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Show FICTION HARD BOILED CHUCK CORNER By Richard H. Wilkinson CHUCK WALLACE was hard boiled. Women didn't bother him much. Flying did. He owned his own plane and specialized in doing free-lance Jobs for private interests, and performing rescues for reward money. He had I 1 quite a reputa- 3M!nut tlon. When, at FUtion the annual pUots' ' ball, he was pre sented to redheaded red-headed Alma Mallory he wasn't impressed im-pressed at all. Alma was. She had heard of Chuck. Alma was very modern, very sure of herself, used to getting what she wanted. She wanted Chuck. Chuck wasn't quick to catch on. When finally he realized what she was up to he had almost fallen into her trap. He was glad when news came in that a young flyer had been lost in the north woods. It gave him a chance to get away. The fact that the young lost flyer was Don Mallory, Alma's brother, didn't bother him at all. This was business. Old Man Mallory, through his lawyers, law-yers, had nffereri fat reward. Alma was very modern, very sure of herself, used to getting what she wanted. And she wanted Chuck. "What do you think? Don's my brother." She had brought along a lot of the things Chuck hadn't thought necessary. neces-sary. There was nothing he could do Chuck Wallace loaded up and took off the next morning in his seaplane. That night he set down on a little wooded lake, 150 miles from the nearest habitation, and established m base. The next day he began systematically to comb the country. In the afternoon he returned to his base, and received a shock. There was another plane riding on the surface of the lake. He saw a figure standing on the shore. It was Alma Mallory. "What's the idea?" he asked. aooui ner oemg mere, so ne set up one of the tents and ate the supper she cooked for him. The next day he flew west and covered a strip 25 miles wide. But he didn't sight anything, and was genuinely worried when he returned to the base that night THE next morning, Just before noon, he sighted a plane on a lake 50 miles east of his base and set down, taxing up beside it. A man stood on one of the wings and called to him. Chuck scowled. He didn't like this. Not a bit of it. . . . At 2 o'clock he returned to his base and found it deserted. Alma and her plane had gone. He swore and packed up his equipment. The next morning he reached his home landing. He went home and shaved and bathed and got Into bed. He was dead tired, but he couldn't sleep. The next morning he took a taxi to the Mallory home and asked for Alma. A butler told him that she had gone down to Briarsfield to visit friends. The friends' name was Hanscom. Chuck caught a train for Briarsfield that afternoon. He arrived ar-rived at 5 o'clock and located the Hanscom home. Alma, they told him, was out horseback riding with a chap named Rodney Nuys. Chuck rented a horse and went looking for her. Two miles from the Hanscom home he came to a spot where the bridle trail widened. There were two horses in the clearing, clear-ing, standing close together. Rodney Nuys was trying to kiss the rider of the other, a red-headed girL Chuck rode up close and clipped the gent so hard he fell out of the saddle. Then he grabbed hold of the girl and shook her roughly. "What's the idea?" he barked. "1 found your brother in a little lake SO miles east of the base. He was looking for us. He said he didn't think it was so smart for his sister to give out that he was lost, when he really wasn't Just so she could send Chuck Wallace up into the country and then follow. What's' the idea?" Alma looked at him defiantly. "What do you think?" she said. "You big indifferent lummox I And why do you think I gave up and came home?" Chuck blinked, but maintained bis hold on her arm. For the first time when looking at this girL he grinned. grin-ned. "Do you wast m to tell you what I think?" he asked. "Yes." said Alma. |