Amazing Stories, Vol. 2, No. 1 — page 34: what you’re looking at

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

THE WHITE GOLD PIRATE who took what he had to offer and did not question him as to where he had obtained: it. The pirate was reaping thousands. . Overnight the platinum pirate ceased operations. Somehow he had learned that an organized hunt was being made for him and fled to cover. Against the day when, feeling himself safe, he would re- sume his nefarious peddling the department of jus- tic enlisted the aid of chemical societies and the manufacturers in setting one of the most gigantic traps ever conceived. Into every plant, every laboratory, every office where platinum was used the tentacles of the trap ’ were led. Did any platinum thief, no matter how insignificant, broach the matter of a sale the au- thorities would know about it shortly. The man who had telephoned Goodwin and nib- bled at the bait the scientist set out was the first to be reported. If the amount of the metal,:a thousand ounces, which he offered was any indication, he was the master mind who was sought. Only a thief of incredible daring and cleverness would sae possession of that much metal. Yet the men whom Barry dispatched at once to the office building from which the man had tele- phoned returned empty-handed and without a single clue. The telephone was located in a recently va- cated office and any casual visitor in the building could have stepped in and made use of the instru- ment without attracting any notice. This was just what the platinum pirate had done. Then he had vanished again into the jammed, crowded streets of a big city. There was nothing that the detectives could do but resume their pa- tient, watchful waiting. It was against this man that Robert Goodwin had taken up the gauntlet, armed only with his scientific knowledge. CHAPTER III A Sample of the Platinum Is Left for the Pur- chaser to Examine OODWIN was not surprised, on arriving at his laboratory the next morning, to find that during the night the promised sample of platinum had been delivered. It was plain that the pirate, in spite of his assertion that his metal was legitimately obtained, did not propose to take any chances. He had wrapped up a small cardboard box containing a few grams of the platinum, addressed it to Goodwin and hung it on the knob of the labora- tory door where it would be seen by the first arrival. | The scientist handled the parcel as gingerly as if it had been a bomb. He removed the wrap- ing carefully, scrutinized it closely, then laid it aside. With a pair of tweezers he lifted off the lid of the small box, tilted the box itself and dumped out the platinum. Then he dusted the sides, bot- tom and lid of the box with powdered graphite, smoothed it down with a brush of fine camel’s hair and was delighted to find that several fairly dis- tinct: fingerprints stood out in bold relief. These photographed, he turned the plate over to his assis- tant. to develop and dry and take off some prints. _Just.as surely as if he had posed for his photo- graph, the pirate’s carelessness in leaving the im- 33 pressions of his fingers on that cardboard box had paved the way for his positive identification if ever he was caught. Perhaps he did not know he had been so careless. Possibly he had been lulled by Goodwin’s deception in pretending to fear the plati- num might be traced to his laboratory. Somewhat jubilantly the scientist. called up Barry and told him what he had obtained. ‘‘You’re slow,” said the government man. “We got his prints off that telephone he used yesterday.” Goodwin swore softly and hung up. Then he turned his attention to the sample of platinum. His first trained inspection revealed that the pirate was not skilled in metallurgy. He had mixed platinum as it had come from the ground with platinum sponge, the porous state of the metal after it has been converted through chemical processes. It might as well have been placarded with the in- formation that it had been stolen from some laboratory. To his most reliable chemist Goodwin entrusted the job of analyzing the samples. The man, when he had finished came back with surprise written in his face. “This stuff is unbelievably good, sir,” he said. “I find that it is more than ninety-nine per cent pure, with only slight traces of iridium and iron.” Goodwin took the figures and delved into the pigeonholes of memory for certain facts he knew were stored there. The composition of every stock of platinum of consequence in the country is a mat- ter of general knowledge to those interested in the metal. “There are only two places in the country where there would be as much as a thousand ounces of stuff as good as this,” he said to himself after a bit. “One is the government plant at Nitro, West Vir- ginia. The other is that Jackson plant on an island in the Mississippi river. The latter is the most likely. No, it’s certain. I recall now that the plati- num at Nitro had traces of palladium in it. This stuff was stolen from Jackson.” Barry, who dropped in during the day to see if. anything had developed, was inclined to dispute it. “No loss of platinum has been reported from the Jackson plant,” he insisted. “The government took a census about the time the investigations began and there were thirteen thousand ounces of the stuff there then. It had been converted into plati- .nhum sponge mostly and stored away in the vault in aluminum cans holding twenty-five ounces each.” “d be willing to wager it isn’t there now, not all of it, at least,’”’ maintained Goodwin. “Tt was there no longer than two months ago,” retorted the government man. “At that time the plant was closed down, the platinum and other metals locked up in the vault and the vault itself sealed. That is, wax seals, stamped with the gov- ernment eagle, were placed at frequent intervals on the cracks around the door. An army officer who is in charge of the place walks through the plant every day. Surely he would have noticed it if those seals had been broken. No such thing has been reported. Besides six watchmen are on duty in the plant at night and no stranger is permitted to land on the island during the day. It’s evident you are wrong, old man.’ Goodwin shook his head. “T’d_ have tis See the EOMIEDOOKS com