A cylindrical lens-mount projected from a spherical chromium housing whose instrument panel was covered with unlikely looking switches and rheostat dials.
The apparatus was aimed at a small recessed alcove in the end of the room, some seven feet high by five feet square. Two shining glass insulators projected from the ceiling and terminated at about the height of a man’s head in large copper electrodes.
Don Diavolo recognized the contrivance from the pictures that had been reproduced in the newspapers at the time of the opening of the Auto Show.
“Dr. Palgar’s Invisibility Ray projector,” he whispered to Horseshoe. “Keep your eyes peeled. It’ll be a good show.”
“And keep your rod handy,” the Horseshoe Kid replied. “I don’t like the looks of this crowd. Tough eggs, all of ’em and something’s wrong. They’re all nervous as hell.”
“I don’t know that I blame them,” Don said. “Somebody’s been using some pretty good psychology on them. It’s—”
A voice behind them cut across the room “Good evening, gentlemen.”
The hush that fell upon the room was complete except for the movement of feet as they all turned to face the doorway. The door stood half open. The voice came again. “Be seated, please.” And the door slowly closed, apparently of its own volition.
The voice was that of the Invisible Man.
The chairs in the room faced a desk on the left of the alcove. One of the chairs moved across the floor to a position behind the desk, made a half turn and was still. An invisible hand moved several papers on the desk. A cigarette that someone had left on the edge of an ashtray on the desk, rose like the gun Don had seen float in midair earlier. Near it, suddenly, a stream of smoke issued from empty space as from the mouth of an invisible smoker. A lone chill chased down Don Diavolo’s back.
The Invisible Man was a real showman; he had imagination. The lean, hard faces of the others watched this phenomenon with scowling intentness.
The cigarette returned to the tray and the voice spoke again. “Please keep your seats.”
A moment later, Don saw a switch pull itself over on the Invisibility machine’s instrument panel. A green circle of light glowed beside it, and then, as a rheostat turned, a long pulsating violet ray issued from the lens and its round circle bathed the small alcove in a bright hot light.
“Monahan,” the phantom voice commanded. “I’ll take my place now. You will throw the operating switch as usual.” There was an interval of a few seconds and the voice, from within the alcove now, said, “Ready!”
The butler who had taken his position by the machine pulled a three point switch. Long purple flashes of spitting light jumped from the contact points to meet it. A deep whirring hum within the machine sent tingling vibrations radiating out across the floor. The vibrant smell of ozone crackled in the air.
Then, just below the two round shining electrodes within the cabinet a shape began to form. It was vague and transparent at first, a disconnected ghostly glimmer of highlights on a face and on two hands that grasped the electrodes.
Gradually the space beneath began to fill with a darker mass that steadily lost its wraithlike transparency and became solid. The Invisible Man stood there now, a young man wearing a gray business suit and a black mask.
Sparks streamed from his fingers as he took his hands from the electrodes. Monahan reversed his switch; the electric crackle of the machine died out and the violet beam faded.
The masked man stepped from his place and seated himself behind the desk.
Slowly his eyes, behind the mask, surveyed the group before him. Then his voice, a shade deeper now as if the change to visibility had altered it slightly, said, “Bring him in, Monahan.”
The butler stepped to the door and opened it. Under his breath, Don said, “Damn!”
Karl Hartz came through the door followed by a low-browed individual with a gun. They came forward and stopped before the desk.
The masked man got to his feet. “So,” he said. “You. I see.”
“He was casing the joint outside,” Slapsie reported. “I thought we’d better pick him up. He don’t look like a dick though.”
“He isn’t. I know him. Take him out. I’ll attend to him later.”
As they left, the masked man’s eyes sought Don’s. “The two new members will step forward.”
Don, rising, knew that there was trouble ahead. He went forward with Horseshoe to stand before the desk. Palmed in his right hand was his small flesh-colored automatic. The safety catch was off.
Don tried not to think about the half dozen other guns that he knew must be in the group at his back.
