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Show TI1K STOKV SO 1-Alt: More than SrtO.OOO foreign troops svcretly assembled assem-bled In Mexico hy Van ll:issck suddenly Invaded the I'nlCrd States. Vastly superior supe-rior In numbers and equipment to tbe American forces which opposed them. Van Hassek's troops pushed rvtentlessly -11 C II A l-I Fit XVII Continued Benning went to bed after watching watch-ing for several hours and managed to sleep through part of the day. From his porthole, Benning saw flying fish scurry out of the course s of the ship in late afternoon, which confirmed fast progress south. With evening he caught the blink of distant dis-tant light myriads on the coast line. He explored the possibility of escape in the night by whaleboat, but concluded con-cluded he stood slender chance of success in such an exploit. At dark he resumed his reconnaissance of the deck in his effort to locate Bra-vot. Bra-vot. Schmolz' stateroom was empty at nine o'clock, again at ten. On his S third trip down the boat deck, Ben-ning Ben-ning found that half a dozen men had assembled, including Bravot and Schmolz. He stationed himself again in the shadows of a whaleboat and waited. An hour passed without development, de-velopment, then the group filed out and went to the rail to strain their eyes into the starlit night. One of them set off a flare, and ten minutes later a second flare. Benning's ears caught the distant hum of an airplane. The sound grew in volume until a plane zoomed overhead and circled to a stop. The engines of the ship slowed down. Four men lowered a boat. Bravot shook hands with Schmolz and climbed over the rail to disappear disap-pear down the ladder. A few minutes min-utes later Benning caught the flash of oars in the starlight. The plane burst into a roar of sound, lifted into the night, and streaked off into the void whence it had come. Benning returned heavily to his cabin. Bravot's departure by plane clearly meant that the ship would not pause at Tampico or Vera Cruz. But at least, Benning consoled himself, him-self, he could play a stiffer game on ' deck with the French renegade out of the way. Somehow, in the tense days ahead, he would find a solution to this hideous hide-ous problem, he vowed. If nothing better, a chance at the radio "room whence he could flash a warning code to the coast artillery forts and naval base guarding the Canal from Limon Bay. During the next few days, while the dynamite ship ate up the long miles to Panama, Benning carefully went over the vessel and watched his chances. Land had vanished. escape by boat he had dismissed finally as out of the question. Benning's interest centered on the radio room as his best chance. The radio station lay in a cubbyhole un- -der the bridge. Several times he visited the room, pretending interest in its mechanism. But the radio op-"erator, op-"erator, one Smidt, was sullenly uncommunicative un-communicative and resentful of visitors. vis-itors. "You been around here enough, mister," Smidt complained at Benning's Ben-ning's third appearance. "I got work to do. so you please keep away." After that incident, Benning gained an uncomfortable suspicion that he was being watched. Twice he tested his trail by an abrupt about-face on deck. Both times a hatchet-faced steward slouched past him with exaggerated ex-aggerated preoccupation. Only one chance remained if he failed at the radio. That was to reach the American officers who would come aboard to check cargo before the ship was permitted in the locks. But Benning decided that he must not wait on that last desperate des-perate extremity. Benning kept up a careful estimate esti-mate of the speed and progress of the ship. His calculations told him when the ship must be approaching Limon Bay. Schmolz' plan, he guessed, was to detonate the ship as it passed through Gatun Locks. Benning's plan of direct action crystallized on what he judged to be the last afternoon at sea. In his cabin he blocked out, on a sheet from his notebook, a blunt warning message: "Commanding General, Panama Halt American freighter now approaching ap-proaching Limon Bay from New York with cargo of high explosives. General plot in effect to wreck Panama Pan-ama Canal. Instant action impera--i tive. Benning, Major G-2." Until he saw Schmolz go to the bridge, Benning loitered about the boat deck, then went direct to the radio room. "Mister, didn't I teU you to keep out of here!" Smidt exploded as Benning stepped into the little room. Benning said quietly: "I want to use your