CHAPTER IV A FIGHT IN THE NIGHT
Johnny Thompson was as nearly as possible a perfect physical being.Having been taught from childhood the necessity of physical well-beingand muscular prowess to the business man as well as to the mechanic orprofessional athlete, he had kept himself fit and had never neglected anopportunity to learn some new trick or turn on the wrestling mat orgymnasium floor.
In the struggle that followed the collision there in the dark aisle ofthe factory neither Johnny nor the stranger had the advantage ofanticipating attack. Both had been surprised.
Johnny soon learned that his antagonist was no ordinary person. Seizingthe man by the feet, Johnny clamped on with a grip of iron. But to hisutter surprise the man gave the sudden twist of a professionalcontortionist, and came up between his own knees, clawing at Johnny'sface like a cat.
Loosing his hold Johnny made a sudden grab for the other's waist, but inthat fraction of a second the man took a sudden double backwardsomersault, and leaping to his feet, dashed away.
Instantly Johnny was up and after him. He was dashing along at fullspeed, making a good gain at every leap, when of a sudden he banged intoa perpendicular wall. The wall was rising. It lifted Johnny some fourfeet in air to dash him to the floor again.
"The fake wall!" he muttered, astonished. Had the other runner known ofthis trap and had he sprung it? Or had it been an accident?
There was not a moment to lose. Dashing back the way he had come, herounded a pillar and was again in full pursuit.
The stranger was now far ahead of him, just rounding a corner to enterthe loading-room.
Through this loading-room, which was a full block in length and twohundred feet in width, there ran a double railway switch. This switch wasfilled with freight cars, some empty, many loaded with raw material,bales of rubber-cloth, bars of steel, bundles of wire. If the man choseto lose himself among these cars the pursuit was at an end. Johnnypressed on; there was a chance that the great doors at the farther endstood ajar, and that the man would attempt escape at once.
As he rounded the corner, Johnny saw that the doors were ajar and that, athird of the way down the long unloading platform, a slim figure wasfleeing.
"Can't do it. Got to try, though," he panted, as he sped along.
Suddenly he became conscious of a chain dangling just before him. Itseemed to him that there came a slight jangle from that chain. Yes, nowhe saw it lift, then drop a foot or two. What could it mean? Now it movedforward a yard and stopped.
The chain was within his reach. Acting from instinct rather than reason,he grasped it, thrust his foot in the loop at the bottom, and the nextminute, with a grinding roar sounding above him, he felt himself shootforward at a terrific speed.
The chain was attached to a huge traveling crane. This crane, which was asteel beam swung from wall to wall of the structure and running on ironwheels along a steel rail set at the very top of the wall, fifty feetabove, was electrically operated from a small cab that hung just beneathit.
Johnny looked up at the cab. He could see no person there. Darkness mightaccount for that, but all the same he felt a cold chill creep up hisspine. Was this, after all, a charmed factory? Had he, all unknown tohimself, been moved to some enchanted city where heat, with no apparentorigin, melted metals, and where giant cranes ground their way atexpress-train speed with no one to guide them? He was tempted to thinkso.
But cold reality brought him back to his senses. Dangling from a chain,he was rapidly approaching a man who was doing his utmost to escape. Whatif that man were armed? A wonderful target he would make, dangling therein mid-air!
Cold perspiration stood out on his furrowed brow. His knees seemed aboutto sink from beneath him. He swung one foot free, and began whirlingabout to give the chain a side-wise pendulum motion that he might prove apoorer target.
Meanwhile, the stranger did not turn to look back. The very thunder ofthe traveling crane appeared to lend new speed to his limbs. Perhaps heimagined the entire place to be swarming with men engaged in pursuinghim. A surprised look overspread his face, as Johnny, not three feet tothe right of him, swung past.
The man instantly dodged back and dropped to the floor, but Johnny,leaping from his iron swing, was upon him before he could get to his feetagain.
There followed a second struggle similar to the first. This stranger_was_ a contortionist, there could be no question about that now. Beforethree minutes had elapsed, he had again wriggled like an eel fromJohnny's grasp and had dashed through the door to freedom.
In disgust, Johnny sat up and dabbed at some scratches on his face whichwere bleeding. "Never saw anything like that," he grumbled.
Above him the traveling crane hung in impressive silence. He gazed up atthe driver's cab. All was motionless there. But what was that? Did he seeone of the landing doors on the fourth floor open a crack, then closeagain? He thought so, but in the pale moonlight that streamed in throughthe windows he could not be sure.
