The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-01-14
UNSEEN HANDS
A BeuUiIdering DetectiUe Story
 By Robert Orr Chipperfield
XXIV SYNOPSIS


 strange accidents in the home of Ricnard Lorne encounters Far
 ley Drew, whose hired thugs :. Miller, into unconsciousness % % and carry them tO an old bOathOuSe. X Odell hears MiIlers voice and se- , cretly communicates with him while watching their captorS en-
 gage in a drinking bout.
 OdeIIs heart gave a sudden leap. If he had companion in captivity 1t the conversation he had just over heard left him in no doubt that Drew had instigated the assault. Miller was lying bound and helpless some where near, and he must contrive somehow to reach him.
 But the first voice was speaking again.
 There's nothing the matter with ing made. He'll cool down by the time we turn him loose; but I tell you. Tony I wish this job was through"
 'ewhat's eatin' yer?" demanded the one called Tony. Pretty soft,. call it; five hundred cold iron men for a weeks vacation and no come back! De main guy is prince about cough i'm up, if he is a bum sport.
 CT don't like it, the other insisted. ''It's out of our line for one thing, changing my luck. It's one game to stick up a drunk for his roll and beat it; but Kidnapping two of them, and dicks at that. don't look so good to me now that I've had time to think it over. Besides, what do we know of this fellow? What if he gets pinched and squeals on us?"
 "Squeal nothin'!" calculated Tony one, Pete. Dat guy Sims don't pick no squealers for his. Let's go out an stretch our pins"
 Suppose this patient of yours lrzxo lroc a'c I"You haven't even got him tied"
 LAW. h-l! Amt I tellin' youse he's out for de count? C'm on."
 A chair rasped against bare boards, and two pairs of feet clumped noisily away, but not beyond earshot. for rrheir footsteps and the low rumble of their conversation still came to Odell, alternately diminishing and in creasing in volume as if they were walking up and down nearby He heard the regular slap and gurgle of motion; and he listened in vain for sthe creak of hawsers or the vibrating ahum of an engine which would show that they were on board craft Of some kind
 The brief glance which he had es- sayed before the sound of footsteps had warned him revealed the fact that he was in small room which. might very well have been cabin; but he had noticed neither windows nor portholes, and now once more ne VenIured open HIS eyes,
 He was lying upon a low couch with dirty gray blankets covering him to the chin; and within his range of vision were three chairs fand a table of rough unpainted pine, rows of shelves against a wall of upholstered latbs, Ind a window through which he cold see the waving branches of a&ree, it's leaves already tinged with autumna1 flame.
 Yet the water was not Tapping against the shore; he could hear it all about him underneath the floor. Clearly he must be in some sort of house built out over the edge of a bay or river; and save for the rum- ble of his captors voices and that H. quid gurgle and wash everything was very still.
 He raised his head weakly to steady the ice-bag and turned his head with infinite caution. A window in the opposite side of the room looked out upon a clear expanse of dancing blue waters. with a far shore-line and tiny white sails scudding between. Odell concluded that he must be facing due south, for the sun was setting low on his right. As he turned his eyes from the window they encountered a long, graceful canoe lying against the wall beyond the head of his couch and the paddle standing in a corner; and from under the lid of a care lessly closed chest the end of a. sig nal flag trailed
 He had time only to note that the
 
 was "Midinette," when the voices out side upon the little platform ol porch grew louder, and he composed himself again with closed eyes Jus as the two men re-entered the room 'All right" The one called Pete was evidently concluding the conver 4 sation. 'Tll beat it up to the village fNhnd see if I can scare up any, bu kts ticklish business these days Thought you were off the stuff
 "Not any more dan youse is. ol Mpal.'' returned Tony. 1f l hadn, M lost de package overheard dat Vol H kert slipped me last night wed a been fixed fine, but honest, I got d yin somethin' fierce!''
 srWell I won't be long," VI
 A door closed, and shambl1ng foot steps approached the couch. Odei held himself motionless, scarcely dar ing to breathe as shaky hand n1te' and then replaced it. The footstep moved away. then halted; and ther came the scratch of match an whiff of vile cigarette. Then foot steps again. the opening and closin of a door, and Odell was once nor alone.
 the German who ran the drug-Stor on the corner of Third avenue jus across from the pseudo-tailor's sho and who had paid heavy fine nc to the wretched addicts of the vicir ity ',he "package'' which the drug gist had slipped to Tony was sell evident; the latter and Pete wer both in their own parlance, coke sniffers.
 If Pete succeeded in securing auppIy in the village of which he ha spoken, and they indulged over-free1 after their enforced abstinence, tf increased lethargy which would fo low the brief period of exhilaratio might permit Odell to mae a brea fcr liberty; but first he must fin Miller, cut his bonds, and aid h escape
 If there were only some way which he could get a message to h subordinate! While the sun saT behind the horizon and dusk settle into the dreary room the detecti7 lay cudge1ing his brains. His prev ous effort when he had raised hin self to look about him had made h head throb violently and showed hi how weak and dizzy he still was aft the blow which had been dealt him
 Nevertheless, it had profited hi somewhat. He knew that he mu be confined in a private boathou on some body of water broader ths