Erle Stanley Gardner

Bunched Knuckles

Chapter I

The Typewriter Clue

Big Jim Grood looked up in surprise, as a sunburned young man in the early thirties entered his office with quick, springy steps.

“Hell,” Grood said, with the bluntness of a man who had spent years on the metropolitan police force, “I thought you were down in Florida catching swordfish.”

Jax Bowman smiled. “I was, but I couldn’t get any kick out of it.”

Big Jim Grood swung around in the swivel chair. His right hand, a battered mass of bony knuckles, shot out to squeeze the right hand of the younger man. “What do you mean, ‘no kick in it’?” he asked.

The bronzed features of the young millionaire twisted into a grin. “A while back,” he said, “when you came to me with that idea of financing a central bureau of crime detection, I thought the idea was worth a trial, but that was about all. Now I’m getting all enthused over it. Nothing else gives me any kick.”

“That’s because you decided to smash the crooks after solving mysteries,” Grood answered. “It ain’t the detection you get the thrill out of, it’s the action. When you got the idea of putting on black masks, with white rings painted around the eyes, and busting up organized underworld, I thought you were crazy. I still don’t see why we have to have such goofy masks.”

Bowman laughed, and said, “It’s the psychology of the thing. The criminal mind is afraid of the unknown and it’s afraid of the bizarre. They know too much about the politicians who can control police organizations, about the shyster lawyers and jury bribing detectives, to feel any fear of ordinary justice. But this mask idea gets on their nerves. The fact they can’t find out anything about this new enemy is a powerful psychological factor in adding to their fear.”

Grood said, “Well, if you came back from fishing to get action, Miss Marchand was giving me a sketch of some funny stuff this morning.”

The smile faded from Jax Bowman’s face. His eyes became cold, hard, and scintillating. He pressed a button on the desk.

“Let’s have her in,” he said.

Rhoda Marchand was swift and efficient in her motions. She entered the door, smiled at Jax Bowman, said, “Did you have a pleasant trip, chief?” and was pulling newspaper clippings from a briefcase before Bowman had an opportunity to answer.

“I presume,” she said, “you’re interested in the two murders that I called to Mr. Grood’s attention this morning.”

“Were they murders?”

Rhoda Marchand spread out the newspaper clippings on the table.

Since the time Jax Bowman had taken over a suite of offices, on the doors of which appeared no name, installed a complicated system of filing equipment, subscribed to press clipping bureaus, and placed Rhoda Marchand in charge of the office personnel, she had developed encyclopedic knowledge of crime.

Every day hundreds of newspaper clippings were sent to her desk. These clippings dealt with isolated crimes. It was the duty of Rhoda Marchand to read them, index them according to a mode-of-operation formula, and constantly sift through the records for the purpose of picking out various crimes which had a similarity in the means of execution.

The police of Idaho, for instance, might encounter what to them seemed an isolated crime, but Rhoda Marchand’s photographic memory would send her to her files, where she would soon ascertain that an exactly similar crime had been perpetrated, perhaps several weeks ago, in San Francisco, while another in Denver might well have been the work of the same criminal. These clippings would then be pinned together and sent to the eccentric millionaire who had, at the instigation of Big Jim Grood, organized the most unique philanthropy which any man of money had ever been called upon to support.

Jax Bowman gave extensively to organized charity; but he gave only of money. Aside from the details of his business, the only philanthropy which claimed any of his time was that strange activity instituted at the suggestion of the big ex-police captain, the tracking down of those criminals whose widespread scope of operation made them virtually immune from local police.

“Anything peculiar about the murders, Jim?” Bowman asked.

Jim Grood was of the old school. He believed that there was more respect for law in a night-stick, or in a pair of smashing knuckles, than in the courts of justice. His creed was action. Reading was not one of the things at which he was good, so he merely pushed the clipping across to Bowman. Bowman glanced at Rhoda.

Speaking clearly, in clean-cut forceful sentences, she gave the details: “A peculiar method of murder,” she said. “The first body was dropped from an airplane, in the Imperial Valley of California, close to the Mexican border. It was dropped near a highway, where it was certain to be discovered. An envelope had been pinned to an inside pocket. In the envelope was a paper, on which appeared a typewritten message, telling police that they would find upon investigation the body to be that of Esther Milbank, who had last resided at 6298 Center Avenue, Denver, Colorado; that some two years ago she had disappeared from Denver; that her mother, who was now dead, had requested Denver police to locate her, but the girl had taken an assumed name and had never been found by the police; that she had recently been working in the Black Cat Dance Hall at Mexicali, under the name of Trixie.”

Jax Bowman’s eyes showed his keen interest.

“Any known motive for the murder?”

“No.”

“There was, perhaps, some jealousy?”

“Perhaps,” Rhoda Marc hand agreed. “If so, the police haven’t discovered it.”

“You say the body was dropped from a plane?”

“Yes.”

“Killed by the fall?”

“Either that, or the young woman had been struck on the head before being thrown out. The plane was probably not over one hundred feet above the desert. A motorist told the police at El Centro he had been driving over the road the night before and had heard a plane flying very low. He said it passed over him like a big bird blotting out the stars. He thought at first it was going to scrape the top of his automobile. Then, as it roared away, he realized it must have been more than a hundred feet above the ground; but that’s close enough when an airplane goes over.”

“Any description of the plane?”

“No. You see, the man saw it through the windshield of his automobile as a shadowy object against the sky. He can’t tell whether it was a monoplane or a biplane.”

“Interesting,” said Bowman, “and you’ve something else along the same line?”

“Yes. Esther Milbank’s body was found two weeks ago.”

Bowman nodded, “I remember reading something about it.”

“Yesterday,” Rhoda Marchand went on, “the body of a man was found in a cheap rooming house near the Black Belt in Chicago. The man apparently had committed suicide by stabbing himself in the heart with a knife. His right hand was clutched around the hilt of the knife.”

Bowman stared at her thoughtfully. “How does this tie up with the Esther Milbank murder?” he asked.

“The man left behind a statement,” she said. “The statement was in typewriting.” With swift efficiency her nimble fingers picked up one of the newspaper clippings. She read in a clear and distinct but very rapid voice: “My name is Arthur Brecton. I lived at 1747 South Melton Street, Los Angeles. I am an embezzler. I embezzled twenty-five thousand dollars from the Betterbilt Building & Loan Company when money was pouring in. I didn’t intend to steal it. I only borrowed it to invest, but when the depression caused a shrinkage in value, the investigation by the State auditors left me no alternative except to skip out. I have been going under the name of Charles James Montague, but that isn’t my real name. The twenty-five thousand is all gone. Most of it was gone before I ran away.”

“Any signature to that note?” Big Jim Grood asked.

“No, it was just a typewritten note the police found near the body.”

Jax Bowman stared at his efficient secretary in frowning concentration.

“What we are interested in,” he said, “are crimes that show a common motive, a modus operandi, which indicates them to be the work of one or more criminals following a common purpose. Just how do you figure there is any relationship between these two crimes?”

Miss Marchand’s * voice was as smoothly efficient as the voice of a nurse in an operating room. “You see,” she explained, “there were facsimiles of the typewritten statements published in the newspapers in both instances. I happened to check them over and noticed that both were written on the same typewriter. See where the ‘e’ is turned slightly to one side and the ‘r’ has a dent in the bottom? Then the ‘s’ has a peculiar tilt. The ‘a’ is out of alignment. Here are facsimiles of both notes.”

Jax Bowman gave a low whistle. “By George,” he exclaimed, “you’re right!”

Big Jim Grood said impatiently, “Aw, forget it. That handwriting expert stuff doesn’t get you anywhere.”

