Выбрать главу

"That's "Suicide Bridge" and they're going to tear it down next month; more than fifty people have jumped from it since it was built during the Chicago World's Fair."

"Until that moment I had not thought of suicide, but the idea took hold of me and, try as I would, I could not shake it off. I tried to walk away from 'Suicide Bridge,' but the power of suggestion was too strong. A park policeman came along; 'Don't do it, buddy,' he said. I pretended that I didn't know what he meant and he went on. When he disappeared I began to climb the steps to the bridge. A voice behind me stopped me.

"I turned around and there was a well-dressed man of about sixty, with a close-cropped vandyke beard, hurrying toward me—"

"Dr. Waugh!" interjected Lake.

"Exactly," agreed Graham. "I waited for him to come up."

" 'Why are you going to kill yourself?' he asked me.

" 'None of your damn business,' I told him.

" 'Come with me,' he said; 'you need a square meal.'

"I went along with him. After the meal, as we sat in a quiet corner of the rather cheap restaurant, he made me his proposition. As near as I can remember it, he said:

" 'Life means nothing to you, for you were about to kill yourself. I want to make a bargain with you. I want to engage in a sort of an adventure; it may cost you your life, it may not — you'll have to take that chance. If you live through it, you will be five thousand dollars the richer; if it costs you your life the five thousand will be disposed of as you see fit. That's my proposition; I shall tell you no more. Take it or leave it.'

"I thought it over. He was right; life meant nothing to me. He was offering me the chance to at least quit the world with a clean slate — it would square up my debts and a little besides. I accepted his proposition.

"He telephoned for his automobile and, while we waited, took me into the washroom of the restaurant where he bandaged my eyes.

" 'I'll have to blindfold you,' he explained; 'it's part of the agreement.'

"When we got into the car we drove for a short time and stopped. We went up some steps; it was the house where he lived. I heard him tell a servant, whose name was Samuels, that I was blind and that he was going to treat me. I might as well have been blind, for there wasn't a ray of light through those bandages.

"Almost at once he had me undress and put me through a physical examination, especially testing my heart.

" 'Sound as an ox,' I heard him say after he used the stethoscope. 'Perfect heart j that's fine.'

"I spent the night at the house and the next day he sent to the bank for the five thousand dollars. An hour or so after that he gave me some decent clothes — some of his I think they were, for we were of about the same build — and led me out to his automobile. He drove himself and I sat on the front seat with him. We went downtown and he allowed me to remove the bandages from my eyes. Then I went into a bank — alone — and deposited the five thousand dollars with instructions as to where to send it if I did not call for it within a week. I got back into the car with him and he seemed much relieved.

" 'I was afraid you'd try to give me the slip after you had the money,' he said. That hadn't occurred to me; I had too much curiosity anyway — I had to see it through.

"After we left the downtown districts he wrapped the bandages on again and we drove for a long time. I could tell by the atmosphere that ft was nightfall. We had left the boulevards and were jolting over rough country roads. At last we stopped and he led me through high grass and weeds; my feet got all tangled up in them.

"He took me into a house and I knew by the musty smell that no one had lived there for some time and I knew by the hollow way that our footsteps echoed through the place that it was unfurnished. We had not walked very far when I stumbled over something which barked my shin. Before I knew what happened, a rope dropped over my neck and was drawn tight. Instinctively I clawed at the thing which was cutting into the flesh of fny neck but he seized my arms and, although I struggled, he succeeded in tying them behind me. Of course that made me helpless. I couldn't offer much resistance when he grabbed my legs and tied my ankles — tied my feet to the floor.

The Deviltry of Dr. Waugh

"I hadn't bargained for anything like this and, to be frank, I was very much afraid — afraid of an unknown something that I could not see. I imagine that I screamed in my fright, but he only laughed at me.

" 'Shout all you want,' he said; 'no one can hear you.'

"Then he took off the bandages. The room was in semi-darkness, lighted only by two flickering candles and, for a moment, I could not make things out clearly. You know what I saw — those railroad cars, looming up in the gloom and the candlelight shining on those points which stuck out from the end of each car. I was tied, standing upright, in the middle of the track. I couldn't move, for the rope about my neck kept me in one position.

" 'Great God!' I shouted. 'What are you going to do to me?'

" 'I am going to kill you,' he said. 'Oh, come, my young friend; you were willing enough to die yesterday. I am cheating you of nothing; you will get the five thousand dollars — and death.

" 'Perhaps you realize what will happen,' he went on. 'Those steel cars will move toward you at the rate of one foot per minute; in fifteen minutes those steel points will prick your flesh and then — they will slowly, slowly — Ha! I see you undersand—'

"He was right; I did understand. I won't burden you gentlemen with the horrors of it. I won't try to tell you the torment that was mine — I couldn't and I don't like to think of it. I — sometimes I dream of it now; it's hell!

"I begged him to shoot me — anything. I knew that he was a madman — some impossible creature in real life stepped right out from a page of Poe. As I begged for mercy he snapped on the electric switch and I could see those cars vibrate a little; they seemed to leap toward me.

"He left the room without a word, leaving me there with that devilish death trap, as ingenious a thing of torture as the 'Pit and the Pendulum.'

"It could not have been long, but it seemed like hours. At last those cars were close enough that, had my arms been free, I could have reached out and touched them. I began to pray and as I prayed I strained at my bonds until the rope cut into my wrists and into the flesh of my neck. I was slowly choking myself to death and, just as I was losing consciousness, I had the sensation of falling. Suddenly the breath rushed back into my bursting lungs and the blackness before my eyes cleared. I had. indeed, fallen; the rope from the ceiling must have been very rotten for it had parted under the strain. The weight of my body had smashed in one of those fiendish make-believe cars.

"Something pricked my wrists; it was a nail and I patiently worked away, severing strand after strand, until my numbed arms were free. It was then but the matter of a moment to loosen the knots which bound my ankles.

"There isn't much more to tell, gentlemen; I—"

"But Dr. Waugh—" eagerly broke in John Lake. "How did he—"

Young Graham smiled shrewdly.

"Oh, yes, I'm getting to that, doctor. When I slipped out of the house, Dr. Waugh was sitting in his limousine, calmly smoking and — reading! In a sudden burst of anger, I made up my mind to kill him!"

"Ah!" breathed the Chief of Detectives; "so you admit—"

"That I killed him? Indeed, no, Chief," denied Justin Graham. "I — er — changed my mind.

"The door of the limousine was open and I slipped across the grass and had seized him before he knew it. Even as my fingers were about his throat I realized that he must be an irresponsible lunatic and that there could be no justice in slaying him. I decided to truss him up, drive him to the city and turn him over to the authorities that a test might be made of his sanity.