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Show ffT'All Over But the JljljRichariS Powell- ShootiflO' If MMzZTl 'sZp AN INMER SANCTUM MYSTERY fjrM2. ml STARRING ARAB 'ANJDY BLAKE w futures r M THE STORY THUS FAR: Lt. Andy Blake and hli wire, Arab, discovered evidence evi-dence of a spy ring headed by a Mr. Jones. Followed to Andy'i home by Jones' fang, Arab was taken prlioner. Andy escaped. He reported to the army and let out to find the fang. He was taken by two of the men to the Jersey coast. In crossing to a small Island Andy managed to upset the boat. He swam asbore and entered tbe house, found Paula a prisoner and turned her loose. He waa captured in the map room by Jones as he was trying to flash a message to a U. S. patrol offshore. They discovered discov-ered that Paula was gone and that be bad knocked Bill out. Joey went Into the next room to get rope. CHAPTER XVI "A guy like you," he said, "ought to try a bow and arrow. Might make out better. I thought hey, where'd you get this rod?" "I met a fellow wasn't using it" "Hey, Chief," Joey said. "Isn't this" "I believe lt Is," Plain Mr. Jonei aid. ' "Study that piece of firewood the lieutenant kindly brought In for Us, and see if lt tells you anything." Joey picked up the club. "I don't get you, Chief," he complained. "What'i this got to do with . . . phhh, he smacked somebody with thlsl" "Bill was always careless," the fat man said. "Was?" Joey cried. "You mean this paragraph trooper knocked off Bill? I better look!" "We have more urgent work here," the fat man said. "Of course he knocked off Bill. Otherwise Bill would have seen his sandy footprints downstairs as we saw them In the hall. They would have been even plainer downstairs. I do not like and tracked into the house." "I'm willing to track It out again," I said. "The only tracks you'll make out of here," Joey snarled, "will be with the backs of your heels. Look, Chief, Bill may be croaking. Can't I go look?" "Either he Is dead or not dead. Whichever lt Is, he would be of little use tonight, I think. It is only tonight to-night which Interests me. Get the extra rope from the Thompson girl'i room." Joey went out, grumbling, and the fat man said, "Sit down In the traight wooden chair, Lieutenant." I did as I was told. It meant turning my back to him, though, and facing the windows. My neck muscles mus-cles twitched under my linked fingers. fin-gers. A spine couldn't be much tougher than those sticks he liked to break. But lt was no time for diving into a lead shower bath. I had already oversubscribed my quota of boners for the evening. Things weren't completely hopeless. The telegram I had left at the road-aide road-aide stand might bring results. Of course the telegram had merely stated, HEADED NEW JERSEY, and that wouldn't be enough to bring help to this tiny island. But it would concentrate attention on Jersey attention at-tention which might come In handy when Plain Mr. Jones began trying to get a message out. Joey rushed back Into the room, babbling, "Paula's gone! She's gone! This guy must have got her away!" "Of course she is gone," the fat man said. 'The sandy tracks ahowed he went in there. Did you bring the rope?" "Yeah, sure, but we got to get that dame!" "How many women do you want t one time?" "It's not that so much, Chief, but she can't have gone far and we'll pick her up." "I'm afraid you're through dating her," I said. "I told her to climb into the garvey and shove off into the bay." "Now It's the garvey!" Joey cried. "Next to this guy gremlins are Boy Bcouts! What if they got the joint unrounded? What if " "Less talk," the fat man said. "Tie him In the chair. I will spell things out for you.." Joey yanked my bands down behind be-hind me. Cord scorched across my wrists. The fat man said, "He came here with no gun of his own, no flashlight, flash-light, no shoes or coat or shirt. He was sending a silly V-for-Vlctory with the lamp. That means that he awam ashore and that there was no plan. If there were others, if there were a plan, we would be prisoners by now. I could almost guess how be came here." "Yeah, Chief? How?" "Will the lieutenant tell us?" "Why not?" I said. "I didn't get ihot In that cellar. I Just pretended pretend-ed to be shot." "Where did all the blood come from?" 