Chapter I: Foreword

"_No wonder I'm blue," Roger told his father, "You're packing to head a museum expedition into the heart of Borneo._ You'll _have thrills_."

"_Probably I will get my sort of excitement in plenty, Roger. It won't be what you are always dreaming about--the 'good old days' of Pirates and Cowboys and Stage-Coach Bandits._"

_"No," Roger agreed, "the real thrills are all gone. But you can go on an expedition, instead of having school and_----"

"_There will be vacation time--baseball_----"

"_But I want real excitement. I'd like to be a Modern Pioneer. You are one, going off to Borneo for the museum just the way Columbus set out for Queen Isabella._"

_His father looked up._

"_You can be a Modern Pioneer. I will show you a House of Mystery, and once you step into its door you are in a land where there are more exciting activities packed into one day than you could get being a combination cow-hand, bad man, pirate and pony express rider. You may not be able to convoy an ox-team across a prairie, carry a squirrel gun and stand off scalping Sioux; but you will help battle against Pirate Fire, and Bad Man Erosion, and Bandit Microbe._"

"_You mean--work in cousin Grover's research lab?_"

_That was it, he found. And under the brilliant training of his older cousin, as he came to be the supply clerk and learned more about the work of the active place, Roger saw how truly his father had spoken._

_There was fun, and mystery, and excitement, even in the work. Also, there was the feeling of being a Modern Pioneer, one who belonged to the band that had substituted electricity and wings for ox-wagon and candles, who gave the world instead of the pony rider carrying news, the radio and radio-telephone. Science was the Modern Pioneer._

_Where their forefathers sought new borderlands, these modern way-showers explore the stratosphere. As their trail-blazing ancestors fought Indians and hardship and poor crops, these men battle against disease germs, and soil erosion, and eye-straining light and every other detriment to safer, happier existence._

_As great as the feat of Columbus, Roger found the announcement that a cure had been found for a terrible disease._

_On a par with Daniel Boone's fame was the renown of the research worker who extended the range of compact radio receivers._

_In such privately owned laboratories as that of his cousin, Grover Brown, and in those associated with universities and colleges and other institutions, the work of the Modern Pioneers went on._

_They loved it, found adventure in it, and joy of achievement._

_Not always was there the sort of mystery usually read about in detective stories; but when such problems did come up, Roger realized how the equipment of scientific research could be a useful aid to the clever deductive brain in solving the puzzle._

_It is to show how much of adventure and thrill, excitement and romance can hide behind electrical transformers and tubes of germs, bags of sodium carbonate and humming motors that this experience of a boy in a scientific research laboratory is offered. Perhaps some boy, who has almost decided that the only "real" life involves guns and "rackets," will be shown how the useful life of the fellow who fights for humanity and not against it brings more thrill and joy and contentment than any of the risky, falsely stimulating adventures that only lead to discredit, sorrow and punishment._

Van Powell

NOTE

Names used in this story are purely fictitious and if any name is like that of a real person it is coincidence and no libel or aspersion on character is intended or implied. However, every scientific device, process and theory herein is based on electrical, chemical and other data of developed apparatus and procedure or on theories so far perfected as to be acceptable to Science.

Contents

PAGE
Foreword 9
CHAPTERS
1. "Them Mouses Is Extraverted!" 17
2. A Creeping Thing! 23
3. A "Sound" Clue 29
4. An Electrical Trap 38
5. What Electricity Could Not Catch 44
6. A Weird Story 52
7. Science to the Rescue 60
8. Basketball and Brains 66
9. The Voice in the Silence 72
10. A Defeat for Science! 78
11. A Puzzling Thump 84
12. Detective Roger 90
13. Scientist Roger 97
14. Captive Roger 102
15. In the Lamasery 107
16. The Image Speaks 113
17. Black Silence 117
18. A Letter Roger Had Not Sent 121
19. Disquieting Deductions 127
20. Ghost Voices 131
21. Tragedy! 137
22. What Happened to the Eye of Om 143
23. The Acid Test 147
24. An Impossible Camera "Shot" 151
25. Score One for the Mystery Wizard 154
26. Roger Lists His Clues 159
27. A "Thermal" Trick 166
28. The Fuse 172
29. A Surprising Capture 176
30. The Voiceless Warning 184
31. The Hidden Menace 188
32. Science Fights Craft 191
33. A New Suspicion 195
34. Tragedy Strikes Again 201
35. The Stalking Terror 206
36. A Law of Nature 212
37. Revelation! 217
38. The Vigil 223
39. The Ape and the Kangaroo 227
40. The Mystery Wizard's Solution 235
41. Man and Beast 241
42. Closing Time 246