THE VAULT OF DOOM
A VAGUE feeling of terror swept over Betty Mandell back in the Galvin home, as she groped for the cord of the bed lamp. She found it and gasped with relief as the light clicked.
The illumination was comforting. Betty glanced about the bedroom, wondering now what had caused her sudden fright.
She felt that horror had awakened her — the horror of some impending danger. Tonight was terribly like that other night, when she had discovered the strange man in black on her visit to the study.
Betty reflected. Perhaps an instinctive dread of loneliness had oppressed her. She should not have come home tonight. In so doing, she had failed to obey Bob’s orders.
He had called her at Alice Wheeler’s that morning. She could remember his words distinctly.
She could also remember that his voice still sounded different from the voice that had been Bob Galvin’s. She could not forget that first telephone call — the night that Bob had arrived in New York.
It had been Betty’s intention to return home tonight. Bob had phoned to tell her not to come. Business was taking him from town, he had said. Hodgson had gone away.
Bob had spoken in a kindly manner when he referred to the faithful old servant. He had decided that Hodgson deserved a vacation. So he had sent him away on a trip South.
There was a new man to take Hodgson’s place while the old servant was gone. Briggs was the name of the substitute. But Briggs would also be away tonight. The house would be empty. So Bob had told Betty to wait until to-morrow.
Yet Betty had not obeyed. She felt that she had stayed long enough at Alice Wheeler’s. So she had packed a suitcase and had come to the old house late in the evening.
She had found the house solemn and gloomy; a huge pile of blackness. Nevertheless, she had entered — using a key which she always carried — and had gone upstairs to her room.
Despite the fact that this had been her home since childhood, the place had seemed forbidding. Betty had passed quickly through the darkness of the downstairs hall and had hurried up the stairs, anxious to gain the seclusion of her room.
Once there, she locked the door. Her qualms ended, she had gone to bed and had fallen asleep.
But now she had awakened — suddenly and unaccountably. She was positive that some unaccountable noise had caused the awakening.
BETTY felt apprehensive. She listened for a few minutes. Finally she extinguished the light and placed her head uneasily upon the pillow.
It was then that she became conscious of a dull, distant sound. She sat up in bed. She heard the sound no longer. But with her head once more resting upon the pillow, the sound came again.
It seemed to be a slow, muffled hammering, from the depths beneath her.
Thoroughly alarmed, Betty turned on the light again and listened intently. She arose from bed and leaned her head against the wall.
The sound was quite evident now. Solemnly, but regularly, the muffled strokes seemed to come upward to her ear. The girl was sure that the weird noise had its origin in the cellar of the old mansion.
At first she thought of flight; then her natural bravery allayed her fears.
Donning a dressing gown, Betty turned out the light and softly unlocked the door of her room. Once in the hall, she could hear nothing of the sounds from below. She descended the stairs cautiously.
Gripped by eagerness to fathom this mystery, her fears had vanished. Her footfalls were noiseless as she turned into the side hall downstairs and reached the door at the top of the cellar steps.
She tried the door. It was unlocked. That was unusual. She opened the door. A faint light was visible.
Now she heard the sound plainly; the stroke of a muffled weight against metal.
Betty hesitated on the top steps; then, with determination, she proceeded to the cellar.
The light glowed dim from a passage near the foot of the stairs. The hammering had ended. Betty could hear only a slight scuffling.
She sensed the coldness of the stone floor as she stepped softly to the end of the passage. She peered around the corner.
THREE men were working, some twenty feet away. Their backs were turned as they pushed against the side of a square steel post that formed a support against the wall. Their efforts ended as one man grunted a command.
Betty shrank away. Then, realizing that she was in a fringe of darkness, she pulled her gown closely about her and continued to peer at the scene before her.
Two of the men were half facing her. One was still working at the pillar.
And of the two whose features were visible to Betty, one was Bob!
The other was a stranger whose sullen features and heavy jaw gave him a pugnacious expression.
“Rest up a minute,” came Bob’s voice. Betty disliked the tone.
“Hear that, Clink?” questioned the big man, turning toward the one who was pushing at the post. “Lay off, Maddox is bossing this job.”
“Listen, Briggs,” growled Bob, “I’ll talk to Clink. And lay off that Maddox stuff. That’s the second time you’ve slipped up!”
“Sorry, Bob.”
“Forget that, too. Call me Mr. Galvin. You’ll have to do it regular beginning to-morrow. The girl will be back then.”
“All right,” agreed Briggs. “Don’t worry. I’ll be careful. But what about this job? That first post moved all right. How about hitting this one a few more cracks?”
He leaned to the floor and started to pick up a sledge hammer that had a piece of cloth wrapped about the head. Bob stopped him with a gesture.
“Give it another push,” he suggested.
The two men joined the one who was working at the post. Under their renewed efforts, the steel pillar began to budge. It slid slowly along the wall, with a rasping noise.
Betty could see Bob push the others down the passage as he began to examine the wall at the spot which had been covered by the sliding post. An excited exclamation came from his lips.
“Heave here,” he said in a low voice.
The three men united their efforts. They massed themselves against the wall.
To Betty’s amazement, the section of the wall opened at their force. Then Bob’s arms went out as he held the others back.
“Take it easy, boys!” he commanded.
Betty was watching Bob. He now held a flashlight. He turned its rays into the opening.
