The Sign At Six - free ebook by Stewart Edward White

THE SIGN AT SIX

By Stewart Edward White With four illustrations by M. Leone Bracker...

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THE OWNER OF NEW YORK

Percy Darrow, a young man of scientific training, indolent manners, effeminate appearance, hidden energy, and absolute courage, lounged through the doors of the Atlas Building. Since his rescue from the volcanic island that had witnessed the piratical murder of his old employer, Doctor Schermerhorn, the spectacular dissolution of the murderers, and his own imprisonment in a cave beneath the very roar of an eruption, he had been nursing his shattered nerves back to their normal strength. Now he f

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THE SHADOW OF MYSTERY

Darrow walked up the one flight of steps to the story above. He found his acquaintance in, and at once broached the subject of his errand. Doctor Knox promised the matter his attention. The two men then embarked on a long discussion of Professor Schermerhorn's discovery of super-radium, and the strange series of events that had encompassed his death. Into the midst of the discussion burst McCarthy, his face red with suppressed anger. "Can I use your phone?" he growled. "Oh, yes," said he, as he

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THE MOVING FINGER WRITES

The condition of affairs in the Atlas Building lasted long enough to carry the matter up to the experts in the employ of the companies; that is to say, until about three o'clock the following morning. Then, without reason, and all at once, the whole building from top to bottom was a blaze of incandescent light. One of the men, stepping to the nearest telephone, unhooked the receiver. To his ear came the low busy hum of a live wire. Somebody touched a bell button, and the head janitor, running jo

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DARKNESS AND PANIC

Probably the only men in the whole of New York who accepted promptly and unquestioningly the fact that the entire electrical apparatus of the city was paralyzed were those in the newspaper offices. These capable citizens, accustomed to quick adaptations to new environments and to wide reaches of the imagination, made two or three experiments, and accepted the inevitable. Within ten minutes the Despatch had messenger boys on tap instead of bells, bicycles instead of telephones, and a variety of l

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A SCIENTIST IN PINK SILK

The next morning promptly at eight o'clock Jack Warford, in response to a muttered invitation, burst excitedly into Percy Darrow's room. He found the scientist, draped in a pale-pink silk kimono embroidered with light-blue butterflies, scraping methodically at his face with a safety-razor. At the sight the young fellow came to an abrupt stop, as though some one had met him with a dash of cold water in the face. "Hello!" said he, in a constrained voice. "Just up?" Darrow cast a glance through his

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THE WRATH TO COME

"Did you ever meet McCarthy?" asked Darrow, as the elevator of the Atlas sprang upward. "Never." "Well, no matter what he says or does, I want you to say nothing—nothing." "Correct," said Jack. "I'll down-charge." "That's right," Darrow approved. "First of all, wait outside until I call you." McCarthy was already at his desk, and in evil humor. When Darrow entered, he merely looked up and growled. "Good morning," Darrow greeted him easily. "Any wireless this morning?" McCarthy threw back his hea

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A WORLD OF GHOSTS

A deathly stillness had all at once fallen like a blanket, blotting out McCarthy's violent speech. The rattling typewriter in the next room was abruptly stilled. The roar of the city died as a living creature is cut by the sword—all at once, without the transitionary running down of most silences. Absolute dense stillness, like that of a sea calm at night, took the place of the customary city noises. In his astonishment McCarthy thrust a heavy inkstand off the edge of his desk. It hit the floor,

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PERCY DARROW'S THEORY

Percy Darrow in the police station, where he had been assigned an unused office instead of a cell, amused himself reading the newspapers, of which he caused to be brought in a full supply. Theories had begun to claim their share of the space which, up to now, the fact stories had completely monopolized. Darrow, his feet up, a cigarette depending from one corner of his mouth, read them through to the end. Then he indulged the white walls of his little apartment with one of his slow smiles. The si

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THE GREAT SILENCE

Percy Darrow sat quite calmly, though a little hungrily, through the first of the two hours of the Great Silence. As it fell, he looked at his watch; then went on reading. Strangely terrified faces flitted by the open door of his little room. About seven o'clock Darrow, struck by a sudden idea, arose, walked down the corridor outside, and quite deliberately set to work to force the light door. As has been intimated, either by direct order of McCarthy or because of some vagueness of the orders, t

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THE LIFTING OF THE SPELL

The spell lifted. The city broke into a roar. People sprang into rapid and violent motion, as though released from a physical lethargy. "All over?" asked the reporter. He asked it in a loud shout. "All over," replied Darrow. "You don't need to yell. I'm not deaf." The reporter grinned. "I guess that's what everybody else in town is doing," he surmised. Certainly this remark was justified by the sample in the square. Every man was shouting at his neighbor to the lung-straining limit of his abilit

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THIRTY SECONDS MORE

At nine o'clock the following morning five men grouped in McCarthy's office, talking earnestly. Darrow and Jack Warford had been the first to arrive. McCarthy did not seem surprised to see them; nor did he greet them with belligerence. "Well?" he demanded. "Well?" repeated Darrow, sinking gracefully to one corner of the table. "You're an old fool, McCarthy. What good did you think it would do you to arrest me?" "I intended to sweat you," confessed the boss frankly, "but I was too busy." "Sweat m

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THE UNKNOWN

It will now become necessary to glance in passing at the personal characteristics of Professor Eldridge. This man was in about his fortieth year, tall, spare, keenly intellectual in countenance, cold, possessed of an absolute reliance on the powers of science, beyond which his mental processes did not stray. His manner was distinguished by a stiff unbending formality; his expression by a glacial coldness of steel-gray eyes and a straight-line compression of thin lips; his dress by a precise and

