Show TELEGRAM 1 FICTION I FORBIDDEN VALLEY j 1 By W V. V. V BYRON MOWER MOWERY CHAPTER 48 Two hundred yards from the cove I Curt shouted ahead at Smash Start the engine it il up for lor me For once Smash came through While Curt was reaching the cove Smash cut the mooring ropes clam clam- acred into the cabin cranked the engino en en- gino gine and pushed up th the throttle and had lad the motor settled Into a n steady I powerful po rhythm Jump out Curt ordered him splashing to a pontoon and clamberIng clambering clamber clamber- Ingup ing up up Ive got cot to go after him alone Smash jumped Into the hip deep water but turned looked up Curt Curl What're you OU going to do man Wh What t the devil devil devil- He was suddenly bowled over deluged deluged de- de and half hal drowned drown in a blindIng blinding blind blind- ing smother mother of spume and chopp chopped chopped- d. d up water as Curt opened the motor to o his thundering roar and plowed out of the cove to the open lake For several minutes after Curt had left eft the cave cave mouth Paul stayed there to watch But he saw nothing nothing noth noth- ing a and d. d decided that he was needed elsewhere Before leaving he called in to the man inside the cave Things of or infamy you will come come out when ve we ve say ay come out If It you are arc p peaceful peace peace- ace ful ul you ou will see the sunshine again If if not you can stay there till this mountain wears away He started down the slope to the cabin On his hL way past the gully he stopped at a pool of ot water and washed th the thO blood from froin his face From the door of the cabin he saw Sonya a lying bound and nd gagged on the bunk She turned her head saw him and tried to tor r rise e but Karachan Karakhan Kara Kara- khan chan had bound her too securely Paul ran across to her As he bent over Tier her and she looked up tip at him the expression in her eyes was a athing athing athing thing he could never afterward forget for gel get t When he cut her loose she sprang prang up and hugged him sobbing Paul Paul Oh I knew knew knew-I I heard the shooting shoot shoot- I ing-I ing ing I knew you u had come Wheres Where's Curt Is he is he-is is he safe In itt few fe words Paul explained Tenn Og br brought us north we flew flewin flewin flewin in last night weve we've just whipped the Those planes hear them them them-It the tw two ships out on the lake e were jarring the cabin with their full gunned roar roar roar Curt Curl going after Karakhan Lets Let's go They ran out of the cabin to the thc open land wash The Chase Heavy with gas Karakhan's plane had got of off the water and u d climbed to a thousand feet and was circling for altitude to clear the ranges Curt was just jumping his ship into th thair the theair theair air as they came put Lighter and swifter than toan the other plane it lt climbed in a steep thu thundering thundering thunder thunder- der ing spiral cutting do down Karakhan's lead so rapidly that In four minutes it was Wal up level with the dair In bewildered awe Paul and Sonya stood on on the shore sh rc faces upturned Curt going to do Paul Sonya a cried Paul shook his head utterly non mm plUs d. d His partner r had g gas s for only a few minutes and could not follow follow fol fol- fol low he had no gun except an automatic automatic auto auto- matic matle and could not fight His maneuvers were utterly m mystifying He was not even trying to close up while he might have got in a lucky shot with a pocket gun instead he was deliberately keeping at a dis distance distance dis- dis tance lance from Karakhan At four thousand feet Karakhan l leveled off oU and swung due south Curt was behind him at that moment and about five hundred feet above As the Spee swung Curts Curt's ship nosed down for the theother other ther plane straight as a fluted arrow He hurtled on on and on on aiming his cr craft ft like a huge projectile at Karakhan's Karakhan's Kara Kara- khans khan's plane The interval shrank hrank two two hundred feet a hundred fifty Still h ha he did not turn or swerve an inch Sonya Sona screamed He was going to crash He was crashing With an explosive smash that came to them distinctly the Fairchild Fairchild Fair Fair- child plowed Into the other ship breaking the fuselage in two and tearing tearing- off ort both wings Careening on beyond the Curts Curt's plane turned over twice with its own pontoons and one of its wings gone and started a craz crazy lunching spin to the lake below Karakhan's ship a tangle of oC fabric fabricand fabricand fabricand and