- With the help of a private detective, Elaine tries to catch the masked criminal mastermind The Clutching Hand, who has murdered her father.
- Episode 1: "The Clutching Hand" The Consolidated Insurance Company, of which Taylor Dodge is president, has lost considerable money through the mysterious robberies of the master criminal known as The Clutching Hand. Perry Bennett, a young lawyer assistant to Dodge, is endeavoring to discover the criminal. Being of an affable and pleasing personality, he creates a deep impression upon Elaine, his employer's beautiful daughter. Dodge is visited by Limpy Red, a gunman wronged by The Clutching Hand. Limpy Red advises him how the mysterious crook can be found and gives him directions to find his lair. Dodge dismisses the gunman, and on returning to his office finds a mysterious note, advising him to at once destroy the directions received. It is signed by a well-drawn picture of a clutching hand. Greatly perturbed he returns to his home. Stepping out of his limousine, he is surprised to find an envelope with his enemy's trademark pasted on the door. Entering his home he is met by Elaine, Bennett, and Jameson, a reporter. He refuses to be interviewed by the reporter and enters his library, where he deposits Limpy Red's directions in his safe. Jameson, hearing Dodge remark that he has discovered The Clutching Hand, hastens to his friend Craig Kennedy, a noted detective, and tells him the news. Kennedy is greatly excited by this knowledge, and calling to Jameson to follow him, hastens on his way to Dodge's home, remarking that he fears for Dodge's life. Meanwhile, as night has fallen, two masked figures approach Dodge's home, and one of them, forcing his way into the cellar, dragging wires, approaches the furnace pipe, and attaches them to it. Dodge, in his library above, as a precaution, removes Limpy Red's correspondence from the safe, and secretes it in a hidden recess in the wall, and places a fake envelope in its place. Turning to answer his telephone, he steps upon an iron register on the floor. As he grasps the telephone, there is a powerful electric flash, and Dodge sinks lifeless to the floor. The deadly wires below have done their work. In a few moments the masked intruder enters the library, notes the dead man, and approaches the safe. Mixing some peculiar powders, he places them on the top of the safe, and ignites a fuse. There is a blinding flash, and immediately appears a hole, burned through the top of the safe. The robber puts in his hand and pulls out the envelope which he supposes contains Limpy Red's confession, and makes his exit. His partner, searching out Limpy Red, slays the squealer, whom he follows from a low dive. Kennedy, arrived at the Dodge home, arouses the servants, and explains his fears for their master's life. Hearing the whining of Dodge's dog, they hasten to the library, and there discover the victim of the Clutching Hand's vengeance. The detective immediately searches for clues, and discovers fingerprints on a plaster bust. Thoroughly examining them, he is greatly surprised to notice that they are his own fingerprints. He realizes the cunning villain with whom he has to cope. Bennett, consoling the grief-stricken Elaine, registers a solemn vow to consecrate his life to bringing the Clutching Hand to justice.
Episode 2: "The Twilight Sleep" Elaine Dodge and her lawyer, Perry Bennett, are endeavoring to solve the death of Blaine's father, who was mysteriously slain by The Clutching Hand. Craig Kennedy, the famous scientific detective, has been called in to solve the mystery, but so far his efforts have been productive of no satisfactory result. While investigating a clue at Elaine's home, a letter tied to a stone comes crashing through a window. Kennedy sees that it is another threatening warning from The Clutching Hand. A search fails to reveal the intimidator. Kennedy leaves the house, but promises Elaine that he will not give up the search. That night a German scientist calls at the Hillside Sanitarium for Women, ostensibly to investigate the celebrated "Twilight Sleep," but in reality to purloin a vial of the drug Scapolorium, which produces the "Twilight Sleep." The peculiarity of the drug is that while it does not render the patient insensible, it keeps her from recalling events following its application. The visitor, having witnessed the operation, takes his leave. The disappearance of the precious vial of Scapolorium puzzles the doctors. Elaine Dodge, at home in bed, is drugged into unconsciousness by the masked figure of The Clutching Hand, who has entered through her window While administering the narcotic, a piece of glass, unwittingly broken, drops to the floor. The Clutching Hand then produces the vial of