The Death Giver

CHAPTER XIV. FIENDS CONFER

PAUL RODERICK was standing by the lifted grillework that marked the hiding place of Thade’s secret elevator shaft. The clubman had pressed the bell a few minutes before; now the wheezing of air marked the arrival of the descending car.

Roderick entered the elevator, closed the grille, then the doors and pressed the hidden switch. The car moved upward through the darkness, while Roderick mumbled vague imprecations. The moment that he reached his destination, Roderick hastily opened the door and stepped into The Death Giver’s anteroom.

The black door with its skull and crossbones raised no terrors in Roderick’s mind. The portal lifted, and Roderick went through. The panel across the room had been raised; Thade, The Death Giver, was quietly seated in his chair.

There was no formality in Roderick’s approach. He was coming here to report a defeat — a strange chain of circumstances that had thwarted The Death Giver’s plans. Thade’s greenish, glaring face showed a scowl as the man’s eyes noted Roderick’s concern.

“What is the matter?” Thade’s demanding voice sounded before Roderick could speak.

The clubman stopped short and began his story.

“Everything is the matter!” he declared. “Our plans against Langhorne have been ruined! Langhorne is dead; Jarvis is dead!”

“You erred in following my plans?” questioned Thade, in a harsh, irritating tone.

“Not one bit!” asserted Roderick. “On the contrary, all went according to instructions. Treffin did his part perfectly. Langhorne was unquestionably cowed; ready to consider terms. Jarvis was in readiness. But some one intervened.”

“The police?”

“No. The Shadow!”

Roderick’s tone was positive. Thade’s response was a cackling chuckle that came in harsh defiance.

“The Shadow!” Thade’s tone was filled with irony. “The Shadow! What can he do to harm me? I am greater than The Shadow! I am Thade, The Death Giver!

“You say that Langhorne and Jarvis are dead. Very well. Thade has dealt death. That is success. I have struck. I, Thade, The Death Giver.”

Roderick shook his head. Something in his manner compelled Thade to listen. The clubman began his story.

HE told how he had received the unexpected call from Irwin Langhorne; how he had found the millionaire in hiding. He told of the call to Langhorne’s home; the report that Jarvis had been killed by the falling chandelier.

Then came Roderick’s description of his battle with Langhorne; how he had been forced to slay the millionaire at the Bastion Hotel. Amid these details, Roderick inserted the few facts that he had gained concerning a mysterious personage in black who had gone as Irwin Langhorne to the millionaire’s home.

“That person was The Shadow,” declared Roderick. “I left Langhorne dying at the hotel; and I know positively that The Shadow was due to return. That is why I left my car in a garage and came directly here.”

“Because you fear The Shadow?” queried Thade, in a cold tone.

“Because I know his ability,” answered Roderick. “Given a single clew, The Shadow will follow it. He traced Vernon Quinley; he uncovered Barcomb. He linked Bellew’s death with the killings on the trains at Felswood. Those trails ended.

“But now he has performed new wonders. He learned that we were after Langhorne — how, I cannot understand. He would have saved Langhorne, but for the man’s own folly.

“Jarvis is dead; Langhorne is dead; but I still live. I am the one whom The Shadow will trail. That is why I have given him no opportunity. He can never know that I am here. He will watch the Merrimac Club; he will try to locate me at my apartment. But I do not intend to return to either of those places.”

Thade’s face was glistening with an evil light. The Death Giver understood the truth of Roderick’s words.

The power of The Shadow did not nonplus the evil genius. Instead, it keyed Thade to a new challenge.

The Death Giver had met an adversary worthy of his steel.

While Paul Roderick awaited Thade’s reply, The Death Giver’s greenish face became a fearful sight.

Lips, eyes, and forehead — all writhed in furious malice. The Shadow had tampered with Thade’s schemes of death. That would bring reprisal!

“The Shadow!” Thade was scornful. “He thinks that he can thwart me. He will be a menace — yes. But only so long as my schemes are small. The time has come to strike terror that will sweep the country!

“I shall deliver a stroke that will frighten them all! The time has come for my master coup. After that, Roderick, you can roam at large. The terror spread by Thade will be everywhere. You can pluck one million; then another. Wealth will come like fruit from a flourishing tree. New York will be the scene of this tremendous crime. The crime will appall. It will baffle. It will be gigantic!”

Roderick was dumfounded. He waited for Thade to go on. The Death Giver was no madman. When he planned, his measures invariably were sound.

PAUL RODERICK stared at the fiend in the chair. He let his eyes roam to the stolid Nubians who obeyed Thade’s wishes. He listened for the words that were to come.

“Assassination!” hissed Thade. “That is my plan now, Roderick! The opportunity is here. Two days from now.”

“You mean on Broadway—”

Roderick blurted the words when The Death Giver paused. The response was a glittering of Thade’s fanglike teeth. Roderick had guessed the mighty coup which Thade was now considering.

“Yes,” declared The Death Giver. “This time there will be no warning. Thade shall strike! Death — unknown and unforeseen — shall descend upon those who do not expect it. Death that will strike terror everywhere. Mysterious death, its origin unknown.

“To-night, Roderick, you have killed for me. Hence I depute you to deliver the mighty death which I, Thade, alone can hurl. You, Roderick, and one other will be needed. But after the stroke is made, the other will not be required. His death will be advisable.”

Roderick smiled grimly. He realized that his unique status as Thade’s roving agent was a sure protection.

Other minions of The Death Giver could be disposed of, rewarded only by quick death. But Paul Roderick would live, to share the monster’s gains.

