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Show ; Released thru ';: : - United ArtbH g 'gy 1 'The swift drama of an I adventurer's last stand.- MJDG1ERS starring g CHARLES BOYER ' " Jt production with Sigrid Jjflr ur'e gn redy lomorr ( WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE Pepe 2 Moko, famed jewel thief a debonair at he is clever, has eluded the police of all Europe and is hiding in the city of Algiers. In the Casbah, dim and mysterious native quarter of the town, he is safe from the efforts of the Algiers police to arrest him, for the Casbah is an international haunt of dangerous danger-ous criminals and refugees, and even the potice find it easier to enter than to leave. Finally Police Commissioner Janvier of Paris arrives to direct the hunt for Pepe le Moko, and breaks into the Casbah with a squad of picked men. They are tipped off by Regis, a stool pigeon in Pepe's gang, that Pepe is in the shop of Grandpere, Casbah fence for stolen jewels. Chapter Two Pepe's meditations on the singular sin-gular beauty of Grandpere's pearls were interrupted by the breathless arrival of Ines, Pepe's sweetheart. A native Algerian girl, dark-eyed, husky of voice, with a passionate - -please this way," b drawled in perfect English. "We cannot afford af-ford to let any visitors be hurt." Eager for some of the excitement she had come to seek, she followed j him into a room where sat a native : woman in gypsy dress. "What's happening?" Gaby asked. I "Oh, it's nothing. The police are looking for a man." 'But all this for one man?" . "Ah, but you don't know Pepe le j Moko," the gypsy woman boasted proudly. "How does he do it?" "A good head," volunteered Humane. Hu-mane. "It's not his head that saves him," countered the woman, "it's his heart. A man with such a good; heart can get around anyone." I "Sounds intriguing," murmured Gaby. She followed Slimane's gaze, which was fixed on a narrow stair- way in a corner of the room. Down the stairs came a startlingly hand-, some young man, calmly rolling up' a sleeve of his coat to bare an, arm from which a thin stream of blood trickled. Gaby watched his face fascinatedly. No one needed to tell her that here was the strange, almost fabulous man they had been talking about "Permit me to hope," purred It i " -1 Gaby watched his face fascinatedly. intensity of movements that belied the catlike immobility of her expression, ex-pression, she rushed to Pepe, seizing seiz-ing him by the lapels of his coat. "Pepe! The police on the roof! Quick, they're coming Regis warned me!" Pepe smiled the gay, boyish smile that had had much to do with making him the idol of the Casbah dwellers,. and with graceful, fingers brushed back the hair that had fallen over Ines' eyes in her hasty flight "Suppose the police should see you like that?" he teased. "What would they think of you?" Half amused, half frightened, she begged him to get out of the place while there was yet time. Grandpere had already begun methodically me-thodically packing his jewels, and as the axes of the police began crashing against the heavy door, Pepe's bodyguards shoved a heavy, chest away from the wall, revealing reveal-ing a small opening into the adjoining ad-joining house. Silently, they filed through the aperture, and the bodyguards body-guards pulled the chest back into place from the other side. Meanwhile, in a nearby street, a party of sightseeing tourists two young girls and their dull-looking, dull-looking, middle-aged escorts found themselves caught in the midst of the rushing, shouting and gun-popping police. Gaby, the more triking of the two girls, was jostled jost-led into ait-archway, separated from her companions. A pair of hands eeired her -by the elbows and propelled, her, firmly but not too roughly, inside the native house. , She -turned : to . find i a smugly miling young man, clad in a modified modi-fied form of native dress, bowing obsequiously at her side. Slimane, ;the native police inspector whose pedal province was the Casbah, ,' ushered her into an inner room of the house. Slimane, "that it's nothing serious." "Thanks. Just a flea bite," shrugged shrug-ged Pepe. "Your police are getting smart it was a mistake for me to go up on the roofs." Then, ex- tending his wounded arm to the gypsy woman, he ordered cheerily, "Fir. it up." While his arm was being bandaged, band-aged, Pepe's eyes fell for the first time upon the tourist girl. His gaze tok in appreciatively her extraordinary extra-ordinary beauty; but only far a mDment before it wandered to tha heavy rope of pearls around her throat. She smiled, half challeng-ingly; challeng-ingly; he smiled back, shifting his gcze to her features again; then or.ee more regarding the tempting jewels with an appraising look. And as he looked from her face to her throat and back again, a warm light kindled in his eyes. They exchanged few words at this first meeting; the strange, lovely girl from the world outside fascinatedly watching the famous crook, who in turn regarded her with mingled admiration for her beauty and professional interest in her adornments. But the foxlike fox-like Slimane, ever planning, ever observing, stood by quietly watchr ing them and smiled to himself. Finally, the police having given up the hunt, Pepe made courteous apologies and left the house. "It's a shame, isn't it?" Slimane remarked to Gaby when Pepe had gone. "Such a waste of talent. . an unusual intelligence. . .one hate to see him buried so young." "Buried? What makes you so sure?" ' 'Tve marked the date of ht arrest on the wall of my room," said the detective quietly. "High where it reads black in the ray of the setting sun." -.- ... -To be continued) ! |