The Voice on the Wire (1917)

• 75%
• 1917
• Action
• Adventure
• Crime
• Horror
• Stuart Paton
• Ben F. Wilson
• Neva Gerber
• Francis McDonald

Chapter 15: "The Living Death" - Chapter 14 ends with the floating hand writing a message to John Spencer and Polly Marion that all would be made clear in next week's episode. Tom and Polly watch fascinated as the dis-embodied Hand writes (in flashback scenes, mostly.) Cronin and Professor Duvam wait in an adjoining room. The Hand writes that it (he) was a member of "The Black Seven," a psychical and scientific research group in Paris and, because other scientists considered them crazy owing to their advanced theories, they and their meetings were kept secret. Five of these men were the victims of "The Voice" (also dis-embodied) in previous chapters, the sixth was Dr. Reynolds and the seventh was Emil LaRoux. The latter, not content, with proving astral bodies could be projected, was also convinced he could recall a soul at will, providing that the body in which the soul had lived on earth was preserved by a certain ancient process. The other members were convinced that no one would consent to being mummified alive. But LaRoux learned that he could easily dominate the will of Reynolds' wife, Irene. He told five of the members he had found his subject for the experiment. The one he didn't tell was Reynolds. A year later, deep in the heart of the African jungle on an expedition and in Reynold's absence, LaRoux made Irene his experiment victim, and left the camp with her mummified body and her infant child. In pursuit, Reynolds found LaRoux's dead body in the desert sand, with a note in his hand saying he had sent Irene's mummified body back to civilization to the five members not on the expedition and the baby son was to be the channeled means of communication with her in what LaRoux called "The Living Death". That night Reynold's was bitten by a snake and his servant cut off his hand to save his life. Later, a human arm was grafted to Reynolds' body and he discovered when his astral body was projected, only the missing hand was visible. He now had his method of revenge.