Scapolorium, and injects the drug. Elaine is made conscious by a cold wet towel applied to her forehead, and gazes dazedly into the muzzle of a revolver. In abject terror of her sinister visitor, and obeying his commands, she rises and precedes him from the room. Next morning, Craig Kennedy, in his laboratory is amazed at the contents of a letter from Elaine, dispensing with his services as inefficient. He calls Elaine on the 'phone, and is dumbfounded to learn that she has no recollection of having communicated with him. He goes to her home, where he is met by Elaine, her Aunt Susan and Perry Bennett. Elaine acknowledges the letter as in her writing, but is unable to account for it. Craig Kennedy's mind, keenly analytical, begins to see light. At his suggestion they all repair to Elaine's bedroom, where his searching eye discovers the fragment of glass dropped by The Clutching Hand. He also notes other evidences of the nocturnal visit, and putting his data together, astounds the company by informing Elaine that she was the actual author of the letter while under the influence of the "Twilight Sleep." Through his scientific medical knowledge they are astounded to hear that the only way in which Elaine can possibly recall the events of the previous night is to again go into the "Twilight Sleep. Her confidence in Kennedy leads her to agree and she is again injected with Scapolorium. While under its influence, she repeats in detail the incidents of the night before. Everything is made clear. While Elaine comes slowly out of the "Twilight Sleep" a note is seen to be pushed through the door-jamb. The party rush out. in order to apprehend the malicious agent, but are unsuccessful. Through mistaken identity, Bennett and Jameson struggle fiercely on each side of the portieres. As they discover their error the cunning face of a servant peers from behind a divan. The mysterious note is a warning to Craig Kennedy to cease his operations against The Clutching Hand under a penalty of death. He is coolly indifferent to the threat, and pockets the note under the bewildered and admiring gaze of Elaine.
Episode 3: "The Vanishing Jewels" Elaine Dodge, whose father was murdered by the Clutching Hand, vainly endeavors to apprehend the mysterious criminal. She and Perry Bennett, her lawyer, are interrupted by Susie Martin, the daughter of a wealthy jeweler, who tells them that owing to her father's refusal to pay blackmail the Clutching Hand threatens to loot his shop at exactly noon that day. Elaine 'phones Craig Kennedy, the scientific detective, and informs him of this latest project of the Clutching Hand. They arrange to meet in Martin's shop before noon to frustrate the dastard's design. They arrive and are met by Mr. Martin, who has the shop closed and guarded. A clock strikes twelve and on the last stroke the floor beneath a case of precious jewels caves in and the case goes hurtling to the cellar where the three crooks start to bag their loot. To prevent interruption from above, the criminals fling a bomb through the hole. Kennedy seizes the bomb and hurls it back through the opening. The crooks make a hasty getaway through a secret doorway, leaving their loot behind. The bomb explodes, the smoke clears, the party descends and finds the jewels intact. Kennedy, searching for clues, discovers the secret passage which leads him to the street. Answering his inquiry, a street-sweeper points up the street at a vanishing limousine. Kennedy and Elaine in a taxi and their friends in two other cars experience a wild ride in the chase that follows. The taxi stops at a crossroads. They question a man who makes the sign of the Clutching Hand to the taxi driver, who answers him. The driver feigns a break-down, a controversy ensues and Kennedy is black-jacked and left unconscious in the roadway as the conspirators kidnap Elaine and dash off in the taxi. Kennedy is revived by his friends in the following auto and directs the trailing of the taxi. The crooks come to a lonely part of the country and stop outside a factory to debate the disposition of Elaine. She is carried bound and gagged to the water's edge and thrust into a large tank. The entrance is then sealed by a huge stone. The pursuers track the conspirators to the water's edge and become aware of Elaine in the tank, but are powerless to help her. The rising tide makes Elaine struggle to keep her head above water. Kennedy sees hope in a sign, "Oxyacetylene Welding Co.," on the factory opposite. He and Jameson rush over, blow open the lock, enter and taking up an Oxyacetylene outfit for metal burning, are back at the tank in an instant and work madly to burn a hole through it. They effect their purpose just in time to save Elaine, who has nearly succumbed to the rising tide.
