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Show A Sequel to Bulldog DnunmondL acX BY CYRIL McflEOE - TVN.U. fer-vQH "IT'S A BO MB I" SYNOPSIS. To a eatherlng of anarchists In Barking, London suburb, Zaboleff. foreiffn agitator, agita-tor, tel s of the operations of a body of men who have become a menace to their activities. He says they are masked and wear long black cloaks and are acting without the law. Ho Is interrupted inter-rupted by the men he is describing describ-ing (the Black Gang), who break up the meeting, sentencing some of the participants to condign punishment and carrying away others. A memorandum found on Zaboleff gives an address ln Hoxton, which the leader of the attacking party considers of importance. im-portance. Sir Bryan Johnstone, director of criminal investigation, investiga-tion, hears from Inspector Mc-Iver. Mc-Iver. sent to arrest Zaboleff the night before, of his discomfiture. He had been seized and chloroformed chloro-formed and his raid frustrated. Hugh Drummond, man of leisure, tells Johnstone of seeing the kidnapers kid-napers and their victims. He becomes be-comes an unpaid agent of the police, under Mclver. William Atkinson, ostensibly pawnbroker and money lender, really Count Zadowa, director of anarchy ln England, does business In another an-other London suburb. A mysterious mys-terious stranger Invades the premises. Drummond attempts to burglarize the premises to get evidence. Zadowa lays a trap for Drummond and his burglars. CHAPTER IV Continued Once again the three men stood motionless, mo-tionless, listening Intently, but the sound was not repeated. Absolute silence si-lence reigned, broken only by the. noise of their own breathing. And at last, after what seemed an Interminable pause. Drummond switched on his torch again. The passage was empty ; the door of the Inner office was Just ln front of them. Almost he was persuaded per-suaded that he must have made a mistake mis-take that It had been his Imagination. Imagina-tion. He peered through the keyhole: the room was ln darkness. He turned the handle cautiously; the door gave to him ; and still with his torch held well In front of him, he stepped Into the room, turning the light Into every corner. Not a trace of anyone ; the Inner office was absolutely empty. He flashed the light all round the walls, as far as he could see there was no other door not even a window. Consequently Con-sequently the only way out was by the door through which they had just entered, which was obviously Impossible Impos-sible for anyone to have done without his knowledge. "It is all right!" he muttered, turning turn-ing round to the other two. "Must have been my mistake. Now then, Ginger, let's tackle the big desk first." As he spoke he moved Into the center cen-ter of the room, his torch lighting up the big roll-top desk. "Elght-ho, guv'nor. Keep the beam on the keyhole " The crook bent over his task, only to straighten up suddenly as all the lights went on. "Yer d d fool 1" he snarled. "Switch 'em off 1 It ain't safe." "I didn't put 'em on!" snapped Drummond. "Nor I," said Jerninghnm. For a moment or two no one spoke; then Ginger Martin made a wild dive for the door. But the door which had opened so easily a few moments before now refused to budge, though he tugged at it, cursing horribly:' And after a while he gave it up, and turned on Drummond like a wild beast. "You've trapped me, yer swine. I'll get even with you over this If I swing for It 1" But Drummond, to whom the presence pres-ence of actual danger was as moat and drink, took not the slightest notice no-tice His brain, Ice-cold and clear, was moving rapidly. It had not been a mistake, he had heard voices-voices which came from that very room in which they now were. Men had been there men who had got out by some other way. And Ginger Martin was trapped-all of them. More out of thoughtlessness than anything e ,se he brushed the swearing crook aside tilth the back of his hand-much as one brushes away a troublesome fly. And M t m? feeling as If he'd been kicked In the mouth by a horse, ceased to STwas uncanny-devilish. The room en Ptv, save for them, sudden y flooded with 11-ht But by whom? Drummond Drum-mond felt thev were being watched. Z bv whom," And then suddenly he heard'Ted Jerninghnm's voice, low and 'There's a man watching us. Hugh. I can see his eyes. In that big safe dnk"e a flash, Drummond swung round and looked at the safe. Ted . nS. :ne s the eyeS " Je t and they were fixed on him with I expression of malignant fury. ougb kind of opening that looked like the slit ln a letter box. For a moment or two they remained there, staring at him, then they disappeared also, and seemed to become part of the door. And It was Just as he was moving toward this mysterious safe to examine it closer that with a sudden clang, another opening appeared one much larger than the first. He stopped Involuntarily as something was thrown through Into the room something which hissed and spluttered. For a moment he gazed at it un-comprehendlngly un-comprehendlngly as It lay on the floor; then he gave a sudden, tense order. "On your faces for your lives I" His voice cut through the room like a knife. "Behind the desk, you fools! It's a bomb 1" CHAPTER V In Which the Bag of Nuts Is Found by Accident It was the desk that saved Drummond, Drum-mond, and with him Ted Jernlngham. Flat on their faces, their arms covering cover-ing their heads, they lay on the floor waiting, as In days gone by they had waited for the bursting of a tgo-near crump. They heard Ginger Martin, as he blundered round the room, and then suddenly It came. There was a deafening roar, and a sheet of flame which seemed to fill the room. Great lumps of the celling rained down and the big roll-top desk cracked ln pieces and splintered Into matchwood, foil over on top of them. But It had done its work ; it had borne the full force of the explosion ln their direction. As a desk Its day was past ; It had become a series of