



Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.










THE CRAIG KENNEDY SERIES

THE EXPLOITS OF ELAINE

BY

ARTHUR B. REEVE




CONTENTS

CHAPTER

   I   THE CLUTCHING HAND

  II   THE TWILIGHT SLEEP

 III   THE VANISHING JEWELS

  IV   "THE FROZEN SAFE"

   V   THE POISONED ROOM

  VI   THE VAMPIRE

 VII   THE DOUBLE TRAP

VIII   THE HIDDEN VOICE

  IX   THE DEATH RAY

   X   THE LIFE CURRENT

  XI   THE HOUR OF THREE

 XII   THE BLOOD CRYSTALS

XIII   THE DEVIL WORSHIPPERS

 XIV   THE RECKONING




THE EXPLOITS OF ELAINE




CHAPTER I

THE CLUTCHING HAND


"Jameson, here's a story I wish you'd follow up," remarked the managing
editor of the Star to me one evening after I had turned in an
assignment of the late afternoon.

He handed me a clipping from the evening edition of the Star and I
quickly ran my eye over the headline:

    "THE CLUTCHING HAND" WINS AGAIN

  NEW YORK'S MYSTERIOUS MASTER CRIMINAL
         PERFECTS ANOTHER COUP

     CITY POLICE COMPLETELY BAFFLED

"Here's this murder of Fletcher, the retired banker and trustee of the
University," he explained. "Not a clue--except a warning letter signed
with this mysterious clutching fist. Last week it was the robbery of
the Haxworth jewels and the killing of old Haxworth. Again that curious
sign of the hand. Then there was the dastardly attempt on Sherburne,
the steel magnate. Not a trace of the assailant except this same
clutching fist. So it has gone, Jameson--the most alarming and most
inexplicable series of murders that has ever happened in this country.
And nothing but this unc