Read Ebook: White Fire by Snell Roy J Roy Judson

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Ebook has 1131 lines and 40723 words, and 23 pages

Mr. McFarland again held up his hand for silence. "You know, in these days of keen competition, manufacturers of motors for airplanes and automobiles are bending every effort to produce steel that will stand severe tests, that will endure strains and over-drive, and will last, last!"

Johnny nodded.

"We have such a steel as that, a marvelous steel. The man who discovered it is a genius--one of our mechanics. Unfortunately, after he had produced a few bars of this steel, and before he confided the formula to any other person, or had discovered ways of working it, he broke down from the excitement and over-strain. His mind became a blank--a complete blank."

He paused to stare at the wall, as if in a dream.

"And there," he went on, "are the bars of steel, some only eight inches long, some two feet--eight of them. Up to last night, that is. Now two of the shorter ones are missing. I was very careless. They should have been guarded. Competition is very strong, and doubtless a competitor has a spy in our plant. If that spy makes away with that steel, if the other man discovers the secret formula first and secures a patent, you can see what it will mean to us."

He looked Johnny squarely in the eyes. Johnny returned the gaze, but his knees trembled. He remembered his experience of the previous night. He had been the last man to leave the factory. Was his employer about to accuse him of stealing the precious bars?

It was a tense moment. For a full thirty seconds not a sound disturbed the room. At last the magnate spoke in a whisper:

"Johnny, from now on it shall be your task to guard the six remaining bars, and to discover the whereabouts of the two that were stolen."

Johnny's muscles relaxed like a violin string when the bridge falls.

"I--I--" he leaped from his chair, "I'll do my best."

"I know you will. Now sit down there in the corner for fifteen minutes and think out some plans for discovering the lost property. You don't need to tell me of the plans, but tell me what I can do to aid you."

Eight minutes had elapsed when Johnny sat up with a start.

"I have it," he exclaimed. "I'd like an electro-magnet, a powerful one, leaned against the south doorpost to the east exit. I want it connected up with switches in such a manner that I can operate it at a point where I can watch the doorway and not be seen myself. The electro-magnet should appear to be merely stored there temporarily."

"I'll have it attended to at once," said the magnate. "I wish you luck."

Closing time that afternoon found Johnny in a cubby-hole just back of the main entrance. He was peering through a crack which appeared to have been left between the boards by accident. It had, in fact, been made for Johnny's benefit that very day.

He was watching the long line of workmen, each swinging in his right hand his paper lunch-box, file out of the building. A clicking, turnstile gate allowed only one to pass out at a time. The factory had other exits, but this was the only one close to the spot where the strange and precious steel bars had been stored.

Beside the narrow board-walk over which the single-file line traveled, lay a circular affair of iron. Some three feet across and two feet thick, it appeared but a crude lump of metal carelessly left there. A close observer, however, would have noted that electric wires led away from the back of it. This was Johnny's electro-magnet. When suspended in air from a cable this innocent-appearing affair could lift a half-ton of steel to a freight car platform as easily as a child might pick up a handful of straw.

"It isn't likely that the fellow who took that steel would attempt to take it from the building at once. He'd hide it in the factory and carry it out some other night. Sooner or later I'll get him. Sooner or--"

Johnny's thoughts were cut short by a hand lightly laid on his shoulder.

"Thought I'd find you here." It was his employer. "Some things in the factory I want to show you when the men are gone. They're about out now. I'll just wait here. Don't let me disturb you."

"Rotten luck!" Johnny's lips framed the words but did not say them. The trap had worked. There was iron or steel in that box; that was why the powerful electro-magnet had drawn it to itself. He had recovered the property, but his man had escaped. The precious steel was safe. That much was good. He heaved a sigh of relief; watched the last workman march by, touched the switch, saw the box drop from the magnet as the current was shut off, then turned toward the door.

At this point a doubt came to his mind. What if the metal in the box proved to be some other metal than the precious steel? He had been about to display his catch in triumph. He decided to make sure first, and so merely said: "In just a moment I'll be ready."

Stepping outside, he secured possession of the mysterious lunch-box and, carrying it as if it were dynamite, again entered the cubby-hole and said cheerfully: "All right; I'm ready now."

As they walked slowly back into the factory Johnny's eyes turned first to the right, then to the left. For the time the baffling mysteries of the hour were forgotten, and for the hundredth time he was lost in admiration of this marvel of modern industry, a vast manufacturing plant. Here they passed through the forge-room where, by the dull light of dying fires, one might see trip-hammers, looming like giants, resting from their labors. Now again they passed through a sand-strewn room where crater-like heaps were smoking--the foundry. And now they emerged into the assembly-room, where were automobiles partly put together, and further down, airplanes poised like giant birds ready for flight.