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DARROW'S CHALLENGE

With a final warning to Simmons as to the dissemination of any information without consulting him, Darrow left the room. Hallowell listened to this advice with unmixed satisfaction; the afternoon papers would not be able to get at his source of information. The reporter felt a slight wonder as to how Darrow had managed his ascendency over the operator. An inquiry as to that met with a shake of the head. "I may have to ask your help in that later," was his only reply. At the corner, after pushing

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THE FEAR OF DANGER

Before leaving the house, Darrow summoned Jack Warford. "Come on, old bulldog," said he. "You're to live with me a while now. The game is closing down." "Bully," said Jack. "I'll pack a suit case." "Have it done for you, and sent down to my place. We must hustle for the Atlas Building now." "What's doing?" asked Jack, as they boarded a surface car. "Absolutely nothing—for some time perhaps. But we must be ready. And the waiting will be amusing, I promise you that." When they arrived at the Atlas

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THE MASTER SPEAKS AGAIN

Having thus detailed rather minutely the situation in which the city and the actors in its drama found themselves, it now becomes necessary to move the action forward to the point where the moneyed interests took a hand in the game. That was brought about in somewhat more than fifty hours. In the meantime the facts as to vibrations were published in all the papers; the despatches and the relations between McCarthy and Monsieur X exclusively in the Despatch —to that organ's vast satisfaction and

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THE PROFESSOR'S EXPERIMENT

Throughout all this excitement Percy Darrow did absolutely nothing. He spent all his time, save that required for meals and the shortest necessary sleep, in a round-armed wooden chair in the wireless station of the Atlas Building. Jack Warford sat with him. Darrow rarely opened his mouth for speech, but smoked slowly a few cigarettes, and rolled many more, which he held unlighted in the corner of his mouth until they dropped to pieces. He watched quietly all that went on; glanced through such me

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DRAWING THE NET

The "zone of danger", as the Bulletin named it, was immediately the scene of swarming activities. Besides the expedition immediately despatched by the interests backing the investigation, several enterprising newspapers saw a fine chance for a big scoop, and sent out much-heralded parties of their own. The activities of these were well reported, you may be sure. Public interest was at once focused reassuringly on the chances of finding the annoying malefactor to-day or to-morrow; there no longer

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CONFUSION WORSE CONFOUNDED

The absolute failure of Eldridge's hypothesis immediately threw public confidence into a profound reaction. Certainty gave place to complete distrust. Rumor gained ground. The exodus increased. Where formerly only those who could do so without great sacrifice or inconvenience had left town, now people were beginning to cut loose at any cost. Men resigned their positions in order to get their families away; others began to arrange their affairs as best they might, as though for a long vacation. A

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PERCY KEEPS VIGIL

The morning of the third day after the failure of the search, and of the sixth since McCarthy's disappearance, had arrived. During that time Percy Darrow, apparently insensible to fatigue, had maintained an almost sleepless vigil. His meals Jack Warford brought in to him; he dozed in his chair or on the couch. Never did he appear to do anything. The very persistent quietude of the man ended by making its impression. To all questions, however, Darrow returned but the one reply, delivered always i

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THE PLAGUE OF COLD

Without pause, and three steps at a time, Darrow ran down three flights of stairs. Then, recovering from his initial excitement somewhat, he caught the elevator and shot to the street. There he walked rapidly to the subway, which he took as far as City Hall Square. On emerging from the subway station he started across for the Despatch office as fast as he could walk. By the entrance to the City Hall, however, he came to an abrupt halt. From the open doorway rushed his friend, Officer Burns, of t

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IN THE FACE OF ETERNITY

Hell popped just as soon as the newspapers could get out their extras. Monsieur X had at last struck, and both interest and belief urged the managing editors at last to give publicity to all the theories, the facts, and the latest message from the fanatic Unknown. The latter came about three o'clock: "TO THE PEOPLE: You have defied me, and you have doubted my power. There is no good in you. I, who would have saved you, now must bring about your death as a stubborn and a stiff-necked generation.

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THE MAN NEXT DOOR

When, three hours previous, Darrow had arisen with the remark before chronicled, Jack Warford had followed him in the expectation of a long expedition. To the young man's surprise it lasted just to the hall. There Darrow stopped before the blank door of an apparently unused office. Into the lock of this he cautiously fitted a key, manipulated it for a moment, and turned to Jack with an air of satisfaction. "You have your gun with you?" he asked. Jack patted his outside pocket. "Very well, now li

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HOW IT ALL WAS

For his share in the foregoing Percy Darrow was extensively blamed. It was universally conceded that his action in permitting Monsieur X to continue his activities up to the danger point was inexcusable. The public mind should have been reassured long before. Much terror and physical suffering might thus have been avoided—not to speak of financial loss. Scientific men, furthermore, went frantic over his unwarranted destruction of the formulas. Percy Darrow was variously described as a heartless

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WHAT HAPPENED AFTERWARD

There remains only to tell what became of the various characters of the tale. McCarthy, on whom the action started, returned, but never regained his political hold. Darrow always maintained that this was only the most obvious result of his policy of delaying the denouement. People had been forced to think seriously of such matters; and, when aroused, the public conscience is right. Darrow demanded, and received, the large money reward for his services in the matter. Pocketing whatever blame the

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