boys were guarding Schmelzer?"
"We were--until they telephoned 負かす／撃墜する that the nightclub had been robbed. Then we went up--and Schmelzer was dead when we got 支援する. The place is surrounded now. Every 刑事 on the 軍隊 is coming here."
"Where's Vogel and Manny Arden?" said Wade.
"Vogel's upstairs. We don't know where Arden is."
"Ah!" Wade's breath hissed between tight lips.
HE was off 負かす／撃墜する the 回廊（地帯）, jabbing the elevator button. He was 悪口を言う／悪態ing himself for a 失敗, for not 心配するing this. Out of the 混乱させるd 一連の happenings he was beginning to see a pattern. The secret lay there with a man whose brain rose to hysterical 高さs of cunning. A 最高の egotist of 罪，犯罪 who thought he could lick the world.
The elevator 発射 Wade up to the nightclub.
"Where's Arden?" he gasped, collaring the 経営者／支配人, Vogel.
"港／避難所't seen him for an hour. I've forgot about him in the excitement. Our guests have been robbed--all their 宝石類 and money gone."
Wade wheeled on a couple of 探偵，刑事s who seemed to be wandering futilely about. His 発言する／表明する 割れ目d with 当局.
"Go 負かす／撃墜する through every office and every 空いている room. Find Manny Arden."
They turned to obey him and he followed after. They covered 床に打ち倒す after 床に打ち倒す, 調査（する）ing with flashlights, searching closets and washrooms.
Sergeant Terrant was there, red-直面するd and perspiring, a 退役軍人 hunter of 殺害者s, and an old friend of Wade's. They reached the end of the 回廊（地帯）. Terrant threw up a window and leaned out.
Then his 直面する turned a sickly white. They all heard it. Up out of the 不明瞭 （機の）カム a sound, a 叫び声をあげる high-pitched and terrible, a cry that was almost unearthly. Again and again it （機の）カム （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing intolerably on the eardrums. Then it stopped as 突然の as it had sounded, seeming to leave a 穴を開ける in the 不明瞭.
Somewhere a telephone jangled. A 探偵，刑事 answered it.
"They're calling from below," he said hoarsely. "They've 設立する him--the 殺害者. That was him we heard slipping. He fell."
They all got into the elevator car and stood silently while it descended. Wade's 直面する was inscrutable.
On the pavement, inside the police 非常線，警戒線, a group of men were bent over something. 視察官 Thompson was there. The dark 反対する on the pavement did not move. It was sprawled horribly. Crimson ran from it. Wade （機の）カム の近くに.
"That's him," said Thompson, "the robber and 殺害者. He's got the jewels and the money in his pockets. He fell--trying to get away--and it served him 権利."
Wade saw the distorted, mutilated 直面する of Manny Arden. He saw the 探偵，刑事s 持つ／拘留するing the stolen 略奪する in their 手渡すs. And suddenly he bent 負かす／撃墜する and touched one of the dead man's 手渡すs.
He recoiled as though in horror, but it was something else, some other emotion that snapped his 人物／姿／数字 築く.
"Feel them--feel his 手渡すs, 視察官. They're 冷淡な--he's been dead a half hour or more."
"What!" Thompson was bending 負かす／撃墜する, reaching with trembling fingers for the exgangster's lifeless 手渡すs.
"My God--he's 権利. What does this mean, Wade?"
"It means that this is a trick--the 殺害者's still 捕まらないで. We're 取引，協定ing with a man who might have been a genius if he wasn't a maniac--a man who has overreached himself. Keep your men 地位，任命するd, 長，指導者. Don't let anybody in or out of the building."
Wade turned and dashed 支援する in himself, ignoring the order that he had 定める／命ずるd for others. He took the elevator to the first 始める，決める-支援する ledge. He dashed out of it, along the 回廊（地帯） and out the first door. His flashlight was stabbing in all directions. He ran along the ledge 調査（する）ing the 不明瞭. Then his whole 団体／死体 強化するd. Ahead of him something 黒人／ボイコット showed, a snakelike coil of wire. It was moving mysteriously.
He ran toward it; but it jerked up, disappeared. He turned his flashlight aloft, gasped and whipped out his gun. But in that instant something 抱擁する and 黒人／ボイコット descended upon him. A sound like the snarl of an animal was in his ears. 武器 locked around his 団体／死体.