“It does in this instance,” Jax Bowman said. “Typewriting is even more distinctive than handwriting, and where a machine has been used for some time and the type is out of alignment, it’s readily possible to make a positive identification of different specimens of writing turned out by them. Those two notes were written on the same machine.”

“Well,” Grood said, “what if they were?”

Jax Bowman’s face was alive with interest. His eyes were like those of a cat watching a bird. It was at such moments that the latent talent of the man was brought out. The challenge of crime detection aroused his interest, speeded up his mental processes.

Rhoda Marchand, recognizing the symptoms, reached for her pen.

“Make a file for this case,” Bowman said, his words quick and incisive “Make general notes on crime motivation as follows: Statement prepared on identical typewriter found on bodies widely separated; therefore, statements must either have been prepared in advance, or typewriter must have been moved from place to place — probably the latter theory is correct. Therefore, typewriter is a portable — typewritten statement left on supposed suicide is not the general type of statement a suicide would leave. There is no explanation for his act — no apology to the world — no attempt to enlist sympathy — both statements have this in common: they take extraordinary precautions to ascertain that the body of the deceased will be identified. The object of this is not to secure a proper burial, because in the one instance it proves the deceased to have been a felon and in the other instance the girl, who left no relatives, is branded with the stigma of having been a dance hall girl.”

Bowman hesitated a moment, then said, “That’s all to put on that statement at present.”

He turned to Grood and asked, “Jim, do you know any crook who pilots an airplane?”

Grood said thoughtfully, “Yes — three or four of them who are out of stir and one or two who are in.”

“Make a list of them,” Bowman said, “and we’ll have private detective agencies check up on their present locations and where they’ve been for the past few weeks.”

He turned to Rhoda Marchand and said, “Rhoda, get a force of men at work tracing the family connections of these two people. Also collect newspaper advertisements asking for missing heirs of various estates. Cover all the principal cities.”

Jim Grood frowned and said, “What makes you think this is something in connection with an estate, chief?”

“Simply this,” Bowman replied. “There have been extraordinary pains taken to show the authorities the real identities of the dead persons. I can’t understand why that should have been done, unless there are some legal rights affected by it. You’ll notice that the murderer seemed greatly interested in enabling authorities to make an absolute identification of the bodies of his victims. I can’t help but think that the motive is tied up with that identification.”

Jim Grood nodded slow acquiescence. “There may be something to that,” he admitted.

“If it should turn out that these persons are remotely related to each other, there’ll be a lot to it,” Bowman answered grimly.

“In which event,” Grood said, grinning, “we’ll be beating the police to it.”

“Anything else?” Rhoda Marchand asked with crisp efficiency.

“Yes,” Bowman told her. “If it should turn out that these people were related, no matter how distantly, I want you to find the common ancestor and then trace every other relative. I don’t care how much money we have to spend. Put a hundred research workers on it, if necessary.”

She nodded and left the office.

Jax Bowman, grinning, walked across the room to a wall safe. He thumbed the combination, opened the steel door and, with a solemnity which made something of a ritual of it, took out a brace of .45 automatics, and two black masks with round holes cut for the eyes and white rings painted around the holes, giving to the masks a hideous appearance of unwinking vigilance.

“This,” he said, “beats jiggling a line in the water, waiting for swordfish to strike.”

Chapter II

Next Victim

The mysterious offices occupied by Jax Bowman and Big Jim Grood clattered with feverish activity. Messages streamed in and out over the wires. Private detective agencies in different cities flung all available men into hurried investigation. And it was significant of this organization which Bowman had worked out, that, so far as the detective agencies knew, no two of them were working for the same client.

Rhoda Marchand worked frantically, tabulating and classifying the various information received.

Within twenty-four hours she was able to assemble a complete report and then the wires flashed messages to the various detective agencies, instructing them to cease work.

It was the type of service which only a multi-millionaire could have commanded. Within a space of hours, trained investigators had covered the entire country with swift activity. From information which they had been able to furnish, cablegrams had been sent to foreign countries. In some instances, there had even been transoceanic telephone conversations. Then, as suddenly as this had started, the investigation had ceased, its cessation brought about partially because Bowman feared to alarm the men whom he sought, should the search be too long continued, and partially because, from the information which had been received, Bowman was able to make several logical deductions.

With Rhoda Marchand’s report in his hands, Bowman sought out Big Jim Grood.

“The hunch was right,” he said. “We traced back the families of the victims, and find they had one common ancestor, George Cutler Proctor. Proctor died in England. He left a large estate. It’s been tied up in administration, while counselors were looking for Sidney Proctor, who was on an exploring trip into the upper Amazon.

“Some three weeks ago, a man who claimed he was the sole survivor of the expedition appeared in Manaos. He told a story of incredible hardships, of gold, of hostile natives, of a surprise attack and a massacre.”

Jim Grood knitted his eyebrows in puzzled thought, as he wrestled with the mental problem. “Let’s see if I get this straight,” he said. “Old man Proctor left a lot of money and the money went to Sidney.”

“That’s right.”

“Then if Sidney dies, why doesn’t it go to Sidney’s heirs?”

“Because Sidney didn’t leave any wife, children, brothers or sisters.”

“Any more of Proctor’s heirs besides the two who got bumped?” Jim Grood inquired.

“Two. One is named Phyllis Proctor. She lives in the Brentwood Apartments in San Francisco. Then there another chap named Harry Cutting. He’s an older man, somewhere in the late forties. He was in business in Cleveland. The business failed and Cutting went through bankruptcy. The creditors claimed a fraud had been practised, but they were never able to prove anything. Cutting vanished. No one knows what became of him.”

“He may be dead,” Grood suggested.

“Perhaps,” Bowman agreed, “but let’s figure this thing from a business viewpoint. If those two murders were committed because someone wanted two of the Proctor heirs out of the way, the murderer must have been some person who would profit by the death. That person probably isn’t Phyllis Proctor, since she would have shared equally with the two who were killed. Harry Cutting, on the other hand, wouldn’t have shared in the estate at all while any of the other three were alive.”

“But look here,” Grood objected. “Suppose Cutting is back of this thing. When he comes to claim his inheritance, lawyers are going to start chasing down the records to find out what happened to the other heirs. If it turns out that three of them got bumped off within a few weeks of each other, and all under similar circumstances, it’s going to put Cutting’s neck in a noose.”

Bowman nodded. “That,” he said, “is true, except that you must remember there’s no similarity whatever in the circumstances except for the typewritten notes. Within a few weeks the typewritten note left by Arthur Brecton will have been forgotten. Remember, his death looked like a suicide, rather than a murder.”

“Then how about Phyllis?”

“If Phyllis should die, it will doubtless be by some entirely different means. She may die in an automobile accident, or something of that sort.”

“But how about a typewritten note in her case?”

“There may not be any,” Bowman said. “Phyllis Proctor is going under her right name. She’s living in San Francisco and working as a stenographer — that is, she had been working up until a few weeks ago. Apparently she’s out of a job at present. If she should die, there would be no difficulty whatever establishing her identity. The other two were, for various reasons, using assumed names.”

Grood nodded slowly.

“Moreover,” Bowman said, “the murderer undoubtedly intends to dispose of the other heirs and then sit tight until he’s either discovered by professional searchers, or feels that the time is ripe to make a disclosure. The estate’s on ice.”

“Then Phyllis is the next on the list of victims?”

“If my theory is correct,” Bowman said.

“Could we go to San Francisco and just stick around to protect her?” Grood asked dubiously.

“That might make complications,” Jax Bowman pointed out, “which we would do well to avoid!”