Episode 4: "The Frozen Safe" Elaine Dodge, endeavoring to track down the mysterious Clutching Hand, has been rescued from his confederates by Craig Kennedy, the world-known scientific detective. Elaine, Craig Kennedy, Perry Bennett, her lawyer, and Jameson, a reporter, arrive at the Dodge home after a frightful experience and are welcomed by Elaine's Aunt Susan, who warmly praises Kennedy for the part he has played in her niece's rescue. Elaine shows Kennedy a new safe, said to be proof against any manner of forcible opening. She also makes him a present of her photograph. The men depart, Kennedy and Jameson going to the former's home. Arrived there, Kennedy shows his friend a machine he has had installed in the wall outside his rooms. It is a "Kinograph" and it registers the footsteps of all visitors. That night the Clutching Hand, in league with a Dodge servant, makes another attempt to recover some incriminating papers in the Dodge safe. He has the false servant deliver to Elaine a package said to come from Kennedy with orders to put it in the safe over night. This Elaine does, remarking on its peculiar coldness. Kennedy, thinking incessantly of Elaine, decides to call her on the 'phone on some business pretext. They exchange greetings and she tells him that she has safely deposited the package he sent. He scents trouble and with Jameson rushes to the Dodge home. They find the safe covered with icicles, and as they watch it, it suddenly bursts open scattering its contents over the floor. Kennedy finds the package contains liquid air which, on evaporation, caused the high pressure that burst the safe. The servant is questioned, but says that a boy delivered the package and said it came from Mr. Kennedy. A letter, the deliverer unknown, is found on the desk. It is from the Clutching Hand and pronounces Craig Kennedy's doom. The next morning, while Kennedy is out, a large cabinet is delivered to his apartment. The Clutching Hand steps cautiously out, goes to the fireplace and rigs up an infernal machine which he attaches to Elaine's picture on the wall. He disturbs the picture so that when it is re-arranged the one standing before it will be slain. He exits and has confederate expressmen call for the cabinet which they say was delivered in error, Kennedy and Jameson on the avenue are hailed by Elaine, Aunt Susan and Susie Martin, who offer to take them home in their car. When Kennedy's apartment is reached he invites his friends up. Before entering his rooms Craig examines the Kinograph and discovers that he has had visitors. He advances into the room first to make sure there is no one concealed there, then the rest enter and Elaine spies her picture all awry on the wall. She is about to straighten it when Kennedy, suspecting artifice, stops her. He drops cautiously to the floor, straightens the picture with a cane, and as he does so, the wall directly on a line with where his head would have been had he been standing, is riddled with buckshot. All shrink from the menace of the Clutching Hand and stand aghast as Kennedy tries coolly to allay their fears.
Episode 5: "The Poisoned Room" The Clutching Hand, outwitted in his last diabolical attempt on Craig Kennedy's life, has recourse to a stratagem even more fiendish in conception. Disguised as a telephone inspector he is admitted to the Dodge home by Michael, a servant, and accomplice of the Clutching Hand. Attended by Michael, he at once goes to Elaine's room where he dismisses his confederate to execute his scheme alone. He sprays the walls and rugs with invisible powder first protecting himself with a face guard. Through a mirror he accidentally sees Michael watching him. The servant gets a brutal blow for his curiosity and is threatened with death. Elaine's bedroom, satisfactorily "fixed," the Clutching Hand descends to the cellar where he continues his work. Next morning Elaine and her collie dog suffer an illness from a cause unknown. While in bed she receives a letter from Clutching Hand, warning her that her present illness will end in death on the morrow unless she dispenses with the services of Craig Kennedy in apprehending the murderer of her father. She wires Kennedy, who with Jameson, rushes to her home. Elaine's doctor cannot diagnose her strange indisposition, but Kennedy, seeing the condition of the dog, asks leave to take it to his laboratory to make a test of its blood. The dog's blood is found to contain arsenic. That point settled, the baffling question remains: how is the arsenic administered? Meanwhile, Michael, infuriated by the Clutching Hand's treatment, determines to betray him. To this end he makes an appointment with Kennedy in a cheap hotel. They meet, and just as Michael is about to say the word that will deliver the Clutching Hand into Kennedy's power, he is slain by a poisoned blow-gun dart, wrapped around with another warning to Craig Kennedy. Elaine at home in bed is startled by a stone crashing through her window onto her bed. The stone is wrapped with another threatening message from the Clutching Hand. Elaine is overcome with fear and as the maid admits Kennedy and Jameson she shows them the ugly threat. Kennedy tells her that she is suffering from arsenic poisoning, although he is at sea as to how it is being administered. Jameson, who has been leaning against the wall, has his shoulder smeared with some of the deadly powder. Kennedy's quick eye detects it and traces the villainy to the water tank in the cellar. This trouble overcome, Kennedy, with the aid of his microscope, tries to explain the significance of some clue in the two letters of the Clutching Hand when both he and Elaine are paralyzed with fright, as a poisoned blowgun dart, the same as killed Michael, impales the two notes to the bedpost. Attached to the dart, another note of the same tenor as the previous ones. Elaine implores Kennedy to give up the chase, but his fighting spirit is roused and he declares his unalterable intention to proceed in the face of all threats, as Elaine gazes up at him in mingled fear and admiration.
