So Jake forgot the entire matter as he headed for his favorite nightclub, a haunt where bright lights and gaudy women lured. He did not realize that tonight he had played a vital part in the schemes of men craftier than Biff Towley.
For Louis Steffan had brought a singular message to New York. Had he delivered it, he might have frustrated the progress of strange and incredible crime. But he had failed — he who alone had gained an inkling of a fiendish plot.
Up in the Bronx, the death car was stopped beside a deserted lot. A muffled shot — a dying gasp — and all was over. The door opened and the body of Louis Steffan tumbled from the sedan.
The car traveled on its way.
Then from the lowered window fluttered fragments of paper, which scattered widely in the breeze as the car swept homeward toward Manhattan. Louis Steffan's shorthand notes were meeting with destruction. The man with the message was dead — and his message was gone forever. To the police, it would be another gangland killing. By the time that Louis Steffan's body was found and his empty pockets searched, the unknown crime would be accomplished!
Chapter II — A Strange Discovery
"Step into the laboratory, gentlemen. My demonstration is ready." The speaker was a stoop-shouldered, gray-haired man of fifty years. He was garbed in a white gown. He was addressing a group of keen, intelligent-looking men who were seated in a little living room. This man, to whom the others gave close and respectful attention, was Clark Murdock, whose chemical experiments had gained him an envied reputation
The men arose and followed the chemist into his laboratory. It was the rear room on the second floor of Murdock's old house. He had chosen this secluded spot, away from the main arteries of Manhattan, that he might conduct his experiments without disturbance.
Murdock's laboratory was a remarkable place. It contained shelves of bottles, long tables strewn with appliances and pieces of oddly assorted machinery. His guests looked about them with interest, and the chemist smiled as he saw their wondering glances.
These men had come to see a practical demonstration of his new experiments in atomic disintegration. Clark Murdock had made some remarkable discoveries, but he realized that few of his visitors would understand their full significance.