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CLAW
AUTHOR OF “THE OCCASIONAL OFFENDER,”
“THE WIRE TAPPERS,” “GUN RUNNERS," ETC.
NOVELIZED FROM THE PATHE PHOTO PLAY OF THE SAME NAME
COmtICHT. l«l>. »Y ARTHUR ITIINtIH
SYNOPSIS.
On Winward Island Palidorl Intrigues
Mrs. Golden into an appearance of evil
which causes Golden to capture and tor
ture the Italian by branding his face and
crushing his hand. Palidorl floods the is
land and kidnaps Golden’s little daughter
Margery. Twelve years later in New York
a Masked One rescues Margery from Le
gar and takes her to her father’s home,
whence she is recaptured. Margery’s
mother fruitlessly implores Golden to find
their daughter. The Laughing Mask
again takes Margery away from Legar.
Legar sends to Golden a warning and a
demand for a portion of the chart of
Windward Island. Margery meets her
mother. Jhe chart is lost in a fight be
tween Manley and one of Legar’s hench
men, but is recovered by the Laughing
Mask. Count Da Espares figures in a
dubious attempt to entrap I.egar and
claims to have killed him. Golden’s house
is dynamited during a masked ball. Le
gar escapes but Da Espares is crushed in
the ruins. Margery rescues the Laughing
Mask from the police. Manley finds Mar
gery not indifferent to his love. He saves
her from Mauki’s poisoned arrows. Man
ley plans a mock funeral which fails to
accomplish the desired purpose, the cap
ture of the Iron Claw and his gang. Mar
gery is saved from death at the hands of
the Iron Claw by the Laughing Mask. An
attempt by the Iron Claw to blow up the
O’Mara cottage is frustrated in the nick
of time. The Laughing Mask discloses
his identity to Margery.
FOURTEENTH EPISODE
The Plunge for Life.
A strange mood of happiness, as un
reasoning as it was inexplicable,
seemed to have taken possession of
Margery Golden. A less timorous light
shone from the depths of her pool
brown eyes. At all times of the day,
too, she could he heard singing about
the house.
This wayward blitheness of spirit
was something more than a puzzle to
her heavy-browed father, who found
little in the situation immediately con
fronting him to cause him any undue
lightness of heart. For that situation
had unexpectedly taken on the form
of a defeat.
After all Jules Lcgar's campaign for
the possession of that pregnant scrap
of parchment which carried the key
to the secret of the lost treasure of
Windward island, the long-fought-for
document had suddenly disappeared
from the Golden vault. And all evi
dence pointed to the fact that it was
the Laughing Mask who had stolen
the chart and cipher code from the
safe.
Golden was in the midst of his
second conference with the russet
faced Captain Brackett of the head
quarters staff, when a telephone call
came for that official. The talk over
the wire was one-sided. ..Then with
great deliberation the official hung
up the receiver and swung about to
Enoch Golden.
“Well, we’ve got your Laughing
Mask for you.”
“You’ve got him?’’ repeated Golden.
“Our man Walcott located him by
trailing his chauffeur. And before
nightfall we can have him rounded
up.”
“Where was he found?”
“Just where you’d least expect a
man of that character to be found.
He’s hiding in a cave in the Hudson
Palisades, not ten miles from where
we’re sitting at the moment, just above
Coleman’s village. And the fact he’s
ducked to a Malina like that bears
out what we’ve always claimed, that
Crossed to the Cliff Edge.
he’s as big a crook as this Iron Claw
himself. For honest men don’t crawl
Into river caves!”
Golden was about to reply in the af
firmative to this self-obvious statement
when he was interrupted by the en
trance of his daughter.
‘‘But suppose our fugitive,” said
the serene-eyed girl as she smiled
down on the somewhat startled police
captain, ‘‘had enemies who seemed at
the moment stronger than he was and
at the same time found himself in pos
session of something which it was es
sential that he should guard? Wouldn't
it seem natural for him to go where
he’d be least likely to be found?”
