The Bat | Page 7

anything within reason. What case do you want to be assigned to?"
The muscles of Anderson's left hand tensed on the arm of his chair. He
looked squarely at the chief. "I want a chance at the Bat!" he replied
slowly.
The chief's face became expressionless. "I said - anything within
reason," he responded softly, regarding Anderson keenly.
"I want a chance at the Bat!" repeated Anderson stubbornly. "If I've
done good work so far - I want a chance at the Bat!"
The chief drummed on the desk. Annoyance and surprise were in his
voice when he spoke.
"But look here, Anderson," he burst out finally. "Anything else and I'll
- but what's the use? I said a minute ago, you had brains - but now, by
Judas, I doubt it! If anyone else wanted a chance at the Bat, I'd give it
to them and gladly - I'm hard-boiled. But you're too valuable a man to
be thrown away!"
"I'm no more valuable than Wentworth would have been."
"Maybe not - and look what happened to him! A bullet hole in his heart
- and thirty years of work that he might have done thrown away! 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 it to him - turned
him over to the Government - and lost him. Good detectives aren't so
plentiful that I can afford to lose you both."
"Wentworth was a friend of mine," said Anderson softly. His knuckles
were white dints in the hand that gripped the chair. "Ever since the Bat
got him I've wanted my chance. Now my other work's cleaned up - and
I still want it."

"But I tell you - " began the chief in tones of high exasperation. Then
he stopped and looked at his protege. There was a silence for a time.
"Oh, well - " said the chief finally in a hopeless voice. "Go ahead -
commit suicide - I'll send you a 'Gates Ajar' and a card, 'Here lies a
damn fool who would have been a great detective if he hadn't been so
pig-headed.' Go ahead!"
Anderson rose. "Thank you, sir," he said in a deep voice. His eyes had
light in them now. "I can't thank you enough, sir."
"Don't try," grumbled the chief. "If I weren't as much of a damn fool as
you are I wouldn't let you do it. And if I weren't so damn old, I'd go
after the slippery devil 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 haven't a chance in the
world but it does me good all the same to shake hands with a man with
brains and nerve," and he solemnly wrung Anderson's hand in an iron
grip. Anderson smiled. "The cagiest bat flies once too often," he said.
"I'm not promising anything, chief, but - "
"Maybe," said the chief. "Now wait a minute, keep your shirt on, you're
not going out bat hunting this minute, you know - "
"Sir? I thought I - "
"Well, you're not," said the chief decidedly. "I've still some little
respect for my own intelligence and it tells me to get all the work out 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 long from
the fast way he works - you're assigned to the case. That's understood.
Till then, you do what I tell you - and it'll be work, believe me!"
"All right, sir," Anderson laughed and turned to the door. "And - thank
you again."
He went out. The door closed. The chief remained for some minutes
looking at the door and shaking his head. "The best man I've had in

years - except Wentworth," 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 - but, by Judas, you can't
blame him, can you? If you were a man in the prime like him, by Judas,
you'd be doing it yourself. And yet it'll go hard - losing him - "
He turned back to his desk and his papers. But for some minutes he
could not pay attention to the papers. There was a shadow on them - a
shadow that blurred the typed letters - the shadow of bat's wings.
CHAPTER TWO
THE INDOMITABLE MISS VAN GORDER
Miss Cornelis Van Gorder, indomitable spinster, last bearer of a name
which had been great in New York when New