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Show rf A1l Over But the iiljji' Richard Powell ShootiflQ If IS AN INNER SANCTUM MYSTERY ' ifiS OKI STARRING ARAB ANDY BLAKE w.o FE.s r fifi 1 ant colonel, and growled, "Suppose I handle this." "Certainly, sir. I only meant" "Blake," Colonel Parker said, "have you anything in mind?" "Yes, sir." He took a deep breath and said, "I know you're worried about your wife, Blake. But everybody's going to do his best and I doubt if you can accomplish anything by yourself. your-self. What was in your mind?" "Colonel, I thought I might be able to stir something up." "Blake, if you're holding out anything any-thing . . ." "No, sir. It's just that the Jones gang dropped some loose talk too. About where they went and all that. B'avorite places like a restaurant and a roadhouse and a filling station sta-tion that apparently sells black-market black-market gas. Maybe the whole gang hasn't skipped. Maybe some of them are around those favorite places." "We can look into that," somebody said. "But I don't think anything is likely to come of it." "That's just it, sir," I said. "One lght of a jeep and any of the gang at those places would be warned. But by myself I might stir up some interest." "Bait," the four-striper said, nodding. nod-ding. "Yes, sir. They know me. They might get scared and try to get rid of me." A major said, "We could cover you with a strong detail." "No, no," another argued. "If there's anything in it. It's a one-man Job. The first thing anybody'd look for after spotting Blake would be to see if he has friends." Nobody spoke for a few moments, and then Colonel Parker stepped in to make the decision. "Go ahead, t f THUS FAR: I t. Andy wife, Arab, found evidence mrUInc out of her boarding had searched Jones' home liiional evidence, which he :fr to the FBI. Arab told the evidence was In Andy's jjht she and Andy went to -ted out the evidence and was captured by them as In the window. Arab es-ie es-ie cellar but was captured aing the yard. Renec was t Bred by Jones Into the cr to save Andy, she cut a und over his heart and had . Jones broke Into the eel-tndy eel-tndy dead, left wltb Kenee. I A PTE R XII house, ran down the ind the car still tucked in the field. I headed d Washington. Colonel mse was about four near Fort Myer. He inted on to act on my d read up on the Man--Martial second. On the ed the time and found mly a little after mid-ned mid-ned as though It should r. I tried not to think ery often, because that ned to start my head She would be safe : was sure. I couldn't worrying myself sick, rker came to the door yawning and wrestling d of a bathrobe. He :, and snapped, "Been town red, Blake? You j yourself." I'm afraid it's blood." as if you've been out for a separate Air t happened?" ouse on Q Street busl-They've busl-They've got the North slon spotted and they wife and" I reached out, yanked "Keep your voice aid. "My gosh, is it Africa?" ley put together a lot Look." I handed him ' paper on which Arab ide our notes. 1 at them. Muscles i along his jaw. "Come in I down," he said. "I'll get (hone. This is plenty to go jot into the living room and j led Colonel Parker go to ie made four calls in about wtes. He didn't mention frica but once or twice he ode name which apparently 1 the operation, f he completed his calls, "We'll have the house on and the Jones place in the ten minutes. About your ." He cleared his throat ! gruffly, "Good kid, isn't B chance has she, Colonel?" H'-'t feed you any sirup," he HA "Nobody knows what Btople might do. But I think Hi safe for a while. Two com-trom com-trom Myer are going out to Bice. They'll turn over every Sound Falls Church, on the that the Jones crowd didn't H along. Too bad we weren't oHget the goods on that bunch "Got to wipe off that gas." he said, flourishing a rag. "Thanks." He fiddled around the tank lor over a minute. It was curious; you wouldn't have expected a guy of his type to worry about gasoline spilled on a rear fender. He finished the job and came up to my window, stuffing the rag into a pants pocket. "I never heard of them guys," he said, and went back into his shack. I drove off grinning. He shouldn't have insisted twice that he didn't know them. Two hundred yards from his place, out of sight around a curve, was a narrow feeder road. I swerved into it and stopped past its first bend. I got out and walked back to the gas tank. The fender had not been wiped perfectly clean. Here and there I spotted a few white grains that dissolved when I rubbed them with a wet finger. He had poured sugar into the tank while pretending pre-tending to wipe the fender. I would't have gone far after that sugar gummed the carburetor. I cut across the fields and slipped up on the gas station from the rear. When I got close to the ramshackle repair shop I could hear him talking. talk-ing. I crept around to the front. The door was open and he was standing at a pay box with his back to me. I Inched forward until I was only a right hook away from him. A shiver jerked at my skin. He was putting out my license number num-ber and a description of me. Not a flattering description, but it would have done the job. I had a vision of my car stalled two miles up U. S. 1, and a couple of friendly strangers stopping to give me the last lift I would ever get. "O. K.," he said finally, "III leave you handle It." He hung up, banged the side of the pay box, and dug a finger in the return slot. His coin didn't drop through. "This is your unlucky day. isn't it?" I said. He whirled, grabbing at a Stillson wrench in his belt, and I plugged him on the jaw. His head slammed back against the pay box. A coin rattled into the return slot. He melted melt-ed slowly down the wall, and came to rest propped in a sitting position I retrieved his coin. It was a nickel. Indicating a call to someone not very far away. I went through