“How about simply finding Harry Cutting and beating him to the punch?”

“That’s even more difficult. In the first place Cutting probably is working through some clever crook. He may be keeping in the background where he can have an alibi for each one of the murders. He’ll be under cover in any event.”

Jim Grood doubled his right hand, squeezed it with his left hand until he cracked the knuckles, one by one, a habit which he had when he was thinking.

“Well,” he said, “what’s the dope? We can’t sit back here and fool around.”

Bowman nodded. “How’d you like to be an impostor?” he asked.

“A what?”

“An impostor.”

“What would I do?”

“You would, for the moment, become Sidney Proctor.”

“You mean the guy who was killed up the Amazon?”

“That’s right.”

“What would that do?”

“It would put the murderers on the spot. With Sidney Proctor alive, Harry Cutting would stand no chance whatever of inheriting, so he’d be desperate enough to try and kill Sidney Proctor.”

“You mean I’m to pose as Sidney Proctor and this guy will try to bump me?”

Bowman nodded.

Big Jim Grood shifted his left knuckles through the palm of his right hand, cracked them slowly, one by one, and grinned. “Aw, hell,” he said, “you’re so goo-o-o-o-d to me.”

Bowman chuckled.

“How are we going to arrange it so I don’t get arrested for being an impostor before we smoke cutting out into the open?”

“I think I can arrange it,” Bowman said. “It happens that I have a friend who is returning from a cruise to the South Sea Islands in a yacht. You might be aboard that yacht when it docks.”

“Do I swim?” Grood asked.

“Not while there are hydroplanes we can charter,” Bowman said.

Big Jim sighed. “Listen,” he said, “can’t you be Sidney Proctor instead of me?”

“Not very well,” Bowman said, frowning. “I’m too well known. Remember the newspapers will be publishing pictures of the lost explorer who has returned to life. What’s the matter, Jim, you aren’t getting cold feet, are you?”

Big Jim Grood lurched from the chair to his feet.

“Cold feet,” he said belligerently. “Say, what the hell are you talking about? Do you think I’m getting yellow because I’m going to bait a death trap?”

“Well, then, what is the matter?” Bowman demanded.

Grood grinned sheepishly, looked for the moment like a schoolboy trying to keep from making a confession. “Aw, I hate to tell you, chief,” he said.

There was anxiety in Bowman’s voice. “What is it, Jim?”

Big Jim Grood sighed. “It’s that damned yacht business,” he said. “I always get seasick.”

Big Jim Grood made one last attempt to change Bowman’s mind as he watched the engines of a big amphibian warming up.

Banks of fog were just breaking up and the sunlight was gleaming through, sparkling upon the waters of the bay. To the west was the Golden Gate of San Francisco, beyond which lay the broad expanse of the Pacific. The towers of the new bridge construction thrust themselves up from the bay like giant red fingers clutching at the dispersing fog.

“There’s two things I don’t like to travel in,” Big Jim Grood grumbled. “One of them’s an airplane and the other’s a boat.”

“You’ll like this yacht,” Bowman said: “it’s a beauty.”

Big Jim Grood frowned at the placid waters of the bay, looked over at the big amphibian and spat contemptuously.

“Suppose you can’t locate this yacht?” he asked.

“Nothing to it,” Bowman said. “I’ve been in touch with them by radio. They know we’re coming. They’re laying off the Farallons in a position that’s been accurately checked and radioed. We can fly right to them.”

Grood continued his grumbling protest. “Now listen, chief, it’s the wrong way to go about this. This ain’t the kind of a mystery where we don’t know who’s back of it. This is a cinch. All we’ve got to do is to tip off Phyllis Proctor, locate Harry Cutting and start checking up on this aviator I’ve been telling you about.”

“You mean the ex-convict?” Bowman asked.

“Yeah — this Howard Ashe. You can gamble a hundred to one that he’s mixed up in the thing. Two months ago he was just an ex-con hanging around on the fringes, looking for a chance to break in. Thirty days ago he shows up with his pockets full of dough and buys an airplane. Hell, there’s nothing to it. We can bust this case wide open by using the good old police methods.”

Bowman shook his head decisively. “I’m not a policeman,” he said; “I’m an adventurer.”

“You want to get results, don’t you?”

“Certainly I want to get results, but I want to get them so there’s some adventure in it. It’s like fishing for swordfish; you could use a gun, a harpoon, a big line and a winch, but it’s more fun to use light tackle.”

Jim Grood nodded emphatically. “Yeah,” he said, “more fun because you’re taking a chance on the fish getting away. That’s just what’s likely to happen in this case — the fish are going to get away.”

The mechanic nodded his head to Bowman. Bowman laughed, tucked his fingers under Jim Grood’s arm and said, “In we go, Jim; it’ll soon be over.”

“Yeah,” Grood remarked dryly, “that’s what I’m afraid of.”

He braced himself against the current of wind thrown back by the propellers, wormed his way through the open door of the cabin. Bowman followed him, took his place at the control. The mechanic slammed the door shut.

“How much flying experience did you say you’d had?” Grood shouted above the roar of the motors.

Jax Bowman grinned. “Enough to get you there and get myself hack,” he remarked, as he gunned the right motor, then throttled back, gunned the left and waved his hand to the mechanics.

The mechanics jerked the blocks out from under the wheels. Bowman opened the throttles. The big plane roared down the runway and slanted into a smooth take-off. When the ship was well out over the bay, Bowman worked the mechanism which drew up the landing wheels and converted the ship into a hydroplane. The motors roared a smooth song of power. San Francisco stretched out below them, glistening buildings reflecting the sunlight which filtered through the fog. Ahead of them lay the dark forest of the Presidio; over to the left the long narrow stretch of Golden Gate Park. Out by the Cliff House and Sutro Baths, where the surf was thundering against the rocks on which sea lions basked, there was a thick wall of fog.

Bowman tilted the plane to climb above the fog. Jim Grood, the safety belt strapped across his thighs, gripped the sides of his chair until the skin showed white over his big, battered knuckles.

The plane roared higher. Suddenly, as it swept over the area where the fog was disintegrating, it struck an air bump. For a moment everything seemed to stop, while the plane settled — then suddenly it bounded up into the air, wobbled drunkenly, then continued on its course, only to strike another air bump.

Bowman, at the controls, keeping the ship as nearly on an even keel as possible, turned to grin reassuringly at Big Jim Grood.

The big ex-cop had his eyes closed — his lips were tightly clenched.

A moment more and they were over the bumpy area. Fog reached out and closed about them, shutting out the light. Moisture misted the windows of the enclosed cabin; then, as though it had been a projectile shot from a gun, the plane zoomed up above the fog and into bright sunlight.

It was smooth flying here. Jim Grood ventured to open his eyes, saw the clear blue of the sky, looked down a couple of hundred feet to the top of the fog bank, a brilliant, dazzling white under the rays of the sun. The shadow cast by the big plane scudded over the uneven floor of white clouds like some huge bird.

The plane flew steadily until the fog became patches of isolated white clouds, below which could be seen the blue ocean, looking almost dead-black. Bowman carefully calculated his position, swung the plane in a wide circle, then throttled down the motors. The nose of the plane tilted sharply downward as it swept toward the ocean in a long circle. Big Jim Grood, looking down the slanting wing of the plane, saw a tiny speck of white resting upon the dark surface of the ocean.

Once more he closed his eyes and clenched his jaw, his lips a thin, straight line.

The plane spiraled down to the ocean, straightened out, to skim over the water like a flying gull; then, with a splash of spray, it struck the top of a wave, plowed for a moment through water, and came to a stop. A small boat put out from the yacht.

