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Show Hg'All Over But the Richard Powell Shooting M V-l'.'jfl' i AN INNER SANCTUM MYSTERY J' - MU STARRING ARAB AMD ANDY BLAKE wWFtliS ' THE STORY THUS PAR: Lt. Andy Blake and bli wife, Arab, discovered a py ring headed by a Mr. Jones. Followed Fol-lowed to Andy's house by Jones' fans;, Arab was taken prisoner, Andy escaped. Andy reported to the army, then was picked op by two ol Jones' men and taken to the Jersey coast. In crossing to a small Island, the boat was opset by Andy, who swam ashore. He found Paula and set her free. Jones made him a prisoner, Jones, realizing they must escape, es-cape, then made plans to signal the Nazi submarine to send a rubber boat for them. Jones had a black light, that could signal the submarine and still not be seen from shore, but be wanted to radio Germany. CHAPTER XVIII I sneered, "The commander Bees you coming out In the rubber boat and yells 'tricked! They are Americans Amer-icans In our boatl Ten rounds rapid fire!" Blam-blam-blam-blam " "Stop itl" "That's Just one way," I drawled. 'There are a million ways he can take care of you." He swung back to the set. His fingers Jerked on the sending button. "Chief I" Joey cried. "Don't get rattledl Don't let this guy upset you. Take lt easy." The blind glasses glared at Joey. The fat man's voice sounded as If he were yelling through a blanket. "Quiet!" he shouted. "Who do you work forT For me or CanarisT I begin to wonder. I have just or dered the commander to send In a boat now. We will get aboard before be-fore telling him anything. I will take over his radio. I have the authority." au-thority." He whirled back to the eyepiece, crouched at lt. A message must be coming back. His Angers clutched and twisted at the legs of the tripod. tri-pod. At last he straightened, and gasped, "Schwelnl He signals: 'Detectors 'De-tectors picked up propeller beat quarter hour ago. Inshore patrol active. Unsafe send boat. Transmit Trans-mit Information first.' " He bent to the sending button again. Joey quavered, "Whatcha doing now. Chief?" "There!" the fat man said. "I Instructed In-structed him to stand by. Now we will see who gets the credit." He went to the short-wave transmitters, flipped switches. "Chief!" Joey cried. "It ain't safe! They can pick up that radio stuff." The fat man cursed at the stubbornly stub-bornly cold radio set. "A chance in a hundred," he muttered. "One destroyer de-stroyer cannot police the short-wave bands. It would take a dozen what Is wrong with this pig of a radio!" He peered over the panel, fumbled among tubes and wires and condensers. conden-sers. Then he walked very quietly to me. "The tube," he said. I had to play this carefully. I could wreck everything by being suspiciously suspi-ciously helpful. "What tube?" "The tube you took from this set. You have not broken It because there is no glass. You did not have the window raised to throw lt out. You have hidden It." "I don't know what you're talking about." "The tube," he said. His right hand clamped across my face, his thumb dug Into the hollow under my right ear. He pressed, and said, "The tube." "I don't know!" I yelled. "I don't knowl" Rockets whizzed and burst in my head. Pain shrieked down every nerve In my body. I could feel it at the tips of my fingers. I had to take lt a second longer. A second longer. It had to look good. It "In the wastebasket!" I screamed. He left me, and fumbled In the basket. I slumped. I had almost overdone things. A few seconds more would have fixed that ear for life. He found the tube and lifted it delicately and replaced it in the set Arab was crying. "Andy," she said, "Andy, did it hurt awfully?" I wet my lips. "It's O. K. now." "Will . . . will it help them very much having the tube?" "It doesn't matter," I said. "He'd get bis news out either this way or the other. I just wanted to make things unpleasant for him If I could." Tubes and dials glowed on the set, reflected greasily on the fat man's face. "Yes," he said. "We will settle set-tle for that later. Reneel" She whispered, "Yes?" "Our friends out there may be worrying. I should have sent more than stand by. Signal them that I am getting the Information In order and that it will take a number of minutes." "I do not know how to signal them." "Anybody can send. A long press on the button for a dash. A short press for a dot It is plain international