his pockets pock-ets and found nothing of interest. I took the gasoline pump key, however. how-ever. He owed me twelve gallons of unsweetened gas. Plenty of tire tape was handy and I used it to bind his wrists and ankles. an-kles. It was too bad I'd had to hit him. It delayed things. I got a can of radiator water and sloshed it over him. He didn't budge. I knew I hadn't smacked him that hard. I worked on him for several minutes without getting a flicker, and yet his pulse was hammering like an outboard out-board motor. I went outside, unlocked the pump, and filled the can with gasoline. I doused him with that. His nose wriggled. "Yeah," I said. "It was gasoline that time. Got a match, buddy?" His eyelids snapped open. "You wouldn't do that," he whined. "Why not? I like playing with matches." "Go ahead, then." I scowled. I hadn't put on a good enough act, and now he wouldn't go for the torch stuff unless I really did drop a match on him. "Where did Jones and his gang go?" "Never heard of him." "Never heard of anyone named Jones, huh?" "No." I went to the phone. "It's a dime from here to Republic 6700, isn't it?" I asked. "What do you wanna call the War Department for?" "Some of our boys might like to find out which side of the war you're on." "Been painting the town red, Blake?" Blake," he said. "You're on your own. Report anything you dig up. Get going." He glared around defiantly. de-fiantly. Nobody said anything more than shrug, and so I ducked out fast. I hadn't picked the gas station over the restaurant and roadhouse because of any hunch or deduction. I picked it because I needed gas. But the more I thought about it the better I liked it as a place to start. If the Jones boys had a hangout hang-out five or six hours' drive away, they must buy plenty of black-market gks. In fact, the operator of the station might be more than just a ration chiseler. Even chiselers run out of gas, and the Jones boys needed need-ed a place they could count on without with-out fail. Like tonight, for instance. The operator might be one of the gang. "Let's have some gas," I said. "Pump dry." "Don't give me that stuff. Not unless you want trouble." "Gov'ment business?" "What's it to you? Fill it up." He shuffled past me to the pump, unscrewed the cap of my gas tank, inserted the hose nozzle, unlocked his pump, and began grinding. "Joey get off O. K.?" I asked. His eyes flickered at me. "Joey?" "Joey Raeder. And Jones and the rest of them. I understand they had to scram last night." "Never heard of them." "Cagey, huh? Well, I'll be seeing them later today, so it doesn't matter. mat-ter. I'm headed up that way, too." He went on silently grinding gasoline. gaso-line. "Two-forty," he said finally, as a trickle of gas overflowed. I gave him a five and my ration book. He took three stamps from the book, shuffled into the house with my money. I got back in the car and waited. He might come back with a gun, but that was one of the chances I had to take if I wanted to learn anything. He returned in a few minutes and handed me the change. text few hours passed diz-HBefire diz-HBefire I could get halfway t my report, cars began Bint; up outside. The house ith silver leaves and eagles Bin stars. I lost track of the A of times I went over the Questions whipped at me like Jk and my head buzzed from Ito squeeze out new facts. Hne during that period word Btat they had drawn a blank o houses on Q Street. The mm and Joey and Renee Field-Hnot Field-Hnot returned, and there was Hof Arab. Botes took second place in H after that news. Maps Bo oiver the dining-room ta-H ta-H the room looked like a I- y questioned me again Ham on what Renee had let But the hangout at the shore, Bci.g up some other remarks night have forgotten. There Brguments about routes and Bt cars. Finally they worked H of operations based on H or six hours' drive" which Biau mentioned. The radius B a great arc from Washing-Hng Washing-Hng the Jersey coast up near Book and swinging down the H beaches and the long Cape B peninsula across Virginia B' rth Carolina. Body said, "With ships lis-u lis-u here and here and here Be we can intercept any H We get a fast fix on B-i-; station. We flash word Eastern Defense Command Eastern Sea Frontier. We B roast blanketed with planes Bnshore patrol. And we blast for a minute there was si-M si-M I got up nerve to speak. said to Colonel Parker, "do need me?" Bn pairs of eyes looked cold-B cold-B It was just luck that it Bv b lieutenant colonel who B "We may. Can't have you J ' Might be some more Bonel stared at the lieuten- He ran a bluish tongue over his lips. "Look," he said, "you don't have to do that." "I'm going to do it whether you talk or not. But It may be nicer for you if you talk." "I don't know much," he mumbled. mum-bled. "All I know is these fellows buy gas off me. You can't shoot a man for that. Maybe I give them a little extra gas, but that's OPA grief, not army." "You'll have to do better than that. Where do they go on these long trips they take?" "I thought you knew." "I want to hear from you." His pale eyes slid around in their lockets like drops of mercury "They go up to Ballymore and then and then . . . now lemme think what I heard them say." He mut- tered to himself for a half minute and I began to get jittery. He was stalling and I couldn't figure out why. I got out a dime and lifted the phone receiver. "Now wait," he said, "I'm getting it. It's down on the Eastern Shore somewhere. They mentioned the place. Iff , . . it's ... I got to think . . ." I had been a fool not to have realized real-ized that his pals might have to stop at his place for gas before starting start-ing up U. S. 1 after me. They might arrive at any minute. I swung back to the phone. My dime seemed to take ages filtering down to the bell. "Number, please," the operator said at last. "Republic 6700. Urgent." (TO BE CONTINUED) , I |