CHAPTER XIII
THE RADIUM ROBBER
Kennedy simply reached for the telephone and called an ambulance. Butit was purely perfunctory. Dr. Leslie himself was the only official whocould handle Sato's case now.
We had planned a little vacation for ourselves, but the planning cameto naught. The next night we spent on a sleeper. That in itself is workto me.
It all came about through a hurried message from Murray Denison,president of the Federal Radium Corporation. Nothing would do but thathe should take both Kennedy and myself with him post-haste toPittsburgh at the first news of what had immediately been called "thegreat radium robbery."
Of course the newspapers were full of it. The very novelty of anultra-modern cracksman going off with something worth upward of acouple of hundred thousand dollars--and all contained in a few platinumtubes which could be tucked away in a vest pocket--had something aboutit powerfully appealing to the imagination.
"Most ingenious, but, you see, the trouble with that safe is that itwas built to keep radium IN--not cracksmen OUT," remarked Kennedy, whenDenison had rushed us from the train to take a look at the little safein the works of the Corporation.
"Breaking into such a safe as this," added Kennedy, after a cursoryexamination, "is simple enough, after all."
It was, however, a remarkably ingenious contrivance, about three feetin height and of a weight of perhaps a ton and a half, and all to housesomething weighing only a few grains.
"But," Denison hastened to explain, "we had to protect the radium notonly against burglars, but, so to speak, against itself. Radiumemanations pass through steel and experiments have shown that the bestmetal to contain them is lead. So, the difficulty was solved by makinga steel outer case enclosing an inside leaden shell three inches thick."
Kennedy had been toying thoughtfully with the door.
"Then the door, too, had to be contrived so as to prevent any escape ofthe emanations through joints. It is lathe turned and circular, a 'deadfit.' By means of a special contrivance any slight looseness caused bywear and tear of closing can be adjusted. And another feature. That isthe appliance for preventing the loss of emanation when the door isopened. Two valves have been inserted into the door and before it isopened tubes with mercury are passed through which collect and storethe emanation."
"All very nice for the radium," remarked Craig cheerfully. "But thefellow had only to use an electric drill and the gram or more of radiumwas his."
"I know that--now," ruefully persisted Denison. "But the safe wasdesigned for us specially. The fellow got into it and got away, as faras I can see, without leaving a clue."
"Except one, of course," interrupted Kennedy quickly.
Denison looked at him a moment keenly, then nodded and said, "Yes--youare right. You mean one which he must bear on himself?"
"Exactly. You can't carry a gram or more of radium bromide long withimpunity. The man to look for is one who in a few days will havesomewhere on his body a radium burn which will take months to heal. Thevery thing he stole is a veritable Frankenstein's monster bent on thedestruction of the thief himself!"
Kennedy had meanwhile picked up one of the Corporation's circularslying on a desk. He ran his eye down the list of names.
"So, Hartley Haughton, the broker, is one of your stockholders," musedKennedy.
"Not only one but THE one," replied Denison with obvious pride.
Haughton was a young man who had come recently into his fortune, and,while no one believed it to be large, he had cut quite a figure in WallStreet.
"You know, I suppose," added Denison, "that he is engaged to FelicieWoods, the daughter of Mrs. Courtney Woods?"
Kennedy did not, but said nothing.
"A most delightful little girl," continued Denison thoughtfully. "Ihave known Mrs. Woods for some time. She wanted to invest, but I toldher frankly that this is, after all, a speculation. We may not be ableto swing so big a proposition, but, if not, no one can say we havetaken a dollar of money from widows and orphans."
"I should like to see the works," nodded Kennedy approvingly.
"By all means."
The plant was a row of long low buildings of brick on the outskirts ofthe city, once devoted to the making of vanadium steel. The ore, asDenison explained, was brought to Pittsburgh because he had found herealready a factory which could readily be turned into a plant for theextraction of radium. Huge baths and vats and crucibles for the variousacids and alkalis and other processes used in treating the ore stood atvarious points.
"This must be like extracting gold from sea water," remarked Kennedyjocosely, impressed by the size of the plant as compared to the product.
"Except that after we get through we have something infinitely moreprecious than gold," replied Denison, "something which warrants thetrouble and outlay. Yes, the fact is that the percentage of radium inall such ores is even less than of gold in sea water."
