The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1920-02-19
THE I~NuS|BlfiHAND'
CHAPTER TINT

CHATTER @T-N.T-
Read the story Of "The Invisible
Hand" in The Courant every week
and then see the picture at the Grand
the Tuesday following.
When Sharpe escaped from the nest
Of the outlaws by distracting their at
tention to another part Of the cabin,
he appropriated one Of the horses,
belinging to the gang, that was teth-
cred in the corral outside the cabin.
Jumping on the horse he starts at a
mad pace down the narrow trail lead
ing from the outlaw den. The gang
hear the horses hoof beats but instead
Of following him prepare to catch
him with the bombs planted in the
road. The first few buried dynamite
mines miss the detective but the last
two blow him up. Sharpe, however,
has sensed the danger and he slips
from the animal and rolls down the
embankment. The body of the horse
rolls down after him, dead.
With rare presence of mind the de-
tective makes a dummy coat and hat
and places them under the body of the
deal animal in such a awy that the
gangsters will think he has been killed
He finds the tunnel of an abandoned
mine and there hides himself while
the gangsters come to the edge of the
cliff above to investigate the results
of their dastardly plot. Accompanied
by the girl they look over the edge
and e the dummy arranged below
and thinking the great detective dead
they go off jubilant and send a re-
port to Iron Hand.
Sharpe starts to investigate the tun-
mel into which he has crept to escape
the gangsters. He finds that it leads
by a winding route up into the cellar
of the crooks nest from which he has
just made his escape. He manages to
make his way to>one of the rooms and
there overhears Anne Crawford, who
is posing as Violet Ray to the crooks,
talking to Potsdam, Iron Hands lieu
tenant.
The latter tells Anne to go to a
nearby ranch where she can secure
an auto and go from there to Iron
Hands headquarters. The detective
takes a short cut to the ranch and
there overpowers the chauffeur in
charge of the ranch garage. He dis
guises himself and takes the latter's
place and when Anne, unknowing of
the deception arrives, he agrees to
take her to Iron Hand. Anne reaches
the headquarters of Iron Hand in the
city. Secret and sombre they are,
down in a hidden chamber of a build
ing. Sharpe follows and unable to go
in by the well guarded corridor and
portal leading to the private den of
the crook chief, he climbs down an
elevator shaft and effects an entrance.
He listens to the talk between Iron
Hand and Anne. like Iron Hand, he
is also deceived by Anne's splendid
acting of the part Of the woman
crook, Violet Ray, and accepts her
for what he thinks she is.
He sees the terrible scene of n of
the conspirators Hansen, reporting
the success of a plan to Iron Hand
and sees how the cruel crook chieften
poisons him for fear that he might
turn informer. Iron Hand drops the
body into a we'll and Sharpe realizes
after seeing this cold blooded murder
the caliber of the man he has matched
his wits and power against. Sharpe
has been spying all this time from the
bottom of the elevator shaft. The ele-
vator descends Unexpectedly and fore
es Sharpe into the room where he
holds up Iron Hand and Anne. Sharpe
is tricked by means of a floor trap
and is plunged into a deep well. When
Iron Hand investigates he pretends
that he is dead. Iron Hand and Anne
leave the rendezvous but, before she
leaves, she pulls a lever that releases
the water in the we'll into a sewer.
Sharpe thankful for what he consid-
ers accidental aid swins for miles
through the city sewer to the river
into which it empties. |
He swims blindly around in the
river for a time until he discovers a
small motorboat fastened to it's moor
ings. When he looks at his watch he
finds that he has only thirty minutes
in which to prevent the plot of Iron
Hand to blow up the ammunition
]storehouse of the American Powder
Cor nv. He puts full speed onto the
mott : and starts for a landing
point nearest the powder mill in order
to Illustrate the attempt of the con-
spirators. a..
In the mean time the gangsters have
arrived on the scene of their planned
crime. One Of them goes to the gate
of the mill and summons the watch
man. The other prepares to climb over
the fence. When the Waterman APP
pears he is struck down senseless with
a blackjack. Sharpe arrives in a few
minutes later after a hard run to get
there on time. His first sight is the
body of the Waterman lying outside
the gate. He enters the yard of the
mill and keeps to the shadows to avoid
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