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Show I pointing out the stupidity ol your deception." He pushed a buzzer on his desk and continued: "It seems a hold over you is necessary. Having lost one . . . we were forced to provide another!" As he finished speaking a burly, brutish attendant pushed Betty and Hank into the room. Hank's clothes were torn, his face was bruised and battered! "You let those kids go!" Al shrieked. "Tell that ape to let go of 'em!" The baffled boy subsided Into sullen silence. Then, "What do you want of me?" he asked his tormentors tor-mentors quietly. "A boat," Kramer answered nonchalantly, non-chalantly, ". . . one of those single torpedo mosquito boats that have just been delivered." "You're nuts I can't get you one of them boats!" Al answered in amazement. "I'm sure you can you have . s . ... "V. . r . .. .m'-.. i. - " -.4 .. . . "" ' -.. 7 '" " , : " . .r - . - - .3 .' -r. - '" .'. ... . . --v f ' - (MVt;,- A I - lLr" l r-Tv curb in front or rne De! Roy and crashed straight through the plat glass windows. Sound-proof walla Intended to keep illegal noises in played the place a trick when they also kept this tumult out. Snap made directly for the dressing dress-ing room marked "Occupied" whose secret Hank had told him. As a cop was about to grab him he seized the shower head and the panel slid open. There, in a burst of light, sat Kramer at his desk. A half dozen guns were leveled at hhn and he slowly raised his hands, with a sardonio smile. . "stole" the mosquito boat as day light began to break but Col. Halhday and' Naval Intelligence officers were kept Informed of hi3 every move. "Take off keep mosquito boat in constant sight," the colonel phoned the flying field and a squadron of Marine planes took the air. "He's coming," Shrode, on the oeck of the City of Toledo, called out excitedly as he lowered his binoculars. "Stand where he can see you wave this," he said to Betty as he pushed her closer to the rail. Hank and Betty had made a plan of their own. "Okay, Betts," whispered whis-pered the boy when Al was close enough to see them, "Let's go!" Betty leapt over the rail. It was Matt Herman who saw her first and shouted. Hank slugged Shrode as he tried to stop him and in another an-other instant was in the water beside be-side his little sweetheart. "Break out the machine guns get them ... all three!" the enraged en-raged Shrode ordered. "Dive, kids, dive!" cried Al as i bullets sprayed the waves. Al was The place was too small for him to miss Al Haines. Adapted from the Metro Goldivyn-Mayer Picture by RANDALL M. WHITE SYNOPSIS: Under threat of exposure for a murder he has been framed into believing he committed, Al Haines (Dan Dailey, Jr.), rookie U. S. Marine, is being forced into espionage activities at the Marine base at Han Diego. Hank Parker ( lioy McDonald), Snap Collins (Leo Gorcey), Crawford Cortland (Charles B. Smith), and fastened his fingers fin-gers around the cheap thief's throat. He'd have strangled him to death in the outpouring outpour-ing of his rage if the waiters hadn't pried him loose. "What have you done how deep are you in?" Betty asked anxiously as they left una muarea numeiie tuorotny Morris), all younger than Al and intimates of his sister Betty Bet-ty (Bonita Granville), have gone to San Diego to thwart the spies and save Al. Penetrating hidden rooms in a phoney barber shop whose "short wave treatments" mask powerful radio communication communica-tion apparatus, Hank hears Kramer (Frederick C. Worlock) and Shrode (Robert O. Davis), chief spies, tell how Al was tricked into believing he killed Malt Herman (William Tannen). Hank switches instructions Shrode was told to wire Herman to report in San Diego and Herman is now headed for a talk rvith someone he doesn't expect to meet. the place. "Nothing . . . yet I'm In the clear," Al said abstractedly, " and I'm off right now to make a clean breast of everything whether it will square me or not!" "You're sure that's all, Haines?" Col. Halliday, Marine Base commandant com-mandant said when Al had finished finish-ed his recital before another sun had risen. "Why did you come to me with this?" "I got a couple of reasons but just let us say I like the outfit," out-fit," Al answered slowly. "I can send you to Federal Prison for twenty years for this and I've got a hunch that that's what I ought to do," the gruff blustering veteran of