TON S. MARVIN.

Almost as soon as the papers are on the street announcing the tragedy,
another message comes from Chicago telling of the strange death of
Senator Gold. His body and that of a man who had been with him at the
Auditorium are found in the Senator's room. Death has been caused by an
unknown agency. There are no signs of violence on either. The money and
jewelry of both are undisturbed. Neither man appears to have been the
victim of the other's hand, for the apparel of each is unruffled. One is
found lying on the floor near the window; the other is found stretched
across the table in the room.

Following these early bulletins come others from Philadelphia, St. Louis
and Boston, successively announcing the mysterious deaths of President
Vosbeck of the National Transportation Trust, Captain Blood of the St.
Louis Steamship Association, and of ex-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elias
M. Turner of Massachusetts.

"President Vosbeck met his death while on a tour of inspection in the
new power house of his company in the western part of the city. With him
were his private secretary and a stranger from New York whom he was
taking on a tour of inspection. The secretary was sent to find the
superintendent of the power house. He returned to find both President
Vosbeck and the stranger in the throes of death on the floor near the
great dynamo. In the stranger's hand a cane was clutched. This cane was
one of those that are commonly made at penitentiaries. It was of leather
rings strung on a steel rod."

The above dispatch is spread on the bulletin board, followed by these
details:

"As soon as the hospital surgeons and the electrical experts arrived
they decided that the cane must have come in contact with the deadly
current; and that at that instant Steel and the stranger were standing
upon the metal flooring which made a perfect conductor." The death of
Captain Blood was even more astounding than that of President Vosbeck.

"In company with the newly appointed Superintendent of the grain
elevators, of which the Captain had a monopoly, he descended into the
hold of the steamboat that was taking on a cargo of wheat at the Big
Three Elevator. The two men were hardly below deck when, by some
inexplicable error the engineer received the signal to open the shoot.
An avalanche of golden grain rushed upon the two captives. There was a
cry of dismay from the hold, and then only the sound of the rushing
stream of grain.

"Th