The russet-faced captain blinked
stolidly up at heh.
"When an honest man has some
thing it seems dangerous to hold, he
MOMHURiI
Kv/ \ ■ 'y'
goes to the police for protection. When
a crook has made a haul, and is shaky
about losing his swag, he beats it to
his Malina, to his fence, the same as
your friend the Laughing Mask has
done! And the sooner we get the
wheels moving and root that masked
ground-hog out of his dugout the bet
ter!”
“I’m ready,” announced Enoch Gol
den.
With a gasp of sudden resolution
Margery rang the bell, called for her
roadster, and struggled into her hat
and coat, as she ran down the sand
stone steps to the street.
She sped off through the ctiy at a
rate that was an open and obvious
violation of all the speed laws. She
laughed rebelliously as, once free of
tho congested ferry traffic, she swung
lightly past the car in which she be
held her own astonished father decor
ously seated, giving him her dust as
slio mounted to the crest of the Jersey
hills and struck the road leading north
ward along the wind-bosomed river.
Then as she swung past still an
other hurrying car the smile sudden
ly died from her face. For she felt
sure that one of the faces in that car
was the face of Jules Legar himself.
She went on, from that moment,
crowding every inch of speed out of
her car, exulting in the fact of its
power, ignoring the shouts of onlook
ers as she swept up through Coleman’s
village, took the turn in a smother of
dust, and brought the steaming road
ster up sharp against, a. cedar-hedge
crowning the topmost ridge of the
river cliffs. She leaped boldly through
the hedge and ran to the outermost
lip of the Palisades. There, cupping
her hands to her lips, she called out a
single name#again and again.
From a crevice in the broken rock
face below her a figure wearing a yel
low mask looked cautiously out ai}d
waved up to her with an equally cau
tious signal. The next moment she
was clambering nimbly yet carefully
down the ledge of broken rock.
A pair of stalwart young arms were
waiting to hold her up. But sh&quick
ly broke away from their clasp.
“Quick, they are coming to capture
you!”
“Who are?”
"The police. They have found out
you are hiding here. And Legar also
has found out!"
The man in the mask darted back to
a small table on which stood a shaded
lamp. He bent quickly over and blew
out the flame. This left the back of
the cave in darkness. Then he ran
back to where the girl still w r aited.
"Do you trust me?” he asked.
"I trust you in everything," was her
reply.
“Then listen! The water at the foot
of this cliff is deep. It is a drop of a
hundred feet. But it may be our only
chance. Are you willing to take that
leap with me?”
trust you—in everything," she
told him, as she drew herself up. He
held her there for a moment and then
slipped to the back of the cave. When
he reappeared he carried a rough pine
table in his arms. This he placed
on end close to the entrance of the
cave.
The next moment a shadow dark
ened the mouth of the cave. Silhouet
ted clear against the outer light they
could see the stooping figure of the
Iron Claw.
As he stood there, peering cautious
ly about the ledge of the rockshelf,
he was stealthily joined by his fol
lowers.
"They’re coming,” the Laughing
Mask whispered to Margery Golden,
as he drew her closer in beside the
rocky wall of the tunnel. Then, using
the up-ended table as a screen, he
advanced with her toward the cave
mouth, slowly, silent, foot by foot.
They were within six feet of the
opening when Legar turned about to
give a word or two of command to his
followers. Two figures, those of a
masked man holding a slender girl
firmly by the hand, came running out
of the cave.
So suddenly did they come that they
scattered Legar’s men as they ad
vanced. And before those astounded
men could recover either their foot
ing or their wits, the man in the mask,
holding the girl close to his side, had
crossed to the cliff-edge and had taken
a flying leap out into space.
An involuntary gasp of consterna
tion burst from that startled group of
gangsters as they stood watching the
clasped figures hurtle through the
air, strike the surface of the water
clean, and go down into its blue
depths. Then, after what seemed an
interminable wait, a second shout,
as involuntary, apparently, as the first,
burst from the watchers as they be
held the two figures reappear, swim
ming strongly side by side along the
undulating surface, of the water. But
that shout was not a prolonged one.