Episode 6: "The Vampire" Elaine Dodge and her lawyer and admirer, Perry Bennett, are endeavoring to track down the Clutching Hand. To provide against the future murderous assaults of the Clutching Hand, Kennedy has a pistol license issued to Elaine, in whom he has more than a professional interest, and presents her with an automatic. That night Elaine has an opportunity to try her marksmanship on an emissary of the Clutching Hand. She fires at a dark form framed in the window of her bedroom and sees the man crumple and fall. He is picked up by a waiting accomplice, put in an automobile and driven off. He is driven to the headquarters of the Clutching Hand. That perverted genius, merciless with his enemies, rings up a Dr. Martin, giving a fictitious address for the call. Two of Clutching Hand's henchmen are in wait for him. They overpower and blindfold him and drive away to the Clutching Hand's house in the suburbs. Arrived there, his eyes are unbandaged and he professes the opinion that the wounded accomplice will die from loss of blood unless saved by transfusion, in which event the giver would himself be liable to die. The Clutching Hand vows that she who shot him shall supply the blood. He goes with an accomplice to Elaine's home and after a struggle chloroforms her and carries her to a couch. At a very early hour the next day a damaged suit of armor is called for by expressmen in league with the Clutching Hand, and it is only after the wagon has driven off that it is noticed that Elaine is missing. Craig Kennedy and his assistant, Jameson, arrive on the scene. Kennedy notices the urgent dumb pleading of Elaine's collie dog. Led by the collie, he and Jameson on the foot-board of a taxi trail the racing dog in an attempt to find Elaine. They track the express wagon to an old shack where they find the broken armor but not Elaine. Meanwhile the "expressmen" have taken Elaine to the Clutching Hand. He orders the doctor to make the transfusion. Seeing that Elaine is unwilling, the doctor at first refuses but is coerced by the threat of instant death. Another party searching for the missing doctor, and assisted by bloodhounds, come upon his auto. They are met by Kennedy and Jameson. The hounds are given the scent of the armor in which Elaine has been carried off and immediately take up the trail. Elaine's life blood is fast flowing into the exhausted arteries of the desperado. Suddenly the baying of the hounds is heard and in a moment more the police are at the door. The Clutching Hand, desperate, wavers between sticking to his pal and escape, but is decided in his course by the dying criminal who urges him to go. The police batter in the door just in time to see their prey disappear through a sliding panel in the wall. The blood transfusion is immediately stopped. The wounded desperado with his last breath scorns to squeal, but Kennedy is thankful to learn that Elaine has not been fatally weakened.
