| OCR Text |
Show gff;All Over But the mf ' ; Richard Powell- SllOOttnq "wftx-1' AN INMER SANCTUM MYSTERY ' ''"tfSjslK WU STARRING ARAB ND ANDY BLAKE puzzle guys like them. Playing rat might not be nice work, but there was more future in it than playing suspicious character. "Whaddya want?" I whined. "Want me tocome out and bite that rod outta his hand?" One of them slapped me. Not ! aj& The kind of slap that tells a ralie belongs. The kind a real guy gefs on his back. "What was you doin' here, huh?" "Just helpin' Eddie out, that's all. Listen, fellows " "Aah, Eddie didn't go In for helpers. help-ers. You're hidin' out. Who's look-in' look-in' for you, huh?" "It was just a little job I pulled up north. Nothin' much." "Yeah? What kind of job? Let'f hear it." "You'll make him cry. He never pulled a job. Where's your draft card, jerk?" I lost It somewhercs." "It gets me," one of them said. "These Jerks will plead to anything except keepin' one jump ahead of a Greetings." "All right, 1-A. Fill up the tank, quick." I fumbled in my pocket, brought out the key. That seemed to wipe out any remaining suspicion. I went to work filling their tank. My hands kept shaking. All they had to do was to glance into the repair shop ... but they didn't I finished the THE STORY THUS FAR: Lt. Andy Blake and his wife, Arab, discovered evidence evi-dence of a spy ring headed by a Mr. Jones. They arranged to have Jones and his gang follow to Andy's home. While there Renee, who kept the hangout, came through the wlndcw and was taken to the cellar. Arab tried to escape but was raptured by Jones. Renee tried to help Andy by cutting a small hole over his heart so that when Jones broke into the cellar he left Andy there, believing him dead. Andy rushed to his superior, reported the whole matter, then beaded to a black market gas station used by Jones. He raptured the operator, but not until the operators had sent out an alarm to the gang. CHAPTER XIII The War Department connection came through and I gave the extension ex-tension number. In the few seconds' sec-onds' pause I yanked at buttons, squirmed out of my blouse. The regulation belt with its telltale brass buckle and keeper went next. It was just as well to be set. I had the tie half undone as our branch secretary answered the phone. "It's Blake," I said. "Get Colonel Parker." In another moment his voice rumbled rum-bled over the wire and I began babbling bab-bling out the story and trying to listen lis-ten to him with one ear and to road noises with the other. I was incoherent in-coherent at first. If an average person per-son had been on the other end, saying say-ing "Huh?" and "What's that?" and "I didn't get that," we'd have had the wire snarled faster than a kitten with a ball of yarn. But the chief brought me along like a CO. handling a green forward observer. When I finished, he had all the facts and he had them straight. "Blake," he said, "can you give us fifteen minutes?" "I'll try, sir. But the way this guy's listening he expects his friends awfully soon." "Got a gunT" "No. sir." wasn't the car, and the driver slowed to check. But the ear had Delaware p'.ates and we went on. We slipped through Baltimore shortly after ten. Then came open country, and the driver swerved to the side of the road and halted. "Well?" he said, scowling at me. "Who, me?" I asked. An elbow slammed into my ribs. Not extra hard. Just enough to remind re-mind me of my place. "Where's the car? Where's Eddie?" "How would I know?" I whined. "I ain't been carryin' them in my pocket." "A clown," the driver said, reaching reach-ing back to clip my jaw warningly. "Why didn't we spot that car? You said he took Eddie up U. S. I. What about the sugar in his gas tank? We didn't see no green coop stopped anywhere." "Maybe he stopped and drained his tank before we caught up," I said. "He could have had time for a fast job. He could still be up ahead, couldn't he?" "Not now, jerk, not now." He looked at me from empty blue eyes, and said, "You know why? On account ac-count of Eddie don't know where we go from Baltimore." It took a few seconds for that to sink in. When it did, I got sick. The army wouldn't be able to find out the location of the hangout from Eddie. He would give them Balti-i Balti-i more and then they would have to guess. They still had the whole Jersey Jer-sey and Maryland coastline to work on. It would take ten divisions to check that coastline, and It couldn't be done between now and