If the attack had not been so swift, so 予期しない, he would not have gone 負かす／撃墜する. As it was he fought tigerishly; fought, and felt his gun kicked out of his 手渡す; felt something striking against his shoulder and reaching for his 長，率いる.
He breathed through clenched teeth. His muscles were 緊張するing. 位置／汚点／見つけ出すs of light danced before his 注目する，もくろむs. Then with a mighty 成果／努力 he 投げつけるd his 加害者 off and つまずくd backwards himself, striking his skull against metal. He arose groggily to his feet, 用意が出来ている for a new attack. But 非，不，無 （機の）カム.
The dark 本体，大部分／ばら積みの on the ledge was running toward the corner of the building with ネズミ-like quickness. A 発言する／表明する suddenly sounded, muffled and unearthly.
"One more to go--a woman, this time."
The words were followed by a 残虐な, mocking laugh. There was a faint clicking sound. Then the human ghost disappeared from sight, seemed to leap up the 味方する of the building and 素早い行動 around a corner.
WADE'S gun and flashlight were gone. He did not 試みる／企てる to retrieve them. He had a sense of all-pervading horror; but his quick mind jumped and sought to answer the riddle of those mocking words--"a woman this time." There was only one he could think of--行方不明になる Crocker. She had been closely associated with the 殺人d brothers. She might have （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） that would make her dangerous to the 殺し屋. Was her life to be 消すd out, too, by this 暗殺者 who slew with a bulletless gun?
There were 厳しい, bitter lines in Wade Hammond's 直面する now. He sprang 今後 toward the door of the building. There might still be time to save the girl--if he could 妨げる the 殺害者 from reaching her first.
He dashed along a 回廊（地帯）, reached with groping fingers for a 塀で囲む telephone. His 発言する／表明する was snapping.
"Give me the 長，率いる electrician. Yes, this is Wade Hammond speaking. It's a police order. Turn off the lights--throw the main switch--削減（する） off all 力／強力にする in the building. Quick--now!"
He stood tensely, silently as the 回廊（地帯） lights winked out, as the whole 広大な edifice was 急落（する），激減（する）d in 不明瞭. The seconds seemed like an eternity, until he heard what he was listening for.
It was a sound, a 叫び声をあげる again. And this time it was a 叫び声をあげる that he would never forget to his dying day; a 叫び声をあげる that whipped past the windows with the onrush of a 落ちるing 団体／死体; a 叫び声をあげる that continued on downward fainter and fainter till it was lost in silence.
And Wade knew that he had cheated the 法律, put a 殺害者 to death as surely as though he had thrown the switch of an electric 議長，司会を務める.
He 選ぶd up the telephone again.
"Lights on," he said. "Thanks, old man."
He was fumbling for a cigarette as he 圧力（をかける）d the elevator button. He was puffing on it as he descended to the street 床に打ち倒す. And he （機の）カム out of the vestibule with the calmness of a man who knows what he will find.
探偵，刑事s were 断言するing outside. 視察官 Thompson's 発言する／表明する was the loudest of the lot.
"What the hell--is it raining 団体／死体s tonight? That's the second man who's fallen. We'd better get the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 逮捕するs to catch 'em!"
"There won't be any more," said Wade 静かに. "There's the real 殺害者. There's a 科学の genius for you--look at that contraption on his 団体／死体. I had to take a chance that he would 落ちる inside your police line 負かす／撃墜する here and not 攻撃する，衝突する anyone."
"Who is it? What's he got on?"
"Arnold Bassett," said Wade softly. "Old Schmelzer's 甥--a man who had ambitions to 相続する all the millions in the packing 産業; a man who committed a couple of 強盗s and an extra 殺人 just to throw us off the 追跡する."
"And what are those things on his wrists?"
"Magnets," said Wade. "He's got them strapped to his 膝s, too. That thing on his 支援する is a smallsize transformer, stepping up the 現在の Lord knows how many volts. He's the greatest human 飛行機で行く you'll ever see, 長，指導者. He's a man who saw the 可能性s in a building 直面するd with chromium steel, and who equipped himself to move up and 負かす／撃墜する it and around it as easily as you and I walk on the pavement. He's a man who planned the deaths of his uncles weeks or months in 前進する."
"And what made him 落ちる like that?"
