Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1915-01-23

He started. He knew the sound.
1t was the hiss and snap of a wire
less spark. II, glanced hurriedly
from his spot of concealment and
became conscious of what his low
focused gaze had not before OBJ
served. Beyond the hut, opposite a
wide break in the trees of the hill
side, two straight trunks had been
trimmed of branches so that they
might serve as masts. Between
them hung the laterals OF a wireless
installation. He drew back and pom
dered the thing and shook his head.
He had hardly expected to find such
things as this in the hills.
The volleying spark was changing
its singing, as the operator tuned it
down. 1t was taking an a regular
rhythm of beat. Gafford crept half
out of cover and fastened his eyes
on the laterals beyond the hut. They
held a fascination which drew him.
He wondered if they were even now
reporting to headquarters the prog
gress made on the bombs. He stood
and gazed upon them and clenched
his hands.
Beyond them something swan
into his field of vision. At first he
could not believe his eyes. II was
a strange shape hanging against the
smokes pail of the valley, and it
seemed to him that it was blue. 1t
darted up like strange bird with
wide-spring wings, paused, and
seemed to tover over the valley,
turned and flew sidewise, turned and
swung back, paused again.
In a swooping sweep it darted far
out until it seemed to poise above
the great plant itself. 1t whirled
around in steadily rising circles and
came back. Then, in long, gliding
slant, it seemed to slide along an
invisible plane toward the valley
floor and was gone. The crash of
the wireless died.
Trembling in every limb, Gafford
drew back once more. At last he
held the complete secret. The silence
of the wireless had given him the
last clue to the whole. The thing
he had seen had been one of the
bombs.
1t had risen and flown and alight-
ed in sympathy with the force which
controlled it, and that force he now
hilCW was lAlC Spell n. It biuC
bombs were flown and directed by
wireless power! He no longer doubt
ed that they were exploded by the
same force. Now he knew what
Oshitu must have meant by the Sc
cret Of the firing device.
He trembled and quivered. Before
him in the hut he knew was the
mind of the matter. Impulse urged
him to creep out and kill the evil
genius, and so put an end to the
affair. Yet some inner voice
prompted caution. There was no
proof that Karloff's death might put
a stop to the manufacture or use of
the bombs. Oshitu had said they
had all the plans, save those of the
firing devices. Might these not now
be installed and so obtainable by
them? If so, to kill the man in the
hut would be but to serve warning
upon them that an inkling of their
plans had leaked out.
Such thoughts held him as he
crouched in concealment. With them
came another. To kill and give an
alarm would almost certainly pre-
vent his hope of entrance to the
plant and keep him from his at
tempt to rescue Shiela McRae. His
land, which had closed about the
butt of Yamata's revolver, loosened
it's grip, and at that moment Kar-
loft came out of the hut.
He stood for a moment with face
raised TO the sky, lifted his hands
and shook them toward the west and
north, and dropped them to his
- TLaa ,.ysthAt1t hn
turned and began to walk along the
brook-bank directly toward the spot
where Gafford c~ouched. He moved
slowly, with head bowed and hands
clasped behind him, as though lost
in thought.
Gafford found himself trapped.
To seek to escape would be to invite
almost certain detection. He adopted
a different course. With a purpose
full crash of the bushes, he pushed
out into full view.
Karloff lifted his head in startled
surprise and surveyed him in silence
Gafford approached.
"Good morning, worthy Karlotf,'
he said in greeting, changing the
identification. "Thou art Karlolf, art
thou not ?"
"Aye," said the man Of the hut.
"But who art thou? How dost thou
know my name ?"
al am a man from Kobe, who
slept last night on the hillside" re-
turned Gafford in japanese. 81 am
on my way to the place below here,
where they make thy bombs. Pass
ing down from my bed in the weeds,
| heard strange sounds from the hut
and paused to listen. ! witnessed
the flight Of the bomb from behind
yonder bush. II was a thing Of
magic. I laugh when | think how
surprised these Americans will be
when they burst over their stupid
heads"
Karloff started. "The Ameri-
cans ?" he repeated. at is not the
Americans whom my pets will sting.
It is the Gar of the Russias, whose
iron heel grinds the necks of the
grooming peasantry into the dust,
against whom they shall fly, my
little friend"
Gafford chuckled. Perhaps later,
yes. But the Americans come first,
clever Karloff," he sneered. "You
baxa haan ,oic;nfor,,,a d norbonS.