Cleek: the Man of the Forty Faces

said, until to-morrow noon. The servants-given permission by the gentleman known in the house as Monsieur Gaston Merode, and who had graciously provided a huge char-à-

room a figure in black, with feet muffled in thick, woollen stockings, padded to an angle of the passage, lifted

was horribly afraid you would not,"

nto the sewers. I've screwed a bolt and socket on the inner side of this trap in case of an emergency, and I've carried a

h him, hideous, ruffianly looking creatures, whom I saw him admit after the s

cument. I've sent Dollops there to carry out his part of the programme, and when once I get the password Margot requires before she will hand over the paper, the game will be in my hands

ugh the darkness, and in another moment h

!" exclaimed the broken old man, thro

e you mad to keep it burning till I came, with that"-pointing to a huge bay window

e extinguisher, and darkness enveloped the room, darkness tempered only by the faint gleam

ny electric torch from his pocket, and, shielding its flare

of the electric torch and rising to his feet-"into your dressing-room, baron. I want that suit of clothes; I want that ribbon, that cross-and I want them at once. You're a bit thicker-set than

usly out, was startled presently by a voice at her elbow saying, in a tone of extreme agitation: "Oh, mademoiselle

solicitous hand upon his arm. "Do believe in h

ttle grotesque in that grey suit of mine. In with you, quickly; go with him through the other door, and get below before those fellows begin to stir. Get out of the ho

red fervently as she moved towards the dres

t in on tiptoe, locked the door through which they had passed, put the key in his pocket, and returned. Going to the door which led from the mai

as if in sleep, and the faint light of the moon half-revealing his face. "I want that password, and I'll get it, if I have to choke it out of your devil's throat!

*

n minutes, it might have been twenty-he had no means of determining-when he caught that first movement, and, peering through the slit of a partly opened eye, saw the appalling thing drag its huge bulk along the balcony, and, with sq

across the carpet to the chair. Cleek lay still and waited, his heavy breathing sounding regularly, his head thrown back

n, as it rose higher-rose until its hideous beaked countenance was close to his own, his hands flashed upward and clamped together like a vice-clamped on a palpitating h

r mates to the rescue. Oh, you've not got a weak old man to fight with this time! Do you know me? It's the 'cracksman'-the 'cracksman' who went over to the police. If you doubt it, now that we're in the moonlight, look up and see my face. Oho! you recognise me, I see. Well, yo

the battle began anew, one long, thin arm shot out from amongst the writhing tentacles, one clutching hand gripped the leg

tant there wa

e cried out excitedly: "Come on! come on! He's had to kill the old fool to get it!" and Cleek had just time to tear loose from the shape with

s he saw the gasping red shape upon the

ped. "Cleek!-the cracks

im! sto

round in the darkness and reaching blindly fo

hammer shot out, caught him full in the face, and he went down wi

"Gentlemen of the sewers, my compliments. You'll

the door, whisked through it, banged it behind him, turn

p. "They'll have that door down in a brace of shakes, and be after me like a pack of ravening wolves. The rac

ts socket the bolt he had screwed there, flashed up the light of his electric torc