Bowman opened the cabin door, slapped Big Jim Grood reassuringly on the back, lowered Grood’s bag to the men in the boat. A moment later Grood himself was seated in the bobbing skiff. Jax Bowman shouted greetings to the yachtsman, then pointed to the yacht which had ceased to be merely a white speck upon the ocean, but now showed as a trim, serviceable craft, looming against the skyline.

“This will beat the old police methods, Jim,” he said. “Take a look at her. Isn’t she a beauty?”

Jim Grood, looking rather green around the gills, turned to look and nodded his head mechanically. There was no enthusiasm in his eyes.

Bowman waved farewells, gunned the motors into revolution, made a smooth take-off, spiraled up into the air and, as he made his first turn, looked down at the skiff. Something that he saw made him reach for his binoculars and adjust them to his eyes.

Big Jim Grood, his head over the side of the small boat, was being violently ill.

Chapter III

Phyllis Proctor

The arrival of the White Nomad, the palatial yacht which had come up from the Galapagos Islands after cruising about the west coast of Mexico, attracted some attention. Waterfront reporters dropped down to get a story, and heard one which sent them scurrying for telephones.

The owner of the yacht reported picking up a castaway on one of the deserted islands. The man had been cast ashore when a small fishing boat on which he had taken passage had been wrecked in a storm. But this shipwreck, which would have been a tragic adventure to most men, was to this individual but an incident in a life which had fairly bristled with dangerous adventure. He was, it seemed, none other than Sidney Proctor, whose death had been recently reported in the press when a companion had reached civilization to report the disaster which had overtaken the exploring expedition.

Sidney Proctor gave a brief statement to some of the reporters, but he was rather taciturn and noncommittal, and he objected to being photographed. He went from the yacht directly to the Palace Hotel.

Among those who met the yacht on its arrival in the early morning was Jax Bowman, the multi-millionaire, who had traveled incognito to San Francisco. Bowman was a close friend of Franklin Stanza, the owner of the yacht, and Stanza introduced Jax Bowman to Sidney Proctor, and, since the introduction took place in the presence of newspaper men, Stanza kept his countenance gravely serious as he performed the introduction.

Big Jim Grood, masquerading as the rescued explorer, crushed Bowman’s hand in a mighty grip.

“Have a pleasant voyage?” Bowman asked, with an attempt at facetiousness as he winced from the pain of the crushing grip.

“Swell,” Jim Grood said, increasing the pressure of his mighty hand. “I lost a few pounds, but that was to be expected.”

“You evidently didn’t lose any strength,” Bowman said, wiggling the fingers of his hand, as though to test them for broken bones.

“I lost everything else,” Jim Grood muttered in an undertone.

Jim Grood registered at the Palace Hotel under the name of Sidney Proctor. He kept to his room, refused to give any further interviews, and refused to be photographed. Jax Bowman had a room on the same floor. He was, he explained to reporters, taking a pleasure trip, but managed to convey the impression he might be interested in purchasing a ranch which could be reached by airplane and on which there was good hunting and fishing.

Having cast out his bait, Jax Bowman sat back to await results.

His telephone rang within half an hour after the newspapers had hit the streets. Big Jim Grood’s voice was cautious: “Coast clear?” he asked.

“Yes,” Bowman said.

“Leave your door open, then; I’m coming down.”

A moment later Bowman heard the sound of his confederate’s steps in the corridor, then the knob twisted and Rig Jim Grood pushed his way into the room.

“Phyllis just called up,” he said.

“Phyllis?” Bowman asked.

“Yes, Phyllis Proctor. Say, chief, there’s just a chance we may have guessed this thing wrong. Phyllis Proctor may be the one that’s back of this killing.”

Jax Bowman frowned thoughtfully. “That’s hardly likely,” he said, “but I’m surprised that she rang you up. I thought the murderer would be the one to get m touch with you.”

“Perhaps,” Grood said grimly, “the murderer has.”

“What did she say?”

“Said she was Phyllis Proctor; that we had some relatives in common, and she’d like to run in for a chat.”

“What did you tell her?”

“Told her I wasn’t seeing anyone.”

Bowman nodded thoughtfully.

“Think I’d better see her?” Grood asked.

“Did she leave her number?”

“Yes, she left a number where I could call her. I’ve got it written down on the pad by the telephone. I forgot to tear off the sheet to bring it in here.”

Jax Bowman started pacing the floor. “It doesn’t stand to reason,” he said, “that a young woman would be back of these crimes. And it doesn’t seem logical that Phyllis would kill off the others merely in order to increase her share in the estate.”

“Why not? Women do just about as much killing as men,” Grood said with that skepticism which comes to one who has seen life in the raw.

“But,” Jax Bowman protested, “we don’t want to pull this White Ring stuff on a woman.”

“We’re fighting crooks, ain’t we?” Grood countered.

“Yes, we’re fighting crooks, but not making war on women.”

Jim Grood said impatiently, “I tell you, chief, this is one case where the old police methods would work to advantage. Let’s get this jane in and start sweating her. Let’s make a direct accusation and see what she says—”

“No,” Bowman interrupted, “we can’t do that. In the first place, I don’t want to let it get out that I’m interested in crime. In the second place, you’re not on the force any more; you haven’t any official standing, particularly in San Francisco.”

“If we uncovered the murderer,” Grood said, “we could get by with anything. The boys would be tickled to death to have someone solve the case and hand them the solution.”

“No,” Bowman said. “Go back and ring up Phyllis. Tell her that you’ll make an exception in her case, and talk with her. Pretend that you nothing whatever about an estate or any inheritance. See if she brings the subject up. Find out what she has to say, but don’t get rough with her.”

“You don’t suppose she’s seen pictures of the real Sidney Proctor?”

“That’s a chance we’ll have to take. Remember, if she’s mixed up in those murders, she isn’t going to run to the police and brand you as an impostor, even if she knows you to be one. She’ll do that when you come forward to claim a part of the estate.”

Grood turned toward the door.

“And watch your step,” Bowman counseled. “Don’t fall for a pretty face.”

Big Jim Grood gave a hoarse chuckle. “Me!” he exclaimed scornfully “Fall for a pretty face when it’s on a crook? No chance — I’ve seen too many of them.”

He closed the door behind him and Bowman heard the indignant pound of his heels on the carpeted corridor.

A few moments later there was a knock at Bowman’s door. He opened it, to stare into a pair of twinkling brown eyes set in an attractive face, while red lips twisted upward in confirmation of the smile in her eyes.

She was not over twenty-four or five at the most. To her, life was nothing serious; only a game to be played, the unbounded vitality of her youth making any false guesses seem merely minor matters.

“This,” she said, “is going to be a frightful imposition.”

Jax Bowman felt the magnetism of the trim figure, was conscious of her exceptional beauty.

“Come in,” he said, “and let’s see if it is.”

She entered his room with hesitation. There was in her manner the assurance of one who knows her way around, who has sufficient poise and ability to depend upon her own judgment, rather than upon the dictates of convention.

She dropped into a chair, crossed her knees, surveyed the trim ankles which protruded below her skirt with approval and said, “Give me a cigarette and I’ll get the agony over with as quickly as possible.”

Bowman suspected her identity even as he handed her the cigarette case and was turning over in his mind the best method of handling the situation. He dared not let her feel that his association with the spurious Sidney Proctor was too intimate. At any cost, Big Jim Grood must be left isolated — bait for a death trap.

“What is it?” Bowman asked, holding a match to her cigarette.

“I’m Phyllis Proctor,” she told him. “Does that mean anything to you?”

He seated himself in an easy chair, lit his own cigarette, and remarked noncommittally, “An attractive name, and, apparently, an attractive personality.”