'That was easy. I gave myself a nosebleed. But then you crossed me up by slugging me. I came to and waited a while to be on the safe aide. I either waited too long or not long enough. I walked outside right Into two of your gorillas." 'Too long, I believe. They must have returned. Their names?" "The Introduction was kind of fast -I didn't catch the names. Both were big square-faced guys. They brought me here." Joey finished trying to saw through my wrists, looped rope around my chest. "I don't go for that stuff. Chief," he said. "If they brought him, where are they? Where- -" The rope went slack, suddenly. "Where are they?" Joey screamed Where are they?" The rope Jerked up o my throat enpi! "Raeder!" The rope loosened. "Yeah, Chief, yeah, only " "Get on with your work!" ."We started across the inlet in a sailboat. I gave them a swimming lesson. They didn't pass." Joey was working on my ankles and I could feel him shudder. "That makes three good boys he's knocked off," he muttered. "Not good boys," the fat man said. "Not even fair. They thought with their biceps. It is necessary to think with the biceps and with the head. As I do." Joey grumbled something, and the fat man kicked him and screamed, "As I do, pigl Did you hear me?" Joey tumbled backward. "Yeah, Chief, sure," he stammered. "You got everything. You're the champ." The fat man nodded, calmed. "Biceps are merely tools," he said. "It is not enough to use force only, the way our stupid Prussian generals gener-als and admirals do. The head must not give the biceps too much to do. The head must turn the enemy's strength against himself. As Himm-ler Himm-ler and I turn America's strength against herself. Big, strong, stupid America, boasting of her power. I turn the boasts, the loose talk, the bragging against her . . ." His voice faded away and he stood motionless. I coujd almost have "Germany can still win but there Is no time to lose." sworn he had hypnotized himself. Joey crept back and finished tying my ankles. "O. K., Chief," Joey said. The fat man didn't answer. "Chief," Joey said anxiously, "don't get one of those spells. We got no time to lose." The fat man spoke sharply, shrilly, shril-ly, to somebody in his dream world. "No time to lose," he echoed. "Germany "Ger-many can still win but there is no time to lose. Give us the Wehr-macht Wehr-macht and the Luftwaffe and the Navy, and we will give you the world! But it must be at once! Kill that Schwein Canaris and Goering and the stupid generals and the others oth-ers who hate us. CaD on us! Call on the Gestapo to save " "Chief! Chief!" Joey cried. The fat man shook himself. The blind glasses swiveled slowly toward Joey. "Yes?" "Chief, you're getting in one of those fits again. You started talking about Canaris and the others and you worked yourself up. And it's late. It's nearly eleven. You got 'to be on the ball for the contact." The fat man was wide awake now. He polished his china-bowl head with plump fingers, and said, "Bring down Renee and the blonde girl. We still have a half-hour before the contact con-tact Talking will pass the time." Joey went out obediently, and the fat man continued, "You have caused much trouble, Lieutenant." "Yeah," I admitted. "It looks as If I haven't much hope of winning an Iron Cross." "Much trouble. I do not understand under-stand it. You are not very Intelligent Intelli-gent You are not strong." "Sure, I'm just a sub on the junior varsity. Think what our first team will do to you babies." "Your first team," he said, "is on Its way across now. But it will never nev-er land in North Africa not after my report reaches the High Command. Com-mand. What you have done will have no effect on that. But you have destroyed my usefulness here. I will have to start back to Germany. Tonight." "When you get back," I said, "tell them to start learning how to make apple pie and ice-cream sodas. There's going to be a big demand " "Lieutenant!" "Hmmm?" "I do not like some forms of your American humor. I am leading up to something serious. There is little room for passengers on a U-boat. ' will be aboard, and Renee and Joey. There might be room for tw more, if " Footsteps sounded in the hallway, and someone gasped and ran across the room behind me. A shawl ol bright hair tumbled over my face and Arab was laughing and crying and her hps trembled against mine. "Andy," she sobbed. "Andy, they told me they shot you. Andy, are you all right? Are you hurt?" "Sure," I said, "sur; I'm all right Nothing