interna-tional code. There Is a handbook on my desk." She slipped past my chair like a pale shadow, found the book, went to the tripod. Joey got her a flashlight flash-light She masked the light with her hand, studied the International code, and began sending slowly, going back to the page for each new letter. let-ter. In front of the fat man the big radio set was warming up now. It purred like a giant cat The fat man touched dials, clamped a receiver re-ceiver over his ears. His fingers tested the sending key. "Joey," he called. "Here, Chief." "The code book. Lower right-hand drawer." He flipped keys at Joey, and added, "Get the book, and paper pa-per and pencil. This cannot go in the clear. Encode it." He waited while Joey got the code book and writing materials, and then said, "The first sentence: Jones to Ullrich. Ull-rich. Second sentence: For Himm-ler Himm-ler only. Third sentence: Huge task forces sailed last three days from East Coast Ports of Embarkation. Fourth sentence: Objective absolutely abso-lutely confirmed French North Africa. Af-rica. Encode that. And quickly. There will be more." "O. K., Chief." The fat man's fingers had not stopped for a moment. He was sending send-ing a recognition signal. Dit-dah-dit . . . dah-dah. Dit-dah-dit . . . dah-dah. I tried to picture the waves leaping leap-ing out over the Atlantic In huge vertical ver-tical zigzags, caroming back and forth between the earth's surface and the Heavislde layer forty miles up. Out on the Atlantic were Navy radio men waiting tensely just for this. Combing segments of the shcrt-wave bands. Waiting for the whine of power In their ears and the crackle of an enemy message. I prayed that they wouldn't miss, prayed that the signal wouldn't leapfrog leap-frog the waiting aerials. Dit-dah-dit . . . dah-dah. Dit-dah-dit .. . dah-dah. He threw words at Joey now and then. Joey scribbled I lay there for a short time, dopey with concussion. them down and then hunted through the secret code book for the right signal. Dit-dah-dit . . . dah-dah. Dit-dah-dit . . . dah-dah. It seemed to go on forever. Renee finished her chore and moved over to watch Joey encoding. Suddenly there was a change. The fat man jerked upright. His sending hand stilled, quivering. He listened. He had been acknowledged. Far away in Germany they were ready for him. He ripped back a jerky stream of dots and dashes. His hand reached for the first sheet of the coded message. Heat lightning ' flickered on the horizon to the northeast. My skin tingled. Heat lightning at thirty minutes to November? I sucked in my breath. It might have been four miles away. I would know in ten to fifteen seconds. I counted. Maybe I counted aloud, or maybe something some-thing In the way" I strained forward for-ward registered with the group at the radio. They swung around, peered at me. I hardly noticed. They were just blurs in the dim room. I counted. Nine . . . ten . . . eleven . . . twelve Then it happened. Out on the sand bar two majestic cones of water foamed up into the night sky. Windows jumped in frames. Sound thudded at us. And I went nuts. "They got a fix on us!" I screamed. "Come on, boys, pour it In! Lay lt in their laps! You got the radio tagged! Let 'em have it!" The fat man leaned over me, snarling something. I didn't care what. I rocked deliriously In the chair and howled up at him. "Watch this one, Jonesy. Get to the window and watch it Open your mouth and they'll drop one in. Yeeeahoool Right one zero. Eight eight hundred. hun-dred. Fire!" He jerked around like a puppet on strings. Lightning glared again on the horizon. Black-powder lightning In Navy flve-inchers. "On the way!" I shrieked. "Count it, you rats! Twelve seconds to live! One . . . two . . ." I went on counting and raving half-forgotten artillery commands while the room turned into a madhouse. mad-house. The fat man was rescuing his black-light set. He screamed orders. or-ders. Orders to collect papers. To run to the powerhouse. I heard him howl at Joey to shoot us before leaving leav-ing but I didn't give a hang. "Eight" I yelled. "Nine . . ." The fat mai tumbled out through the door. Hi feet clattered on the stairs. "Elevei . . . twelve . . ." Twin screeches rode the air over head. The roof seemed to lift t meet them. BlaamI Glass jinglec and the old house rocked anc groaned like a schooner slamminj onto a shoaL "Hurry up, Joey," I chanted. "Hurry up. That was