It merged suddenly into calls and cries
of a somewhat different character, for
with that repeated shout Legar and
his men had betrayed their position to
a russet-faced police captain and six
stalwart men at his heels.
The next moment there was a
inr, IAAJULAS ttINTttKrKiSE, DOUGLAS, GEORGIA.
charge in force down the broken face
of the cliff. • And as the minions of
the law descended on the cave-mouth
the evil-eyed group gathered there
erupted into sudden life. There was a
wild scramble up the rock-ledges,
quick encounters and combats, blows
and counterblows, the impact of ash
night-sticks on resounding skulls, the
capitulating cry of half-stunned cap
tives.
But Legar fought, backed close
against the rock, with the ferocity of
a wildcat holding off every attack and
with his flailing iron claw sweeping
back every assailant. Then, swing
ing about, he leaped up the cliff-face,
springing from rock to rock with the
agility of a mountain goat.
At the top of the cliff, when Enoch
Golden himself, side by side with the
police captain, attempted to bar that
flight, the fugitive bowled over those
two rotund figures and bolted north
ward along the topmost ridge of the
cliff, heading for the timber not more
than a hundred yards away.
But by this time two of the officers,
recovering their wind and burning
with the to which they
had been subjected, had caught sight
of the fugitive and started in pursuit.
They ran well, and they ran deter
minedly. Legar, realizing that they
were gaining on him, and further real
izing that he could not keep up his
gait for long, veered suddenly toward
the river, where a road-builders’ tool
shed stood at tho extreme end of a
rock-cut along the cliff-top. Through
the doorway of this shed he darted,
with his two pursuers, now joined by
a third officer, not a hundred yards be
hind him.
Running to the far end of the shack,
he sent his wooden arm crashing
through the window, leaped to the sill,
and stared out. Below him lay the
Hudson. Crouching low, he leaped
out into space and then dropped like a
plummet to the river below.
The Octopus Bomb.
Margery faced the supreme dilemma
of her life.
The girl walked slowly to the still
open window and gazed out, but the
4aßreffit.tr '-4.
An Involuntary Gasp of Consternation Burst From Them.
mental problem that engrossed her
preoccupied her attention to the exclu
sion of everything else. Then a voice
behind her spoke:
"Can you see any of them?"
Margery turned to the man in the
yellow mask, who stood close behind
her.
“No,” said Margery, In answer to his
question. “We have a few minutes’
grace. Do you think it surely the
wisest thing to do; do you think it nec
essary beyond all doubt that I go away
with you? I know you must realize
what that must mean to me —I can
not but think of father!”
"I have thought of everything you
have said —everything you have even
thought,” said the Laughing Mask
gently. “But it is no longer safe for
you to stay here. I had to tell you
this. And I had to get from your fa
ther’s vault the thing that will clear
me of some, at least, of the crimes Le
gar has fastened upon me —Legar’s
confession.”
“Then, come, let us hurry,” said
Margery.
The two of them then stole quietly
down through the shadowy house to
the library.
The Laughing Mask went swiftly to
the vault and in a moment its heavy
door swung open. But the next min
ute a tingle of alarm swept through
Margery’s body, for the call bell of the
telephone on the rosewood desk sud
denly rang through the room. By this
time the Laughing Mask was within
the vault, but the shrill of that bell
brought him out into the room.
"Don’t answer it!” warned the girl.
"But Wilson or another of the serv
ants will surely come to answer it,” ex
plained the Laughing Mask as he
moved toward the only door that he
had not locked on entering the library.
“The confession —have you got it?”
asked Margery, not heeding what he
had said, so great was the tension of
her mind.
"It is where it is safe,” quietly re
plied the Laughing Mask.
“Then I’ll shut the vault door,” she
said.
He stood watching her as she
crossed tho room to tho vault and
swung to the heavy safe door.
