Amazing Stories, Vol. 2, No. 1 — page 42: what you’re looking at

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

“> <5 Mod ?. ee ov, eer 6 oy weds * bas ‘Y qn * & S . <t« . weed THE WHITE GOLD PIRATE trap the platinum thief and that he would explain it later.” “Criminals may hoodwink their captors with words,” replied Goodwin with a smile, “but they cannot deceive the implacable and emotionless in- struments of science.’ But more than that he bataded to explain. CHAPTER X The Intricate Plot Unravelled and the Guilt of the Conspirators Proved ‘y IM ELSTON, propped up in bed at the hospital J to which he had been taken, greeted Barry, Goodwin, and Captain Thompson with a smile. For the stolid policeman who sat nearby he had only a scowl. “I’m sorry that fellow got away,” he said, ap- parently ignorant of Porter’s capture. “He sur- prised me in the laboratory building, poked a gun in my face and threatened to kill me if I didn’t help him. I had it all figured out to trap him in there on the next trip when you three broke in on the show. How did you get the word of what was going on, anyhow?” Goodwin interrupted him. “I’m afraid you may not yet be in condition to talk, Elston,” he said, not unkindly. “It would be better to let us take your blood pressure first.” The electrician agreed cheerfully, and merely looked on curiously while his arm was tightly bandaged and connected up with a - machine which an attendant had brought in. “This, said Goodwin, speaking distinctly, “is a sphygmomanomoter.” He joined in the laugh at the long word. ‘This stylus touching the chart here records on the paper whether the blood pressure goes up or down. It is a well-known fact that the various emotions—hate, fear and so on—affect the blood and a person who is telling a lie can be quickly detected by it. The effort of speaking an untruth sends the blood pressure up.” His voice became rapid, excited. ‘Why, the stylus shows that is what is happening with you, Elston. What emotion is passing through your mind? Fear! You are afraid of what this machine may tell about you. Why, Elston? Because you have been planning to lie to us. You already have done so. Watch how your blood pressure is going up! No. Elston, you are not the hero you would make out, the watchman taken by surprise and forced at the gun’s point to help a crook. You are the accomplice of the platinum pirate, Porter, who already is in a cell where you will join him shortly.” “No, no,” muttered the electrician hoarsely. “You are wrong.” “Another lie, Elston,” retorted the scientist calmly. “That one sent your pressure way up. Why man, I can tell you everything and just as it happened. When Porter called you on the radio (ah, that sent your pressure up again, as you thought of the complete set in your cottage) to let you know he was going to come last night after the metal, you made up your mind to slug Old Peter so you could take his place as watchman. Right again, eh? You hit him with the bottle, kicked ss and injured his dog because the poor brute resent- i ed Lo pak on aS sara a Ree Ae ee oy" fas ; “4; oe ee ie rf, ee ey fd oe of ites , P- x w o hy ve i. : Ant ros et Dak roy prints before the electrician. 41 “Last night as soon as you went on duty in the laboratory you opened the vault room locks with skeleton keys you had made. Then you got from behind the boxes in there an invention of your own for removing the wax seals from the vault without damaging them. You donned rubber gloves to protect you against the voltage that protected the combination. It was not the first time you had done this, Elston. You knew the figures that would open the lock. You turned to them quickly, swung open the door, removed the cans of platinum and substituted similar cans filled with moist dirt and mercury prepared in advance. At a quick glance it would look like platinum ‘sponge. An examina- tion would have shown the fraud. Then you re- locked the vault, fused the wax seals back on, put the cans of platinum in the boxes, nailed them up again, and had only to wait until Porter arrived to take them away in his plane.” “It’s a lie,” shouted Elston, sending his blood pressure high again as he struggled to tear the bandage from his arm. But the policeman held him down upon the bed. “Listen to this, then,” said Goodwin, turning to a talking machine which the attendant had set on the table beside him. He adjusted the needle, turned on the starting mechanism. A whirr, then the record became distinct. A man was talking and with a start Barry recognized it as the voice of Porter. ‘“We’ll have to work fast, Jim,” he was say- ing. “A thousand ounces is quite a bit, and I want to be on my way.” Another voice, that of Elston himself, interrupted: “Go slow, we'll take out a box apiece of this mercury and dirt first. There’s been a couple of strangers snooping around here and they might be wise. If they are on to us, they’|l be waiting outside. If they stop us, you make a run for the plane. I’ll stand fast and tell them a yarn of how you surprised me and—”’ Again the pirate was speaking: “I gotcha. You can tell them this fake stuff was in the room here and you made me believe it was real so I’d lay off the vault. We'll have money to burn soon, Jim. Spinelli has got a job in Goodwin’s place—” Here the record ran out. “Elston, that’s enough to show you we’ve got the goods on you. All the time you were talking, a dictaphone hidden in the vault room was carrying your words into the laboratory and transferring them to a record on a machine so sensitively ad- justed that the vibrations of the human voice over the dictaphone started the mechanism. Here’s some more evidence. “Take a look at these pictures, a dozen of them. In the vault room I had hidden a new device—a ‘silent watcher’ it is called. Just as a seismograph records the vibrations of an earthquake, so the silent watcher began to. quiver when you entered the room. Moreover, it was attached to a camera, an- other new invention, which began to take pictures when the silent watcher moved. Every three minutes while you worked on the vault, opening it, a plate was exposed and took your picture. Recognize yourself?” He reached into his pocket and laid two more ~ Those, Elston, are ee het EO on ebo aS DIK ; ae ae ok ¥ eae ae Be sa t ; J 4 aD Soe 2 Zz BS a ae BAB Se fre > the, Ss er x ; aca % . * > ss . e ) fe - _ - ~ ” 4