a hundred over. Hurry up. They got theii bracket now. Left five. Eight seven sev-en hundred. Hurry up, Joey." He was flopping around the room like a drunken rooster. He picked up things and dropped them. chanted "Hurry up" once more and then noticed Renee. She was standing stand-ing motionless at the window, looking look-ing out to sea. Moonlight gilded her face. For the first time she seemed to be calm, almost happy. The brief glow washed the horizon again. "On the way," Renee said softly. I took a deep breath and turned to Arab. In the dim room her hair seemed to glow like phosphorus. Her head was tilted, chin up. For a moment she and Renee could have been sisters. They faced the ocean almost eagerly, like lovely delicate figureheads on the old China clippers. clip-pers. "Hold your hat," I said. She smiled. "I'd rather hold your hand." "I wish I could think of something deathless to say." "I love you, Andy." "And I love you." "That's nice enough," she said contentedly. She was still smiling at me when everything let go at the seams. The blast was too close, too stunning to be heard. Something pumped the air out of my lungs, picked me up chair and all, and slammed me back against the walL I lay there for a short time, dopey with concussion. My chest heaved, trying to force air to my lungs. At first I could only get a sip of air.' I worked at it, got a little more . . . more . . . and then a big shuddering breath that put me back in circulation. circula-tion. The chair was kindling wood. I doubled my feet up to my bound hands and worked on the ankle knot. Either I was deaf or it was achingly quiet Moonlight seeped In through shattered windows and torn wall. Dust drifted like spray: the dust of a generation, shaken from every cranny by the explosion. "Andy. An-dy." I tried to get my slow-motion thoughts in line. Arab was sitting near the door. The blast had skated her chair back fifteen feet without toppling it. I started toward her . . . and a ragged figure uncoiled from the floor and blocked my way. It was Joey. He jammed me against the wall. I tried to knee him but my legs wouldn't move fast enough. There was a smear of blood across his face. His jaw hung slackly. He tugged at something In his pocket. "You been askin' for it," he mumbled. mum-bled. "You been askin'." "Good old Joey," I said loudly. "This is the kind of shooting you like, Isn't it? This was the kind you had in Spain. Are you still putting out that yarn about the Heinkels you shot down? Or are you telling the real story now?" "You shut up!" "Sure you fought In Spain, If you call it fighting. Heinkels and bombs and machine guns against rifles. Tell us how you mowed 'em down in your Eeinkel. Your Heinkel, Joey." "You lie!" he yelled. "I fought on the Loyalist side!" I saw Renee fumbling In the shattered shat-tered cabinet which had held the fat man's arsenal. I said, "The State Department claims you were with the Germans, fighting for Franco. Tell us about it, Joey. Tell us about the Condor Legion. Tell us how you shot Bob Fielding." Somewhere in the room sounded the telltale dry clack of a rifle being cocked. Joey whirled toward the sound, screaming, "Renee, he can't pin that on mel There were lots of us in the Condor Legion. It could of been anybody. Renee, take it easy! Take " He wrenched the Luger out of his pocket. I kicked his elbow a split-second split-second too late. He got off one shot before the automatic spun from his hand. Renee quivered. The rifle she held wavered. Then the barrel came up again, steadied. The shots cracked slowly. Six of them. A click. Joey twitched once on the floor and was stilL Arab cried, "She's hurt, Andy!" I stumbled toward Renee. She leaned on the desk, jamming a small stained fist into her side. She smiled wistfully and said, "There's a knife on the desk. You'll have to help me open it" I turned so that she could reach my bound hands without moving. The penknife touched my fingers. I held it while she pried open a blade. Then she took lt and sawed through the ropes at my wrists. "Take care of your wife," she said. "And hurry." She didn't have to warn me. The smoke was thickening; somewhere in the house flames coiled and rustled rus-tled like timber rattlers. I slashed the cords around Arab's knees and ankles, sliced the tape linking her wrists. The adhesive binding her fingers Into boxing - glove shape would have to wait 'TO PE CONTINUED) |