countless "Devil Dog" exploits declared, the only one hit, exposed for a moment as he dragged Betty and Hank into the boat and the shelter shel-ter of its armored cowl. Marine planes overhead gave Shrode ample warning of a grim intention but a bomb blew the ship out of the water when all warnings went unheeded. Neither Shrode nor Matt Herman was among those saved. Nothing the young crusaders had done during their hectic stay in San Diego had frightened them as much as the summons they received re-ceived to report to Col. Halliday's office some days later, following their last, heart-breaking farewell to Al who had died a hero in the service of his country. "What do you suppose he wants with us?" asked Hank nervously as they waited outside the colonel's office. "Maybe we all git a medal with E Pluribus Unurn on it," contributed contribut-ed Louie, the volunteer. "That's money," said the superior Crawford witheringly. "Okay is that bad?" retorted the urchin. And the colonel did want to give them money a check as replacement replace-ment payment for their ancient motorcycle which, as he put it, they had "wrecked in government service." Snap, the irrepressible, seized what he considered a golden op-' portunity. "Say, Skipper, how'd you like to do us a little favor?" he opened up. "Favor? why I ought to court-martial court-martial all of you for cluttering things up," Halliday growled with feigned severity. "What do you want?" "Well, it's this way," Snap orated, "our pal's bin gettin' the jive, an' you, bein' the main wolf, we fig-gered fig-gered you could stop it and sit 'im in the groove!" access to them and can drive one," Kramer insisted. "Don't do it, Al don't do it!" Betty cried out. "What happens if I tell you where to head in?" Al asked slowly with anguish in his eyes. "Tomorrow morning at sunrise," Kramer answered deliberately," your sister and her young friend will be aboard a freighter six miles out of Baja del Padres. You may exchange them there for the boat we require. If you find the task . . . inconvenient well, we cannot afford af-ford the risk of carrying living hostages!" Col. Halliday was quick to detect the lie in Al's manner when he came back to report on his interview in-terview at espionage headquarters. With kindly pressure, he got the truth. "I'm to deliver one of our new mosquito boats' to the City of Toledo layin' six miles off Baja del Padres at dawn tomorrow," Al confessed. "That's headquarters and the relay point for their messages," broke in a stranger in civilian clothes who had been sitting by quietly. "Destroy it and we stop them cold!" "Go ahead with your plans as you made them, Haines," the colonel directed. "Deliver the boat!" "An' my kid sister and Hank aboard that steamer what about them?" Al asked fearfully. "Nothing will happen until they're clear I promise you that," the colonel said with conviction. "Now, go ahead and remember we're back of you!" There was drama in prospect when Al was dismissed but drama with a leaven of comedy had already started at the tourist camp headquarters of his defending defend-ing army. "Holy Smoke a mass-a-cree!" shouted Snap as he switched on the light in their rooms. Crawford Craw-ford and Mildred and Louie, the volunteer crowded in behind him. Chapter Three The rendezvous Hank had named for Matt Herman and the one per-. per-. son in the world who wanted most to see him was a little eating place he and Betty visited occasionally. occa-sionally. Hank thought Betty best suited to bo master of ceremonies at the rounion. Brother Al was greatly surprised when Betty phoned him she was in San Diego and not at home where he had left her. He was glad to take her out to dinner when she asked him without further explanations but he prdved far from happy at her choice of the place. "Still sore, Al?" Betty twitted when the coffee had been served and the hands on the fly-specked face of the clock still kept slowly slow-ly crawling toward 9:30. "Why bring me to a crummy joint like this?" he complained. "I just had to see you," she defended. de-fended. "I was worried about you." "Well, you shouldn't have come down here," Al replied. "I'm living in barracks under regulations and I can't take care of you." "Sure it isn't because of something some-thing you're doing down here that you're not so glad to see me?" Betty asked, ". . . or because of something up home and of Matt Herman?" Al was