
"The formula is in a blue envelope in my laboratory safe. There's nothing crackpot about it, either. It's the
most practical discovery of my career."
The time after dinner passed quickly. Dorothy came down from her bedroom with a furred wrap over
her evening gown. She telephoned for a taxicab. When its horn honked outside, Dorothy hurriedly kissed
her father and left. He had never seen her more excited or more beautiful.
He sad down with a newspaper. But he was too tired to read. He began to think about the theater ticket
that had come so mysteriously to Dorothy. Who could have sent it? Dorothy had few boy friends.
Besides, what boy friend would send one ticket, and thus miss the pleasure of escorting Dorothy to the
theater?
Clifford Mason's head dropped while he thought about it. He dozed in his chair.
In the darkness outside the house, two men were also thinking about Mason's daughter. But not sleepily.
They were grimly alert. From a thick clump of shrubbery the two men watched the disappearing taillight
of Dorothy's taxi.
"She took the bait," one of them growled. "This job is gonna be a cinch, Slim."
Slim nodded. His chuckle sounded ugly.
"The show will keep her away about three hours. For guy's like us, that's time enough to rob the mint.
Come on, Toby. Let's pick up the old guy!"
They moved toward Mason's home, making no sound. They were old hands at crime, these two. There
was no mercy in Slim's hatchet face. Toby was tense with ugly anticipation.
A rear window afforded an easy entrance to Mason's home. The window was not locked. Like most
people, Mason was careless about routine things not connected with his work.
He was still dozing in his chair in the living room when Slim and Toby tiptoed in. They made no sound.
But a draft of air from the opened window in the rear blew against Mason's face. It wakened him.
He shouted with terror as he saw the faces of the two thugs scarcely six feet away. Leaping to his feet,
Mason tried to rush to the telephone to summon help.
Before the inventor could take two steps, Slim was on him. One hand twisted Mason's outflung arm
behind his back. The other choked off his cry. Toby leaped close and swung a heavy gun.
The butt of the weapon struck Mason on the skull. He fell unconscious to the floor.
Toby could easily have killed the inventor with that blow; but he was careful not to. Mason's scalp bled,
but there was no skull fracture. The orders of the Boss had been strict on that point.
This was to be a well-camouflaged kidnapping job. Death for Clifford Mason would come later.
SLIM took care of the camouflage, made sure nothing was out of place to attract the eyes of possible
police investigators. There was no blood on the rug. Slim smoothed the rumpled rug and replaced the
chair. He used gloves when he closed the unlocked rear window.
Slim and Toby carried away their unconscious prisoner.
Their parked car was concealed down the dark road. The inventor lay in a quiet huddle under a lap robe
in the rear of the car. Presently, the car cut across Dyckman Street. It headed for a house in sparsely