"I am 責任がある it," said Wade, his 発言する／表明する hard. "It was a question of 行方不明になる Crocker's life or his. He was going up to finish her off, because she knew too much--or he was afraid she did. I ordered the 力／強力にする switch thrown. Bassett here depended on a wire 大（公）使館員d to the light 回路・連盟 to operate his electro-magnets.
"The four metal plates at his wrists and 膝s must have had a make-and-break 接触する system so that when the 最高の，を越す ones were gripping the lower ones were 解放する／自由な. He could draw himself up like an インチ worm. But with the 現在の off his 支配する was gone and he fell."
"What made you get の上に him, Wade?" 視察官 Thompson's トン held 賞賛.
"I noticed some scratches his metal plates had made on the building--and see here--"
Wade reached 負かす／撃墜する and pulled something out of the dead man's pocket. It looked like an ordinary (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃 ピストル, except that there was no 開始 at its end; nothing but a 一連の会議、交渉／完成する piece of metal that fitted inside the バーレル／樽. Wade held the 武器 up.
"We knew that a 弾丸-いっそう少なく gun had been used. It sounded phony--but I had heard of such a gun. Here it is--the 肉親，親類d used in slaughterhouses to kill cattle. The bolt always remains in the バーレル／樽. There is a 縁 on the inside end of it to 持つ／拘留する it in. It is like a piston that the 砕く 爆発 運動s 今後 four or five インチs, but does not let it leave the バーレル／樽. This vent at the 味方する of the バーレル／樽 許すs the gases of the 爆発 to escape when the bolt has reached the 限界 of its movement. Bassett probably tapped on the glass, and when his Uncle Jacob （機の）カム 今後 to open the window and look out, Bassett 発射 him through the 長，率いる with the gun held の近くに. He propped him in his 議長，司会を務める afterward to make the 殺人，大当り look even more fantastic.
"The use of such a 武器 made me 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う someone familiar with the packing 産業. When I saw Manny Arden's dead 団体／死体 with the 宝石類 and money 工場／植物d on him, I knew who the 殺し屋 must be. He had, of course, killed Arden in 前進する, before he 行う／開催する／段階d the 強盗. That first 叫び声をあげる of Bassett's was a good imitation of a man 落ちるing. But the second one was 本物の enough---too 本物の for 慰安."
Wade took out a pocket handkerchief and mopped his glistening forehead.
"I had to do it, 長，指導者, to save the life of an innocent girl. He would have gone to the 議長，司会を務める anyway. I finished him by having the 現在の turned off instead of on. Just a mere 専門的事項."
A puzzle fan finds himself juggling with a 堅い problem.
SAM BICKLE, who is best known to patrons of the Hotel Paris as bellhop No. 36, swiveled his 注目する，もくろむs in both directions along the tenth-床に打ち倒す hallway. When he had 保証するd himself that no one was in sight, he propped his 支援する luxuriously against a marble column beside the elevator door. With 熟考する／考慮するd carelessness, he neglected to （犯罪の）一味 the signal bell. The car would stop at his 床に打ち倒す in its own good time. 一方／合間, he looked 今後 to a period of 平和的な recreation.
Sighing contentedly, he took a newspaper from an inside pocket and 均衡を保った the stub of a pencil above one smudgy page. His forehead wrinkled as he tried to think of a five-letter word beginning with "A" and signifying "skillful." The 残り／休憩（する） of the lines were all filled in. It was that one vertical that stumped him--and he prided himself that, when it （機の）カム to crossword puzzles, he was the cat's pajamas and the canary's toenails all rolled into one.
He became so 吸収するd in his problem, that he didn't even hear the elevator go by or notice that the bulb over the annunciator board 負かす／撃墜する the hall was glowing.
It wasn't until a portentous 影をつくる／尾行する fell across his page and a porcine 本体，大部分／ばら積みの 事業／計画（する）d itself into his horizon, that he （機の）カム 支援する to the grim realities of life.
He 設立する himself 星／主役にするing into the ruddy features of "Big Jim" Shallop, hotel 探偵，刑事.
"Ah," said Sam, and made an 不確かの を刺す toward the elevator button with one quivering finger.
"Yeah," growled Shallop ominously. "That's 権利--（犯罪の）一味 it. I been watching you for the last five minutes. I seen you wastin' the hotel's time on another one of them dumb crossword puzzles."