Episode 7: "The Double Trap" Perry Bennett, former secretary of the slain Taylor Dodge, and now Blaine Dodge's suitor, and assistant in running the mysterious murderer to earth, is in his law office when his office boy presents a card with the inscription, "Mrs. Taylor Dodge." Bennett seems greatly perturbed, but is interrupted from the thoughts this card inspires by the entrance of Elaine, who has a sympathetic interest in the weeping woman she has just noted in the outer office. Elaine's query as to the woman's identity and business is answered by a written note from the woman, brought in by the office boy, in which she claims to be the lawful wife and widow of Taylor Dodge. Elaine, overcome, asks Bennett what it means, and is informed that the lawyer is aware of some scandal connected with her father. Weepy Mary takes Elaine to the church wherein she was married to Taylor Dodge to prove the truth of her words. Craig Kennedy, the scientific detective, who is endeavoring to run down the super-criminal, receives a visit from "Gertie the Peach." Gertie tells him that her jewels have been stolen, and asks him to recover them. Kennedy realizes that it is all a ruse of the Clutching Hand, but resolves to see it through, first arming himself with a small metal box and a test tube. Elaine, Weepy Mary and her "son" arrive at the church, and Elaine is assured by the "minister" that he married Taylor Dodge to Weepy Mary. Once inside the church, the door is locked, and Elaine sees that she has been trapped. She is horrified at the sight of the Clutching Hand, who jeers and tells her that they will shortly be joined by Craig Kennedy, when both she and her sleuth will be checked forever in their search for the master criminal. In "Gertie's home" Kennedy is set upon by desperadoes, but paralyzes them with fright when he informs them that he holds a box of fulminated mercury, which if dropped will blow the whole neighborhood to atoms. He further cows the leader by threatening to inoculate him with the dread disease, leprosy, unless he is led immediately to the Clutching Hand's lair. The crook, his nerve gone, agrees. Gertie, who has escaped, 'phones to the Clutching Hand, informing him of the failure of their scheme. Furious, he leaves the church, charging the bogus minister to guard Elaine. Kennedy and Jameson arrive, and Jameson is set to guard their informant, while Kennedy makes for the church. A deadly fight ensues, in which Elaine is felled and Kennedy wounded. The crook starts for the belfry with the wounded detective hot after him. Cornered on top of the steeple, the crook turns to give fight. Clinging to the cross, Kennedy is fast losing strength, when a timely bullet from Elaine's gun topples his assailant to the ground, dead. Elaine and Kennedy, each devoutly grateful that the other has been saved, show the depth of their attachment in the first kiss of their love.
Episode 8: "The Hidden Voice" Assisted by Craig Kennedy, the scientific detective, Elaine Dodge still seeks to bring the Clutching Hand to justice. Kennedy decides to connect the ultra-modern Vocaphone between his rooms and the Dodge home to assist in the detection of the master criminal or his aides. The Vocaphone not only hears like the well-known Dictograph, but enables one to talk back. He leaves his rooms, and the sinister genius of the underworld enters them. Elaine Dodge in her home comes accidentally upon the papers given her father by the Squealer, Limpy Red, informing against the Clutching Hand. She rings up Kennedy, and is answered in his rooms by the Clutching Hand, who feigns to be Kennedy, and tells her to put the papers back 'til he sees her in the evening. He then evolves a brilliant plan to detain Elaine in her shopping, in order to get time to affect the theft of the dangerous papers. He is assisted in this by fakers whose wiles cannot be detected but by one living among them. Elaine is informed by an old settlement worker, however, that her sympathy is being wasted on a "starving" family, who are nothing more than professional paupers. In the meantime, an emissary of the Clutching Hand, disguised as a window cleaner, gains admittance to the Dodge home. He is permitted to proceed with his work and a butler is set to watch him. Elaine, homeward bound in her limousine, is further detained by "Double-jointed Johnnie," who throws himself before her car and feigns by contortion to be frightfully hurt. She rushes him off to a hospital, where a shrewd doctor recognizes the talented accident faker, and promptly kicks him out of the place. His purpose has been effected, however, for Elaine has been detained sufficiently to allow the Clutching Hand to execute his plans. The watching butler is eliminated by a pre-arranged 'phone call in another part of the house, and the Clutching Hand enters the Dodge library by the extension ladder of the pseudo-window cleaner. He is interrupted in his search for the incriminating papers by the long-delayed entrance of Elaine, who goes immediately to the secret panel to see that the evidence is safe. The malevolent criminal slips from behind the portieres and leaps at the unsuspecting girl from behind in a desperate effort to snatch the papers from her. He is assisted by his accomplice, who strives to silence the girl. Her vibrant, high-pitched voice, free for a moment, registers clearly in the Vocaphone on the wall. Kennedy, in his rooms, gets the signal, and appreciating the dire peril of Elaine, he shouts back through the transmitter in such a way that the desperadoes, thinking they have been apprehended, make a hurried getaway without their coveted papers. Elaine and Kennedy, each at an end of the Vocaphone, indulge their sentiment in the very limited expression permitted by this marvel of science.