tomorrow morning. About now was time for me to get my brain out of cold storage. stor-age. I had been letting things slide, counting on others to clean up the mess. I hadn't even noticed, for example, ex-ample, that we had turned ofT U. S. 1 in Baltimore and had taken the more easterly highway: 40. It took a route marker near the car to make "Then get your prisoner hidden and" My left ear went out of business 1 and my right took over. It had picked up a faint hum. Like bees swarming. But bees don't swarm I in late October. "Blake, did you hear me?" The hum was rising. Ninety horsepower would sound like that a quarter mile away. "Blake! Blake!" I whirled to the mouthpiece. "Car on the way, ColoneL Hitting plenty. This looks like it." "Won't hold you, then. Good luck." The receiver clacked. I slammed : it into the holder, and cleared for 1 action. My fingers had finished loosening loos-ening my tie as I talked. I flung it ! into a corner, ripped the shoulder I straps from my O.D. shirt, and got rid of my dog tags. That left noth-! noth-! ing to scream army. Two hundred ! yards down the road tires yowled ' around the curve. I dropped to the i floor and rolled oil and grease and dirt into my clothes. It wasn't enough. I scrambled to the workbench work-bench and found a battered tin can filled with penetrating oil and rusted parts. I dipped both hands in it, ran them through my hair. They were looking for a redheaded guy. I gave my face a smearing, snatched an old sweater from a hook, dove into it, and swiped the lanky man's crumpled felt hat. The shack trembled to the roar of eight cylinders. Brakes shrieked. I slugged the lanky man back of the ear just hard enough to make him groggy. Not a time for playing nice. Then I ran outside and saw dust still spurting behind a big sedap. "Jeez," I yelled, "am I glad you guys got here! I thought you was never comin'!" Two big men piled out of the car and came at me like guards double-teaming a tackle. Big hard hands jolted me, twisted my arms into pretzels behind my back, slapped my body. I howled, "Take It easy! I'm with you guys!" They moved in high gear but thought in low. Right away they handed me the lanky man's name. "Who're you?" one said. "Where's Eddie? Make it fast if you wanna be able to scratch again." He gave the arm he held an extra twist. "Eddie got nailed!" I cried. "I'm just tryin' to help. Gimme a chance. The army put the snatch on him!" The pressure eased. Two square stolid faces pushed close to mine. "Whatcha mean, the army? Quit yammering and give out!" "I'm tryin', fellows. This army lieutenant come back, see? He was onto Eddie sugarin' his gas. He sticks a rod in Eddie's ribs and says come on, buddy, we're goin' for a trip up U. S. 1 and you're gonna show me where Jones and Raeder and the others hang out. And he makes Eddie get hi his car and they drive off. Jeez, it was oney a couple minutes after Eddie buzzed you." "What were you doin' all this time?" "I was In the house. I watched him. He didn't know there was anybody any-body but Eddie. I couldn't do nothin' noth-in' I I didn't have no rod." One of them Jarred me with the heel of his thick hand. "Yah," he said, "if you'd had a rod you wouldn't of used it. You don't weigh in like a real guy, for my money." The other codded, said, "I lined him up for a rat" They looked at me disgustedly, but let my arms go. They weren't so worried about me now. They had me typed, and it was a type they understood. I had been lucky. It isn't healthy to me realize that. "What do you think?" the driver asked his buddy. "Get going. But watch for a tail." "If you guys don't want me no more," I said, "I'll thumb a ride back and" A slap ended that try. "We're taking tak-ing you along, jerk," my companion compan-ion said. "The chief might want to get a load of you." From that point on we didn't try to set any speed records. In open country we eased along at thirty. Occasionally another car would tag along behind us for a while, and the big men would start to worry. Our car would drift into a side road and then crouch on its rear springs from sudden acceleration. Sometimes we made long detours, or turned into side roads and parked to watch traffic traf-fic on the highway. Once a light plane circled overhead and the big cas ran for cover like a rabbit under un-der a hawk. A little while later I noticed my companion staring at my shoes. The j shoes' were dirty enough, but the 1 russet leather wasn't cracked, the