Sam tried to make his 発言する／表明する 表明する an arrogance he didn't feel.
"Is that all this cheap 搭乗 house 支払う／賃金s you for--just to snoop around and 秘かに調査する on the bellhops?"
"My 職業," said Shallop pompously, "is to 保護する the 利益／興味s of the hotel--to see that crooks don't steal from the guests, and that 従業員s don't steal from the 管理／経営. A guy who swipes time is just as bad as any other 肉親，親類d of どろぼう. I've told you before to leave them crossword puzzles alone. Now, I'm gonna speak to the boss. You'll find a pretty pink slip in your next 支払う／賃金 envelope. You're always lookin' for funny words. The next one you'll read in this hotel will be a five--letter word beginning with 'F'--解雇する／砲火／射撃d. Get that? And you won't need a pencil to 人物／姿／数字 it out either."
As an 追加するd 侮辱, Shallop 掴むd Sam's newspaper and tore the crossword puzzle in half.
"Ow!" cried Sam. "You big 二塁打-crossing ape! Just when I had it all done but one word!"
But his （民事の）告訴 fell upon deaf ears. Shallop was pointing 劇的な toward the annunciator box.
"Go and see what that guy wants!" he ordered. "Make yourself useful the 残り／休憩（する） of the time you're here. It won't be long now."
Sam shuffled off, muttering to himself. The big pussyfooting gorilla had nothing to do but stand around looking pretty and smoking vile cigars. Yet, he was always telling Sam where to get off. Sam had to 収容する／認める, though, that as a gumshoe artist, Shallop was all there. He had a way of turning up when a man least 推定する／予想するd it. He was worse than a bad penny.
Sam slammed ice viciously into a 投手. These darned booze hounds with their hangovers! It was guys like that and big lard pails like Shallop that made a bellhop's life hard.
When he got 負かす／撃墜する to the street 床に打ち倒す again, he hunched himself disconsolately on the （法廷の）裁判 and waited for another call. His cap was tipped 今後 more rakishly than the strict 基準s of the hotel 許すd.
The gay night life of Broadway still streamed by the canopied 入り口 outside, but it held no thrill for Sam. At the end of the week, he'd be out of a 職業 again, watching the bread lines grow longer, and using up shoe leather in a futile 試みる／企てる to find work.
He hadn't even a good snappy crossword puzzle to 元気づける him in his hour of need. He looked at the checkered tiles on the 床に打ち倒す, and imagined what puzzles a man could make there with a piece of chalk and a pencil.
It was then that he saw the two newcomers who entered the 回転するing door with their big leather 支配するs. Sam leaped 今後. No use letting a few last tips get away from him!
The strangers 星／主役にするd 負かす／撃墜する the ends of their noses and 解放（する）d their 支配するs with seeming 不本意. 堅い-looking eggs, thought Sam. They'd be wanting ginger ale and ice water before the night was over.
But their 支配するs were light. No booze there! Sam had got so that he could 分類する most of the guests who stopped at the Paris. But these two had him guessing. One was short, and dressed in gray. The other was a 長，率いる taller, and had on a brown 控訴 with a hairline white （土地などの）細長い一片. They both had 注目する，もくろむs that squinted.
"Give us a room up 最高の，を越す," he heard one of them tell the desk clerk. "We want to be up where it's 静かな--and where we can get a look-see. This old town has grown some since we were here before."
"Yeah," said the other.
Sam couldn't see what 指名するs they 調印するd in the 登録（する）. The clerk 手渡すd them the 重要な to Room No. 3019. That was one of the tower rooms. They couldn't get much higher unless they went up on the roof. It was the part of the hotel where all the swells liked to stay. It gave them a feeling of 存在 high and mighty. These two had plenty of dough. They didn't even ask the price of the room.
But when Sam showed them into it, the man who tipped him, the taller of the two, 手渡すd him a 薄暗い. He wrinkled his nose at that. These two birds took a twelve-dollar-a-day room without blinking, then 手渡すd a thin 薄暗い to the guy who had carried up their luggage.
"I ain't got any change, mister," said Sam, 星／主役にするing at the 薄暗い in his palm and shaking his 長，率いる sadly.
"A wise guy, eh?" said the tall man.
Sam （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 a 迅速な 退却／保養地. He had enough trouble on his 手渡すs already. These two men didn't talk or 行為／法令／行動する like the guests who usually took rooms in the tower.
