| Show e all dovw ver but ut tae P J MA 11 AP A ago R bickas ichard 61 powell 1 r FI 1 AN owner SANCTUM SANC TUM i MYSTERY A I 1 F L STARRING A RAB ARAB 4 c ANDY BLAKE 5 THE STORY THUS FARI lt andy blake and his wife arab discovered evl evi d dance c n 0 ot f a spy py ring headed by a mr bir jones jone followed to andys andy house by low jones tang gang arab was wai taken prisoner but andy who he they bell believed eved de dead was left behind andy reported to the army and then set let out lor for a service sta alon operated by uia the gang he to took the operator 0 alor prisoner and called intelligence before help could ar arrive rive two me members m bets ol of the gang drove up and took and andy y with them when they got to the seashore andy offered to run the boat to the island hangout before they got to the I 1 island andy anay managed to upset the boat and to awl m to the he I 1 land island s both men main unable to swim im were drowned CHAPTER XV or I 1 could go down to the boat house the garvey was probably there but I 1 know how to start a marine engine or any other for or that matter its all I 1 can do to start an electric razor it if I 1 had an arsenal I 1 handle it except maybe a seventy five perhaps I 1 could remember enough ol of my field artillery to fire that yes sir it if I 1 could only find a seventy five nobody was using and it right here and let them have it over open sights everything would be jake I 1 got up disgustedly the dumbest dogface from a replacement train ing center would be better equipped for or the job than 1 I he would have got at it sooner too he would pick up a hunk ot of driftwood and walk into the house and start batting people over the head it a bad idea I 1 slipped down the dune and crept toward the house keeping in the shadow 0 of the pilings my toes buckled against a nice hunk ot of driftwood it was baseball bat size and had some nasty looking nails at one end I 1 took it along the concrete building loomed up over my head I 1 scrambled across the pilings and examined the place the locked door was faced with sheet iron and it had no windows up near the root roof however perhaps twelve feet from rom sand level were slots in the concrete two on each side of the building bull ding the place looked like an heirloom dating back to prohibition you could store a lot ol of scotch inside and if you had a rifle you could make hijackers think bathtub gin was healthier when I 1 pressed my ear against the door I 1 picked up a taint faint hum and a ticklish vibration five would get you ten it was a dynamo the place had to provide its own power I 1 bruised my shoulder against the door but it budge now I 1 would never find out whether or not you needed a B BS S in electrical en gi to wreck a dynamo I 1 took a tew few practice strokes with the hunk of driftwood the follow through perfect but that t matter it a case of trying to break eighty just heads I 1 crept around a corner of the house and spotted a ma man n sitting on the back steps he looking toward me I 1 walked up quietly he it anybody I 1 knew so I 1 turned the rusty nails away before letting him have it on the back of the head he dove into the sand face first I 1 dragged him into the shadow of the steps he seemed to be alive but he would need more than aspirin before he would want to take an interest in ia things I 1 switched a lu ger from his pocket to mine hop ing that it t start shooting holes in my leg and then padded into the house I 1 inched along the wall and found a door it going to be fun to 0 o take a room by room census but it t had to be done the knob turned eastly easily I 1 slipped inside waited somebody was breathing once be fore ore I 1 had waited in a dark room while the fat man breathed near by th the e memory of it made the back of my neck prickle I 1 tell whether or not the breathing sounds ft were ere like those the tat fat man had made I 1 reached forward touched abed a bed I 1 lifted the hunk of driftwood stretched out my hand farther farther A chill skated up my arm my fingers touched a slender body it was halt half naked and it tried to move away from my fingers A girl girls s voice said wearily please dont please dont please dont please 11 the sound droned dronek on as it if a worn needle had stuck on a very old phonograph ph record my y zo throat t felt sindy sandy arab I 1 whispered arab they brought her back yet they brought her back yet they I 1 shook the slim bare shoulders stop it im not going to hurt you I 1 want to help but have to tell rne me a few things first weve been all tal over it before she said fretfully I 1 t see anything from my window except some people in that house giving each oth er a nazi salute and joey and mrs fielding were there and I 1 dont know anything more and ive told you and told you id forget it if you let me go paula yes you are paula thompson arent you you lived in mrs fieldings house on the second floor you know that you youre re just try ing to drive me crazy she sobbed and I 1 get scared talking this way in the dark you youre re going to hurt me again paula im your friend im arabs husband im going to get you out of she began crying quietly and repeating pea if ting 9 its just another trick its just another trick I 1 ran my fingers down her arm and located a strap at her wrist below it her fingers were cold the strap held her wrist to the bed frame I 1 found the buckle unfastened bened d I 1 it I 1 and reached across to tree free her 0 ther other arm A sharp intake of breath cut off her sobbing I 1 see her but I 1 knew she was vas lying there rigidly eyes eyes dl dilated trying to understand A small icy liand hand touched my undershirt crept up over my chin and face and hair 1 I dont i know you she he whispered for the first time there was hope in her voice of course you dont now youve got to answer some questions tor for mv me and then youre leaving you wont turn on the light will you she gasped A minute ago I 1 was afraid of the dark but now I 1 I 1 there was a blanket at the toot foot of the bed I 1 yanked it loose and tossed it round around her Every things clear fifthe on the first floor lt I 1 said go quietly downstairs and out the back dont worry about the man beside the steps he wont bother you can you swim a long way wayt or start a motorboat no well then run down to the inlet dig a hole in the send sand and wrap or I 1 turned the rusty nails bails away before letting him have it yourself in the blanket and