Then the masked man did a curious thing. He leaned forward across the desk, peering into Diavolo’s face. His lips moved softly and Don barely caught his quick whisper. “If you fire, you won’t have a chance. Follow my lead. When I shoot, play dead. I’ll try to get you out.” Out loud he said, “Your disguise is excellent, Diavolo. If we had not noticed your assistant outside, I might not have penetrated it. Monahan, search them!”
Don and Horseshoe stood quietly as the man’s hands slapped at their pockets. He found Horseshoe’s gun, but missed Diavolo’s. Don decided to hang on to that just in case.
He knew who the masked man was. But could he trust that whispered offer of assistance? Would he and Horseshoe actually get a chance to play dead? Would the shots, when they came, be blanks as the masked man wanted to make him believe? Was it just another doublecross?
The masked man took an automatic from his pocket and raised it slowly until it pointed at Don Diavolo’s chest.
Don was still trying to decide whether to fire first or take a chance. He knew that the man who stood before him was Pat’s and Mickey’s brother, Glenn Collins. If Don pressed his trigger first, he and Horseshoe would undoubtedly get a barrage from behind. If he let Glenn fire, he might get a blank — and he might not….
But the gun whose report filled the room was neither Diavolo’s nor Glenn’s. It came from a smoking forty-five in the hands of Inspector Church as the corridor door slammed open and spilled detectives into the room.
The masked man fell. Slapsie Monahan fired once with the gun he had taken from Horseshoe. He got three shots In reply. The others, seeing him fall, stood pat.
Don saw Woody Haines barge through the door, grinning. Inspector Church approached the masked man who was sitting on the floor, holding a bloody shoulder. “Vanish on me will you, Don Dia—”
Church, jerking aside the mask, stopped, staring at Glenn Collins. Then he turned to Horseshoe. “What — where is that—”
Scarf ace Mike, realizing that he was still in the Inspector’s black books and that capture, under the present circumstances, was going to be no help at all had moved like lightning.
Church whirled and saw him standing within the alcove, his hands reaching for the copper electrodes. Caught off guard, the Inspector stared with round eyes as the orange sparks leaped toward Don’s fingers and then as the magician’s body began to fade, Church shot from the hip.
His bullet had a strange effect. The scene within the alcove seemed to splinter into a thousand pieces. There was a glassy crash and Diavolo’s body, half transparent, instead of falling, vanished instantly!
20
An anagram for Don Diavolo.
21
This glass was what is known as a one-way window. On its other side it appeared to be a mirror set above the fireplace.
CHAPTER XIII
Death of an Invisible Man
ON the other side of the alcove’s wall there was another room. J.D. Belmont was opening a stairway door when a panel in the wall behind him slid aside and Don Diavolo stepped out, his gun raised.
“Not so fast, please,” he said. “Get your hands up!”
Belmont only moved faster. Diavolo put a shot into the door three inches to the right of the man’s head. Belmont changed his mind, his face gray. His hands came up, dropping the suitcase that he carried.
“That’s more like it,” Don said, his eyes surveying the room with a quick searching glance. “Get away from that door!”
Diavolo called back through the open panel behind him. “Inspector! This way! I’ve got something for you.”
Church came through after a moment with Woody Haines and Brophy at his heels. Don said, “One of you keep a gun on Belmont. This is going to be interesting.”
“I’ll keep one on you too,” Church said. “What the blazes are you trying to pull off now?”
“A solution to the case, Inspector. We’ve got most of the pieces now and if we put them together properly …”
“I’ve got all the pieces,” Church said. “And I know how they fit.”
“Yes?” Don asked. “Do you know where Belmont fits?”
“I’ve got a good idea. He’s the other nigger in the woodpile.”
“Yes,” Don nodded, “That’s right enough. But who else are you voting for? Me?”
“Why not?” Church asked, scowling. “I’ve got a witness that saw you shoot Ziegler. And you were the guy who levitated that gun at Ziegler’s apartment this morning. It was a phony made of papier mâché and hung on a black thread strung across the room. When you stepped away from the desk, you had an end of the thread in your hand. When you took up the slack the gun floated. And you used ventriloquism for the voice we heard.”
