Show 1 FORBIDDEN VALLEY F T TELEGRAM FICTION By B WILLIAM VILLIAM BYRON MOWERY 1 S f 7 U He Be circled once for altitude SYNOPSIS The first person Curt Tennyson sees when he returns to Edmonton after a winter spent hunting wolves in the is Rosalie Marlin whom he expects some day to marry The second sec see ond and is A. A K Marlin her father his old chief in the Royal Mounted K A-K wants Curt to track down Igor Karakhan Karakhan Kara Kara- khan international cr crook ok who h has s eluded the Mounted for tor nine months Curt has an offer of a good job and does not want to return to the Mounted Mount Mount- ed force But the sight of oC K A-K gray K gray bowed under his many cares changes his mind Curt agrees to help him CHAPTER 5 Curt swore to himself that when he got through with the Karakhan busness business bustness bust bus ness ness he was through and done and would not allow himself to be entangled entangled entangled en en- tangled any deeper Im not stil sUI a Mounted he de de- de- de nied Im taking this on to pay back backa a fraction of what I owe you A K and because well well I guess Im I'm part wo wolf wolfhound hound and cant can't resist a good chase II If I run that fellow down it'll be worth half a dozen Consolidated jobs There wont won't be any if fU if Curt You'll take him He tried to say it confidently to hide his own doubts At the best Curt had only an outside chance The difficulties of or the h hunt nt were appall appall- ing Yonder in that city of a hundred and thirty thousand a certain man had disappeared last fall He had stepped out into the flowing streams of humanity humanity hu hu- hu man manity ty and those streams had closed over him obliterating every trace Shrewd detectives men like Inspector Inspector In In- Inspector Baldwin had miserably failed to track him The scent was cold nine months cold As immediate havens for Karakhan down the west vest coast lay a score core o of cities ranging up to a million and across the Pacific yawned all the teeming ports of the Orient And yet he was asking Curt to pick pickup pickup pickup up that mans man's trail and run him to earth It was like trying to find a cloud one had seen last week Besides Besides Besides Be Be- sides all those tremendous handicaps handicaps handi handi- caps Karakhan had always been a shade better than an any man ever sent after him He had the power of or money the advantage of a cold trail and the whole world for his hiding place But at least it would be magnificent magnificent hunting This battle between Tennyson and that criminal of two continents was going to be a battle worth watching He wondered how Curt would go about the search What methods could he use that hadn't been used already Have you got any idea of ot how youre you're going about the business Curt Curl Curt nodded Im going to make use of ot his weak point His weak point point 1 Women Curt said tersely On the Wing Early the next morning Curt and Smash checked cheked out at the hotel ate breakfast and taxied through the gray wet dawn to Cooking lake At a private pier Curts Curt's trim amphibian amphibian amphibian am am- was rocking on the wavelets A three place cabined plane the sturdy ship had carried him and Paul Pauland Pauland Pauland and Smash all over the Keewatin barrens up and down the waterlogged waterlogged waterlogged water water- logged Mackenzie country and westward westward westward west west- ward into the unknown Arctic otic Across long dry hops where a konking motor would have meant a fatal up crack-up it had taken them unfalteringly so that they had come cometo to look on it as one of them thema a a ilent silent silent si i si- si lent partner While Smash pumped the pontoons dr dry Curt stripped the canvas hood from the radial and inspected Shoving Shoving ing tog awa away they climbed into the cabin cranked the inertia starter and stood out into the lake At the controls Curt skimmed north two miles to warm the motor veered around into the light wind and gave the plane the gun Dancing down lake he reached speed rocked the stick anc and jumped the ship into the air He circled once for altitude p passed over Edmonton a mile above the still sleeping c city t and headed west toward the snowy and the Pa Pacific coast As he flew along his eyes were on the horizon over the planes plane's nose but his thoughts went on beyond that horizon to the weeks and months ahead He wondered where the Karakhan Karakhan Karakhan Kar Kar- hunt would take him and what the veiled future held for him Past Calgary and the Blackfoot they dropped down on Okanagan for gas and oil Smash took the stick then and they flew on through the heart o of the The trip was altogether different from monotonous flying across plains coun coun- try At Yale they ther struck the Fraser followed followed fol tol- fol- fol lowed it on west and reached Vancouver Vancouver Vancouver Van Van- couver an hour before noon Goes to Headquarters After registering at the airport Curt sent Smash to the Marlin home where K A-K had invited them to stay slay while in the c city ty He himself wen went directly to the Mounted Of his former associates on the Silent Squad the only two still there were Arnold Baldwin now an inspector tor and Sergeant Duty-Sergeant Holden So the Old Man clapped you on this case eh Baldwin remarked In his precise Oxford He resented it that an outsider had been brought brough in ui and took no pains to hide what wha he felt Well Wen youre you're oure damned welcome welcome welcome wel wel- come Tennyson Im I'm glad to give over and let someone else do the falling failing Curt paid no attention to the re reo re- re There was work to be bedone bedone bedone done not personalities to be indulged in in- At a desk In Baldwins Baldwin's office he went over the whole Karakhan case with the i inspector and Holden FailIng Failing Falling Fail Fail- ing to trail Karakhan they had planted Inquiries In his old haunts abroad but the Cossack had not gone back The They had tried to trace his swindle money to banks or depositories depositories de de- but he had turned it all into unregistered securities as anonymous as cash They had sent tracers to the various var var- ious bus societies of ot Russian emigres shadowed his Vancouver acquaintances acquaintances acquaint acquaint- ances and watched their mail and had made all the customary contacts with police agencies in the States the empire and Europe When the conference Baldwin Baldwin Baldwin Bald Bald- win tilted back cack in his chair and looked challengingly through his smoke at Curt Well Tennyson he demanded can can you improve on our work I d dont see see ee how youve you've done a real job Am Am Arn Curt said rather ab ab- ab He was studying a picture on the desk the picture of a black black- haired girl of 22 This Mathieson girl girl he he indicated the photo with his holder was holder was she very well acquainted with Karakhan C Copyright 1933 William B. B Mowery Tomorrow Curt Curt makes a date with this Mathieson girl |