"You are very reckless, my dear Phantom," she murmured. "Please don't ask to what happy circ.u.mstance you owe the invitation to ride with me.

I abhor ceremonious speeches. I am Fay Dale, though that probably don't interest you, and I have a message for you from Mr. Shei."

The bluntness of the statement made The Phantom catch his breath. He wondered whether it was the vivacious eyes of Fay Dale that had been following him all morning and giving him the haunting impression of being watched.

"As I said, you are very reckless," Miss Dale went on. "Twice within the last two days you have been warned to abandon the course you are pursuing, and you have paid no heed whatever. There's such a thing as carrying audacity to a fault, you know. Doesn't the safety of a certain young lady mean anything to you at all?"

"Everything!" exclaimed The Phantom impulsively. "You said you had something to tell me about her."

"I have, but you mustn't be impatient. I have something very important to tell you. You have seen fit to meddle in an affair that doesn't concern you in the least. You have been warned that your conduct is endangering the life of the young lady, but evidently you have not taken the warnings seriously. I can a.s.sure you that Mr. Shei never makes idle threats. It is his wish that you leave New York at once."

A taunting laugh was on The Phantom's lips, but he held it back.

"Why?" he demanded.

"Because Mr. Shei doesn't care to have you interfere with him. He is now engaged in the most important enterprise of his life, and he would rather not be opposed by such a formidable enemy as yourself. I shall be perfectly frank with you, even at the risk of inflating your vanity. You are the only man of whom Mr. Shei stands in fear. He has a profound respect for your genius. He laughs at the police and snaps his fingers at public opinion, but he knows The Gray Phantom is a dangerous adversary. At this particular time he can brook no opposition. That's why he requests you to leave New York immediately."

"I am flattered," murmured The Phantom, gazing reflectively out of the car window. "What I cannot understand is how Mr. Shei learned of my plans."

Miss Dale gave an amused laugh. "One of Mr. Shei's agents saw you in Times Square the morning you arrived. You have been watched ever since. Mr. Shei has sources of information that would amaze you if I were to tell you about them. And he is just as resourceful in other ways. Don't you think you had better swallow your pride and comply with his wishes?"

"Suppose I were to refuse?" The Phantom temporized, trying hard to restrain his impatience.

Miss Dale looked straight into his eyes. There was a hint of cruelty in her tightly compressed lips.

"There are ways of breaking even such a stubborn will as yours," she coldly declared. "The young lady is absolutely in Mr. Shei's power.

That gives him a means of persuasion that ought to impress even you.

Nothing in the world can save her if you disobey his wishes."

Her tones carried an emphasis that caused The Phantom to give her a sharp glance. There was a curl to her lips and a gleam in her eyes that impressed him even more strongly than her words. His mind worked quickly.

"If Mr. Shei will return Miss Hardwick safely to her home, I will leave New York on the next train," he promised.

She laughed frigidly. "You must think Mr. Shei is a fool. He would lose his hold over you the moment he released Miss Hardwick, and what guarantee would he have that you would carry out your promise?"

"My word of honor."

"It would be enough under ordinary circ.u.mstances, but not in this case. Evidently you do not realize the gravity of Miss Hardwick's position, or you would not quarrel with Mr. Shei's terms." She shrugged her slight shoulders. "Well, you shall soon be convinced that Mr. Shei is not to be trifled with. From Miss Hardwick's own lips you shall learn what a desperate predicament she is in. After that, my dear Phantom, I think you will be more amenable to reason."

There was a question on The Phantom's tongue, but just then the car drew up in front of an apartment house facing Central Park, and Miss Dale conducted him through an ornate entrance, then up three flights in the elevator, and a little gasp of admiration escaped The Phantom as they pa.s.sed into an exquisitely furnished apartment. Save for the prevalence of the feminine touch, exemplified in gorgeous but meaningless trifles and gewgaws, it met the emphatic approval of The Phantom's discriminating eye.

Miss Dale excused herself and entered an adjoining room, and he was left alone for a few minutes. He strained his ears and listened. From faint sounds coming through the closed door he imagined she was at the telephone. The cold gleam in her eyes as he had helped her from the car was still haunting him, and he wondered what she had meant when she promised that from Helen's own lips should he learn the nature of her predicament.

The frigid, insinuating smile was still on her lips when she returned to the room in which she had left him.

"Your curiosity shall be gratified in a few moments," she announced, seating herself and regarding him with a cold, impersonal gaze. There was an air of quiet self-reliance and efficiency about her that enabled him to understand how she could be a valuable a.s.sistant to Mr.

Shei. Neither spoke, and presently the silence was interrupted by the ringing of the telephone in the other room.

"Answer, please," she said lightly, the faintest trace of malignant satisfaction in her tones. "I think Miss Hardwick is on the wire."

Puzzled and tormented by vague suspicions, The Phantom pa.s.sed to the telephone. The woman followed a short distance behind.