He thought no more about them until Mr. Dennison, in Room No. 3012, ordered some more grape juice for his 橋（渡しをする） guests. A 広大な／多数の／重要な old guy was Mr. Dennison, one of the hotel's 正規の／正選手 paychecks. He'd been a society beau in his time. Tonight, he was giving a card party to a bunch of swells. Sam had seen them coming in, tricked out in furs and jewels. Reporters had even interviewed Dennison just to stick 事前通告s in the papers.
As he （機の）カム out of the Dennison 控訴, he noticed Shallop talking to one of the two strangers whose 支配するs he had carried. It was the short man in the gray 控訴. He was gesturing toward a door which Sam knew opened on a stairway 主要な up to the roof. Shallop was rolling a cigar around in his mouth and looking 利益／興味d. Sam couldn't help catching what was 存在 said as he passed by.
"We heard a noise and saw him trying to get into our room," the short man was 説. "He ran through that door."
Sam hurried on. But when he reached a turn in the hallway, he paused, then retraced his steps slowly and stuck his 長，率いる around a corner. Something was going on. He wasn't the sort who liked to 行方不明になる a 解放する／自由な show.
He saw Shallop open the door 主要な to the stairway to the roof and enter it, followed by the other man. Sam felt himself getting excited. Real 探偵，刑事 work was going on. He gathered that the two strangers had discovered someone trying to get into their room, and had told Shallop about it.
As long as he was going to be 解雇する／砲火／射撃d, anyway, Sam 推論する／理由d that he might 同様に enjoy himself now. If there was a manhunt in 進歩, he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to be there to watch it. He walked resolutely 支援する to the door of the stairway and started up.
Shallop and the gray-ふさわしい man had reached the roof now. The door was open. Sam got a glimpse of 星／主役にするs, and 匂いをかぐd at the fresh night 空気／公表する. He heard Shallop's 発言する／表明する.
"If he's up here, we'll find him. There ain't no other way 負かす／撃墜する."
Sam stuck his 長，率いる through the door at the 最高の，を越す of the stairway. He was all agog. He saw the 板材ing form of Shallop and the 人物／姿／数字 of the smaller man behind him. Then the smaller man took something out of his pocket and thrust it against Shallop's 支援する.
The 探偵，刑事 gave an audible grunt of surprise.
"Stick 'em up," said the gray-ふさわしい man in a hard, 緊張した 発言する／表明する.
"Hey!" yelled Sam.
The gray-ふさわしい man turned his 長，率いる then. It almost gave Shallop a chance to 得る，とらえる the gun away from him--almost, but not やめる. The man with the gat still had one 注目する，もくろむ cocked.
"Take care of that nosey bellhop," he said from the corner of his mouth.
Something hard was jammed into Sam's ribs then. It was the other man, the tall one, who had slipped out of the 影をつくる／尾行するs beside the door.
"Raise your mitts, too," he said, "and come on up. The 空気／公表する's 罰金. You'll like it."
Sam kept his 武器 stiffly aloft, as did Shallop. He saw the man in the gray 控訴 go through the 探偵，刑事's pockets and 除去する a gun, a wallet, and a bunch of 重要なs. Then he saw him give Shallop a clip behind the ear with the blunt muzzle of his (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃. The big 探偵，刑事 sank to his 膝s and fell sidewise.
The man behind Sam duplicated the blow, but not so expertly. Sam ducked his 長，率いる a little. He saw red-and-blue lights dance before his 注目する，もくろむs, and he pitched 今後, but he wasn't 完全に out. Dimly, he saw the two men slip through the doorway to the stairs and の近くにd the door after them. He heard the sound of a 重要な 存在 turned in the lock.
Then he understood the whole neat trick. They had 誘惑するd Shallop up on the roof to get his 重要なs away from him and to get him out of the way. They were crooks, and were planning to pull some sort of 職業. He thought of Dennison's 橋（渡しをする） party and the bejeweled guests who were in 出席.
He sat up, rubbing the 支援する of his 長，率いる. Then he went over to see Shallop. The 探偵，刑事 was breathing ひどく. Sam tried to rouse him, but couldn't. He went 支援する to the door and 続けざまに猛撃するd on it, but it was made of metal and was locked.