With an oddly birdlike movement of
tho head the girl stopped and stared in
tently at his figure, clearly outlined
against the dark folds of tho portieres
behind him. Then, instead of locking
the vault door, she took four swift
steps to the heavily carved teakwood
table to her right. In another moment
she had caught up a Roman lamp of
solidly cast bronze and, with all her
strength, hurled it at the swaying por
tiere behind him. “Legar!” was her
( cry. And at the same moment she ut
tered a shrill cry of warning.
It was time. From behind one of
tho folds of the portiere she had
glimpsed an iron claw at tho end of a
pretematurally long arm. And as this
iron claw was lifted high in the air she
cried out as she caught sight of the
glint of a naked steel knife blade
Her warning was sufficient. * Lightly
the Laughing Mask leaped to one side.
By this time Legar was fti the room
itself, and as he advanced he drew
a revolver from his pocket.
But the man in the mask was more
agile than his enemy. He swung
Margery about in a twinkling and
r whisked her back to the vault, where
with one tug of his free hand he
swung the vault door open. Legar fired,
but the bullet ricocheted harmlessly,
against the open safe front of steel.
“Father keeps a navy revolver in the
coin drawer of the vault here,” whis
pered Margery as the man in the mask
pushed her more deeply into the
shadow of the protecting door.
At the moment that the Laughing
Mask swung about and tugged open
tho coin drawer Wilson and a round
eyed footman, having heard the sound
of the shot and having previously
failed to get any answer to the tele
phone, cache running to the library
door. But before they could open that
door Legar, realizing that his time was
short, had taken matters into his own
hands. Charging bodily against the
still half-open vault door, he s-wung it
shut upon the Laughing Mask and
Margery before they had time to
realize his intent. Then Legar threw
on the lock, spun the dial and wheeled
around to cover the two white-faced
and gaping-mouthed servants with his
revolver.
With a flourish of his revolver he
waved them to the door and would
have reached it himself had he not
at that moment heard the entrance
door of the Golden mansion flung open
and the noise of many feet sounding
on the stairs a minute later.
Slamming the room door shut upon
Wilson and the footman, Legar, his
look of triumph gone from his features,
stared frantically around the room. He
dashed to a Perugian panel screen of
ancient design, its panels fashioned in
sixteenth century tapestry, and
crouched behind it, his revolver still
in his hand. •
As Legar found this precarious hid
ing place, the door of the room
opened and Enoch Golden entered
amid a clatter of hurrying feet and a
babble of voices. Wilson, for the third
time, tried to explain to his master
what had happened.
"Margery! My daughter shut up in
the vault, you say, Wilson?” cried her
father.
“Yes, sir, shut up in there with the
man in the yellow mask, the man as
these officers, sir, have been looking
for!”
Golden strode over to the vault door.
His face was pale and he breathed
hard as he stooped over the lock dial.
The man in the yellow mask, if he
felt any fear for the outcome of this
his most precarious adventure among
the innumerable strange predicaments
that his self-appointe_d guardianship of
Margery Golden had flung him into,
gave expression to none. He reassured
her gently and chided her, even, for
her seeming lack of confidence in him.
"Have you forgotten, my dear, that
I have the confession of Legar?” he
whispered to her. "That alone means
safety, for it will take care of most of
the crimes which the Iron Claw has
fastened upon me.”
He took from a pocket and hand
ed to the girl a little hard black
ovoid. In her hand, it felt to her touch
to be like a cake of soap, only there
were what seemed to be tiny tentacles
upon it.
The clicking levers were beginning
to work more rapidly. In another mo
ment the great vault door would swing
open—to what?
“Quick, Margery,” he whispered,
“what I have just given you is what
I have called the octopus bomb. It will
save us, if tho need should be dire, if
there should be no other manner of
escape.”
As the man in the mask finished the
rapidly spoken words the door of the
vault swung stepped
forward.
The detectives, with whom the room
swarmed, paid no heed to Margery.
