Boy's Cinema (1930-31)

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22 Percy asked doubtfully as Jack studied tl\o paper. "If the Shadow Man hadn't meant us to, he wouldn't have given these directions," Jack answered. "Open it—open it!" Morgan exclaimed. Jack glanced at him as he pas.sed the paper across to Percy. Morgan's hands were trembling and his face was pale from eagerness. Helen pushed the bo.x across to Jack, and he picked it up. He searched for the two queer characters on the sides, then placed his thumbs on the idol's head in the lid of the box. He found that his iuigers fell naturally into position indicated by the diagrams. He held his breath a moment. "Press downwards!" Percy exclaimed as he held the paper. Jack pressed with fingers and thumb. He felt all three parts of the box move almost imperceptibly, then the ridged lid split in the centre and flung back. Inside, on a little bed of cotton strands, lay a glass phial. Helen reached in and lifted it out. "They saw- that it was filled with some jet black hquid, and she pointed to it as she exclaimed: ~ "The secret of the jade box—I know what it is! It's stuff which will briny the Shadow Man back to his proper form—that is why he was so anxious to 'get it!" ■ Behind her, Morgan was bending for- ward, his hands reaching eagerly towards the little glass container. But he restrained himself, and Percy asked: ■ "Is there anything else in the box, Jack? It looks as though there might be room for something more." Jack lifted out the cotton strands, but there was nothing to be seen. He noticed that the under part, where the phial had rested, was thick and deep, as though there was space for yet another compartment in the strange green casket. • "Nothing else," he said. "And no instructions, or anything." "Perhaps the Shadow Man will come for it!" Helen exclaimed. "Perhaps Her voice died away. Martin Morgan had stepped back, and in his hand now showed the revolver which had lain in his desk-drawer before the Shadow Man had wrecked this room. Swiftly the financier was slipping fresh cartridges into the chambers, and the weaix)n locked as he raised its loaded shape and covered the three. "Put that phial down!" he snarled, and there was a menace in his voice which mode Helen obey. "Step away from the table—and leave the Box there;" His face was. distorted to a grin of tiiumph as he watched them obey. There was now ab.solutely no colour on Morgan's features. The" Jade Box and its secret were on the desk before him. the things for wliich he had schemed and worked for so long; rather than lose them now- ho would liave used the re- volver ruthlessly. He believed that the secret of the box would pave the way to power, to riches and wealth beyond computation, and that the contents of the small phial were far more potent than Helen imagined. His threatening weapon sent them away from the desk, and he drove them lov.-ards the hall. "Oat of it!" he snarled. "Pick up those bags and get out—quick!" Jack could see that he would shoot on the slightest provocation, ]ie picked up Helen's suitcases, and Morgan followed them closely as I hey moved out to where Peicv's car still wailed. .><8cpteiiil>cr Gtli, 1930. BOY'S CINEMA The three of them crowded in, always with Morgan watchful behind them. "Now get avvaj—and don't come back!" lie rasped. The Black Phial. JACK stopped the car when they were on the main highway and half a mile from the house, then spoke for the first time. "Now we do know where we are!" ho said quietly. "Helen, I'm going back there to get the Jade Box. I want you to drive on to my apartment and wait for me there." "Jack, you can't go back. He'll shoot you and " "I believe that there's .something else in the Box besides the black phial," Jack said, "and I'm going to get it! Your uncle took us unawares that time—but if you hadn't been there we'll have made a fight for it!" " We would." Percy agreed. "I'll come back with }-ou, Jack!" "But why should uncle turn like that?" Helen asked. "He's been like it all along," Percy told her. "He's behind most of the trouble that we've had, and——" "We'll tell you the whole story later," Jack said. "There's no time now. Helen, you drive on "—he dropped out of the car with his companion—"and we'll come to you as ooon as we can. Then we'll all three start for Kublih- Kehn—taking the Box with us. Ready, Percy?" After .some persuasion, Helen agreed to do as Jack suggested, and she drove on. The two watched the car out of sight before they turned back to the house, with the trailing shadows of dusk darkening the trees about it. "I've got an idea that there's some- thing else in the Box, besides that little bottle," Percy