Read Online Death from Nowhere by Clayton Rawson - Free Book Online Page B

Hagenbaugh-Powers sideshow. In view of current events one act seems distinctly ominous. Possibly will solve case.”
    Don said, “Huh?” And then, “Chan, what do you have up your wily Oriental sleeve? Out with it!”
    â€œFeature attraction with sideshow is a Leopard Man!”
    They all blinked. Woody said, “Wow!”
    â€œLeopard man?” Pat asked. “But what—”
    Don laughed, “Chan has been reading Weird Horror Tales Magazine or maybe Fantastic Jungle Stories. A sideshow Leopard Man hasn’t anything to do with the case. They’re nothing more sinister than negroes with a skin disease — vitiglio. It bleaches them in an irregular spotty fashion, and so some of them dress up in leopard skins, practice a wild look in their eye, and hire out to circus sideshows.”
    Chan preferred to believe the worst. “In India, in the Naga Hills between Assam and Burma, the leopard men are not sufferers from a skin disease.”
    If the rest weren’t interested, Woody was. This would make a swell story. “And what sort of leopard men do they grow there, Chan?”
    â€œHeadhunters,” the boy replied.
    This got him some attention.
    â€œThey believe,” he added, “that when a man is killed he becomes the slave of the slayer after death. The more people they kill the more slaves they have to serve them in the hereafter.”
    â€œA wholesale motive for murder,” Don said. “But why are they called leopard men?”
    â€œBecause they are,” Chan said simply. “They practice lycanthropy.”
    Don Diavolo gave the boy a sharp look. The Horseshoe Kid now found Chan using words he didn’t understand. “What’s that?” he wanted to know. “I don’t like the sound of it.”
    â€œIt means werewolves,” Don said, “or, in this case I suspect, wereleopards. Right, Chan?”
    Chan nodded. “In the Naga hill country, when you shoot a leopard, you may be killing a man too. The Naga hillsmen do not hunt the leopard. They might find they had killed a friend or relative whose soul had left his body to enter that of a leopard. Many of the Naga witch doctors claim to be able to project their souls in this way at will.”
    â€œJust the same,” Don Diavolo said, “I’ll bet you that the Leopard Man in Hagenbaugh’s sideshow will turn out to be the common garden variety — a negro with vitiglio. ”
    Chan should have taken that bet.
    â€¦ Leatherlung Mike, at that very moment, was striding back and forth on the bally platform before the Hagenbaugh-Powers sideshow top. His stentorian voice rose above the lights and music of the midway.
    â€œHurry! Hurry! Hurry! The last complete performance before the Big Show begins. Just starting now! See the weirdest, most amazing congress of strange people and curious oddities ever assembled under one canvas! All alive and all on the one ticket! See Bobo, the Dogfaced boy! See Bella, the fattest woman alive! See the Oriental dancing girls! And don’t fail to see Naga and his collection of human heads! Naga, witch doctor of the headhunting Leopard Men from India!! Thrills! Chills! And amazement! Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!”
    The Hagenbaugh-Powers Leopard Man was the real thing.

C HAPTER X
    Death in the Air
    T HE tires of the big car screeched along the pavement as Don Diavolo brought it to a sliding stop before a gas station on the outskirts of Lakeside.
    The Horseshoe Kid allowed himself a sigh of relief and slowly relaxed. “Does beat all,” he said, “how these city fellers do burn up the roads!”
    Diavolo glanced at the clock on the dashboard. “Eight-thirty sharp,” he said. “Seventy-five minutes from Broadway.” Then he turned to Horseshoe. “See that drugstore across the street?” he asked. “Get over there on the doublequick and bring back one bottle of their best black hair dye. Come