She ducked her head in a bow. “Thank you, kind sir.”

He laughed.

“I’m related,” she said, “to Sidney Proctor.”

Bowman kept his face expressionless, as though the statement meant but little to him.

“I simply must see him. We have some matters in common that we should discuss.”

“Why don’t you knock on his door, then? I understand he’s in the hotel.”

She shook her head decisively. “No, there’s too much involved to meet him that way, unless he’s the type who would respond to that sort of informality.”

“What makes you think he isn’t?”

“I’ve talked with him on the telephone.”

“And he doesn’t seem responsive?” Bowman asked.

“Not in the least.”

Bowman made clucking noises with his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “If we only had television perfected it would have been a different story, I’m sure.”

Her face lost its smile.

“Quit complimenting me,” he said, and let’s get down to brass tacks. “I know you’re frightfully busy and this is an imposition, but I thought you could help me.”

“How?”

“I want you to introduce me to Mr. Proctor.”

“But I hardly know him myself.”

She stared at the toe of her shoe, which was restlessly moving in little nervous circles. “It certainly is queer,” she said. “You’d think people who had been on the boat with him for days at a time would know him quite well.”

“But I wasn’t on the boat with him.

I only met him when I went down to greet Franklin Stanza, the owner of the yacht.”

“I know,” she said, “but Mr. Stanza avoided the issue when I tried to get an introduction, and finally, when I forced matters, said that I’d have to get your okay.”

Bowman frowned. That wasn’t the sort of information he’d wanted Stanza to give out. On the other hand, he could appreciate Stanza’s predicament. A very pretty girl, most insistent in her demands. Stanza, who was quite susceptible to feminine beauty, had found himself at a loss what to do and had finally referred her to Bowman. Well, in some ways Stanza couldn’t be blamed. In any event, the fat was in the fire.

“You,” Bowman said, “must have been moving fast to do all of this checking up after the newspapers reported Mr. Proctor’s arrival.”

“I’m a fast worker,” she admitted, grinning at him through cigarette smoke, “and I didn’t get it from the newspapers, but over the radio news flashes.”

“Why,” asked Bowman, “did Mr. Stanza say you’d have to get my consent?”

“I’m certain I don’t know.” Her eyes raised disconcertingly to his face. “Do you?” she added.

Jax Bowman sparred for time.

“Was there any reason for an immediate meeting?”

“Yes.”

“Would you mind telling me what it was?”

She hesitated a moment, then said, “I’m going to be frank with you. I have reason to believe the man who is in this hotel claiming to be Sidney Proctor is an impostor.”

Jax Bowman became rigidly motionless, with concentrated attention. “Yes?” he asked tonelessly.

“Yes,” she said.

“What makes you think so? Do you know him personally?”

“No, but my attorney tells me he’s seen photographs of the real Sidney Proctor, and that he glimpsed this man’s face in the hotel lobby, and that he is not the real Sidney Proctor.”

Jax Bowman did some rapid thinking.

“Your attorney?” he asked.

“Yes. You’re a wealthy man, Mr. Bowman. Money means nothing to you; your fortune puts you beyond greed, even if I didn’t realize instinctively I could trust you.”

Bowman said nothing, but sat waiting, his mind racing rapidly.

“Probably you’re wondering why I needed an attorney,” she went on. “All right; I’m going to tell you the whole story: I didn’t know it until recently, but I am one of the heirs to the estate of George Cutler Proctor. It’s a very large estate. I don’t know too much about the other heirs. My attorney, however, knows all about them.”

“How did you get this attorney?” Bowman asked.

“I didn’t,” she said, laughing. “He got me. He’s one of those lawyers who make a specialty of checking up on large estates, finding heirs and signing them up on a commission basis.”

“You signed up with this man?”

“Yes.”

“Do you mind if I ask on what commission?”

“He’s to receive half of what I get, for his services in calling the matter to my attention and making proof that I’m an heir at law.”

“An outrageous contract,” Bowman remarked. “You shouldn’t have signed it.”

“But please remember,” she pleaded, “that I didn’t know anything whatever about an estate. I’d never heard of George Cutler Proctor. I certainly would never have traced the estate.”

“No, but the estate would eventually have traced you.”

“Well,” she said, “the contract is signed, and that’s that. But it seems that if the real Sidney Proctor is alive, then I don’t take anything, because he’s a closer heir than I am. I don’t understand the legal points involved, but my attorney does.”

“Where’s your lawyer now?”

“Downstairs, waiting in a car.”

“Waiting for you to bring Sidney Proctor out?”

“Yes. He wants me to bring the man who claims to be Sidney Proctor down to the car if possible.”

“And your lawyer then intends to denounce him as an impostor?”

“If the meeting, face to face, convinces him Proctor is an impostor, yes.”

“Well,” Bowman said, “I’ll do whatever I can. I’ll see if Mr. Proctor is in his room.”

He crossed to the telephone, held the receiver to his ear and said, “Please ring Mr. Sidney Proctor.”

A moment later he heard Grood’s gruff voice on the telephone saying, “Hello.”

Bowman said, “He doesn’t seem to be in the room, Miss Proctor. I can hear the operator ringing, but I don’t get any answer. I’ll hold the phone and wait for a few moments... You say your attorney is in an automobile downstairs, and that he says Mr. Proctor is an impostor?”

“Yes” she said.

Bowman heard Big Jim Grood’s voice rumbling over the wire. “I get you, chief,” he said.

“Then perhaps I’d better step downstairs and talk with your lawyer personally.”

“Oh, if you only would!” she exclaimed. “But are you sure Mr. Proctor isn’t in his room? I felt certain he was.”

“So was I,” Bowman said. “I saw him in the corridor a moment ago. However, he must have stepped out.” He waited a moment, then said, “Thank you, operator,” and hung up.

“No,” he said, “Mr. Proctor doesn’t answer.”

“If you wouldn’t mind stepping down to meet my attorney—” she said.

“It would be a pleasure,” Bowman assured her. And the words came from his heart. Very evidently their suspicions of Harry Cutting were unfounded. This mysterious “attorney” who had signed Phyllis up for one half of her inheritance was quite probably the guiding force back of the murders which had been committed. Bowman wanted very much to meet this man, to ask him for his card, to note the license number of the automobile he was driving. Later on the White Rings might pay the man an official visit.

Jax Bowman got to his feet, took his hat and light coat from the closet.

“At your service,” he observed.

She ground out the end of her cigarette in the ash tray, got to her feet, came close to him, and placed slender, tapering fingers on his arm. “It’s so nice of you,” she smiled gratefully.

“Not at all,” Bowman remarked. “It’s really a pleasure.”

He opened the door, escorted her to the elevator. They descended to the lobby and crossed to the street exit.

“Where’s your lawyer waiting?” Bowman asked.

She nodded toward a sedan parked across the street. “He has the curtains drawn,” she said, “because he wanted to see the man who claims to be Sidney Proctor without himself being seen. Come on over and I’ll introduce you.”

Jax Bowman managed to walk around the rear of the car so that he could note the license number. Just as he had finished fixing it in his memory, the car door opened. The girl said, “Mr. Bowman agreed to come down and meet you. Isn’t that splendid of him?”

A man’s voice from the interior of the car boomed enthusiastic agreement.

She stood to one side, smiling. Bowman stepped forward, caught a glimpse of flashing teeth smiling from a swarthy countenance, saw a right hand outstretched in greeting.

“This is my lawyer,” said the girl, “Mr. Smith, Mr. Bowman.”

