The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1916-09-09
|''TMHE IRON CLAW"
BY
ARTHUR
STRINGER


deposited, Red Egan had returned Wits
the preposterous story of a white sheet
suddenly descending out Of the black
ness Of the vault and whisking One
Lamp Louie out Of reach and also out
OF sight. And since the once valiant
Red Egan showed so craven q spirit
that nothing short of quart Of three
star brandy could tranquilize his shak-
en- nerves. and since One-Lamp Louie
showed no signs OF returning from
the mysterious realms into which
the aforementioned white sheet had
whisked him, Legar promptly and
wrathfully decided to take the matter
into his own hands. He would lay
this ghost, he announced, or something
would 60 smash in the process.
But he had no intention of approach
Ing that intimidating mausoleum with
out due and definite preparation. With
him he took a powerful pocket fash
light. Colt automatic pistol and a
couple of extra clips of cartridges.
Dut the instrument on which he re-
posed the most confidence was q gun.
metal disk little bigger than a pocket
aneroid, some three inches in diane
ter and no thicker than a mans hand.
This innocent-looking disk, which
could be slipped into vest pocket as
easily as q timepiece, was known to
the habitues of the Owls Nest as the
Black Watch.
While actually nothing more than
q small-sized hand grenade. it's claim
to distinction lay in the tremendous
explosive power which stood COM
pressed between it's slender metal
walls.
Legar was not coward. Yet as he
stood in the clammy midnight air of the
Golden mausoleum and quietly
the screws that held the top on the
black casket beside him, he found that
combination of silence and gloom and
unsavory surroundings little more of
a strain on his nerves than he had
anticipated. Yet as he lifted back the
sable cover Of the casket he did SO
with a hand that was still steady.
Thence he took up his flashlight, and
pressing close to the collins side,
stood studying the pallid face that lay
surrounded by it's even more pailid
drapery OF white satin.
He stared at tl,at pa!lil face long
and intent He led at it with stu
dious and rar-owi"g eyes. Then he
did Il strange al an inexplicable
thing.
Lifting Is r,ci-cc right arm that
ended in its shank of steel, he brought
it down with a crash on the glass
cover of the casket Then, as though
Infatuated by some unreasoning hatred
for the pallid face still staring so i'm
passively up at him, he struck again.
This time the blow fell directly on the
head between the white satin swath-
ings. But that failing arm, instead Of
striking a human head Of flesh and
bone, crashed down through a thin
shell of fiber and tinted wax.
Legar, focusing his light on that
shattered mask, emitted short bark
of triumph as the meaning Of it all
came home to him. He leaned for
several minutes over the violated cas-
ket, staring at it with insolent yet alb.
stracted eyes, bordering just what
move could lie beyond so intricately en-.
gineered a subterfuge. And the an
swer to that question came more
promptly and more directly than he
had anticipated. For as he stood
there, turning piece of the wax-cov.
cred tissue meditatively over in his
fingers, the electric bulbs that strung
the mausoleum roof broke into sudden
light. From different quarters Of that
shadowy building. at the same time,
stepped a group OF hidden officers,
headed by David Manley himself.
So quickly and so quietly did that
Transformation take place, indeed,
that the man leaning over the casket
had neither time nor chance to change
his position. He merely blinked lit.
tie stupidity at the revolver which
glimmered in Manley's hand. Then,
with a gesture that seemed equally
stupid, he reached for his watch and
held the heavy gun-metal case medi.
tatively between his fingers.
stick 'em up" Manley was at the
same time commanding with curt
head movement towards Legar's
hands. 1T may have taken some
work, but this is the time we gather
you in"
Legar laughed as he confronted his
enemies.
DO you want to take me alive?'
Alive or dead, I'm going to take
you'll
Then take this first" cried Legar.
At the same moment that he spoke
the left hand in which he still held
what seemed to be black metal
watch case swung forward. And as
that object which so closely resembled
a black watch hurtled through the air,
Legar flung himself fiat on his face
along the vault flooring. Then the
black watch struck.
The next moment the walls of that
ponderous structure of marble and
sandstone seemingly built to defy time
itself, lifted bodily in the air, like the
hull Of torpedoed dreadnaught.
Then, following the roar and rumble
OF that vast defamation, came the mo-
mentary catastrophe silence which