The City of the Dead 8 (The Kidnapping Of Clawfoot)

Adventures by a Morse, Carbony Morse presents The City of the Dead, featuring Captain Friday. If you like high adventure, come with me. If you like the stealth of intrigue, come with me. If you like blood and thunder, come with me.

Four o'clock on the morning of the third day in the City of the Dead. Four o'clock, the dead black hour, just before dawn in this old abandoned cemetery. The night has already brought fear, mystery, and sinister implications.

At midnight, Captain Friday and Jimmy Parker had slipped out of the caretaker's cottage, had picked up a trail of human bones, had finally come up on a pool, digging in the grave of Ernie Morton.

While Captain Friday and Jimmy were about this nocturnal business, old cloth-foot broke into the cottage, overpowered Dr. Tuner and frightened Phyllis Carol into a fainting pit. But let Jimmy Parker tell what happened then. Well, first Captain Friday made me lie behind at Gravestone while he approached the ghoul in the half-unopened grave.

It was too dark to see what was happening, but the next thing I knew there was a terrible silence. No sound from the grave. No sign of Captain Friday. I crept to the grave's edge and there was no one.

The ghoul and Captain Friday had both vanished. Then I raced back to the cottage and found Phyllis just recovering consciousness, and Dr. Tuner lying on the floor. Phyllis told me that old cloth would have broken into the cottage.

I got a quieted and was just bringing Dr. Tuner around when old Mayor Friday came in. He accused me of doing away with his son, Captain Friday. And then suddenly I saw in his vest pocket a gold pencil.