Bowman leaned forward to grasp the outstretched hand. As the fingers gripped his, the smile faded from the man’s face. Bowman sensed the menace of motion. He twisted his head, saw Phyllis Proctor swinging a very businesslike blackjack.

He tried to jerk free, but the man in the car held his hand. The blackjack swung to his temple. As things became sickeningly black, he felt his knees turn to jelly, realized that the “lawyer” was pulling him into the car.

He heard the motor hum into life, felt the car lurch forward, struggled to shake off the black nausea which gripped him, raised himself on his hands — and received another crashing blow on the head.

Jax Bowman became entirely oblivious of his surroundings.

Chapter IV

Two Prisoners

Jax Bowman regained consciousness to the tune of a throbbing motor which pulsed through his aching head as though the explosions were taking place within the interior of his brain instead of within the cylinders of the motor.

Gradually, he managed to fit events into a coherent whole, to find himself bound about the wrists and ankles, lying on the floor of a single-motored cabin plane. He was jammed against one end of the cabin in such a position that it was difficult for him to move. His head was under a chair. Such view of the interior of the cabin as he was able to get was through the rungs of the chair. He could see a very neat pair of ankles, terminating in well-shod feet, and bitterness assailed him as he realized he had no sooner finished warning Big Jim Grood against falling for a pretty face than he himself had walked into the trap against which he had warned his partner.

Bowman had no means of knowing how long he had been unconscious, or how far from San Francisco the plane had traveled. He tried to observe the splotches of sunlight on the floor of the plane for the purpose of determining direction. He had tentatively decided the plane was flying slightly east of north when the motor was throttled down. The plane inclined sharply downward toward a landing.

Bowman, his flying senses functioning automatically, estimated the rate of descent, and decided that the plane had been traveling very high — something over ten thousand feet. As the wheels jolted to a landing, he decided that the pilot was not particularly expert.

Then the jolting of the plane as it taxied toward a hangar sent a series of pains through his aching head which kept him from thinking at all. He lay on the floor of the cabin in agony, and heaved a great sigh of relief as the plane swung in a circle and the motor stopped. The cabin door opened. A man’s voice said, “You shouldn’t have made that report over the telephone, Howard.”

The man who had been piloting the plane said, in a sulky voice, “How the hell was I to let you know? Did you want me to try telepathy?”

It was the voice of the man who had posed as the lawyer.

The first man had no answer to that. He spoke to the girl. “You put it over all right, Lottie.”

“I’ll say I put it over,” she said. And Bowman noticed once more that lilting note of reckless youth in her voice.

Hands grasped his ankles. He was pulled out from the corner of the cabin.

“Get a blindfold,” someone said. And Bowman saw hands with a bandage. But before the bandage shut out his vision, he saw the face of the first speaker — a lean, bony face, with a prominent jaw, high cheek bones and a long, thin nose, with pinched nostrils. The eyes were close-set and alert. Then the bandage shut out Bowman’s vision.

A knife cut the ropes around his ankles. He tried to walk, but his feet were numb. After the first few staggering steps circulation started to return with an agony of sensation as might have been caused had his legs been used as pin cushions.

“Give him a kick, Howard,” the man with the bony face said.

“Aw, give him a break, Harry,” the girl interposed. “He’s a good scout.”

“Good scout, is he?” Harry retorted. “Then what the hell was he doing horning into our game?”

The girl had no answer ready.

“Well,” remarked Howard, he who had posed as the attorney, “he’s just what I wanted Santa Claus to bring me for Christmas. He’s worth so many millions he can’t count ’em. We can make a million-dollar ransom on this—”

“Shut up,” interrupted Harry. “We’re not going to mix into any kidnaping racket. It’s too damn dangerous. We can get away with murder if we don’t try a shake-down. Remember, he’s seen our faces.”

“Anyone can see my face for a million bucks any time,” grumbled the aviator.

“All right, shut up!” Harry ordered. “We’ll talk it over later. This guy’s ears are open, even if his eyes are covered.”

“We could seal up his mouth too — after we got the million,” Howard said.

Bowman was walking with less difficulty now. He felt a hand grasp his elbow, “Going up steps,” Howard’s voice said.

He climbed three steps, crossed a wooden porch. A door slammed shut behind him. He smelled the musty interior of a house, apparently one which had been unoccupied for some time. Then he was pushed into a room. He felt hands fumbling at the knot in the blindfold. Then the bandage was whipped off. A door closed. A bolt shot home.

Bowman’s eyes surveyed a darkened room. Boards were nailed over the windows. Light came from cracks in the boards. The air of the room was stuffy, ventilation being furnished only by wooden shutters in a peaked gable at the far end. There was no ceiling in the room and it was unplastered. Cobwebbed rafters showed dimly. The walls consisted of bare boards, to which clung occasional remnants of what had once been wall paper. The floor was rough. At one time it had been painted, a drab slate color; but the paint had, for the most part, worn through. A table, two chairs, and an iron bed were in the room. The bed had once been enameled white. Now the enamel was chipped and blackened. A sagging spring was covered with a mattress.

A young woman, seated in one of the chairs, stared at Bowman with wide blue eyes from behind businesslike tortoise-shell spectacles. Her face was filled with character, but too bony to be called beautiful. Her chin was prominent, her lips full, yet shapely.

She struggled to her feet Bowman saw that her wrists were tied in front of her.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“The name,” he said, “is Bowman. And you, I suppose, are Phyllis Proctor?”

She nodded. “You came to rescue me?” she asked.

He smiled bitterly.

“How long have you been here?” he asked, when she had realized the eloquent significance of his smile.

“Two days.”

“Do you,” he asked, “know what their plans are?”

It was a cruel question, but one which it was necessary for him to ask.

She shook her head. “I haven’t any idea. They can’t hold me for ransom because I haven’t anything, and I haven’t any relatives.”

“How did they get you here?”

“I answered an ad in the paper, an ad asking for a young woman with stenographic qualifications which were almost identical with my own. The ad might have been written with me in mind.”

“It probably was,” he told her dryly. “Do you know where you are?”

“No.”

“How were you taken here, by plane or automobile?”

“In an automobile.”

“Do you know where it is — what direction from San Francisco?”

“No. I was blindfolded.”

Jax Bowman turned to stare about the room. He wanted to make his further questions as few as possible, lest his very questions should show her the hopelessness of their situation and the ultimate fate which awaited them.

“They give you any liberty at all?” he asked.

“Once every three or four hours they come in, untie me, let me walk around. They seem to be waiting for something. I don’t know what it is.”

Bowman walked to the windows. They were boarded up on the inside. The boards were held in place with nails hammered into the wood with the neat precision of professional carpentering.

“Have you any idea what it is they’re waiting for?” Phyllis Proctor asked.

Bowman shook his head and said “Pity they wouldn’t loosen up and give us a deck of cards and free our hands. There’s no damage we could do in here. We couldn’t rip those boards off with our bare hands.”

“I was thinking,” she said, “that a person might be able to swing a chair and smash those boards in.”

Bowman nodded moodily, and said, “But I don’t know what good it would do. They’d hear the crash of glass and the splintering boards. The place looks to me to be rather isolated. It’s far enough removed from all neighbors so that the landing and departure of planes doesn’t attract attention. They — seem to have things all their own way.”

He suddenly thought of something, moved over toward her. “You can manipulate your fingers a little bit,” he said. “See if you can feel in my left hip pocket. There’s a jack-knife there — unless they’ve taken it from me.”

She explored his pockets, each in turn, shaking her head moodily after each pocket had been searched.

“I’m afraid they’ve taken everything,” she said. “No, wait a minute, I can hear the ticking of a watch. Here’s your watch. They left that.”

“What time is it?” he asked.