Their quarry emerged from the gloom
of tho vault a moment .after her. He
glanced abott —from revolver muzzle
to revolver muzzle, all leveled at him.
Margery glanced back at the Laughing
Mask as he stood thus, facing this des
perate denouement. Then she cried
out involuntarily, for one of the detec
tives had approached the Laughing
Mask, raised his hand to the mask it
self and was about to tear it off. But
the Laughing Mask stepped backward
and with a gesture commandingly
stopped him.
“One moment, if you please, gentle
men. There is no need for this. My
mask stays where it is. As for the
crimes which you seem to think are
matter for these revolvers —1 believe
this confession cf the Iron Claw ac
counts for the chief of them and,
therefore, for the rest.”
The captain was about to glance at
it, but turned to Golden for a word of
instruction. The next moment there
was a crash at the other side of the
room. Legar had heard every word
from his hiding place behind the an
tique screen and he knew that this was
the most desperate case for his for
tunes that had yet befallen. As the
captain stretched forth his hand, ex
tending the confession to Golden, Le
gar, with a rush, dashed past him,
grasped the confession from his fingers
and made for the window. Snatching
his cap down over his eyes, he
plunged head first through the glass,
shattering it to splinters.
Legar had flashed across the room
like a missile from a catapult. Three
of the detectives were knocked from
their feet. The others gaped at the
shattered window. The captain was
the first to recover his wits. He
shouted an angry command, one of his
men threw up the battered sash and
the rest leaped out.
Inside the Golden library, the detec
tive who had tried to disclose the iden
tity of the Laughing Mask was again
intent upon solving this mystery. That
is why he had remained behind.
“It’s no use, your time’s come. Off
with the mask, I tell you!”
The Laughing Mask looked straight
into the beady eyes before him and he
saw that their gaze was not of the
sort that is open to argument or per
suasion. Then he looked steadily on
beyond to where Margery stood, be
hind the detective.
Margery understood his glance and
interpreted his gesture aright. She
deftly slipped the octopus bomb from
her handkerchief, in which she had
held it, clutched tightly within her
lingers, ever since she and the Laugh
ing Mask had left the vault. As the
detective strode forward to peer the
more closely at what he expected to
see revealed Margery hurled the bomb
to the floor.
The next moment the room was
filled with an impenetrable cloud of
black smoke. Completely it enveloped
everyone and everything in the library.
Gradually the black, sootlike pall
rose to the high ceiling of the library,
disclosing Margery, her fathefi and the
detective to one another. But the
Laughing Mask had vanished. The de
tective dashed to the door leading to
the adjoining reception hall and flung
it open. Golden followed and both ran
through this spacious chamber and on
to the stairs. Margery, still apprehen
sive for the safety fit the man in the
yellow mask, ran after the searchers,
who were fairly baffled.
As soon as all three were clear of
the reception hall the Laughing
Mask’s head emerged from a large
ancient Roman vase; swiftly, he
climbed from out its great sheltering
bowl and stepped noiselessly back to
the library.
Silently the Laughing Mask lifted
the window and climbed over the sill.
In another moment he had leaped to
the ground below. But he had not
reckoned upon the quick discourage
ment that overtakes that limp arm of
the law known as a central office de
tective. The half dozen of the type,
with their chief, who had pursued Le
gar when their revolvers failed to stop
him, had quickly given up the chase.
They were walking briskly when the
captain quickly motioned to his men
to hug the wall of the house. Some
thing at the shattered window of the
library had caught his attention. It
was a man’s back. The man W'as
astride the window sill. The captain
then recognized the hat of the Laugh
ing Mask. The captain halted his men,
who were still some fifty feet from the
window. The Laughing Mask straight
ened up as he reached the ground be
neath the window, and, for an instant,
again he faced his enemies. But in a ,
flash he turned and darted around the
corner of the house.
When the captain and his men
reached the first house corner they
stopped to search the vista down the
second house wall. Already tho
Laughing Mask was around the next
corner and it did not dawn on the
detectives that the man they were
hunting would do anything but make
for the hedge as Legar had done.
