The Washington times., 1909-07-18
THE SIGNAL OF DEATH


OF heavy footsteps on the marble stair
way outside.
Aid was evidently at hand The police
had caught the alarm, and were coming
TO investigate.
Three or four steps he took, his fight
ing blood now up, all his energies IN
tent upon seizing the assassin and pre-
venting further mischief
Then a muffling cloth was suddenly
thrown over his head, and as he surug-
gled In Its envelOping folds, he felt him
self SeizeC by half dozen sinewy
desperate resistance, across the floor
Into some kind of a hole he was
torced-What II might be, or where To-
Gated ir. the restaurant he could not
imagin9-and he heard the thud of heavy
timbers closing into place, while just
above his head, as it seemed TO him, the
piano broke into the TOllicking strains
of Take Me Out to the Ball Came
His captOrs, hOWeveT-there must have
been at least six or eight of them-gave
him scant opportunity to determine ms
whereabouts.
He was hurried quickly on, the piano
music behind him rapidly growing
fainter and more indistinct, through q
succession Of tTapdOOrs and. as it
seemed to him, down interminable
flights OF steps, until at last he was laid
upon an earthen floor In what he Judged
from the cool dampness of the air to be
a deep subcellar.
He was conscious, too, that he was
not the only prisoner thus conveyed.
In his passage down through the traps
and from one level to another he mao
become aware that at LEI ST two other
persons were In similar confinement
and once a WOman's scream, promptly
suhed as though by the application Of
a gag, had reached his ears.
Was the whole party Of sightseers
who had been IN the restaurant-in-
nOcent witnesses of the crime which had
been cOmmttted-being put out of the
way, he wondered? And was Millicent
been seized in that earlier interval of
darkness, when he first noted that she
had disappeared?
Strange, the concern tina: he felt IN
regard to the fate Of this girl whom
he had never seen until a brief hour
before-a concern far greater even than
for what might happen TO himself.
He burned to be of aid to her, to
rescue her even though he should sac
rifice himself in SO doing; but he real
lied that now was no time to make
the attempt, the odds were too heavily
against him Perhaps the chance might
come later; at present he must remain
passive, and appear to submit
So. although il taxed all his will
power, he did not struggle or resist.
even when that stuffed cry, which might
be hers, reached his ears. one man can
not successfully cope with half dozen,
and that he judged to be at least the
number Of his captOrs.
Where had so many come from all at
once, he speculated2 Counting the pro-
prietor and the walters, there had not
been eight persons all told in the res
taurant outside of himself and the par
~ Of three, nor had he seen in the light
Of the matches any newcomers except
the single figure of the murderer >
Yet in that brief half-second Of final
darkness, in the twinkling OF an eye, so
to speak, a desperate group must have
invaded the place. The celebrity, the ease
with which their capture had been eff
fected, marked il as the work of one
of those matchlessly organized China
town gangs Of which ne had heard, and
against willy methods Of which the po-
lice are powerleSs.
In the records Of the missing kept
at headquarters there are many whose
last appearance has been noted down in
the neighborhOOd of Pell and Doyers
streets, and the detectives in observing
that fact, merely give a significant
shrug Of their shoulders and quietly
drop investigation.
Were Moore and his fellow-victlms 20
be added to that fateful list?
The Continuation of This story VIII
Be Found in IOmOrrOw's
Edition of The Times.