radio, Smidt. You'll be good enough to do just what I tell you to do." v Smidt scowled at Benning's leveled lev-eled pistol and yielded with a sullen nod of his head. Benning strapped the fellow's hands behind his back and forced him to stretch out face downward on the floor. Sitting down calmly, Benning started putting his message into Panama. He had buzzed out the words, "C. G. Panama Pana-ma Halt" when a voice challenged chal-lenged from the door. "So, my ship has a new radio man! " Schmolz was framed in the door. INSTALLMENT SIXTEEN forward. The U. S. army was not prepared pre-pared for this sudden attack, and could only retreat In the face of overwhelming force. While an American spy In Mexico City, Benning had gained the confidence of two enemy otllcers, Flncke and Bravot. Bra-vot. Weeks later he unexpectedly met at -34 at his voice a raucous sneer. Murder burned in his round green eyes as he covered Benning with a long-barreled Luger pistol. Behind Schmolz were his mate, steward, and a member mem-ber of the crew. With an oath he unstrapped Smidt's hands and kicked the operator to his feet. Smidt took Benning's pistol and message mes-sage and passed them to Schmolz. "Ei, himmel!" Schmolz gasped, as he read the message. "A spy aboard! " In a surge of savage fury Schmolz seized Benning by the collar and jerked him out on deck. With a sudden sud-den swing of his ham of a fist, he dropped his prisoner and crashed down upon him with his two hundred pounds of beef and brawn. "Got here just in time didn't I!" Schmolz bellowed. "Not for nothing did I have you watched!" Schmolz' beefy fists pummeled emphasis to his words, flailing Benning's Ben-ning's face and head. "Chuck him overboard to the sharks!" he roared. Benning was driven to the rail. He gripped the rail with his hands and held tenaciously against the fatal fa-tal plunge into the Atlantic. One of his assailants clutched his legs, an- b. ..g- i, ..--.,J,s.a.ia "So my ship has a new radio man." other ground with heavy heels at his fingers. Below Benning could see the water foaming down the hull of the ship. His feet were clear of the deck, his left hand lacerated into helplessness. A knife flashed in the air over his right hand to slash it free of the rail. Schmolz bellowed an order before the knife could reach the flesh and bone of Benning's fingers. "Stop it! Hold everything keep him aboard! Ja, I got a new idea!" The others turned to Schmolz with questioning glares. The knife hung in the air over Benning's hand. "Ja, in the water it is over too quick! " Schmolz leered. "So I think we give him a nice stateroom where he can think until boom!" Schmolz sprang forward, seized Benning's collar and hustled him down a narrow flight of steps from the boat deck. He searched Benning's Ben-ning's pockets and shouted an order. or-der. A winch sang, a hatch crept open over the hold. At command, one man seized Benning's legs, the other two helped Schmolz cram their prisoner head foremost through the opening. Benning plummeted through black space, struck on head and shoulders and lay stunned, consciousness con-sciousness holding by a thin thread. Slowly his mind cleared. He stretched his pain-racked body out on the hard cargo and tested shoulder shoul-der blades by moving them. There was no fracture. Lying flat on his back, he strained his eyes upward through the blackness. The hatch had been closed. He muttered to himself: "This time, Benning, you've tangled yourself your-self in a fine snarl. Looks like curtains, cur-tains, doesn't it?" Benning felt drowsiness creeping over him, a drowsiness that had the power of a strong opiate. He woke with a start to find the engines shut down now. The ship was not moving. mov-ing. He concluded the ship must have stopped at Cristobal. Here a quarantine officer would come aboard. Schmolz would advise him of the nature of his cargo, but this merely for the computation of weights and water displacement required re-quired for passage through the locks. Unless suspicions were aroused, the ship would steam on into the Canal. In a short time the engines churned. Benning took this as verification. veri-fication. The ship was leaving Cristobal. Cris-tobal. After a time the engines slowed down, stopped. Benning's pulse ham- NEXT WEEK Flncke In Washington, and continued to pose as his friend. Ilonnlng accompanied accompa-nied him on a boat loaded with dynamite dyna-mite bound for the Panama Canal. On board bv aroused the suspicions of Schmolz, the skipper. Now continue with the story. mered in his ears. He guessed that