holes roughly rough-ly held together by fragments of wood. So much Drummond could see by the aid of his torch. With the ex-nloslon ex-nloslon all the Hirhts had zone out. There Was a Deafening Roar, and a Sheet of Flame Seemed to Fill the Room. and for a while he lay pressed against Ted Jernlngham trying to recover his wits. His head was singing like a bursting kettle: his back felt as If It was broken where a vast lump of ceiling had hit him. But after moving his legs cautiously and then his arms, he decided that he was still alive. And having arrived at that momentous conclusion con-clusion the necessity for prompt action became evident. A bomb bursting in London is not exactly a private affair. "Are you all right, Ted?" he muttered mut-tered hoarsely, his mouth full of piaster pias-ter and dust. "I think so, old man," answered Jer-Inglium, Jer-Inglium, and Drummond heaved a sigh of relief. "I got a whack on the back of the head frum something." Drummond scrambled to his feet, and switched on his torch. The wreckage was complete, but It was for the third member of the party that he was looking. And after a moment mo-ment or two he found him. and cursed with a vigorous fury that boded 111 for the person who had thrown the bomb, If he ever met him. For Ginger Martin, being either too fri-'htened or too Ignorant, had not done as he was told. There had been no desk between him and the bomb when It burst, and what was left of him adorned a corner. There was nothln" to be done: the unfortunate crook would never again burble a safe. And the only comfort to Drummond was that death must have hern nl.so-lutelv nl.so-lutelv Instantaneous. Toor devil." he muttrrod. Some one is going to pay for this." And then he felt J.-rnlnKhaw oluK-.i-ng his arm. "It's blown a hole ln the wall, man. Look." It was true: he could see the light of a street lamp shining through great Jagged hole. "Some bomb," he muttered. "Let's clear." He gave a final flash of his torch round the floor, us they moved toward the shattered wall, and then suddenly stopped. "What's that?" Right ln the center of the beam, lying ly-ing In the middle of the floor, was a small chamois leather bag. It seemed unhurt, nnd, without thinking, Hugh picked It up and put It ln his pocket. Then switching off the torch, they both clambered through the hole, dropped on to a lean-to roof, and reached the ground. They were at the back of the house ln some deserted mews, and rapidity of movement was clearly indicated. Already a crowd was hurrying to the scene of the explosion, and slipping quietly out of the dark alloy, they Joined In themselves. "Go home, Ted," said Drummond. "I must get the others." "Right, old man." He made no demur, de-mur, but Just vanished quietly, while his leader slouched on toward the front door of 5 Green street. The police po-lice were already beating on It, while a large knot of Interested spectators giving gratuitous advice stood around them. And In the crowd Drummond could see six of his gang, six anxious men who had determined police or no police to get upstairs and see what had happened. In one and all their minds was a sickening fear, thnt the man they followed had at last bitten bit-ten off more than he could chew that they'd find him blown to pieces In the mysterious room upstairs. And then, quite clear and distinct above the excited comments of the crowd, came the hooting of an owl. A strange sound to hear, in a London Lon-don street, but no one paid any attention. atten-tion. Other more engrossing matters were on hand, more engrossing that Is to all except the six men who instantaneously in-stantaneously swung half round as they heard It. For Just a second they had a glimpse of a huge figure standing stand-ing In the light of a lamp post on the other side of the street then It disappeared. dis-appeared. And with astonishing celerity celer-ity they followed Its" example. Whoever Who-ever had been hurt It was not Drummond; Drum-mond; and that, at the moment, was all they were concerned with. By devious routes they left the scene of the explosion each with the same goal In his mind. And within an hour six young men, shorn of all disguise dis-guise and clad in Immaculate evening clothes, were admitted to Drummond'3 house in Brook street by a somewhat sleepy Denny. They found Hugh arrayed ln a gorgeous gor-geous dressing gown with a large tankard of beer beside him, and his wife sitting on the arm of his chair. "What happened, old lad?" asked Peter Darrell. "I got handed the frozen mitten. I asked for bread, and they put across a half-brick. To be absolutely accurate accur-ate we got Into the room all right, and having got ln we found we couldn't get out. Then some one switched on the light and bunged a bomb at us through a hole ln the door. Quite O. K., old girl" he put a reassuring arm round Phyllis' waist "I think we'd be still there If they hadn't." "Is Ted all right?" asked Toby Sinclair. Sin-clair. "Yes. Ted's all right. Got a young Inorl rtf hHbo in hie Hafr wtion tha ceiling came down but he's all right. It's the other poor devil Ginger Martin." Mar-tin." His face was grim and stern, and the others waited In silence for him to continue. "There was a big desk ln the room, and the bomb fell on one side of it. Ted and I gave our well-known impersonation imper-sonation of an earthworm on the other, which saved us. Unfortunately Ginger Martin elected to run round In small circles and curse. And he will curse no more." "Dead?" Peter Darrell's voice was low. "Very," answered Drummond quietly. quiet-ly. "The poor blighter was blown to pieces. If he'd done what I told him he wouldn't have ben, but that's beside be-side the point. He was working for me, and he was killed while he was doing so. And I don't like that happening." hap-pening." "What do you propose to do?" demanded de-manded Jerry Seymour. Well, that was a narrow escape. es-cape. Evidently Zadowa is a dangerous man. What's Drum-mond's Drum-mond's next move? (TO BE CONTINUED.) |