"Everything seems to be most carefully guarded," remarked Kennedy as weconcluded our tour of the well-appointed works.
He had gone over everything in silence, and now at last we had returnedto the safe.
"Yes," he repeated slowly, as if confirming his original impression,"such an amount of radium as was stolen wouldn't occasion immediatediscomfort to the thief, I suppose, but later no infernal machine couldbe more dangerous to him."
I pictured to myself the series of fearful works of mischief and terrorthat might follow, a curse on the thief worse than that of the weirdestcurses of the Orient, the danger to the innocent, and the fact that inthe hands of a criminal it was an instrument for committing crimes thatmight defy detection.
"There is nothing more to do here now," he concluded. "I can seenothing for the present except to go back to New York. The telltaleburn may not be the only clue, but if the thief is going to profit byhis spoils we shall hear about it best in New York or by cable fromLondon, Paris, or some other European city."
Our hurried departure from New York had not given us a chance to visitthe offices of the Radium Corporation for the distribution of the saltsthemselves. They were in a little old office building on WilliamStreet, near the drug district and yet scarcely a moment's walk fromthe financial district.
"Our head bookkeeper, Miss Wallace, is ill," remarked Denison when wearrived at the office, "but if there is anything I can do to help you,I shall be glad to do it. We depend on Miss Wallace a great deal.Haughton says she is the brains of the office."
Kennedy looked about the well-appointed suite curiously.
"Is this another of those radium safes?" he asked, approaching onesimilar in appearance to that which had been broken open already.
"Yes, only a little larger."
"How much is in it?"
"Most of our supply. I should say about two and a half grams. MissWallace has the record."
"It is of the same construction, I presume," pursued Kennedy. "I wonderwhether the lead lining fits closely to the steel?"
"I think not," considered Denison. "As I remember there was a sort ofinsulating air cushion or something of the sort."
Denison was quite eager to show us about. In fact ever since he hadhustled us out to view the scene of the robbery, his high nervoustension had given us scarcely a moment's rest. For hours he had talkedradium, until I felt that he, like his metal, must have aninexhaustible emanation of words. He was one of those nervous, activelittle men, a born salesman, whether of ribbons or radium.
"We have just gone into furnishing radium water," he went on, bustlingabout and patting a little glass tank.
I looked closely and could see that the water glowed in the dark with apeculiar phosphorescence.
"The apparatus for the treatment," he continued, "consists of two glassand porcelain receptacles. Inside the larger receptacle is placed thesmaller, which contains a tiny quantity of radium. Into the largerreceptacle is poured about a gallon of filtered water. The emanationfrom that little speck of radium is powerful enough to penetrate itsporcelain holder
and charge the water with its curative properties.From a tap at the bottom of the tank the patient draws the number ofglasses of water a day prescribed. For such purposes the emanationwithin a day or two of being collected is as good as radium itself.Why, this water is five thousand times as radioactive as the mostradioactive natural spring water."
"You must have control of a comparatively large amount of the metal,"suggested Kennedy.
"We are, I believe, the largest holders of radium in the world," heanswered. "I have estimated that all told there are not much more thanten grams, of which Madame Curie has perhaps three, while Sir ErnestCassel of London is the holder of perhaps as much. We have nearly fourgrams, leaving about six or seven for the rest of the world."
Kennedy nodded and continued to look about.
"The Radium Corporation," went on Denison, "has several large depositsof radioactive ore in Utah in what is known as the Poor Little RichValley, a valley so named because from being about the barrenest andmost unproductive mineral or agricultural hole in the hills, the suddendiscovery of the radioactive deposits has made it almost priceless."
He had entered a private office and was looking over some mail that hadbeen left on his desk during his absence.
"Look at this," he called, picking up a clipping from a newspaper whichhad been laid there for his attention. "You see, we have them aroused."
We read the clipping together hastily:
PLAN TO CORNER WORLD'S RADIUM
LONDON.--Plans are being matured to form a large corporation for themonopoly of the existing and future supply of radium throughout theworld. The company is to be called Universal Radium, Limited, and thecapital of ten million dollars will be offered for public subscriptionat par simultaneously in London, Paris and New York.