metal meta came plummeting straight down A f few v seconds after the crash crasha a puff of smoke streamed out behind it and within a thousand feet leet the whole mass was wrapped in fierce tierce flames cs But Paul and Son Sonya a scarcely saw iL it Their horrified eyes ees were on Curts Curt's broken plane as it twirled downward at a terrific speed its propeller gone its engine roar changed to a high high- pitched scream At two thousand feet a small manikin object d detached itself from the falling wreckage For five tive or si sh s seconds it came down and down turning slowly head over feet teel till the demolished plane was a hundred yard ard below beloit it and well to one side Against the blue of ot the thc sky a tiny bit of white white flashed A moment later latera a long streamer of white shot out While the two wrecked craft were plummeting on on down to hit the lake with a tr tremendous splash and sink out of sight th the streamer caught the air flared out and burst into a white sky oo Oh broke from both of ot them thema a a cry of thankfulness releasing all their spellbound fears of those last terrible minutes Even then they could not fully realize that Curt had saved himself It came cameto home to them only by degrees as they watched the stop sw swinging an and d drift in their direction It was Sonya who first saw Curt tugging at the guide guidelines lines and understood understood under under- stood the thc danger he was fighting against Paul Paull Get a canoe Hell He'll come comedown comedown comedown down in the lake W Weve We've got to get out to him Paul sprang back the path to a canoe near the cabin By the time he got it to water he saw that the craft would not be needed the wind was carrying the chute south against the mountain slope Four hundred feet high it passed over their heads and Curt looked down and waved assurance to them Falling slowly he brushed low 10 over a slump of or spruces and lodged in a tall taU pine just above the little knoll Paul hurried up to help his partner but Sonya could not move When she saw that Curt had landed and was safe she sank down on the canoe faint and trembling A wing of Karakhan's Karakhan's Kara Kara- kh khans khan's ns plane was bobbing in toward shore but the ship itself had disappeared disappeared disappeared and Karakhan with it down it-down down downIn In the icy depths of at the lake As her eyes followed that piece of bobbing wre wreckage kage she strove to realize realize real real- ize that he was dead dead the dead the man who had cruelly sent her father and Corl Con to their innocent deaths Her Herlong Herlong Herlong long hunt was ended Back Baek at Camp CampAt At Russian lake old John came walking into the of ot Curts Curt's camp where Curt sat talking with Su Superintendent Superintendent Su- Su Marlin who had flown up from Vancouver that afternoon Im havIn a leette leete together git-together over at my tent like we had that time afore Curl an I you O Omen I men ud like Jike to im i'm fin jin us Paul an Tenn-Og Tenn an some more air there I arcady aready an the others all said they're comin John well we'll be over Curt accepted Our trip really started I there at your fire firc and it ought to end there When old Paxton had gone Marlin handed Curt another newspaper Heres the Times Read this The streaming headline KARAKHAN TAKEN BY ny Y FORMER MOUNTY brought Curt a glow of hard earned pride but he was more more- gratified b by bythe bythe the thc subhead with its emphasis on K Karakhan's money Em Embezzler of Hu Huge e Sums Killed in Resisting Arrest The Karakhan hunt had cost him hima a heavy price personally his maimed hand his brushes with death the suffering it had dragged him through and the destruction of the plane he had bought with the savings saving of oC several long years As pay for all that he was to receive less ICES than two hundred dollars But the hunt had gaIn gained d him certain tam tain priceless things not to be measured measured meas meas- in mone money He and K A-K were 1 back on the old footing again he had found himself after a year ear of I groping around and he had found Sonya He laid th the paper and stack of oC oth others rs inside the tent I I suppose wed we'd better start over to old Johns John's sociable A AK You'll be the guest of honor there tonight and they're probably waiting Marlin did not get up In a moody silence he looked out upon the thc twilit lake drumming absently on the chopping block Copyright William B. B Mowery Tomorrow Curt meets Son Sonya on ona a anew new to footing |