As a fact, Legar was still where he
had eluded pursuit. He drew forth
the confession that he had sought so
long. He held It to the light so that
he could read it and then, with hi»
claw, he tore the paper to shreds.
The Laughing Mask, too, had beat
the detectives. He ran with all the
fleetness of foot that his athletic build
and slim strength could muster, out
beyond the Golden grounds and down
the nearest street to the trolley line.
As he reached the tracks a car, just
from the barns, came to a stop and
the Laughing Mask boarded it at a
leap. The conductor of the car had
gone to the signal box nearby. As the
! x 'v ' -•- ‘. I
.yHfa -•: avw * |
Leaped to the Sill.
man finished setting the signal the
Laughing Mask saw the group of de
tectives at the head of the street at
right angles to the tracks, dashing to
wards him. In another minute they
would reach tho car.
He slipped his revolver from his coat
pocket and ran through the car. With
a bound he was upon the front plat
form and slipped the catch of the door
behind him. As the motorman faced
about, the Laughing Mask’s revolver
was thrust into his face.
“Start «the car —now!” cried the
Laughing Mask.
Instead, the motorman lifted the con
troller handle from the box and would
have struck the Laughing Mask’s re
volver hand, but the latter stepped
back and thrust the motorman off the
platform with a terrific shove of his
foot. The motorman tumbled over in
the dust of the roadway and before he
could regain his feet the Laughing
Mask had the spare controller handle
cut of the tool box and had started the
car at full speed.
Leaving the controller box for an
instant, he gazed backward. The de
detectives had stopped a passing au
tomobile and were piling into it. The
car gained momentum, and soon it
careened along the rails, swinging
around curves with two wheels in air
and ever bettering its speod.
Nevertheless, the automobile, now
driven by one of the detectives, could
not to be outdistanced. It was now
scarcely more than a hundred yards be
hind. The car was approaching another
slight upgrade, preparatory to dash
ing across the highest bridge on the
road. As the car struck the level
stretch of track at the entrance to the
bridge abutment, again its momentum
drove it at fresh speed. Now it was
gaining on the automobile as the car
full of detectives, in its turn, struck
tho upgrade. A new plan flashed
through the Laughing Mask’s mind.
He looked back to measure the dis
tance between the car and the automo
bile. The car gave a lurch as it struck
the bridge switch-frog, in another mo
ment it had left the rails and then it
hurtled against the guard rail, smashed
it and plunged downward.
As the car disappeared from the
sight of the detectives in the pursu
ing automobile, Golden gave an invol
untary cry.
“Drive on over the end of the
bridge,” cpmmanded Golden, “and let
us go down below.”
The searchers went down the de
clivity to the waterside and there lay
I the wrecked trolley car, smashed to
: splinters. The detectives scattered
along the bank of the river, hunting
; for some sign of the Laughing Mask,
] but there was none.
“We have hunted all along the
shorty reported one of the detectives
to the captain, “but there is no sign
of the Laughing Mask’s body. It must
have been carried on down the river
and over the falls.”
For the policemen and Golden, the
quest was ended. They drove back
to tho Golden manstofi and then the
j captain and his men took their leave.
Golden, still somewhat unnerved at
' the fate that he believed had at last
| overtaken the Laughing Mask for the
; eyes make the brain an appalling wit
ness of what the ears would record
only a meager impression—Golden
mounted the stairs of his home.
Margery, wide-eyed, stood at the
stairhead. What Golden had just seen
was still pictured, in some sort, on his
face.
"Father,” she cried out, “what is it,
what has happened?”
“The Laughing Mask,” he said, "has
met a terrible death.”
And then he told her what he had
seen. She looked into his face, in
credulous, amazed, horror-stricken.
"No! No! It can't be!"she gasped
out, like one in a frenzy. „
“I saw it with my own eyes,” said
her father.
She gazed at him vacantly, and then
fell into his arms, her limp flgur*
shaken by convulsive sobs.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)