Episode 9: "The Death Ray" The daughter of the slain Taylor Dodge, and her lawyer, Perry Bennett, receive an ultimatum from the Clutching Hand, in the form of a note advising that if the services of the scientific detective, Craig Kennedy, are not dispensed with, and the detective himself not out of the country within a few hours, a pedestrian will drop dead in front of his laboratory each hour. Next morning, after two men have been mysteriously stricken, Kennedy agrees that the master criminal is too deep for him, and consents to leave the country. With his assistant, Jameson, and accompanied to the dock by Elaine, Bennett, and Aunt Josephine, he boards a steamer for South America. Two porters convey some small baggage to the travelers' staterooms. When the two porters again appear, they are given in charge of that part of the fugitives' baggage that arrived too late for loading. The trunks are consigned to the Dodge home. Once there, and alone with Elaine, the erstwhile porters remove their disguise and prove to be Kennedy and Jameson; the real porters at that moment being on the high seas. Elaine loses no time in telling Bennett of the clever way in which the detectives have eluded the grip of the Clutching Hand. Later, advised by a message that Kennedy and Bennett await her, Elaine accompanies Bennett's valet in the lawyer's auto. In his laboratory, Kennedy informs Jameson that the peculiar black mark left on the forehead of the dead men is proof positive that they were slain by Ullvi's Infra-Red Ray, a scientific death-dealer that destroys any substance that cannot deflect its light. He is about to explain to Jameson the principles of a diverting shield, when from each corner and closet of their apartment they find themselves covered with guns pointed by the Clutching Hand and his aides. When Elaine arrives at her strange destination, she becomes the anguished spectator of the efforts of the Clutching Hand to turn the death-ray on the detectives, trapped in a cement room below ground. Kennedy's diverting shield deflects the ray to the wooden ceiling, which immediately ignites. The police, instructed earlier by Kennedy to raid the headquarters of the Clutching Hand, arrive just in time to save the three from a horrible death of fire. The crooks escape and leave no track behind them.
Episode 10: "The Life Current" The Clutching Hand, realizing the futility of trying to match wits with Craig Kennedy, decides upon a novel scheme to discredit the scientific detective in the eyes of his sweetheart, Elaine Dodge. Through his friend Jameson, a newspaper reporter, Kennedy becomes interested in the puzzling "poisoned kiss," which has created a furor among the New York women. The Clutching Hand gives instructions to an attractive, though corrupt young woman, and to her husband, who agree to take an active part in his attempt to make Elaine doubt her lover. The woman calls Jameson on the 'phone, and through him interests Kennedy in the evil "poisoned kiss" which, she claims, has been perpetrated on her. She and her husband contrive a camera attachment to a mounted deer's head, and the husband clicks the camera twice while his pretty wife demonstrates to Kennedy the manner in which the "poisoned kiss" was imprinted on her lips. The pictures are taken to Elaine by the woman, who begs Blaine to give up Craig Kennedy, saying she is his affianced bride. When Kennedy arrives at the Dodge home Elaine refuses the diamond engagement ring he has so confidently brought. His explanations are discredited, and he finally leaves in a huff. Elaine, lured to the woman's home, is there overpowered by the husband and dragged into an unused sewer, where she is left to die. Kennedy's love, stronger than his wrath, draws him again to the Dodge home, where he learns of Elaine's visit. Quickly suspicious, he gets Jameson to accompany him, and enlisting the aid of a policeman, arrives at the woman's home just in time to see the husband of the "poisoned kiss" faker come up through the cellar, from the asphyxiating sewer. Kennedy, fearing treachery, fixes the man's oxygen helmet to his head and descending, returns with Elaine, who is so overcome that the doctors, hastily called, pronounce her dead. Kennedy's knowledge of ultramodern science, however, enables him to apply the famous Professor Leduc's method of electrical resuscitation and Elaine once again finds herself indebted for her life to science, and love.
