Authors: Clayton Rawson

Death out of Thin Air (28 page)

At the same moment, Inspector Church and half a dozen detectives entered his dressing room upstairs. “All right boys,” he ordered. “Tear this place apart! Keeler was the Invisible Man behind Collins. Belmont was behind him and I
still
think Diavolo was the master mind! He hypnotized Belmont and Collins so they won't talk! I'm going to get the goods on him sooner or later! He can't fool me!”

²³

While writing the present account of the case of The Invisible Man I visited the Museum of Indian Art to see the statue of Siva. The curator pointed out to me an extremely odd thing which the newspaper accounts and all the other writers who have dwelt upon the case seem to have failed to note. The dancing figure of Siva the Destroyer, as I described it in the foregoing text, stands upon the symbolical prostrate figure of a
dwarf.
One would think that Larry Keeler must have been mad if he purposely chose to center everyone's attention on this statue so that his twisted sense of humor could enjoy yet another quiet laugh. And yet was he? The fact remains that no one, during the case, noticed this strangely prophetic figure that had another symbolism beyond the Brahminical one the original sculptor intended.â Stuart Towne.

²⁴

One ironic note which needs mention is that Larry Keeler, jealous of Don Diavolo to the point of trying to frame him for Ziegler's murder by having Collins appear there in red evening clothes and mask, nevertheless was forced to ask Don's help. When Collins and St. Louis Louie tried to hold up Ziegler, the latter quickly locked the safe on which he had just changed the combination. Louie, who wasn't overly bright about such things, shot him. And Keeler himself, although a magician, couldn't pick the lock because, familiar as he was with locks and escape feats in theory, his physique had prevented his actual practice of that type of magic. Thus, Perry had to be sent to Don Diavolo, in an attempt to get him to open the safe.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This 2012 edition distributed by
MysteriousPress.com
/Open Road Integrated Media

180 Varick Street

New York, NY 10014

www.openroadmedia.com