10 Story Detective, July 1942 — page 15: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

TAKEN FOR A SLAY RIDE Stuart fumbled around in the dark- ness, encountered Terry and at the same time heard Kerrigan and Gor- don moving about aimlessly. Terry’s wrist gave no feeling of an active pulse. Stuart ripped his shirt open, pressed an ear against the stilled chest. There was no heartbeat. Terry was dead. Stuart would take an oath to that. The lights flickered then and Stu- art became aware that the storm was dying as suddenly as it had begun. He made a rush for the door, went through it and ran along the wide porch, vaulted the railing and landed just beyond some ornamental bushes. The night was star-filled and serene. Nothing seemed even to have been dampened by that furious rain. Kerrigan and Gordon yelled to him from the porch, He climbed back and joined them. “That storm is the damndest thing,” he muttered. “If I believed in such things, I’d say it was a ghost storm.” “A ghost what?” Kerrigan asked nervously. “Nothing,” Stuart exclaimed. “What about Terry’s corpse? Let’s go inside. He might vanish as Mere- dith did.” ‘“‘He was lying on the floor when I last saw him,” Gordon said. “But I agree. We'd better go in.” Stuart reached the living room first. Somehow, he wasn’t stunned by what he saw. He’d rather expected it. Doug Terry’s corpse was gone! CHAPTER III CAVERN OF DOOM TUART turned to Kerrigan and Gordon. “This time we didn’t even have a ghost who carried away the body. Both of you remained in- side after I went out into the storm —or whatever it was. Two minutes elapsed before you both reached the perch. In two minutes you couldn’t have disposed of the corpse. There- = 18 fore, I can’t blame either of you.” “But what’s the answer?” Kerri- gan asked. “It’s easy,” Stuart said. ‘“Some- body else is on the premises and has a method by which he ean slip into the living room in one second, seize the body and remove it. The hiding place must be on the estate some- where. I’m going td hunt for it.” “Then you don’t believe Terry’s story of a ghost that stole Meredith’s body?” Gordon queried. “Do you?” Stuart shot back. “Frankly’’— Gorden studied the tips of his fingers—“I don’t know what to think. You said Alexander phoned you about seven o’clock. He must have been alive, but Terry was right here at the time and never left the place.” “Then somebody told him how AlI- exander had been murdered,” Stuart said. “The men who investigated de- scribed his appearance in death ex- actly as Terry did. Furthermore, they found out that only one thing was missing from Alexander’s room. It was a piece of carved stone. Alex- ander used it as a paperweight and the room maids saw it.” “The granite god!” Kerrigan gasped. “Sergeant, we all have one of those. We got them during our visit to Alaska.” “Yes,” Gordon put in. “We hauled down big samples of rock from the mountain, had it assayed and found it was worthless. The guide we em- ployed, a man named Bates, carved the rock into the form of the Storm God and gave each of us,one.” * © “Is it possible,” Stuart asked flat- ly, “that the analysis you had made was faked? That the sample was worth something and now someone is trying to get those carved idols back before you find out you were tricked ?” “Wait,” Kerrigan said. ‘Mine is upstairs. I'll bring it down.” He returned in a few moments, frowning deeply. “It’s very odd,” he said. “I saw the stone image not OOO) O COMI S (C(O) im