wrong but the recurrence ot an old paralysis of the brain. Are you O. K.?" A hand grabbed her shoulder, wrenched her away. It was Joey, and he growled at her, "If you wanna wan-na see Jack here messed up, just make another pass at him. Sit down!" He jammed her into another anoth-er chair. The fat man laughed. It was like the gurgling of water in drainpipes. "Joey has trouble with his women," he said. "He has to keep them tied up or they run to other men. I do not find myself troubled that way. Do I, Renee?" "I have never given you any trouble," trou-ble," she said faintly. "Why should I? You know how much I love you. Don't you? Don't you?" He patted her cheek. "Yes, of course. Are you glad to see the lieutenant?" lieu-tenant?" "No. Why should I be?" "He has been telling me what happened hap-pened in the cellar. Just Imagine, he fooled us into thinking he was dead!" Her body trembled. She pressed herself against him, and whispered, "Why are we talking about him?" "I thought you might be interested. interest-ed. You were there." "There was so much noise and I fainted and I do not remember what happened very well." "It would be amusing to have you try to remember. Then I could compare com-pare your story with his." , "What . . . what did he say?" He laughed softly. "We will discuss dis-cuss It some other time. It will be entertaining. Sit down and rest Renee. You look tired. You have been doing too much. You are always al-ways doing too much for people. You are too kindhearted." She crumpled into a chair. The fat man touched her glowing black hair, caressed her bowed neck. He suspected that Renee had helped me to get out of the cellar alive but he wasn't going to do anything about It Not yet, anyway. He was going to save the subject for an idle moment which might be enlivened by a little mental torture. He didn't really want love from her. He wanted obedience and terror. Joey had finished lashing Arab's ankles together. Now his hands slid up her slim legs and he began tying knots very slowly and elaborately above the knees. His blue eyes were smoky; a vein squirmed on his forehead. A curl of his yellow hair fiODDed down on his fari nnH clung damply. It was like watching a high priest preprring a girl for strange pagan rites. I tried not to think of Paula Thompson's helpless body. Arab's dark blue dress and white linen collar were smudged and wrinkled, but she sat there looking oddly demure. She made me think of kids at high-school graduations: feet and knees pressed primly together, to-gether, soft blonde hair escaping from a little-girl ribbon, hands in long white gloves crossed on her lap . . . but they were not gloves. Her hands had been wrapped in adhesive tape and her wrists had been crossed and taped. She couldn't wiggle anything but her thumbs. "What happened to your hands?" I asked. She looked at them, tried to push her skirt down. "They kept getting in people's hair," she said. Joey complained, "I got fed up with her slipping outta ropes and scratching and slapping. I bet that Venus de Mille went over big In her day. No hands at all." "We'll get you a show window dummy," I said. "You could make real time with one of those." My wife said, "Andy, you didn't bring the U. S. Cavalry. I wish you wouldn't be so absent-minded." Joey said, "He's got a rope tied around his finger to help him remember re-member next time." "Andy,", she said, "is there a chance?" I shook my head. It would be tough on her not to be able to hope for anything, but I couldn't risk a hint; Plain Mr. Jones was too clever with loose talk. Any chance we had of getting away would be washed out If he became suspicious. "I'm afraid we're tagged out," I said. "Two of the gang were bringing bring-ing me here and I coaxed them In for a swim . . . but then I pulled a skull and left sandy tracks all over the house. Paula Thompson got away, though. She took the garvey. She can't run lt but she could pole across most of the bay." "That's good. Now Joey hasn't anybody he can bully, have you, Joey?" "I'm doln' O. K. You'll learn to be a lady, sister." The fat man said, "She will have to learn quickly. In a few hours we will be on our way to Europe." "On a sub?" Joey asked. "Look, Chief, those things got a habit of dunkin' themselves three times and coming up twice. And I'm just beginning be-ginning to get friendly with the i dame here." (TO BE CONTINUED) |
