The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-08-05
By Albert P.
 Terhune
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darkened, bedchamber, had issued muffled signs and one or two moans as of pain. As she spoke, Mrs. Man sur got lazily to her feet again and came over to the table where stood the black bag. She reached out one beringed white hand for it, to carry 1t into the sickroom.
 But her finger had scarcely closed around the bags handle, when Barry Rourke came out of a brief stupor of bewilderment He also gripped the handle and strove with all his might to wrench it away from her.
 With unexpected strength' and ac- cess of vigor, Mrs. Mansur seIzed the steel-lined satchel with both hands, fiercely resisting his effort to deprive her of it. Her red lips parted, as for furious speech. Mansur. too, strode forward, with an exclamation of amazement.
 But before Mansur could reach the two, and before the womans first word of generalization or of rebuke could be uttered, Barry made the second move in his dumfounding new tactics.
 Still grasping the disputed bag strap with his right hand, he shot his left fist forward, with dull force and with all his scientific skill. His fist caught the unprepared woman on the jaw-point.
 She released her frantic double grip of the satcheli and slumped heavily to the floor. As she fell. her head struck against the table corner.
 The loose-piled masses of brown hair came away, revealing beneath them a head as bald as Mont Blancs. By that same vanishing of hirsute magic, the stunned woman was no longer woman, nor tall. Instead, she was somewhat undersized man, hairless except for a nondescript fringe at ears and nape of neck i; thickly rouged and powdered, and of small but distinctly masculine fea- lures.
 The pseudo wife was to have taken the bag into the darkened bedroom, to her pseudo mother. The latter ManSur's own wife-was to have ob- jected, loudly and querulously, to be- ing disturbed Then the pseudo wife was to have begun long and sooth- ing harangue; seeking to coax the old woman Into consenting to look at the bags contents. At the first word of this monologue, the invalid was to have taken the bag and let her self noiselessly out into the corridor; the rooms outer door having been Sreased to silence.
 Thence she was to have made her way openly to the adjacent elevator being already halted and coated and to have departed from the hotel with the plunder, while the supposed wife was still cajoling her into look ing at the satcheIs treasure. Then with an artistic catch of alarm In her contralto voice, the wife" was to have called back to Mansur.
 Come here a minutei Quick! I'm afraid she's fainted!
 Mansur was to have rushed into the darkened room, talking loudly and excitedly. Whereat, the connect ing door was to have swung nearly shut. His entrance into the bedroom was to have been the signal for the wife" to follow the first accomplice to the elevator shaft; having, as she talked. slipped out of her negligee and wig and into waiting suit of mems clothes. Mansur was to have rushed back, distractedly, to the drawing room, entreating Barry to telephone at once to a purely ficti- tious number for a physician.
 While Rourke was doing so, Man sur was to rush back into the bed room and thence silently out into the hall and down the service stairway, next it, to the floor below. On the way, certain delft changes in appear ance were to make 1t safe for him to take the elevator, boldly. from that floor. All this, in the time it should take tender hearted Barry to tele- phone the supposed doctor and to learn by degrees that he had been hoaxed.
 Three minutes start, at most. was all Mansur desired. The getaway had been planned for in every detail from the boarding of the elevator to the final safe meeting place with his two assistants.
 The big Mansur was never at a loss. He did not know how Barry had discovered the hoax. Nor did 1t matter The game of diplomacy was up. Either he must get the bag and make his escape, or else the venture would not only turn out a failure but he and his confederates stood a bright chance of prison. Rourke must be got rid of. and the bag regained There could be no gun play in so crowded hotel. Brute strength alone must suffice; and with as lit tie racket and as much speed as mi ght be.
 Run for 1t. Min" he called into the darkened room.
 Then he launched himself upon Barry; almost as soon as the bald headed mans body struck the floor
 Rourke was staring, soggle-eyed
  woman changing into hairless man. The instant of delay gave Mansur time to snatch a metal water carafe from the table and to strike. Straight for the base of the brain he smote. Such a blow, heavily struck, tends to long incapacity on the part of its victim.
 To nearly every trained boxer there is given a queer sixth sense which warns him of his opponents next move, even if not always in time to block it. And this sixth sense came now to the sid of Barry Rourke, or else he heard subconsciously the forward leap of his allailant.
 He wheeled, pust in time to avoid the blow on his brain base. De- flected, the heavy carafe smote him glancingly on the right elbow, numb ing for a second his whole arm, from biceps to fingertips.
 From his paralyzed fingers the black bag clanked to the floor. Man - sur, lurching past him, made foot ball dive for it. Barry, with lucky kick, sent the heavy satchel rolling far out of the big mans clawing reach.
 Together. the two rushed for it Barry's outstretched left hand closed upon its~strap a fraction of a second ahead of Mansur's. But 1t was Man sur who recovered himself the sooner for this reason. And Barry, seeking s to rise from his stooping posture found himself garroted from behind by two huge and powerful arms.
 Backward his head was jerked in resistless pressure; while Mansur's s knee drove obliquely into the small of Rourke' back. This is an excel lent method for breaking an adver- sary's neck. And had Mansur's free foot been more securely braced, it must have served it's desired turn.
 But the big man had secured his hold with awkward haste and before getting set for such balance needed stunt. Thus, while the knee jolt at the small of Barry's back was ago. nizing. 1t was not demolishing; nor was it synchronous with the climax of throat pressure, as such punish