"h.e.l.lo," he said tensely.

He started violently as he recognized the answering voice. He would have known it among a million voices despite the hysterical catch and the staccato accents that tended to disguise it. It spoke a few jumbled and disconnected phrases, then broke into a stream of loud and wild laughing in which he detected the same note of maniacal glee that had characterized the ghastly laughter of W. Rufus Fairspeckle.

CHAPTER XIV

THE ELUSIVE MR. SHEI

Spasmodically The Gray Phantom pressed the receiver closer to his ear.

The laughter at the other end of the wire rose to a shrill crescendo, then ended abruptly in a harsh and discordant tw.a.n.g.

"Helen!" shouted The Phantom.

No answer came; nothing but a m.u.f.fled thud that sounded as if the person at the other end had suddenly dropped the receiver. His face white, The Phantom turned to Miss Dale.

"Are you convinced now?" she murmured, a silken smile hovering about her lips. "And don't you think you had better obey Mr. Shei's wishes and leave the city immediately?"

The Phantom mopped the clammy perspiration from his forehead. A moment ago his face had been distorted from horror; now a look of rage glittered menacingly in his eyes. "Mr. Shei will pay for this," he muttered thickly. "When I have finished with him, he will wish he had never been born."

"And just what do you propose to do?" Miss Dale airily waved her slim, white hand. "As a measure of self-protection, knowing that he could not control you by any other means, Mr. Shei has caused Miss Hardwick to be inoculated with the same malady that killed Miss Darrow, and which will kill seven of the city's wealthiest men unless they comply with his wishes. There is only one thing which can save her, and that is the antidote. It is in the possession of a Malayan scientist, one of Mr. Shei's most devoted followers, and it will be administered only when you have carried out the terms I have explained to you."

The Phantom stood silent while trying to fight down the surge of emotions that threatened to swamp his reason. Suddenly his roving gaze was fixed on the numbered tag above the mouthpiece of the telephone instrument. His lids contracted a little.

"Brilliant idea, my dear Phantom," drawled Miss Dale. "For once you are quite transparent. It is your intention, as soon as you leave my apartment, to call up the telephone exchange and trace the call, thus learning Miss Hardwick's whereabouts. It would be simple, for it was a long-distance connection, and such calls are always recorded. I will save you the trouble, however. Miss Hardwick is at Azurecrest."

"Azurecrest?" echoed The Phantom, momentarily a trifle dazed.

Miss Dale seemed to find his perplexity highly amusing. "When Mr. Shei learned the place was for sale, he bought it anonymously through an agent. It seemed an ideal spot for certain experiments he had in mind.

Hoping to find you there, Miss Hardwick went to Azurecrest the day after Miss Darrow's death, and for divers reasons it was thought best to detain her."

The Phantom muttered an exclamation. Slade had lied to him, then, when The Phantom had called up Azurecrest earlier in the day and inquired for Miss Hardwick. Slade, he now suspected, was one of Mr. Shei's agents, and under the circ.u.mstances it was not surprising that he had disclaimed all knowledge of Helen. The Phantom might not have accepted his denial so readily if he had had the faintest inkling that Mr. Shei was the present owner of his former retreat.

Suddenly he whirled round on his heels and started abruptly from the room.

"Wait a moment," commanded Miss Dale as he reached the door, and a subtle quality in her tone caused him to stop. "How impulsive you are, my dear Phantom. I suppose you mean to rush madly off to Azurecrest and rescue the fair damsel. Stop and think for a moment. Surely you don't imagine I would have told you Miss Hardwick's whereabouts unless I had been absolutely certain that you were powerless to act."

The Phantom saw the weight of the argument at once. He moved away from the door.

"Glad you are willing to listen to reason," murmured Miss Dale. "You see, you could accomplish nothing at all by going to Azurecrest alone.

The place is very carefully guarded by a little army of picked men, not to mention a few savage dogs. Of course, you might ask the police for a.s.sistance, supposing that you were on good terms with them, but what would be the result? If Mr. Shei and his followers are put in jail, Miss Hardwick will die, and so will the seven others. In fact, if anything at all happens to Mr. Shei and the members of his organization, the antidote will be irrevocably lost. I believe you grasp the idea, don't you?"

The Phantom's expression showed that he did. There was a baffled look in his eye that testified to his thorough appreciation of Mr. Shei's ingenious precautions.

"In other words," Miss Dale went on, her tones now soft and purring, "you have the best reasons in the world for not wishing the police to annoy Mr. Shei. In a way, Mr. Shei has compelled you to become an ally of his as a result of having Miss Hardwick in his power. It is really an excellent arrangement. And the police, when they understand the situation, will not be inclined to risk the lives of the seven wealthy men by forcing Mr. Shei to take extreme measures. Ah, you are beginning to understand at last that Mr. Shei is practically invulnerable."