Betty could see his face plainly by the small electric light in the ceiling of the passage where the men were working. She observed an expression of disappointment.
“Empty!” came Bob’s exclamation. “Empty!”
THE other men were staring over his shoulder. Bob advanced and they followed. For a full minute, the men were out of sight.
Completely amazed, Betty awaited their reappearance. This whole episode was as unbelievable as it was mysterious.
She tried to fathom the conversation that she had heard. She could remember the words; yet their meaning was not quite clear. Of one thing only was she certain; that Bob had intended to conduct this secret operation without her knowledge.
She wanted to return upstairs, but curiosity compelled her to remain.
The men emerged. First Bob, then Briggs; finally the third man, whose face she had not yet seen. He moved backward a few paces, in Betty’s direction.
Bob was speaking now in a low growl. The girl was anxious to hear his words.
“What luck!” came his declaration. “It looked like a sure bet. We’ve missed. A bum steer!”
“We found the place, all right,” answered Briggs, sullenly. “Maybe Harkness didn’t know anything else about it.”
“That’s quite probable,” retorted Bob, “but it doesn’t help us any. The place is empty. A good little cubby-hole, but that’s all. We’ve got to begin all over again. Nothing else to do, except tell the Chief—”
So intent was Betty that she had not noticed a motion of the man in front of her. Not until he had turned so his face was partly toward her did she realize he had changed his position.
She glanced quickly at him and her eyes froze with horror. She was staring at a hideous, monstrous face — a countenance with twisted, gruesome lips and a horrible, misshapen nose.
The sight of those deformed features was like a nightmare. Betty gasped in sudden revulsion.
The ghastly creature turned at the sound. The girl was paralyzed with fear as two gleaming, catlike eyes saw her standing just within the range of the light.
Before Betty could turn to flee, the man pounced toward her. Betty screamed in terror; then clawlike fingers were upon her. A filthy hand covered her mouth to stop her cries.
She struggled vainly as she was dragged down the passage. Other hands seized her. She was in the power of the three men.
The girl fought with despair. Hands choked her; she was battered against the wall. She slipped to the floor in a hopeless effort to escape. Everything became black as she fainted, overcome by dread.
WHEN she reopened her eyes a few minutes later, Betty found herself resting against the wall. Her hands were bound behind her back, tied with the leather belt of her dressing gown.
She looked upward and again saw that hideous, merciless face of Clink. She turned her gaze toward the second man — Briggs — and recoiled as she observed his brutal features.
She turned piteously toward Bob, and saw that he was the most terrible of the three. The friendliness that he had affected in the past had been a pretense. Now his true nature was revealed.
His eyes flashed hatred and venom.
“Why did you come here?” he demanded.
Betty tried to reply, but failed.
“Did you see what we were doing?”
The girl nodded.
“I could kill—” Bob raised his hands, then lowered them as he saw Betty shrink toward the wall.
“What are you going to do with her?” questioned Briggs, in a hoarse, brutal voice. “You didn’t waste time with that old flunky—”
“Sh-h-h!” exclaimed Bob. His face became harsh and cruel. He looked quickly at Betty and realized instantly that she knew what had happened to Hodgson. In fact, the girl’s accusing eyes were already upon him, and she began to voice her condemnation.
“You killed Hodgson?” Betty’s question came clear. The thought that the old man had been murdered had given her the strength of indignation.
“Yes,” said Bob coldly, “I killed Hodgson. You’ve found it out — and it means the end for you. You’ve seen too much — or we might have let you out. It’s too late now.”
He turned to his companions. “We’ve got to get rid of her, boys. That’s all.”
CLINK chuckled harshly. His eyes were gleaming as he moved forward, intent upon choking the helpless girl. A wild, murderous look had come over his face.
Betty wanted to scream. She could only gasp. Then Bob intervened. He threw out an arm and thrust Clink back.
Bob pressed one hand upon Betty’s mouth. With the other, he ripped away the broad collar of her gown. Quickly and efficiently, he forced the cloth into the girl’s mouth to serve as an effective gag.
“Lend a hand, Briggs,” he ordered. “We’ll do two jobs at once. Why waste time?”
Betty was raised to her feet. At Bob’s command, the big man lifted the helpless girl. As Bob pointed ahead, Betty divined the fate that he intended for her.
“Into the vault!” were Bob’s words.
In a few seconds, Betty lay in the corner of the small room. The glare of Bob’s flashlight revealed its solid stone walls. There was not a crevice in their surface. A sneer came from the man behind the light.
“You can think it over here,” were Bob’s malicious words. “You’ve got an hour or two — at the most.
“You’ve found out plenty tonight. You know who killed Hodgson. Tell it — if you can!”
The flashlight was extinguished, but Betty could see the forms of the men in the lighted passage. A huge, dark wall swung inward. Something clicked as the wall came into place.
Muffled sounds followed. The posts were being hammered back to their positions. Then came silence horrible silence. The men had gone!
Here, in a vault of doom, a tiny room hewn in solid stone, Betty had been left to die. The closing of the barrier had sealed the vault so closely that no draft of air could enter. Impenetrable blackness seemed to engulf the helpless girl.
The choking hands of the hideous-faced Clink would have been merciful compared to the slow, gruesome death that now held Betty Mandell within its frightful grasp!
But the false Bob Galvin and his heartless allies had reckoned without the shadowy figure Betty had seen in the study.