"Fate seems to mock at a fellow sometimes," he mumbled. "Look at the luckI had, that trip on the crane and everything, and then look at the luck Ididn't have; he got away!"
He moved a foot to rise, and something jangled beside it.
"What?"
He put out his hand and took up a bar of steel. For a second he flashed alight upon it. His heart beat wildly; the steel was blue--the blueststeel he had ever seen.
"It's one of the stolen bars," he muttered. "Lost it out of his pocket."
A careful search showed him that the second one was not there. Thensuddenly he remembered that he was a long way from his main trust--thevault where reposed the remaining six bars. Rising hurriedly, he wentracing back to the center of the factory where the vault was located.
Arrived at the corner of the forge-room he paused and peered away throughthe darkness to a point where a small light shone above the vault door.He half-expected to see a figure crouching there. There was no one insight. Once more the aisles of machines, conveyors and tunnels appeareddeserted. Strain his eyes and ears as he might, he caught only the din ofthe storm beating on the cupolas above the forge-room and an occasionalflash of lightning.
Seating himself on a fireless forge, he leaned back against its smokeconveyor and rested. The double struggle, the race, the strangeoccurrences of the night, had unnerved him. He started at every new blastof the wind, fancying it the move of some new intruder.
He was puzzled. Who could have been present to give him that fast ride onthe chain of the traveling crane? Surely not a watchman; these men knewnothing about traveling cranes; indeed, few men did. The manipulating ofthese huge burden-bearers, capable of carrying a loaded box-car from oneend of the unloading room to the other, was a delicate and difficulttask. There were scores of levers and switches to operate, scores ofmotions to memorize, yet this man, whoever he was, had shown a competentcontrol of the massive machine. Who could he have been?
He thought again of the bar of secret-process steel which he had now inhis possession. Only a few days before he had wished for a particle ofthat steel that he might test it. Now he had in his possession a wholebar of it, yet how was he to secure a sample for testing? Only a minuteparticle was needed, but how was that to be obtained?
He was seized with a sudden desire to try his skill on this strangemetal. He had learned a little of steel-testing while in the salvagedepartment. Not sixteen feet from the point where he now sat there was abranch laboratory for testing steel. All the equipment for testing it wasthere. There was only lacking the tiny particle of steel.
Taking the bar from his pocket, he turned it over and over. He struck iton an anvil and enjoyed the bell-like ring of it. He held it to the lightand studied the intense blue of it. Never before in the history of theworld had there been such steel, he was sure of that.
Laying the bar down upon the cinders of the forge, he took a littlecircle around the forge-room to stand at last gazing at the door of thevault.
&
nbsp; Some faint sound caused him to turn about. At once his gaze was fixed onthe forge where the steel bar was resting. The red glow of fire was onthe forge. The coal was on fire. One end of the bar glowed with apeculiar white light!
His first thought was that there had been matches lying on the forge, andthat they had been accidentally lighted, setting off the coal. Thistheory was quickly abandoned. Coal didn't start burning that easily.
Then, remembering the old vault-keeper's remark, "It doesn't seem to takethe heat right. Gets all sort of crumbly when it's been heated," hedashed for the forge, seized a pair of tongs, and drew the piece of metalfrom the fire. It slipped from the tongs and fell upon the cement floorwith a dull thud.
In an agony of fear lest the steel had been ruined he seized a hammer andcold chisel and, placing the edge of the chisel against the stillwhite-hot surface, struck it sharply with the hammer.
A thin circle of steel coiled up about the edge of the chisel, thendropped to the floor.
"Nothing the matter with that steel," he muttered, as he watched thewhite heat slowly fade to a bright red, then dull red, then black, "butone thing, I'll wager: That was our old friend the 'white fire' oncemore."
He glanced about him apprehensively, as if fearing to see glowing eyesstaring at him from the dark, but all he saw was a fresh flash oflightning followed by a burst of thunder.
Looking down, his eyes were caught by the thin coil of steel cut from thebar. It was cool now and blue almost to transparency. He picked it up anddropped it again, to see it bounce ten inches from the floor.
"Nothing the matter with that steel," he repeated.
Then a new thought struck him.
"Why, that--that bit of coiled steel is my particle for testing."
Touching the bar of steel he found it still hot. Waiting impatiently forit to cool, he paced the floor, his eye first on the vault-door, then onthe precious steel. What if he were to be successful in his analysis ofthe steel? That would be a great honor, indeed.
Retracing his steps to the side of the forge, he once more tested thesteel bar. Finding it cool enough, he thrust it into his pocket, pickedup his bit for testing, and strode away to the laboratory, where througha window he could keep watch of the vault door.