Doctor Death Vs. The Secret Twelve - Volume 1

by Harold Ward

  “It was I who tipped off my newspaper friend, Sneed, to publish the story about the island. He was the only man who knew that I was still alive. It was he who, through his papers, put Death on the wrong track. He also called, at my request, at Nina’s apartment. He found the housekeeper dead. Then I had the scientists who were hidden away change places with the men on the island who were made up to look like them.”

  The President’s jaw dropped.

  “Thank God for that!” he exclaimed. “Sorrowful as is the thought that these heroes had to die, we could lose a thousand like them rather than one of those great men whose brains and knowledge mean so much to the nation. Captain Holm, I thank you on behalf of a grateful country.”

  There was a rap at the door. Then one of the President’s secretaries entered.

  “You are wanted on the telephone—immediately, sir!” he said, addressing Blake. “I would not have interrupted, but the party at the other end said that it was of the utmost importance. The connection is already made.”

  Blake lifted the receiver, listened for moment.

  “What?” he fairly shouted. “Say that again!”

  He listened intently. A moment later he turned away, cradling the receiver with fingers that trembled. His face was drawn and haggard.

  “Taber’s body, or rather, the body of the man who posed as Taber, has been stolen from the undertaker’s parlor where we had smuggled it in order to keep the public from hearing of his death,” he said in a voice that was weary and tired. “The undertaker’s night man discovered the fact just now when he went downstairs—he sleeps over the place—to investigate the cause of a slight noise on the first floor.

  “And in the coffin, where the body had been lying, was a card.

  “On it was scribbled: With the compliments of Doctor Death!”