He 星／主役にするd over the 対処するing at the street thirty stories below. There was no 解雇する／砲火／射撃 escape, no way of getting 負かす／撃墜する. The roof was empty, except for a few 麻薬を吸うs and the 抱擁する electric 調印する that rose on a steel 枠組み and blinked in and out as a 誘惑する to the teeming denizens of Broadway.
Sam gathered some rainwater in the palms of his 手渡すs and threw it into the 直面する of Shallop. The 探偵，刑事 groaned, and ぱたぱたするd his eyelids. Another にわか雨 of 冷淡な water made him sit up groggily. The sky 総計費 shed a faint, 反映するd 照明.
"What the hell?" said Shallop.
"It's me," said Sam. "A couple of crooks socked you on the ドーム and took your 重要なs away from you. What are you going to do about it?"
"What are you doing here?" 反対するd Shallop, glaring ひどく at Sam.
"Just looking 一連の会議、交渉／完成する," said Sam. "I heard you talking to one of the crooks. You fell for his 悪賢い trick, didn't you?"
Shallop broke into a 激流 of profanity. He arose, groaned, felt of his 長，率いる, then limped toward the door.
"It's locked," said Sam. "We couldn't break it 負かす／撃墜する if we tried all night."
"We gotta," said Shallop. "They took my 重要なs so they could crib the sparklers off Dennison's guests. I'm cooked if they get away with it."
But, try as they would, they couldn't 軍隊 the door.
総計費, the big electric 調印する continued to wink in and out as though in sly humor at their 苦境.
HOTEL PARIS
Then after a period of 不明瞭:
HOTEL PARIS
Sam 星／主役にするd up at it. He began muttering to himself. Then he grabbed Shallop's arm.
"Quick," he said, "上げる me up on that 調印する, Shallop. I got an idea."
Then he saw he wouldn't need Shallop's help, after all. There was a small ladder running up to the 抱擁する letters.
"What are you gonna do?" growled Shallop.
"Another crossword puzzle," Sam shouted 支援する enigmatically.
The 冷淡な night 勝利，勝つd 攻撃するd at him as he hung on dizzily. When he reached the 調印する, he began working with feverish energy, unscrewing bulbs and darkening letters here and there with the 確信して 空気／公表する of a man who knows what he is about.
When he climbed 負かす／撃墜する from the big 枠組み and joined Shallop on the roof again, the sound coming up through the canyon of Broadway had changed. It had a louder, more strident 公式文書，認める. Sam looked at Shallop 意味ありげに.
It was twenty minutes later that there （機の）カム a shouting and a stamping at the door 主要な to the stairs. Then it opened, and a 警官，（賞などを）獲得する （機の）カム up on the roof. Shallop 迎える／歓迎するd him excitedly.
"Quick," he said, "a couple of crooks are pulling off a heist 職業 here tonight."
"I know it," said the 警官，（賞などを）獲得する. "We got 'em just as they were leaving. That signal of yours was seen all up and 負かす／撃墜する Broadway. They got the reserves outside. We thought there was a 暴動 here--but I've got to 手渡す it to you, Shallop--it was a clever trick all 権利. Better get it 直す／買収する，八百長をするd, though, as soon as you can. It's stoppin' traffic all along the street."
Shallop seemed to fight within himself then. He squared his shoulders and looked the 警官，（賞などを）獲得する in the 注目する，もくろむ. His lips were 会社／堅い.
"I didn't do it," he said. "It was the bellhop here. He's a crossword puzzle fan, and I've been riding him for it. When I saw him up there unscrewing the bulbs in the 'O' and T' of 'HOTEL,' and leaving the 'H--EL,' I didn't catch on to what he was doin', and thought he'd gone crazy. Then, when he began puttin' out the 'A' in 'PARIS' and all the 残り／休憩（する） of the letters except the 'P,' I saw he'd （一定の）期間d 'H-EL-P'!"
As Shallop finished speaking, he reached into his pocket and took out a newspaper. He solemnly 倍のd it to the crossword puzzle page, and 手渡すd it to Sam.
"That's to （不足などを）補う for the one I tore in two," he said gruffly. "Do it when you get the chance--and don't worry about your 職業. I'm going to tell the boss about this, and let him know that you ain't only a crossword puzzlin' fool, but the greatest crook-catchin' bellhop on little ol' Broadway."
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