Episode 11: "The Hour of Three" Perry Bennet decides upon a wrist-watch as a suitable birthday gift for Elaine, and in company with her and Susie Martin, a selection is made and the timepiece left to be regulated. Another purchaser then moves to the counter and demands a watch identical with the one just sold Bennett. He is served, and exits with the watch in his possession. Craig Kennedy in his laboratory, explains to his assistant Jameson that his new telegraphone will record everything spoken over the wire. He has it attached to the switchboard of an apartment house, wherein dwells a desperate woman, one of the chief accomplices of the Clutching Hand. The purchaser of the second watch makes his way quickly to the abode of the master criminal, to whom he delivers the time-piece. That subtle scoundrel immediately begins his vile machinations upon it. He affixes a small needle, treated with a most virulent poison, and so governed by the works of the watch that at any designated time it will shoot forth and prove the doom of its wearer. Kennedy's examination of his telegraphone shows that his suspect called a certain number the day before, and was told that "the trick would be pulled off at three o'clock." The phone number is traced, and proves to be the liar of the Clutching Hand. Disguised as that criminal, Kennedy enters his rooms. When the Clutching Hand himself arrives, he is confronted by the detective, who calls the game up. Kennedy's triumph is short-lived, however, when he is informed that in twenty minutes Elaine Dodge will be no more. He grants the criminal temporary immunity to learn how Elaine's life will be attempted. When the full horror of the fiendish craft is disclosed, he rushes madly off, and arriving with just two minutes to spare, tears the watch from the wrist of the unsuspecting girl. As he rushed from the presence of the Clutching Hand. Kennedy removed his hat from the table where it covered a selenium cell, an electrical contrivance that allows the electricity to pass through it only when exposed to the light. The current rings a bell in an adjoining lot, where Jameson and a squad of policemen await the signal to raid the headquarters of the nefarious crook. He, seeing the wires, and scenting an attack, vanishes into a secret passageway through his desk, and a short while later, under the very noses of his pursuers, saunters urbanely from an adjoining apartment, a bewhiskered and distinguished foreigner.
Episode 12: "The Blood Crystals" Wong Sin, a Chinese adventurer, decides to recoup his fortune by playing on the credulity of Elaine Dodge, the daughter and only heiress of the late Taylor Dodge, slain by the Clutching Hand. He gets in touch with Mary Carson, a social outcast, and together they hatch a plan for blackmailing Elaine. Through Mary, Elaine becomes interested in the Belgian Relief Committee, and accepts an invitation from a society leader to become one of the helpers. Elaine and Mary arrive at Wong Sin's apartment, and Mary discovers (after all the doors are locked) that they are not in Mrs. Belmont's rooms. Mary simulates as much dread as Elaine, whose tear is inspired by the strange Orientalism of the place. Wong Sin approaches Mary, who faints with fear and is carried out. Elaine, cornered, and with worse than death as the price of her life, snatches up a dagger close at hand and plunges it into the heart of the heathen. His secretary, far from holding the girls for the murder, urges them to escape, and they do so. As soon as they go, Wong Sin, a crafty smile on his usually inscrutable face, rises, flicks the dust from his clothes, and looks pleased with the plausible effect of his trick dagger and bag of dog's blood. He is interrupted by the entrance of the Clutching Hand, who informs him that any trespassing on his rights to hound Elaine Dodge, will meet his disfavor. Wong Sin cowed by his sinister visitor, discloses his plans to the master criminal who, for a share in the profits, promises his co-operation. Elaine is again visited by Mary Carson, who explains that for $10,000 cash the secretary will agree to do away with the evidence. A scientific analysis of the blood crystals on Elaine's handkerchief shows Kennedy that the blood was not that of a human. He advises Elaine to go to the designated hotel with the indemnity. She does so Kennedy and Jameson following. A desperate and intense battle of wits follows, when Wong Sin discovers the presence of the detectives in the hotel. With the aid of the detecta-scope enabling him to see through the wall of his room into the one in which Elaine is transferring the money to Mary Carson, and with the further aid of the tele-autograph, enabling him to intercept the Carson woman on her way out of the hotel, the scientific detective manages to defeat the well-laid plans of the conspirators and to regain Elaine's favor.