“Not bad, Inspector,” Diavolo said. “That’s the one time I was the Invisible Man. But if you had been there half an hour before you’d have heard a voice coming out of thin air ordering Monahan to throw me into that safe. That certainly wasn’t me throwing my voice. I’m not committing suicide just yet and, when I do, it won’t be that way.
“What’s more, Rose Ziegler did not see me shoot her father. She saw two men, one in a red dress suit and red mask, go into the study with her father. She heard some shots. I suggest that you check St. Louis Louie’s gun with the bullets in Ziegler’s body.”
Inspector Church said quickly, “Somebody impersonated you. That your story?”
“You know very well it is, Inspector. Because at the time the phony Scarlet Wizard appeared at the Ziegler apartment, you and I were worrying about a diamond necklace out on Long Island at Belmont’s place. Ask Glenn Collins who impersonated me.”
“Okay,” Church nodded. “I’ll take that. You were at Belmont’s all right. I just wanted to know who was helping you at this end. The Belmont hocus pocus was more of your damned misdirection, wasn’t it? Just a gag to get me out there while your assistants got after Ziegler. And I know who swiped the necklace now.”
Church turned to Belmont. “You did. Diavolo threw his voice so that it seemed to come from the doorway just as you were about to put the necklace back in its case. You dropped it in your pocket instead!”
Belmont watched the Inspector narrowly. “You can’t prove that, Inspector.”
Don Diavolo smiled. “You’re doing better by the minute, Inspector. You’ve got that pretty straight except for the ventriloquism. Answer me this one. If I’m the Invisible Man, how did I get that stuff out of Ziegler’s shop when you had me guarded in the museum across the street?”
“Mr. Gates,” Church answered. “That was Collins doing another impersonation. The swag went out in his bag.”
“Right, Inspector. But who loaded the bag? Ziegler said he had Gates under his eye all the time.”
“Well — I … Dammit, have I got to study to be a magician in order to get you behind bars? I don’t know how you did it. It was another of your magic tricks. And when the D.A. handpicks a jury of men who have all seen your act, they won’t let a little thing like that keep them from putting you on the hot seat.”
“I suppose it was a conjuring trick that killed Sergeant Healy?” Don asked skeptically. “You’ve just seen the Invisibility apparatus in the next room. You ruined it with that shot of yours. You know it’s only an illusion. Pepper’s Ghost brought up to date with some scientific trimmings.22 Dr. Palgar’s Invisible Ray Projector, its shiny switches and weird violet light, is so much eyewash. Good showmanship, good advertising, but eyewash just the same. The illusion is all worked from the alcove.”
Don pointed to a machine nearby from which a large disk projected. “Static machine,” he said. “That furnished the sparks that jumped from my fingers when I touched the electrodes. Pressure on the right hand electrode makes the lights change which starts the illusion operating. But it’s still only an illusion. You can appear to fade into invisibility in that cabinet, but you can’t step out of it still in that condition.”
“But — but …” Church started to interrupt.
“Quiet, please,” Diavolo insisted. “The audience can ask the lecturer questions after class. There is an Invisible Man, but he’s a different sort than you expect.”
“Collins,” Church broke in. “He—”
Don raised his hand. “Inspector,” he threatened, “If you don’t pipe down, I’ll say a few magic words and vanish right now. And then you never will solve this case.”
Church hesitated, then said, “Okay, talk, but I won’t like it even if it’s good. You can hand out the damnedest line I ever—”
Don’s hand started a mystic pass and Church stopped abruptly, half afraid that perhaps the magician could make good on his threat to disappear.
“Glenn Collins,” Don said quickly, “needed a job. He got one. He played the part of the Italian who barged into Healy’s office just before he was shot. He was also Mr. Gates, Julian Dumont and the Dr. Palgar that you’ve been trying to find. He didn’t know he was taking on a job that included murder, but when that’s what happened and when Glenn discovered that his employer had seen to it that his thumbprint was on the note left in your office, there wasn’t much he could do but go through with it. He was in a hell of a spot. That right, Belmont?”
