The Bat

DOW OF

done their best and failed. Failure meant "resignation" for the police chief, return to the hated work of pounding the pavements for them-they knew it, and, knowing it, could s

e man on the other side of the desk, man hunter extraordinary, old servant of Government and State, sleuthhound without a peer, threw up his hands in a gesture of odd hopelessness.

lay in a New York gutter with a bullet in his heart and a look of such horror and surprise on his dead face that even the ambulance-Doctor who found h

criminal of a century-lost voices hounding a specter down the alleyways of the wind. And still the meshes broke and the quarry slipped away before the

Beast, man, or devil? A specter-a

e works, a guy that could have Jim Gunderson for breakfast and not notice he'd et." The underworld heard and waited to be shown; after a little while the underworld began to wh

d himself to the face of the day. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the

ienceless brains dissected the work of a colder and swifter brain than theirs, with suave and bitter envy. Evil's Four Hundred chattered, discussed, debated-sent out a thousand invisible tentacles to clutch at a sha

t flew free, solitary, untamed, and deadly. At last even his own kind turned upon him; the underworld is like the upper in its fear and distrust of genius that flies alone. But when they turned aga

Bat like a caught butterfly to the front page of their respective journals-soon or late each gave up, beaten. He was news-bigger news each week-a thousand ticking typewriters clicked his adventures-the brief, staccato recital of his career in the morgues of the great dailies grew longer and more incredible each day. But the big news-the scoop of the

him as one of the even-headed beasts of the Apocalypse and a forerunner of the end of the world; a popular revue put on a special Bat number wherein eighteen beautiful chorus girls appeared masked and black-winged in costumes of Brazilian bat fur; there were Bat clu

ve to play it up. It's an amazing list-the Marshall jewels-the Allison murder-the mail truck thing-two hundred thousand he got out of that, all negotiable, and two men

panion

r going to burst forth with 'Bat Captured b

ven offered a bonus-a big one-and that shows how crazy he is-he doesn't love a nickel any better than his right eye-for any sort of exclusive story. Bonus-

you dig up

how she barbered Samson-and find out who struck Billy Patterson and who was the Man in the Iron Mask. But the Bat's something else again. Oh, of course, we've panned the police for not getting him; tha

mean to tell me he'll keep on ge

he first time the super-crook-the super-crook of fiction-the kind that never makes a mistake-has come t

e's just an ordinary cr

b-a black paper bat inside the Marshall safe-a bat drawn on the wall with a burnt match where he'd jimmied the Cedarburg Bank-a real bat, dead, tacked

u m

a brilliant man with a kink in the brain. He may be a Doctor, a lawyer, a merchant, honored in his community by day-good line that, I'll use it some time-and

y Lord

er a few days of it. Look around the University Club-that white-haired man over there-dignified-respectable-is he the Bat? Your own lawyer-your own Doctor-your own best friend.

e giving me

ver. No, it isn't so pleasant.-But that's my t

on laughed

ou, Bill-are

the city recently-taking a fling at some of the swell suburbs. Besides I haven't the brains-I'm free to admit

editor's theory had taken firm hold on his mind. As th

serious-when you said you didn't know of a single

yet there's one man-I don't know him myself but from what I've h

nd laughed nervously. "We're moving out to the country

f mine, but if the Bat ever came prowling around our place, the detective I'd try to get

ken of so scornfully. He looked something like a college athlete who had kept up his training, something like a pillar of one of the more sedate financial houses. He could assume and discard a dozen manners in as many minutes, but, to the casual observer, the one thing certain about him

chief for several moments before th

l tell you this about it-if you do a neater and quicker job in the next ten years, you can take this desk aw

the tall man quietly, "but

isn't the point. It takes a man with brains to use a piece of luck as you used it. I've waited a long time here for a man with your sort of brains and,

own. He took a cigar and lit it. "That makes it easier, si

he chief promptly. "What

r hear what it is first, sir. I don

ion? Take as long as you like-within reason

head, "No sir-I don

out that. Expense money for anything-fill out a voucher and I'll

'm pleased about the promotion, of course-but it's not t

said. "Well, as I say, anything within reas

arm of his chair. He looked squarely at the chie

"I said-anything within reason," he resp

Anderson stubbornly. "If I've done good

k. Annoyance and surprise we

a minute ago, you had brains-but now, by Judas, I doubt it! If anyone else wanted a chance at the Ba

ble than Wentworth

y! No, Anderson, I've found two first-class men since I've been at this desk-Wentworth and you. He asked for his chance; I gave

hite dints in the hand that gripped the chair. "Ever since the Bat got him

high exasperation. Then he stopped and looked

icide-I'll send you a 'Gates Ajar' and a card, 'Here lies a damn fool who w

in a deep voice. His eyes had light in

evil myself and let you sit here and watch me get brought in with an infernal paper bat pinned where my shield ought to be. The Bat's supernatural, Anderson. You ha

lies once too often," he said. "I'm

ute, keep your shirt on, you're not goin

I thou

of you I can, before you start wild-goose chasing after this-this bat out of hell. The first time he's heard of again-and it shouldn't be lo

laughed and turned to the d

h," he murmured to himself. "And throwing himself away-to be killed by a cold-blooded devil that nothing human can catch-you're getting old, John Grogan-bu

could not pay attention to the papers. There was a shadow on them