“Twenty minutes past two.”

Bowman frowned thoughtfully. Regardless of what these men had been waiting for originally, he felt certain they were now waiting only for one thing — darkness.

Bowman walked to the door. He placed his ear against the thin panels and could hear voices on the other side. He turned to flash the girl a warning glance, then dropped to his knees, placed his ear to the keyhole. He was able to overhear snatches of conversation.

“Acid on the control wires... leave the plane out there... try to escape in it... Then we start pursuit... he’ll start doing stunts... Plane crash... both bodies can be identified... nothing to show plane tampered with.”

“No. That’s... too many chances. Nix on the plane stuff... automobile accident... not so much danger of fire... over a cliff... high speed... curves... block the road...”

A chair scraped. Feet came toward the door. Jax Bowman moved hastily away, was seated on the edge of the bed when the bolt shot back and Howard’s grinning face appeared in the doorway.

“How you coming, buddy?” he asked.

“How about some, playing cards?” Bowman inquired. “We’d like to pass the time. And what do you intend to do with us?”

“Just want to keep you out of mischief. Nix on the playing cards. You can’t play cards with your hands tied.”

“You mean you’re going to keep our hands tied all the time?”

“And how.”

“But I’ve got to have my arms free some of the time. I can’t...”

“Oh, you’ll be given a little chance to walk around when the time comes. I hope you like canned beans. That’s going to be your chow tonight. Come on, sister, we’re going to take you out for a little walk.”

He crossed the room to the girl, took her arm and piloted her from the room. Bowman found that by lying on the bed on his face he was able to relieve the tension of the rope on his wrists. Slumber overtook him, a slumber which was not so much the result of fatigue as a partial unconsciousness, an after-effect of the blows he had received on his head.

Bowman awoke late in the afternoon. Phyllis Proctor, her wrists bound as before, was seated in the chair watching him.

“Feel rested?” she asked.

Bowman struggled to a sitting position, wanted to rub his eyes and couldn’t. He made tasting noises with his mouth. His tongue felt thick and coated. He knew that his eyes were swollen and bloodshot. His head felt dull, but the splitting headache was gone.

He tried a smile. “Learn anything new?” he asked.

She said calmly, “Yes, they’re planning to kill us tonight.”

Bowman stared at her. “How do you know?” he asked.

“I’ve been listening at the door, the same as you did.”

She was silent for a moment, and, through the panels of the door, Jax Bowman could hear the steady clack of a typewriter. Was this, he wondered, the portable machine on which the death messages had been typed? And, if so, was it now engaged in chattering out some note which was to be found upon his body?

“Scared?” the girl asked.

Bowman laughed. “How about you?” he inquired.

“I can take it,” she said, “and take it with a grin — if I have to.”

He studied her in silent admiration.

“They searched your baggage in the hotel,” she went on, “and found a mask with white rings around the eyes. That frightened the aviator to death. He’s Howard Ashe, an ex-convict. It seems that crooks have been hunted down by people wearing these white-ringed masks. I picked up quite a bit from their conversation.”

Bowman made no comment, surveyed the gathering twilight of the room.

“Do you suppose,” he asked, “you could get the watch out of my pocket once more and see what time it is? Your wrists are tied in front of you, mine behind my back.”

She came to him. Her bound wrists were pressed against his vest as her fingers worked the watch from his pocket.

“Five thirty,” Bowman said, and then suddenly, as he stared at the watch, he laughed.

“What’s the joke?” she inquired.

“I’m afraid,” he said, “I’ve been rather stupid. I could have had you out of here before this.”

Her raised eyebrows asked a silent question.

“Put the watch down on the floor,” Bowman said.

Chapter V

Vengeance

She placed the watch on the floor. Bowman placed his foot on the back of the watch, exerted a slow, steady pressure, until he heard a snapping sound. Then he removed his foot. The crystal was broken into several pieces.

Bowman had no need to speak. The girl grasped his idea instantly. She bent forward, picked up one of the bits of thin, sharp glass and held it in her fingers. Bowman turned around so that his bound arms were within reach of her fingers. He felt the sharp edge of the glass sawing through his bonds, then, after a moment, he was free. It took him but a few seconds to untie the girl.

“Now,” he said, “let’s move that table and the chairs over to that far corner of the room. I think I can stand on them and reach the rafters. Then I can pull the slats out of that ventilator. We can make a rope out of the blankets and lower you down to the ground.”

She nodded, and said, almost casually, “Be careful when you pick up your end of the table. Don’t let it drag on the floor; they might hear it.”

Bowman laughed at the matter-of-fact efficiency of the young woman. “I can tell you one thing,” he said, “if we get out of here okay, you’ve got a first-class stenographic job awaiting you.”

They moved the table to a place beneath one of the rafters. They placed a chair on it. Bowman climbed from the table to the chair and was able to reach the rafter. He swung himself up to the rafter and from there was able to reach the slats in the ventilator. The air here was close and. musty. His clutching fingers were covered with must and cobwebs, but the slats responded to the pressure he exerted. One of them came loose in his hand. He said to Phyllis Proctor, “Catch.”

She held out her hands and neatly caught the slat as he dropped it.

The other three slats followed in quick succession. Jax Bowman inhaled the fresh air, peered out through the oblong hole.

He saw the cabin plane in which he had arrived. The motor was clicking over at idling speed.

He turned and spoke to the girl. “Get those blankets,” he said, “and quickly. They’re getting the plane warmed up. That means they’re planning to take us somewhere.”

She rushed toward the bed. Bowman saw a man walk from the plane toward the house, heard a door in the house open. A man shouted, “Okay, ready at any time you are.”

Phyllis Proctor said in a voice which quavered slightly with excitement, “They’re coming.”

Bowman heard the noise of the bolt being shot back.

There were solid planks along the side of the room, against the slope of the roof. These planks gave Bowman a runway. Swiftly, he moved along them toward the door. If he could reach a position of vantage directly over the door, he might be able to jump down upon whoever entered the room.

Bowman realized he was going to be too late. He had covered but slightly more than half of the distance when the door pushed open. The bony-faced individual who had been called Harry, and whom Bowman surmised was Harry Cutting, entered the room. It took a moment for his eyes to accustom themselves to the semi-darkness. He stood staring at the chair on the table at the end of the room, raised his eyes to the broken ventilator. His hand streaked to his hip.

“Where’s Bowman?” he demanded, apparently not noticing that the girl’s hands were free.

Bowman crouched motionless. There was a moment of tense silence. Bowman wondered if she could keep from giving an involuntary glance upward. Could she keep from showing signs of hysterical panic?

In that moment of silence, Bowman heard distinctly the roar of an airplane’s motor. He surmised that the cabin plane which had been warming up must have taken off.

Phyllis Proctor met the man’s gaze with calm insolence.

“He tore out the lattice work.” she said “That left him a means of escape.”

“And he left you here?” the man demanded.

She shrugged her shoulders.

“How long ago?” he asked, moving toward her.

“Really,” she said calmly, “I can’t tell. You see, we broke his watch in order to get some sharp glass from the crystal.”

The man cursed. An airplane motor roared from the ground, apparently coming directly toward the house. Cutting jabbed his revolver toward her chest.

“You,” he said, “might as well get yours now as later.”

Bowman jumped.

Cutting heard the slight scraping motion made by Bowman’s feet as they left the wood. He whirled to look up. Bowman saw his white, distorted face, saw him swing the gun around.

Bowman had never realized a man could fall so slowly. He felt he was barely drifting through the air. His knees were held together out in front of him. He seemed to be living in some dreadful nightmare in which there was urgent need for speed, but everything moved with the slowness of slow motion pictures.

