The Springdale news., 1915-04-16

Rise a when l heard the telephone ring. It was Craig Without word of apology for his rudeness. which knew had been purely absent-minded, heard him say: Walter, meet me in half an hour outside that Florence Leigh s house"
 
 Half an hour later was waiting near the house in the suburbs to which had been directed by the strange telephone call the day before. I noticed that 1t was apparently de- serted. The blinds were closed and a ITO Let" sign was on the side of the house.
 Hello, Walter" cried Craig at last, bustling along.
 He led the way around the side of the house to a window, and, with a powerful grasp. wrenched open the closed shutters He had just smashed the window when a policeman ap- peared
 Hey, you fellows-what are you doing there2' he shouted
 Craig paused a second, then pulled his card from his pocket.
 Just the man want, he parried. much to the policemans surprise. There's something crooked going on here Follow Us in
 We climbed into the window There was the same living room We had seen the day before. But 1t vas now bare and deserted
 Come on. cried Kennedy. beekon- ing us on.
 Quickly he rushed through the house There was not thing in il to change the deserted appearance of the first floor. At last it occurred to Craig to grope his way down cellar. There was nothing there.
 Kennedy had been carefully going over the place, and was at the other side of the cellar from ourselves when I saw him stop and gaze at the floor.
 Hide, he whispered suddenly to We waited moment. Nothing hap pened Had he been seeing things or hearing things, I wondered?
 From our hidden vantage We could now see a square piece in the floor, perhaps five feet in diameter, slowly open up as though on a pivot.
 The weird and sinister figure of a man appeared. Over his head he wore a peculiar helmet with hideous glass pieces over the eyes and tubes that connected with tank which he car ried buekled to his back.
 Quickly he closed down the cover of the tube, but not before vile etfiuvi- um seemed to escafe. and penetrate even to us in our hiding places AS he moved forward Kennedy gave q flying leap at him. and We followed with a regular football interference
 It was the work of only moment for us 10 subdue and hold him while Craig ripped eff the helmet.
 l. was Dan the Dude.
 What's that thing" I puffed as helped Craig with the headgear
 An oxygen helmet, he replied There must he air down the tube that cannot be breathed
 He went ever to the tube Carefully he opened the top and eazed down starting back q second later with hi= face puckered ID at the noXi0us eder Sewer gas. he calculated. as he slammed the cover down Then ne added to the policeman Where dc you suppose it comes from
 Why replied the officer the St James viaduet-an old sewer-is some where about these parts
 Kennedy pHekered his face as he gazed at our prisoner He reached down quickly and lifted something of the mans coat
 Golden hair. he muttered Elaine
 A moment later he seized the man and shook him roughly
 Where is she-tell me-" he de manded
 The man snarled some kind of a re ply refusing to say word about her Tell me" repeated Kennedy.
 "Humph,e snorted the prisoner more close-mouthed than ever
 Kennedy was furious. As he sent the man reeling away from him he seized the oxygen helmet and began putting it on There was only one thing.to do--to follow the clue of the golden strands of hair.
 Down into the pest hole he went his head protected by the oxygen helmet. As he cautiously took one step after another down a series of iron rungs inside the hole, he found that the wa ter was up to his chest At the bot tom of the perpendicular pit was a narrow, low passageway leading of.