The company's business will be to acquire mines and deposits ofradioactive substances as well as the control of patents and processesconnected with the production of radium. The outspoken purpose of thenew company is to obtain a world-wide monopoly and maintain the price.
"Ah--a competitor," commented Kennedy, handing back the clipping.
"Yes. You know radium salts used always to come from Europe. Now we aregetting ready to do some exporting ourselves. Say," he added excitedly,"there's an idea, possibly, in that."
"How?" queried Craig.
"Why, since we should be the principal competitors to the foreignmines, couldn't this robbery have been due to the machinations of theseschemers? To my mind, the United States, because of its supply ofradium-bearing ores, will have to be reckoned with first in corneringthe market. This is the point, Kennedy. Would those people who seem tobe trying to extend their new company all over the world stop atanything in order to cripple us at the start?"
How much longer Denison would have rattled on in his effort to explainthe robbery, I do not know. The telephone rang and a reporter from theRecord, who had just read my own story in the Star, asked for aninterview. I knew that it would be only a question of minutes nowbefore the other men were wearing a path out on the stairs, and wemanaged to get away before the onrush began.
"Walter," said Kennedy, as soon as we had reached the street. "I wantto get in touch with Halsey Haughton. How can it be done?"
I could think of nothing better at that moment than to inquire at theStar's Wall Street office, which happened to be around the corner. Iknew the men down there intimately, and a few minutes later we werewhisked up in the elevator to the office.
They were as glad to see me as I was to see them, for the story of therobbery had interested the financial district perhaps more than anyother.
"Where can I find Halsey Haughton at this hour?" I asked.
"Say," exclaimed one of the men, "what's the matter? There have beenall kinds of rumors in the Street about him to-day. Did you know he wasill?"
"No," I answered. "Where is he?"
"Out at the home of his fiancee, who is the daughter of Mrs. CourtneyWoods, at Glenclair."
"What's the matter?" I persisted.
"That's just it. No one seems to know. They say--well--they say he hasa cancer."
Halsey Haughton suffering from cancer? It was such an uncommon thing tohear of a young man that I looked up quickly in surprise. Then all atonce it flashed over me that Denison and Kennedy had discussed thematter of burns from the stolen radium. Might not this be, instead ofcancer, a radium burn?
Kennedy, who had been standing a little apart from me while I wastalking with the boys, signaled to me with a quick glance not to saytoo much, and a few minutes later we were on the street again.
I knew without being told that he was bound by the next train to thepretty little New Jersey suburb of Glenclair.
It was late when we arrived, yet Kennedy had no hesitation in callingat the quaint home of Mrs. Courtney Woods on Woodridge Avenue.
Mrs. Woods, a well-set-up woman of middle age, who had retained heryouth and good looks in a remarkable manner, met us in the foyer.Briefly, Kennedy explained that we had just come in from Pittsburghwith Mr. Denison and that it was very important that we should seeHaughton at once.
We had hardly told her the object of our visit when a young woman ofperhaps twenty-two or three, a very pretty girl, with all the goodlooks of her mother and a freshness which only youth can possess,tiptoed quietly downstairs. Her face told plainly that she was deeplyworried over the illness of her fiance.
"Who is it, mother?" she whispered from the turn in the stairs. "Somegentlemen from the company? Hartley's door was open when the bell rang,and he thought he heard something said about the Pittsburgh affair."
Though she had whispered, it had not been for the purpose of concealinganything from us, but rather that the keen ears of her patient mightnot catch the words. She cast an inquiring glance at us.
"Yes," responded Kennedy in answer to her look, modulating his tone."We have just left Mr. Denison at the office. Might we see Mr. Haughtonfor a moment? I am sure that nothing we can say or do will be as badfor him as our going away, now that he knows that we are here."
The two women appeared to consult for a moment.
"Felicie," called a rather nervous voice from the second floor, "is itsome one from the company?"
"Just a moment, Hartley," she answered, then, lower to her mother,added, "I don't think it can do any harm, do you, mother?"
"You remember the doctor's orders, my dear."
Again the voice called her.
"Hang the doctor's orders," the girl exclaimed, with an air of almostmasculinity. "It can't be half so bad as to have him worry. Will youpromise not to stay long? We expect Dr. Bryant in a few moments,anyway."