Episode 13: "The Devil Worshippers" Elaine Dodge, who has quarreled with her self-appointed protector, Craig Kennedy, receives a proposal of marriage from her lawyer, Perry Bennett, and begs for time to decide. She calls up Kennedy, and is deeply resentful when their conversation is interrupted midway by his seeming to "hang up." The apparent discourtesy has in reality been caused by the clumsiness of Jameson, Kennedy's assistant, who has upset a bottle of nitro-hydrochloric acid over the 'phone wires, which were instantly burned. In conjunction with Wong Sin, the Chinese adventurer, the Clutching Hand has a séance parlor fitted up adjoining the Chinese Temple. To this place Elaine is lured by a pseudo-medium, who claims that she has a message for Elaine from her dead father. Elaine is accompanied by her Aunt Josephine and by Perry Bennett. The "medium" claims that the spirit of Taylor Dodge will not communicate while "one named Josephine is in the room." Elaine's aunt is prevailed upon to go, leaving Elaine, Bennett and the "medium." Aunt Josephine, alarmed at the uncanniness of it all, decides to call on Craig Kennedy and inform him of the queer turn events have taken. She finds only Jameson who shows her a note left by Kennedy, in which he advises Elaine to beware of a certain Madam Savetsky. After some queer "spiritual" rites, Elaine is horror-stricken to be confronted by the "ghost" of Wong Sin, whom she believes herself to have slain in the episode of the Blood Crystals. She sinks, fainting, and she and Bennett are immediately overcome by aides of the Clutching Hand, who bear her to the Temple of the Heathen God. As she is being prepared for her exit from this material world to consort spiritually with Ksing Chau, the Evil One, an old heathen steps upon the dais of the deity and tries to dissuade the others from continuing with the ceremony. Wong Sin, maddened by this attempted interference, attacks the old man, who repulses him and the mob with prodigious strength, and. his disguise torn off, proves to be no other than the relentless Kennedy. Holding off the crowd with an automatic, he retreats with Elaine to the séance room, where, assisted by the suspicious Jameson and a squad of police, Wong Sin is taken prisoner. Promised immunity by Kennedy, the Mandarin agrees to disclose the identity of the Clutching Hand, and bending toward the detective's ear whispers into it a name that causes the veteran hero of a thousand baffling mysteries to grasp in unbelieving amazement at the monstrous disclosure.
Episode 14: "The Reckoning" Wong Long Sin, the Chinese adventurer, lately in league with the nefarious Clutching Hand, has been won over to the side of the scientific detective, Craig Kennedy, on the promise of immunity in the final reckoning. The Clutching Hand, unaware of the duplicity of his closest confederate, entrusts him with a chemical bomb, instructing that it be delivered to the laboratory of the detective within an hour. Wong Sin promises the delivery, and exiting, makes for the sleuth's rooms, where he performs his duty to the letter, neglecting however, the understood implication that the delivery was to be made without Kennedy's knowledge. Kennedy's X-ray discloses the complicated workings of the bomb, which is immediately destroyed. A scrap of the paper wrapping of the explosive furnishes a startling clue to the sender, for a type-written line, under the microscope, shows the letter T to be battered and faint. Kennedy and Jameson rush off to Elaine Dodge's home, where, with the help of a clue coordinate with the battered letter T. They hope to gather in the last thread of the already tight mesh enclosing the master criminal. The reserve between Kennedy and Elaine, due to a recent misunderstanding, does not prevent the detective from having full run of the house in trailing the Clutching Hand. His search among certain papers bring an exultant cry to his lips as he comes upon a sheet and compares the T with that of the bomb evidence. The case is complete. The identity of a dual nature, subtle and incongruous, once disclosed, denouncement and justice are but a matter of moments. The whole world is aware of the atrocities committed in the name of the Clutching Hand. Forth on his errand of retribution goes Craig Kennedy, the detective, in the guise of Science apprehending Crime.
THE END
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By what name was The Exploits of Elaine (1914) officially released in Canada in English?
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