crawl in and sprinkle sand all over yourself dont move unless you see a coast guard cutter in the inlet know what a cutter looks like oh yes once they made me a stand land behind the curtains and they pointed out a cutter to me and laughed and then they she was getting choked up again and I 1 broke in it if you see a cutter near enough scream like hell if it gets daylight make sure youre well covered and dont worry about what may hoppenbere happen here bere all I 1 want you to do Is get away safely got it what about you ill make out how many people are here right now joey and mr jones and and bill something stirred in my memory bill who mcadams yes the guy you were supposed to have eloped with yes but I 1 really I 1 why I 1 love him at all I 1 I 1 thought we were just having friendly dates and I 1 phoned him about the nazi meeting and and he was terrible and he made you call up the next morning and tell the girls you had eloped he yes and all the time I 1 was right in that house next door where the tat fat man lived they stood around me and made me call cal then the next day they brought me here they were going to make me write letters if anybody got suspicious of what had become of me it was awault and they take taka it easy bill mcadams Is the one I 1 clubbed as I 1 came in who else is here an all the men and mrs mr fielding and a slender girl with shoulder length blonde hair they call her arab did you say ashes she your wife yes have they well is 1 she no she said quickly no they ha I 1 think justa been talking to her so far where are they theres a big sort of map room two doors down the han hall they might be in it or upstairs 0 K 11 I 1 went to the door and opened it whispers still c crept along the walls get going paula and good luck the blanket rustled an and a hand touched my arm and the stir stairs began e mewing under her feet there was no change in the whispers I 1 waited a few minutes until I 1 was sure that she was out of the house I 1 slipped down the hall counting doors one two I 1 eased cased it open a crack and looked in A hooded desk lamp was lighted but no one was in iii the room this was it this was the tat fat mans berchtesgaden this was where he sat like a plump white toadstool brewing poison I 1 knew I 1 ought to get on with the lob job of batting people over the head but the room was too fascinating to leave i I 1 wanted a closer look at the illing filing cases and huge maps and the be short wave transmitter studded with gleaming knobs and dials I 1 walked in and closed the door somewhere in the big sweating country behind me people had been talking talking proudly of my son and my war work some of the words had echoed from one person to another until they became whispers scurrying through this gray house A fat man had moved slowly to a fling filing cabinet and pulled palled out fat envelopes marked with divisional insignia he had studied what the contents of the envelopes told him of the state of training strength and location of the divisions then he had moved little fla flags ga on P a wall map to a maneuver area to a staging area to an overseas base or he had bad pulled out an envelope marked and had added the tact fact that they had started to come oft 08 the line with twin st ingers in the tan tall there were plenty of gaps in his collection I 1 checked a subject on which I 1 had bad some inside information and found that he was tar far behind the parade that much comfort even when he only had one extra tact fact it was one too many it seemed like a good idea to mess up his collection as much as possible just in case anything went wrong with my plans I 1 let the files alone it would take hours to open every cabinet and destroy the contents the pins on the map were another matter he might not have a small scale duplicate and it would take days of studying the filed material to replace the pins properly I 1 swept my hand over the big MOP map the pins bent like tiny bows leaped tree free with them fluttered small paper bags lettered with the numerals of divisions and airplane squadrons the maps were clean too clean I 1 resist a temptation I 1 picked up the fifth air force and first armored and the eighty sec ond airborne air borne and a couple of hot infantry divisions and landed a task force in berlin in a glass case in a corner were four rifles a shotgun shot gun a tommy gun several revolvers and even a hand grenade I 1 let them alone my table of basic allowances called for one cub club and I 1 was already over equipped with a luger I 1 would never be able to handle the gleaming panel of the short wave transmitter deserved some attention tent lon though I 1 looked behind the panel and selected the biggest tube I 1 could find one which bulged with cathode and grid and anode I 1 decided against breaking it because it might explode too loudly instead of that I 1 dropped it in the wastebasket and covered it with papers it was only a start anyway by the time I 1 finished with the short wave set the only way it would ever reach deutschland sender would be by parcel post ak I 1 stretched out a hand band toward the wiring then got an idea which wiped the radio from my thoughts I 1 raised the blackout curtain ot of one seaward window I 1 swung the lamp around on the desk so that its light glared directly out to sea theres one code signal everybody knows I 1 blinked it on the desk lamp dot dot dot dash dot A voice jeered illegal jack wanna get us fined I 1 swung around clawing tor for the luger I 1 might just as well have tried to coax a live crab from my pants pocket joey raeder and the tat fat man stood in the doorway watching with polite interest A couple of automatics were looking my way too I 1 froze I 1 glanced at the hunk of driftwood three feet away on a table rl if it had been in my hand I 1 could have thrown it I 1 said that sporting instinct of yours win will get you booted out of the joey said the guy asked tor for it chief so walt wait the tha tat fat man said tut but chief JA lower the window shade joey and douthe yo uthe blind glasses glared et at me elbring your right hand out 0 of I 1 your pocket slowly and clasp both hands hand behind your head I 1 obeyed there anything to be gained by seeing if 11 I 1 could jump ten feet in less time than a trigger finger could move a quarter inch joey detoured around me and pulled down the shade then h no ha came up behind me and carefully worked the gun out of my pocket TO BE CONTINUED |