laces were neat, and the heels ! weren't run over at the back. I shuffled my feet back out of sight. Nothing was said, but I knew that this and other odd facts were being studied. The two big men had low-gear low-gear minds, but low gear will get you places if you have time to spare. And low-gear minds aren't likely to get oft the track. We stopped for more gas at a ' place in Delaware. They let me go ! into the washroom alone while my companion smoked a cigarette outside out-side the window. I had time to tear off a piece of paper towel, write Colonel Parker's War Department address, and print: ONE-THIRTY MID-DELAWARE SEDAN VIRGINIA VIR-GINIA LICENSE 360642 ROUTE 40 HEADED JERSEY STOP UNDER SUSPICION BUT NOT YET PRISONER PRIS-ONER STOP BLAKE. Underneath I wrote: Telegram. URGENT! I underlined URGENT three times, and backed it up by folding a five-dollar five-dollar bill in the paper. It made a small wad which I could hide in my hand until I got a chance to pass it to somebody respectable. They let me get away with that, but when we reached the Newcastle-PennsviUe Newcastle-PennsviUe ferry one of them stuck beside me wherever I went. I had no chance to slip the telegram to anyone. By the time we rolled up the Jersey ramp the wadded paper was getting damp with sweat As we drove on I noticed that my pal no longer kept his automatic in his pocket. It was on the far side of the seat beside him. I knew what the books said to do: clip him across the throat, grab the gun, and plug the man up front. But maybe my pals hadn't read the same books. And I hadn't the right to take that kind of gamble . . . yet. Ten miles into Jersey we stepped at a diner for coffee and sinkers. A faded middle-aged woman served us and wondered aloud if we knew a war Job for anybody with arthritis. She told us that gas rationing had ruined the diner business. When we finished I made my bid. "Let me take this," I said, and went to the cash register before they could answer. I dug out a dollar bill with a flourish, turned my back to them, and handed the woman the dollar and the folded note. She gave me the change from the dollar, fingered fin-gered the note, saw the five, and started to speak. (TO BE CONTINUED) I grabbed a handful of dirty rags and stuffed them into his mouth. Job, screwed the cap on tight I had their license number and a good description. de-scription. They wouldn't get far up U. S. 1. "You oughtta be able to catch that car," I said. "He don't have too much of a lead. Smack him one for me, will you?" One of them laughed. "Do your own smacking," he said. He wrenched open the rear door and shoved me into the car. "We like your company." "Listen, fellows, I got to stick around here! Jeez, if a highway cop says where's my draft card and I" "Shut up! We need you to spot the car." He climbed in beside me. "Take it away, chum," he told his partner. The engine howled. The big sedan se-dan made a rocking turn which slammed me against my companion, compan-ion, and roared back the way it had come. Only five minutes had passed since Colonel Parker had hung up. Five minutes . . . and he had asked me for fifteen. I had let him down. I had let a lot of swell people down. And I might have cost Arab her only chance of rescue. It was no use counting on cops, but the army was something else. Every time we screeched around a bend I prayed for a road block and a squad of tough G.I.'s from Meade in battle dress. A couple of phone calls from the gas station would sew up this road until armor couldn't get through. Curve after curve loomed ahead and then dwindled in the rear-view rear-view mirror. I chilled a little more each time. My idea had been on the optimistic side. I couldn't expect ex-pect the army to read minds. Probably they were losing time right now searching the underbrush around the gas station for my body. When they didn't find it they wouldn't know where to look next . . . until they got the lanky man talking. It takes time to loosen up a man when you don't use Axis methods. Until he talked, the army was looking for an unidentified car filled with an unknown number of strangers headed in an undisclosed direction. The car neared Baltimore. Once the man next to me snapped orders to keep a closer watch for the green coupe I had described. Both he and the driver were getting jumpy. We spotted a green car at a diner, and two thick automatics slid out into two big hands. They almost seemed to doubt my word when I said it |