“There is only one man,” stated Roderick, “who is now available to act— unless I find a new subordinate. That man is Harlan Treffin.”

“He will do,” asserted Thade.

“I shall go to see him,” declared Roderick. “To-night—”

“Wait,” ordered Thade. “It is best that you should stay here for this night. Tomorrow you can communicate with the man who is to assist you. We must spend this night in discussing and arranging the great plan.”

“Treffin calls my apartment at eight in the evening,” nodded Roderick. “He waits an hour if he receives no reply. It is after nine o’clock now. The time for me to communicate with him will be tomorrow evening.”

“But not from your apartment,” advised Thade. “You will not go there again, Roderick. Let Treffin call and receive no reply. You, in turn, can call him before nine.”

The Death Giver’s words were wise. Roderick appreciated that fact. By staying here, Roderick was safe from all tracing by The Shadow. No other man knew the location of Thade’s lofty abode.

“Come,” ordered Thade.

With that word, The Death Giver stepped from his chair and walked toward the anteroom, his green robe drawing along the thickly carpeted floor. Paul Roderick followed to the elevator. He entered with The Death Giver.

Thade clapped his hands. Roderick saw one of the Nubians step to the chair and reach for a lever beside it. Thade closed the door of the elevator; the car moved upward a moment later, impelled by the Nubian’s touch upon the distant switch.

THE elevator stopped on the floor above. Thade opened the doors and led Roderick into a narrow corridor, of which the elevator was an extension.

Roderick had been here before. The doors on the left, he knew, opened into Thade’s laboratories. Those on the right gave entrance to the living quarters.

Thade opened one of the doors on the right; and Roderick followed his insidious chief into a small but exquisitely furnished living room. This chamber was papered with green. Its carpet was green, and the furniture was upholstered in the same color.

The ornaments — fantastic shapes of animals — were all of green jade.

Thade motioned to a chair. Roderick seated himself and gazed toward The Death Giver. He sensed that he was to hear something unusual in this conference.

“The time is here,” declared Thade solemnly. “This is the time for mighty action. Until now, Roderick, I have told you but little of my plans. To-night, I shall reveal all.

“To me, life is useless and futile. I, Thade, spent years in poverty and misfortune. I became an old man young. I was not Thade then. I was called Lucius Olney — and people laughed at my stooped shoulders and wizened face.

“Let us consider Lucius Olney” — Thade was speaking in a strange, reflective voice — “for he was a poor, deluded fool. He studied poisons; he studied lethal gases. More than that, he designed amazing ways of delivering those deadly forces.

“Experiments with living animals. Then Lucius Olney turned to the preparation of self-destroying containers that would leave no evidence of their contents. He went to the government. He was ridiculed. His life work was ended. Lucius Olney prepared to die.

“Death? It was a simple matter for Lucius Olney. He had come to consider life as worthless. In his crude laboratory, he had but to open a jet, or to inject a needle — that would be the end. It was then that Lucius Olney gave himself to death.”

Thade paused, and a fiendish smile appeared upon his cracked lips that still glowed green in the dull light of this room.

“Death!” cackled the robed man. “Lucius Olney was as good as dead. He ceased to be. It was inspiration that stayed his hand — inspiration gained by the sight of those inventions all about him. This world had no place for Lucius Olney. But it did have place for a mighty being who could deliver death!

“Lucius Olney went from that laboratory. From then on, he was a new being. He had found a name. Thade. A name formed by the letters of ‘death’! He was Thade, The Death Giver! Thade, whom you see before you now!

“With wealth gained from subtle schemes of death, I, Thade, took up this high abode. I continued the inventions of my former self — the deadly devices of Lucius Olney. Poison, concentrated in projectiles that shatter and leave no trace. That worked at Felswood. Lethal gas, compressed in tubes that curl and evaporate after they have been set. That worked in Manhattan.

“Other devices — they were but ingenious inventions that served as accessories. They have been a portion of Thade’s schemes. Great wealth has been my goal, Roderick, as you know. I have planned to obtain it. After acquiring my millions, then, I could launch new and strange destruction upon an unsuspecting world.

“My campaign against Bellew was but an experiment at terrorism. I knew that it was in the balance; that it might bring a million dollars, or that it might require death as an example. With Langhorne, I planned more effectively. My purpose was interrupted by this person you call The Shadow.

“So now I shall burst forth with mighty death. I shall be content to linger no longer. Death that will make its mark! Death that will not soon be forgotten!

“You have seen my power, Roderick. That traitor below” — Thade leered as he referred to the man entombed beneath the floor of his den — “spent months in dying as I gauged the gas which entered his glass-covered coffin. I let him die last night. I needed him no longer. It will be easy to replace him if necessary.

“But you have seen nothing, Roderick. In your wildest imagination you could not vision my greatest scheme for the sure delivery of quick destruction. Yet it is simple to the utmost. So simple that its operation requires but the minimum of apparatus. I have retained this method, Roderick, for a startling scheme of death.

“I, Thade, shall make history by my scheme. Yet my brain and hand will remain hidden. You, Roderick, will aid me, with Harlan Treffin as your dupe. Come along with me. I shall show you all.”

Thade led the way to his laboratory. There, in a green-walled room, among green-painted tables and benches, stacked with green bottles and flasks, the two men stood alone. With an evil leer upon his wizened face, Thade, the green-robed monster, cackled forth his newest scheme of death.

Paul Roderick listened in amazement. As the chortled words sounded in his ears, the murderer of Irwin Langhorne became convinced that no one — not even The Shadow — could cope with Thade, The Death Giver!