"The things I am to show you to-night"--the voice of his employer roused him from the spell which the place had put upon him--"are secrets, secrets known only to myself and two other men. This factory was rebuilt and enlarged during the World War. Our entire output was then being taken by the Government. In those days every precaution was necessary. Spies of the enemy were all about us and in our very midst, seeking out our most valuable secrets, ready to destroy our plants and so cripple our army. It was such a time as this that I had installed in this plant the contrivances which I am about to show you and which may, perhaps, be of assistance to you. Your work from now on will be done at night. You slept this afternoon as I instructed?"

"Yes."

"Good. Then you will be all right for tonight."

"Easy," answered Johnny slangily.

"Now, here," they had paused in the center of an aisle, "please note your exact position. Got it?"

"Yes."

Johnny's employer nodded approval.

"Have you a watch and flashlight? It's dark where you're going."

"No flashlight." In spite of his best efforts, Johnny's knees trembled.

"Here's a small one. Now prepare yourself for a surprise. In five minutes stand up. Watch me."

The magnate reached up and gave a pull on an electric lamp wire just above his head. The next instant Johnny felt himself shoot rapidly downward, to land at last with no perceptible shock upon some flat object. All about him was pitch darkness. At once his trembling hand snapped on the flashlight. As its welcome gleam shot out before him, he saw that he was in a narrow, cement-walled chamber. One glance downward and his tense muscles relaxed.

"Humph!" he grunted. "The scrap-conveyor!"

It was true. Beneath this up-to-date factory, a tunnel had been cut, through which a broad, flat conveyor ran. On this conveyor, from every point in the factory, scraps of iron, steel, brass, cloth, wire, rubber and what-not were carried without the lifting of a human hand, direct to the scrap-room.

"It's a clever exit, nevertheless," thought Johnny, "and worth remembering. 'Five minutes,' he said, 'then stand up.'"

Focusing the flashlight on his watch, he waited. The conveyor was moving. He could see the shadows of cement beams slowly rise and pass by him. The place was fairly spooky--"like a tomb," he said to himself. It was dead still, too. Nothing save the almost noiseless motion of the conveyor broke the silence. "What a spot for a tragedy," he thought. "A fight here in the night; the victor escapes; the dead body is carried silently on to the scrap-pile."

One minute passed, two, three, four. The silence grew oppressive. Five! Then came a sudden flood of light from above him. Leaping to his feet, he reached up to the edge of a cement floor and vaulted up to it. Silently a second trapdoor closed behind him. His employer stood beside him.

"Have a nice ride?" he smiled.

"Fine! A bit spooky, though," Johnny grinned back.

"Could you use it in an emergency?"

"I think so. It's the wire of the lamp hanging directly above it, isn't it?"

"Right. Works electrically. Pulling that wire does the trick. There are some others, though. We must hurry on. I have a directors' meeting at eight."

The marvels, the tricks of magic which Johnny witnessed during the tense half-hour that followed, thrilled, charmed and at times frightened him. Now he caught himself leaping aside, as if to avoid the blow of a hidden force, and now frozen in his tracks, he felt chills race up and down his spine, while cold perspiration stood out upon his brow. Convinced as he was that he was in the hands of a friend, he could not fully overcome the spell of this seemingly magic factory. While standing idly leaning against a wall, he would suddenly become conscious of a movement in front of him, and there, not three feet before him, a second wall towered. Whether it had risen from the floor, dropped from the ceiling or developed out of thin air, he could not tell, so sudden and silent was its motion. Again, he was standing talking to his employer and, having been attracted by a sound in the distance, turned away for an instant, only to find on turning again to his friend that he had vanished; the pillar beside which he had been standing had swallowed him up.

After initiating him into the secret mysteries of six of these strange devices, his employer promised him more in the future, then took him over to the front of a massive vault built into the wall of the factory.

"Here," said Mr. McFarland, "we keep our most valuable tools and the diamonds used in giving to shaftings their finishing touches. Here also rest the six bars of steel of the mysterious, unknown formula. We hope soon to rediscover that formula, or that its inventor, through the agencies of the doctor of the sanitarium, will be restored to his normal mind and memory. An old and trusted employe presides over the vault during the day. It will be your task to guard it nights. At any time you feel yourself in danger, there are the secret doors, walls and passages I have shown you. They may be of great service to you in securing aid, if it is needed. And now I must bid you good night."

"Good night." Johnny's own voice, as if coming from a cavern, sounded hollow to him.

As his employer disappeared from sight, however, he shook himself and attempted to remember something he had postponed, something of which his subconscious memory was striving to tell him.

Suddenly he started.

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