said. "I think that, too," Jack agreed. "But I didn't get a proper chanc3 to examine it. What d'you think the phial is for ? D'you think Helen's right ? She said that the stuff would bring the Shadow Man back to his proper form." "I don't know," Percy answered. "It doesn't matter much, anyhow. We've got to get it away from Morgan before he can do anything, and that's going to be our problem!" "Well, he'll start on the job straight away." Jack told him. "He may have done something about it already for all we know." They hurried on. They reached the drive and went up it cautiously. The hall door still stood wide open, and the hall beyond was still cluttered with wrecked furniture. There was no light showing in the darkened building except the yellow glow of electrics which came from the big room on the ground floor that Morgan used. Cautiously the two entered the build- ing and stood listening. Absolutely no sound came to their ears, and they picked their way carefully down File hail. They stopped a.5 they came in sight of the grille which guarded the big room. A table and some chairs had been piled up to keep it clo.sed from the in- side. A carpet had been flung over the pile as though to disguise from, prying eyes anything that went on, and over a gap in the top of this the light streaked out,. "He's i\p to something in there," Percy said. "He must have the windows covered as well." Jack gue.ssed; "we couldn't see the light from outside as we came up." Every Tuesday "We can't see through that lot," Percy told iiim, indicating the barred grille. "And if we shout to him he'll probably start shooting—he looked mad enough for that when we left him!" He added: "Isn't there another door to the room?" „ They found it further along the pas- sage. It was locked, but a slit of light came out through the keyhole. They listened, but heard nothing. "D'you think that one of the keys to the other doors might fit this lock?" Jack suggested, and when tliey tried out the idea they found that the wards of the lock shifted under the first key they inserted. Gently, Jack pushed the door open. It was shielded by a heavy velvet curtain meant to keep out draughts. The two of them slipped in under the cover of this, then drew the end of it back and looked into the barred room. They saw that Morgan was seated at his desk. Before him was the Jade Box, and in both hands he held the black phial. He was turning it over and over as he stared at it, while the light played on the glas.s—and on the steely bulk of the revolver which lay at his elbow. His ej-es were blazing as he twirled the phial and held it up to the light. Its contents were absolutely black. He set it down and then inspected the Jade Box. Jack could see that, like himself, Morgan suspected there might still be some hidden compartment. He was searching for it, but he did not find it. "He's going to do something with that phial," Percy whispered. "Think it's any good trying to rush him?" "No. He'd shoot us down before we got half-way across the room," Jack told him. "We'll watch for a bit." Again Morgan turned his attention to the phial. It was quite plain that, now he had the Box and had penetrated its secret, he did not know what to do with it. Yet again he turne<l the gleam- ing gla.ss bottle around in his hands, then, with a resolute gesture, he tried to remove the stopper. It appeared to be stiff, and he pressed the phial down on the desk as he strained anew. Finally, with a rasping, grating sound, the .stopper came out. He set it aside and sat looking at the phial as it stood on the desk. Jack and Percy could see that the black stuff in it was fimiing, giving off twirling, smoke-like vapour. Moi'gan stared at this and then bent, sniffing at the fumes. The watching pair saw the fumee trail up into his face, and instantly he became rigid where he sat. On his features there wakened a frozen expression of alarm and horror, diead and iiupotent surprise. The fume^ from the bottle grew more and more strong. They swirled about him, and as they hazed his form. Martin Morgan began to fade away where he sat! They saw the back of the chair show through his rigid and immobile figure. The edges of the desk appeared through the arms that rested on them. He faded out swiftly until all that was left to their sight was an unreal shadow hunched up in the chair. "Oosh! The stuff's turned him into a Shadow-Man!" Percy gasped. "And —look! He's moving now!" They .=aw Morgan's shadow lift in tho cliair and stand up. They co.ild see him only f;i,intly, like a dark patch on the air. He moved from the desk, whilo they gazed spellbound, and it seemed to them that ho was trying to realisa what had happened to him.