The financier shook his head. “I’m not talking.”
“You will,” Diavolo predicted. “There was a fingerprint on the third note that the Invisible Man wrote, the one that was left at Ziegler’s shop. It was yours. Karl checked that. It matched a few prints you left on the check you gave me.”
Belmont’s face was dark. “Why that little—”
The noise of the shot that punctuated his sentence was loud in the small room. Belmont pitched forward on the floor, wounded only, but pretending death in order to avoid a second shot.
Church, Woody Haines, and two other detectives who had come in while Don was talking looked around hunting for the source of the shot. Their fingers itched on their triggers. And they saw nothing at which to aim.
Church said, “But — but that shot came from in here! It—”
“Yes,” Diavolo answered. “The Invisible Man is present. And it’s not me. If there’s any more shooting you can try that suitcase Belmont dropped. I—”
There was one more shot, but Church and the others did not reply to it. They were staring at the hole that appeared in the side of the suitcase and the slow trickle of blood that was oozing out.
After a moment Inspector Church crossed the room and opened the grip.
When he looked up, he had a dazed expression of comprehension on his face.
“Larry Keeler,” Don said, “is a dwarf. That gives him a headstart at invisibility. He’s also a magician — Wizzo, The World’s Smallest Prestidigitator. And that made the rest easy!”
22
A French conjurer, Henri Robin, in his book L’Histoire des Spectres Vivants et Impalpables claims to have exhibited this very famous illusion as early as 1847. Prof. John Henry Pepper, however, patented the idea in 1863 and exhibited it at the London Polytechnic Institute in 1879 with great success. Harry Kellar subsequently brought it to the United States under the name The Blue Room. This last version, in which a man standing within a coffin changes visibly to a skeleton and back again, is still seen in carnivals and at fairs. See Henry Ridgely Evans: History of Conjuring and Magic and Ottokar Fischer’s Illustrated Magic.
CHAPTER X
IV
Hocus Pocus
INSPECTOR CHURCH wasn’t too sure he was satisfied. He still eyed Don Diavolo with a jaundiced eye. It wasn’t until Glenn Collins had told his story that Church finally let Don and The Horseshoe Kid leave.
With Karl Hartz and Woody Haines, they sped in a taxi toward the Manhattan Music Hall.
“I took a look at the gun Glenn was going to knock us off with,” Horseshoe said. “It was loaded with blanks. He was trying to give us an out, after all.”
“Yes,” Don said. “He had to do it that way because Keeler was watching him from beyond the wall. There’s a peephole behind that illusion alcove. Driver,” Don leaned forward, “Step on it, will you? Kaselmeyer is probably having kittens one right after the other. Litters and litters of them. I’ve got to stop helping Inspector Church and tend to some of my own knitting.”
“He’ll calm down after my story hits the papers,” Woody said. “Invisible Man Loses in Magician’s Duel! Kaselmeyer can paint himself a permanent S.R.O. sign in his lobby. But I want more details. Glenn Collins only hit the high spots before they popped him into the ambulance. Why did he barge into Healy’s office, impersonate an Italian, and hand out that line about thanking him for finding his daughter?”
“He had to say something,” Don answered. “He and Keeler had been following Healy. They’d just discovered that Healy, posing as a crook, had joined the gang the same way we did. They wanted to get him before he reported that he’d found Palgar’s machine and told about the use to which it was being put. They trailed him to his office trying to get a chance to jump him.
“Then they became desperate and used drastic measures. Glenn broke in on Healy excitedly, jumped across the office and shouted his thanks in Healy’s face so that Healy wouldn’t see Keeler sneaking in at the door behind Glenn. I’d guess that Larry crawled across the floor and when Glenn left, stayed hidden down below the level of the desk top. Glenn, as he just told Church, didn’t realize that Keeler was going to murder Healy. Keeler had said he was only going to hypnotize Healy and make him forget what he had seen.
Death out of Thin Air Page 18
