The Blackfoot optimist. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1907-1918, 1915-03-18
EIGHTH EPISODE
The Hidden Voice,

The Hidden Voice.
Jameson, wake up"
The strain of the Dodge case was
beginning to tell on me. for it was
keeping us at work at all kinds of
hours to circumvent the Clutching
Hand, by far the cleverest criminal
with whom Kennedy had ever had
anything to do.
l leaped out of bed, still in my pa
jamas, and stood for a moment staring
about. Then I ran into the living
room. I looked about, rubbing my
eyes, startled. No one was there.
"Hey-Jameson-wa up"
/: 1t was spooky.
"Where-the deuce-are your" de-
manded.
Suddenly heard the voice again
no doubt about it, either.
Here l am-over on the couch"
! scratched my head, puzzled There
was certainly no one on that couch.
A laugh greeted me. Plainly, though,
it came from the couch. / went over
to it and, ridiculous as it seemed, be-
gan to throw aside the pillows.
There lay nothing but a little OBJ
long oaken box, perhaps eight or ten
inches square at the ends. In the face
we're two peculiar square holes, and
from the top projected a black disk,
about the size of watch, fastened on
the disk were several perforated holes
| picked up the strange looking
thing in wonder, and from that magic
oak box actually came a burst of
laughter
Come over to the laboratory right
away" pealed forth merry voice
I've something to show you"
WELL" l gasped, what do you
know about that"
Very early that morning Craig had
got up, leaving me snoring. Cases
:never wearied him. He thrived on eX-
element
He had gone over to the laboratory
and set to work in a corner over an
other of those peculiar boxes, exactly
like that which he had already left in
our rooms.
Half an hour afterward l walked
into the laboratory, feeling little
sheepish over the practical Joke hut
none the less curious to find out all
:about 1t.
What is it," l asked, indicating the
apparatus.
"A vocaphone," he replied. still
Laughing, the loud speaking telephone,
the little box that hears and talks.
It talks right out in meeting.
too-no transmitter to hold to
1.-THE mouth, no receiver to hold to
1.-THE ear. You see, this trans
mitter is so sensitive that it picks up
:even a whisper, and the receiver is
;placed back of those two megaphone-
like pyramids"
He was standing at table, careful
;ly packing up one of the vocaphones
land lot of wire.
81 believe the Clutching Hand has
:been shadowing the Dodge house." he
;continued thoughtfully. "As long as
I'VE watch the place, too, he will do
nothing. But if we should seem. os-
:tentatiously, not to be watching, per-
:haps he may try something, and we
may be able to get clue to his iden-
:tity over this vocaphone. See?"
nodded. We've got to run him
down somehow" l agreed.
EYES," he said, taking his coat and
that. 81 am going to connect up one
of these things in Miss Dodge's libra
Try and arrange with the telephone
company for clear wire so that we
:can listen in here, where that fellow
will never suspect"
At about the same time that Craig
and l sailed forth on this new mis-
;sion, Elaine was arranging some flow
. :ers on a stand near the corner of the
dodge library where the secret panel
twas in which her father had hidden
1.-THE papers for the possession of which
1.-THE Clutching Hand had murdered
him.
X: She had moved away from the table,
hut, as she did So her dress caught
lin something in the woodwork. She
tried to loosen it and in so doing
touched the little metallic spring on
(which her dress had caught
q; Instantly, to her utter surprise, the
:panel moved It slid open, disclosing
Ia strong box.
Elaine took it, amused, looked at 1t
4 moment, then carried it to a table
land opened it.
Inside were some papers. sealed in
an envelope and marked "Limpy Red
Correspondence"
They must be the Clutching Hand
papers!" she exclaimed to herself.
hesi.ating a moment, in doubt what to
do.