Page:Wonder Stories Quarterly Volume 2 Number 2 (Winter 1931).djvu/64

 him. So that's how we found out about his visits to Helmer. Whenever he's in New York, he spends a couple of hours a day there."

"Very simple," said Vaux. "He's having his face and figure cast in bronze by Helmer's new method. That's the latest fad. No more busts—full figures is the thing now. Helmer's genius lies in expressing something by the torso and limbs and hands, as well as by the face. That's where he's unique. He came over here to do some of our outstanding people, just as he did the rulers of Europe and the great statesmen and scientists and literary men. But, of course, our society people couldn't be left out, and insisted on being in with the really great, so they're paying him anything he asks. And, being a man with a sense of humor as well as a sense of business, he's making more in a week than Rodin ever made in his life."

"Yes? That may be true. But that's all the more reason why we have to watch him. In the intimate conversation between a sculptor and a subject, anything can slip out. And we always have to watch out for violence."

"Oh, I see. You think they'll kidnap him, or something?"

"Worse than that. I have reliable information that Helmer has a regular scientific laboratory in his cellar, or somewhere. They may torture him, and then kill him to keep him from talking."

"I can't believe that of Helmer!"

"Your orders," said the chief, ignoring him, "are to spend as much time as you can in the studio, to inform us of every appearance Manning makes there, to report anything unusual, and to look around as much as you can without exciting suspicion. Of course, they won't try anything while you're there, but they're very resourceful. You have orders to go armed whenever you visit Helmer, and to use your weapon whenever you see fit to do so."

"But if you keep Manning in Washington all the time, you won't have to worry about what he does in New York."

"Oh. Cold feet?"

Vaux flushed. "Listen," he said. "I've shot lions, and I've hunted tarpon in shark-infested waters. I've busted bronchos on a dude ranch. I've been in places where you wouldn't care to go. I've bluffed African cannibal chiefs and made them like it. But if you mention cold feet to me again I'll quit right here and now, and you can get somebody else to do your spying."

"Sorry, sorry, sorry," murmured Henderson, who valued this young man's ability to carry off a situation. "But the point is that he has to spend a lot of time in New York, where he has his laboratory. He's a great inventor, not a criminal, and we can't guard him. And besides, the work he's doing isn't half as important to him as it is to us. We're more interested in it than he is."



"Very well," said the mollified Vaux. "I never saw Manning, but I imagine we'll be introduced if we meet."

"You may meet when there isn't any time for introductions," said Henderson. He reached into a drawer of his desk and took out a handful of photographs. "Here," he said, selecting one and handing it to Vaux. "Get this face fixed in your memory, and if you ever see it in the flesh, don't let on that it means anything to you."

A few moments later the young man walked out of the office and into what he declared later was the most incredible adventure of his life.

HE next day Freddie Vaux, sportsman, man about town, delightful idler, was lounging comfortably in the cool studio of his distinguished friend, Franz Helmer. The sculptor, relaxing for an hour, amused himself with modeling a little clay figurine which reproduced exactly the finely cut features of the most eligible young bachelor in New York.

"I wonder you're here in this weather, Freddie," he observed. For a man who was counted a foreigner, his speech was remarkably Americanized. "I don't see any of your friends around in this heat."

"Well," said Vaux, "I'll tell you what it is. As a matter of fact I know that some excellent—ah—well, to give you another reason, there is a very pretty little girl I know who is simply working her heart out in the chorus during this infernal weather, and the least I can do is to make her leisure time as comfortable as I can. You know—long, cool, rides in my motor boat, spins in my roadster, and all that. Next week she promised me to go up with me in my little plane. Of course," he added, seeing the smile on Helmer's face, "my interest is purely altruistic. It's just that I'm so good-natured."

"You should say your interest is academic," observed Helmer.

"Or scientific," added Vaux. "I have always wanted to add practical experiments in psychology to my other scientific attainments."

"Your other scientific attainments? Since when were you a scientist?"

"Oh, I'm not much of one," answered the young man. "But I was always interested in chemistry and physics, and I have a neat little laboratory at home. Of course, my friends don't know about it—if they did, I would probably become a social outcast."

"Indeed? My assistant—I don't know whether you've met him—is quite a scientist in his own right. And not an amateur scientist either. In our own country he is held in high esteem. He assists me in my particular kind of bronze casting. It's really scientific research with him."

"That's very interesting," said Vaux. "I'd like