shocked at the reference and then Betty told him how Hank had discovered that he had been framed. "Hank's nuts!" Al protested. "I wish it wasn't so but I saw the guy myself stretched out cold under a canvas!" Just then nine-thirty came and a scheduled event ended the argument! ar-gument! Matt Herman walked in the door. Small-time crooks and gangsters are considerably over-rated in the matter of quick, smart thinking but Herman's efforts to get out of a jam which would have stymied an expert were away below par. He tried to laugh the whole thing off! "That was quite a gag we pulled on you." he chortled with about as much merriment as a yard of crepe. "The boys love to clown with them practical jokes!" Al didn't answer. He merely . . . only Im not going to. Always, Al-ways, in poker, I win when I back my hand and take chances and I'm going to take one on you!" "Oh, thank you, sir!" Al exclaimed. ex-claimed. "Just gimme a couple men and I'll bust their joint wide open for you!" "Thanks," the colonel replied with an unexpected scowl, "but we don't want it wide open. We want them all together and the place they're communicating with!" "Maybe I could find out, sir," Al volunteered. "Now you're using the brains you should have used in the first place," the colonel barked back. "Play along with them . . . and remember, Haines, you're an inside straight I'm drawing to don't let me down!" Al felt himself ready for anything any-thing when he presented himself at spy headquarters at the Del Roy barber shop not many hours later, but few people, and certainly no young man reared in a nation where the cards are always dealt off the top of the pack, know the machinations of minds steeped for centuries in intrigue, or the ruth-lessness ruth-lessness and sheer cruelty of the methods such minds use to achieve their ends. Shrode sat beside Kramer at his desk. "I understand you've seen Matt Herman," was his opening remark. "Yeah . . . what was the big idea?" Al replied; he was ready for this. "We needed you and a hold over you," was Kramer's cold, frank explanation. "That's where Brock played dumb . . . I'd'a strung along for the dough," Al declared with an attempt at cockiness. "And you're still interested only in the money?" Kramer inquired blandly. "The frame's off and I'm here . . . ain't that proof enough?" Al asked. Kramer leaned forward across his desk. "Not quite," he said coldly. cold-ly. "You're sure Col. Halliday didn't tell you to come back?" Al took the shock without flinching. flinch-ing. "What's Halliday got to do with it?he asked surlily. "Your conversation in his office it wasn't about the weather?" Kramer snapped. "I'm not interested inter-ested in vonr nnpwer I'm onlv He was trying to tell Col. Halli-' day that Hank was having trouble trying to join his Marines. "Let me tell you something," the officer blustered back, "regulations are regulations and I'm just a cog in the wheel!" "Kin you imagine?" complained Snap as they went out after having hav-ing promised to come back again some time, ". . . just a panty-waist an' I thought he was the big cheese!" I They did come back. Col. Halli-day Halli-day threw his arm around Betty. ' "You can be proud of that boy friend of yours," he said, "he's turned out to be quite a Marine." And they saw Hank Parker, United States Marines, in his smart: new uniform, swing by them in J impressive parade formation. He, like Al and all of them had made the grade! THE END. Printed In U. S. A. Copyright IWI by Loew's Ine. The place was a shambles chairs were overturned, drapes were torn down and neither Betty nor Hank was there! Snap picked up a piece of cloth. "Gee, it's a piece of Hank's tie!" he shouted. "Come on, fellows, them spies has bumped 'em off!" "Listen, don't be dumb all your life," Snap yelled desperately as he faced Sergeant O'Hallihan across his desk at the police station. "The spies have got our pals maybe they're murderin' 'em. We'll lead you right to their hide-out!" "Your last spies caused me enough trouble get out of here!" the irate Irishman exploded. "I wouldn't follow ye if ye was Matty Harry!" Snap grabbed an inkwell from the desk. "Okay, then," he said as he hurled it full into the sergeant's face, "if you won't follow me, chase me!" There were policemen by the score on motorcycles, in squad cars, and on foot close behind the crusaders' ancient motorcycle and "bathtub" when it hurtled the |