He saw the man’s face twisting in an agony of effort as he strove to get the gun around and, at the same time, to avoid the impact. Bowman saw flame belch from the muzzle of the gun, realized that the bullet had missed him. Then his left knee struck Cutting’s chest a glancing blow.

Cutting went over backwards. Bowman tried to get his feet under him, and failed. He flung out an arm, caught Cutting’s shoulder. He lit partially on Cutting’s body, partially on his left shoulder. The impact stunned him. Cutting scrambled to his feet. He still held the gun. Bowman, half dazed, lunged forward, tried to catch Cutting’s ankle with his right hand, and missed it. Phyllis Proctor picked up a chair.

The house reverberated to the roar of shots. It took Bowman a second or two to realize that these were not shots thundering at him from Cutting’s gun.

Cutting, his face showing alarm, backed toward the door, sighted deliberately down the revolver. Bowman started to stagger to his feet. Cutting’s bullet might stop him, but he was going to go out fighting. Phyllis Proctor flung the chair. Cutting dodged it, but wasted a precious half second in doing so.

The door burst open. Bowman’s eyes shifted to the figure which plunged through the doorway. It was a startling vision. The upper part of the man’s face was covered by a mask. Around the eyeholes of the mask were two white circles, giving to the eyes a hideous appearance of malevolent vigilance.

Cutting yelled, shifted the gun and fired in a blind panic.

Big Jim Grood’s right fist shot out. Bowman heard the smashing impact of those bunched knuckles on Cutting’s jaw, saw Cutting’s head jerk back as though it had connected with a battering ram. His knees wobbled. His body sagged toward the floor. Grood’s left fist whipped around in an uppercut, blasted the man backwards.

Bowman heard the roar of a plane taking off from the ground.

“Ashe!” he yelled at Grood. “He’s the aviator! Did you get him?”

Jim Grood shook his head, the weird appearance of the mask being emphasized by the motion.

Together, the two men rushed to the door of the house.

Bowman saw a long meadow, smooth and grassy, with a fringe of trees bordering it. The cabin plane in which he had been brought to the place was just clearing the tops of those trees, headed toward the setting sun. A two-seated biplane, evidently the one in which Jim Grood had arrived, was standing near the house, the motor still idling. Sprawled on the ground, under one of the wings, lay a crumpled figure in helmet and goggles.

Big Jim Grood ran forward, shouting curses. Jax Bowman sprinted past him, climbed to the pilot’s seat, gave a hasty glance at the gasoline and temperature gauges, jerked open the throttle of the plane. He felt it gather momentum, felt jolts as the wheels ran along the ground. He estimated the distance to the edge of the field, the height of the trees, took the plane from the ground and zoomed it upward.

Tangled branches clutched at the still spinning wheels, then dropped rapidly behind. The plane climbed steadily upward. Bowman banked into a turn and looked for the plane ahead.

It was winging toward the sunset like a frightened quail fleeing from a hawk.

Bowman opened his throttle wide.

The instinctive sense of a flier led him to check his landmarks. He saw a valley dotted with patches of meadow land, interspersed with oaks, hills that were dark green with redwoods, off to the right a high mountain, to the left, the smooth ribbon of a cement highway.

He gave the plane every bit of speed it possessed.

He knew now that he had the faster plane, that Howard Ashe knew he was being pursued. The cabin plane ahead strove to get elevation, and failed, then tried for speed as it flattened into a long, straight sprint. But Bowman had the elevation, had speed to spare. He came roaring down upon the cabin plane, judging his distance to a nicety. He shot past the front of the plane, his landing gear barely missing the tip of the other’s propeller.

Ashe dove frantically downward, then tried to zoom up, but Bowman, kicking over the rudder, swinging the stick into a banking turn, was directly over Ashe when Ashe tried to bring the other plane up. Ashe went into a power dive and Bowman came roaring down on his tail. Once more Ashe tried to straighten, and once more lacked the nerve to come up into the menace of that other ship which seemed ready to crash down on his propeller.

He banked into turn and, in a moment, was in a tight tailspin.

Jax Bowman gave a swift look at the ground, was startled to find how close it was, to see the menace of the tree tops. He pulled back on his stick. The plane came screaming out of the dive, skimmed over the tree tops like a gull sailing just over the curl of a breaker.

Bowman zoomed upward, banked into a turn, looked back just in time to see the other plane hit a tree. Tree and plane became a confused snarl of exploding wood, fabric and metal. A moment later, the sound of a terrific crash reached Bowman’s ears.

He straightened his plane, judged his position by the mountains, and started back.

Big Jim Grood laboriously finished typing out the message, which he pinned to Harry Cutting’s coat. Cutting’s hands, arms, ankles and legs were bound with neat efficiency.

Bowman taxied into a landing. Big Jim Grood, minus the mask, came out to greet him.

“Everything okay?” Grood asked.

Bowman nodded. “I think,” he said, “the battle was half won before I started. Word of these White Ring masks has been getting around the under world, and Ashe was so frightened he didn’t even have nerve enough to pilot his plane properly. How’s the girl?”

“Okay.”

“And the aviator who was sprawled out there on the ground?”

“Just a tap on the head,” Grood said. “That’s Steve Balcom, an old buddy of mine. I hunted him up when I found I needed a plane.”

“How did you get here?”

“Cinch,” Grood said laconically. “I recognized the moll as soon as you came out of the hotel room. She was Trixie Durane. She’s a cute little trick at that. I sent her to the reformatory as a delinquent six years ago. She’d been playing around with a forger named Hornblower. I located Hornblower. He didn’t want to talk at first, but I persuaded him to come through. He drew me a map showing the place up here.”

“What happened to Trixie?” Bowman asked.

“I could have winged her,” Big Jim Grood admitted reluctantly. “She ran like a deer. She was the first to beat it when we landed. I think she knew what was up.”

“And you let her go?”

“I was thinking it over,” Grood admitted. “You said we didn’t make war on women. I don’t know what I’d have done. But as it turned out, I didn’t have to do anything. Your friend, Ashe, did it for me.”

“Did what?” Bowman asked.

Grood shrugged his big shoulders. “I guess he was afraid she was going to talk, and be a witness against him,” he said. “She was running pretty fast, but Ashe had something that caught up with her.”

Bowman looked about him at the gathering twilight.

“Look here,” he said, “you’ve got to get in touch with the police and explain this situation. I’m afraid it’s going to mark the end of our incognito. The—”

“Forget it,” Big Jim Grood said. “I told you the cops would be tickled to death to have a solution handed to ’em on a silver platter, and wouldn’t care too much about how they got it. I’ve been talking with the boys in San Francisco on long distance. They don’t know who I am, but I spilled a mouthful to ’em. And I typed out a statement that I left on Harry Cutting’s coat. It’ll explain a lot of things; and the boys can match up the typewriter with the machine that wrote those two murder notes.”

“Then,” Bowman said slowly, “what’s holding us back?”

“Nothing on earth,” Jim Grood remarked, grinning, “unless you wanted to stick around to give me some more talk about cop methods not being any good.”

Jax Bowman grinned at the bulky ex-police captain who had worked his way up from pavement pounding.

“Tell me, Jim, how did you make Hornblower talk?”

Big Jim Grood said nothing, but doubled up his huge right hand and surveyed the battle-scarred fist with that look of fond pride which a golfer bestows upon his favorite driver after it has clicked out a three-hundred-yard drive.

Content

Erle Stanley Gardner
Bunched Knuckles

Chapter I The Typewriter Clue

Chapter II Next Victim

Chapter III Phyllis Proctor

Chapter IV Two Prisoners

Chapter V Vengeance