Panther Eye   By: Roy J. (Roy Judson) Snell (1878-1959)

PANTHER EYE

[Illustration: "She's tied. There's terror in her eyes...."]

Mystery Stories for Boys

PANTHER EYE

By ROY J. SNELL

The Reilly & Lee Co. Chicago

Copyright 1921 By The Reilly & Lee Co.

All Rights Reserved

Made in U. S. A.

Panther Eye

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE I A Mysterious Death 7 II "Fifteen Men on the Dead Man's Chest" 18 III A Fight in the Night 32 IV Chukche Treachery 43 V The Big Cat 54 VI In the Grip of Terror 68 VII The Mystery of Mine No. 1 79 VIII Three Men Disappear 90 IX Startling Perils 101 X Playing a Lone Hand 117 XI Dangling in Mid Air 132 XII The Russian Dagger 144 XIII Cio Cio San 156 XIV Nearing the City of Gold 164 XV Trapped 178 XVI The City Of Gold 186 XVII Kidnapped 198 XVIII Under Machine Gun Fire 208 XIX Johnny Goes Into Action 219 XX Some Mysteries Uncovered 229

PANTHER EYE

CHAPTER I

A MYSTERIOUS DEATH

"He is dead!"

Johnny Thompson felt the grip of the speaker's hand on his arm and started involuntarily. How could this strange fellow know that Frank Langlois was dead if he was dead? And was he? They were surrounded by inky blackness. It was the thick darkness of a subterranean cavern, a mine. This was a gold mine. Three minutes ago their electric torch had flickered out and they had been unable to make it flash again.

"C'mon," said the other man, "Pant," as the laborers called him, "we don't need that thing."

To his utter astonishment, Johnny had felt himself urged forward by this Pant with the easy, steady, forward march of one who is certain of every step. Twice they had turned to avoid mine props. They had gone back into the mine perhaps a hundred feet. Now, with not a spark of light shining out of the gloom, they had paused and his companion had uttered those three words:

"He is dead."

Was the man they had come to seek really dead? If he was, who had killed him? How did Pant know he was dead? Surely in that Egyptian midnight no man could see.

As Johnny threw an involuntary glance to the spot where Pant's face should be, he gasped. Had he caught a yellow glow from one eye of the man? He could not be sure about it, for at that instant the electric torch flashed on again as suddenly as it had gone out.

Johnny's eyes followed the yellow circle of light. Then with a low exclamation he sprang forward. There, not ten feet before them, lay the form of Frank Langlois. To all appearances he was dead. Again through Johnny's mind there flashed the telegraphic questions:

"Who killed him? How did Pant know?"

Thrusting the torch into Johnny's hand, his companion leaped forward and, with a cat like motion, dropped down beside the prostrate form. Tearing away at jacket and shirt, he bared the breast and placed his ear close down upon the cold flesh.

"Dead all right," he sighed at last. "Wonder what killed him?"

He still crouched there, as a cat crouches beside its kill. As if he searched for the answer to his last question, his eyes roved about the floor.