Evening star., 1927-03-23

whether the bed chamber of the late
/ SylVanus Gage could be entered by
way of the tunnel.
Having buttoned his coat tightly
and made certain that his instrument
case Was within easy reach. he in
tserted head and shoulders in the open
! ing and began the weary crawl toward
the other end. His progress was pain.
fully Slow. ana the smell of moist
earth gave him a sense of oppression
which he found hard to shake off. The
air. dank and insufficient, was almost
sitting. and the walls of the narrow
passage. bruising his body at each
twist and turn. seemed to eXude a
sepulchraI atmosphere that inSinuated
! itself into body and mind.
At lenEth he reached the point
where the tunnel slanted upward into
the w0ll. and here his progress became
even more difficult. Time and again
he slipped, and he could maintain a
footing only by hracing the tips of
his shoes against rough spots along
the sides. He was putting from eXer-
tion when finally he struck solid OBJ
struction which told him he had
reached the end of the passage.
Finding Il precarious foothold, he
took ont his fiashlight and closely
ScrutiniZed his surroundings. On two
sides were walls of brick, while direct
" in front of him was the flank of the
window frame.
He pushed against the latter with
all his strength, but it presented
firm and solid resistance to his efforts.
Next he went over 1t inch by inch
looking for a hidden lever or spring.
but the most careful search revealed
nothing that suggested a means of
operating the mechanism. Finally he
l. g L.
ing it in the tiny rift between the wall
and the edge of the frame, began to
pry steadily. After several minutes
OF constant effort he gave up the task
as hopeless.
He leaned back against the wall and
bent the full force of his wits to the
task OF finding a way through the OBJ
struction. Evidently there was none.
He had tapped every inch of the sur
face and looked everywhere for a con-
cealed knob or wire by which the
mechanism might be operated A
larger and heavier tool than the in
strument in his metal case would have
been of no avail. for in those narrow
quarters he could not have obtained
leverage. His search, though thor
ough and infinitely painstaking, had
netted nothing.
The conclusion was clear The re-
volving door could not be operated
from the outside; hence the murderer
Of Sylvanus Gage could not have en-
tered the room through the tunnel.
Again the Phantom mind reverted to
the inevitable deduction that no one
but Officer Pinto could have commit
ted the crime.
His lungs, which had been straining
for air for the last quarter of an hour,
felt as though they were on the point
Of bursting, and he was about to re-
lease his foothold and start back
through the tunnel when a faint tap
ping sound caught his ears. He could
not tell how long it had been going on.
for until now his whole attention had
been focused on the problem before
him. For all he knew it might just
have begun, or 1t might have started
ong before he entered the tunnel
He pressed his ear against the side
Of the frame and listened. The sounds.
quick and sharp, were coming in rapid
and at first he wondered
whether some one was trying to at
.raet his attention. Then he noticed
hat the sounds skipped and jumped.
as if the tapping covered a consider
able area, and his next surn1ise was
hat the person on the other side was
making a systematic search for some |
hing
For what?" he wondered; and in |
he next moment the answer flashed
through his mind. He remembered how, |
while he was imprisoned in the bed |
'oon1, nomentarily expecting the po-
ice to force the door and pounce upon |
1in1, he had looked to the window as
he only possible means Of escape, and
now finally he had discovered the nail
hat proved his salvation. Evidently
the person on the other side was now
doing the very thing the Phantom
himself had been doing a few hours
ago.
But who could 1t be? AS far as he
knew, no one but Helen, DR.. BinbIe
and himself was aware of the existence
Of the revolving door and the tunnel
1T did not seem likely that any one
should be searching at random for an
opening. And who could be prowIing
about the Gage house at such an
hour? Again he put his ear to the
frame. The tapping had ceased, but
now he heard another and different
sound that caused him to quiver with
excitement. A slight metallic noise
like that produced by the contact of
two objects of steel told him that the
person on the inside had found the
nail.
In twinkling he had forgotten his |
position, the dank air and the |
smell of moist earth. All
his senses were centered on the sounds |
coming from the other side, so slight |
that his keen ears could scarcely de- |
tect them.