the dynamite ship had come to the locks and was being made fast to the electric mules that would tow her. By now Schmolz and his henchmen hench-men must have abandoned the ship, after setting detonators in motion for the explosion, he reasoned. Innocent Inno-cent hands were seeing the vessel through, a hundred seamen whose lives would roar into nothingness with his own. Into the black hole there came the soft yellow glow of a ball of light Benning shook his head dazedly against what must be a phantom of his tortured Imagination. The ball swung crazily toward him, gaining In brightness, and a hushed voice came to his ears from overhead. "Say, mister, ain't you pretty hungry hun-gry about now?" Benning's voice leaped from his throat as his mind oriented itself to this Intervention. "Quick, Grimesl Get a rope down here and pull me out of this holel " The ball of light ceased its rotation, rota-tion, grew stationary on a thin cord In front of Benning's eyes. Grimes mulled through priceless seconds, and countered, "But the cap'n might get sore when he comes back, and kick me off the ship." "Schmolz Isn't coming back!" Benning shouted. "Quick, get a rope for me or it's only a matter of minutes min-utes until we'll be blown to pieces!" Grimes did not answer, but jerked the lantern back up out of the hold. Benning's fingers bit into the palms of his hands through an eternity of waiting until the lantern reappeared, hitched this time to the end of a stout inch-rope. Benning detached the lantern when It reached him, passed the end of the rope under his armpits and tied a hurried knot. He put the force of his lungs into an order to heave. With legs braced across the open hatch. Grimes put the strength of his powerful arms into the job and brought Benning to the deck. Benning Ben-ning staggered to his feet and started start-ed for the rail. "Come on, Grimes," he ordered. "We got to get off this ship!" Under the soft light of a new moon, as he ran to the rail of the ship, Benning saw the thick concrete con-crete walls of the locks. Beyond were the rows of squad tents of an emergency guard detachment. Ahead the electric locomotives tugged at heavy cables. Benning drove the force of his lungs along the deck in warning to the crew and climbed down the ladder, lad-der, closely followed by Grimes. At coming abreast of the top of the walls, he leaped, propelling himself outward with his legs, and landed on chest and stomach- For several moments he lay stunned, then staggered stag-gered to his feet and ran toward the tents. Sentries barked a challenge, a figure in pajamas burst out of a tent to level a vibrant voice. "I'm the commanding officer what's all this yelling about!" Benning panted: "I'm Major Benning, Ben-ning, of G-2. The cargo of this ship is dynamite it will detonate at any minute! Get everyone clear here!" The commander swung on his heels with cool promptness and began be-gan shouting orders. "All out! On the run! Leave everything behind! Get moving to Mindi on the wagon-road wagon-road never mind formation!" There was intensity rather than excitement in the officer's voice. Benning saw that the crew was bursting from the doomed ship. Some, in their panic, leaped into the water of the narrow locks, others made the long leap to the top of the locks. He ran after the officer, Grimes trailing. A puffing sprint brought them to the railroad grade that led into Mindi. Another long run and the officer halted in a deep cup in the Sierra Quebrancha. He commanded his soldiers to scatter into the foothills. Two miles lay behind. Half an hour had passed, Benning judged. The captain introduced himself, Marlin. He began asking questions, suddenly suspicious that he might have been tricked away from his post of duty. Benning quickly established es-tablished his identity. "But how do you know the ship's cargo is ?" Marlin cut off his query as his cheeks caught the peculiar stir of air as from a gust of wind. Benning's Ben-ning's hands drove to cup his ears. He felt himself pitched forward on his face. The earth heaved violently, violent-ly, his head rang with the pain of the volcanic might of the explosion that fiDed the world. All existence had been reduced to roaring, crashing, crash-ing, maddening bedlam. A clap of thunder shattered his thoughts. It crashed out of distant hills and jungles far down the Isthmus Isth-mus from Gatun Lake. Benning halted. There came a second crash, a third, a fourth. The detonations followed one another successively within the limits of a few minute? (TO BE CO,Tl.L EDI |