Show COR G le THE STORY THUS FAR borle corey Is railroaded into taking a job she does not want helping old admiral duncan write his memoirs she Is in love with paul duncan the admirals grandson while aboard the samoa en route to hawaii she Is thrown overboard and before arriving at oahu bahu pearl harbor Is bombed after landing paul and borle overhear pauls handsome brother steve with whom zorie zone Is infatuated plotting with winthrop lanning to deliver some radar equipment to the axis believing steve in danger borle rushes into the night to save hint him and discovers the body of beautiful amber lanning winthrop lanning binds zorie and drives her to a cabin in the mountains CHAPTER XV Is there anything you can say to me he asked gently that might be useful on your behalf mr stromberg is a realist and a man of quick decisions I 1 do not know what he will decide to do but I 1 assure you I 1 will do everything to save your life you are so innocent and so beautiful will you tell me who ah nah is zorie asked but of course miss corey I 1 will gladly answer all of your questions ah nah is pierres way of pronouncing anna he is referring to one of the bravest cleverest most brilliant most dangerous secret agents who ever lived anna boland she was an english girl of about your age an amazing person she was shot by a firing squad in berlin six months ago do I 1 resemble her mr lanning laughed sharply my dear girl you are anna boland it is the most amazing resemblance I 1 have ever known Is that why pierre threw me overboard yes and for other strangely coincidental reasons do you recall the night in the rain in ellerston Ellery ton when you met steve duncan yes what you may not recall was that while you were talking to steve beside that telephone pole a sedan a pale green sedan came along do you recall that yes 1 I was in that sedan so was pierre we saw you talking together arwe As we passed steve duncan pulled you behind the pole why said zorie steve explained that to us very lucidly he did some very quick thinking he had seen your amazing resemblance to anna boland then he recognized me in the sedan he reasoned that in spite of our belief that anna boland was dead your resemblance to her placed you in danger he pulled you behind the pole to protect you might you or pierre have shot me something like that 1 I would call that a very remote possibility mr lanning answered in spite of his lazy way steve duncan thinks with great rapidity he was simply taking no chances and of course zorie said that made you suspicious at least it made us very curious but we did not see you well enough that night to notice your remarkable resemblance to anna boland it was later when we saw you on the ship that we pieced things together in ellerston Ellery ton we merely thought that you and steve were being extremely furtive but there were other suspicious circumstances one was your possession of a certain engineering paper on the re tooling of the fabrik krupp plant for increased war production it was the sort of document anna boland might have had another item was your stenographic notebook she wondered why he was going to all this bother he have to explain anything to her certainly he expected to learn nothing of importance from her back of his air of solicitude was a quality that puzzled her why she asked herself was mr lanning being so outspoken mr lanning paused he took another drink with you zorie said insisting that I 1 am not anna boland and with 1 pierre insisting that I 1 am why you check up you somehow have radioed berlin and confirmed anna bolands death ive lived in ellerston Ellery ton all my life it would have been so easy mr lanning jumped up but my dear girl that is the roost most amazing part of all the day before pierre tried to drown you we sent two radiograms radio grams one which reached berlin in roundabout round about the other to a man I 1 happen to know in chicago a faithful man but not too intelligent I 1 instructed him to proceed at once to ellerston Ellery ton and send us a brief report on you to be bedol fol lowed later by a more detailed report messa message to berlin must have fa fall fallen en into the hands of an over cautious 03 clerk I 1 said in substance e Is A anna boland dead her duplicate is aboard this ship under very suspicious circumstances the answer said perhaps it was anna R bolands boland s double we shot of course that bolstered pierres suspicions tremendously but not nearly so much as the answer we received from arom the man I 1 sent to ellerston Ellery ton this mis will amuse you very much miss corey mr lanning paused for another drink and zorie wondered if anything could ever amuse her again his reply decoded said literally this zorie zone corey left for hawaii on fourth was employed by pr professor bowdoin J folsome past four months he says she is too smart his wife claims she is a very suspicious clous character full report later that said zorie grimly is very very funny mr lanning he started to smile but when he saw her expression he checked himself it is so curious it steve told us about mrs Fol somes tea invitations it should have convinced pierre but he is so stubborn and amber was almost equally stubborn incidentally that full report had not come when we left honolulu zorie wondered why he was so eager to explain to answer all her av a w kill mr lanning paused for another drink q questions his solicitude for her plight did not wholly explain him it was perhaps a natural instinct but it went deeper than that he was a little drunk therefore garrulous but it was not just that perhaps she reflected it was his vanity he was bored he wanted to talk and he was an exhibitionist recalling the night she had 5 slapped lapped ambers face zorie said amber hated me on the contrary miss corey she admired you very much on the assumption that I 1 was anna boland she was never quite sure about that you see amber was not a secret agent miss corey she was merely a girl of strong enthusiasms who sincerely believed in our cause she asked repeatedly to be given a chance to help she lived on martinique and wh when en the island went vichy she was one of our most loyal supporters she was capable mr lanning said thoughtfully but a trifle too enthusiastic too inclined to take matters into her own hands she had the ardor of the amateur she hated to take orders pierre under your orders too zorie interrupted ali in a lesser sense pierre has lived mostly in the united st states ates although the past two years he has been in and out of europe frequently in certain kinds of work he is indispensable ia his is vanity makes him hard to wor work k with lie he is a brute zorie said with feeling he is a beast beas t 10 yes and he is sometimes difficult to handle his two attempts at of pierre piene killing you were typical he tried to drown you because if actually were anna boland y you ou extremely dangerous were an you enemy agent to be liquidated his mistaken atter attempt apt at killing you tonight was similarly motivated As work was done the he saw I 1 it t our wed all clear out was up jig immediately and you are still to him anna boland a dangerous cangero us enemy to be eliminated how do you plan to clear out in a japanese submarine he smiled and shrugged perhaps there are so many ways 11 with this island so well guard ed mr lanning seemed amused M my y dear girl this little island chasn it yet cut its war teeth you saw how easily I 1 got past those guards quite as easily I 1 can clear out As a war goes on you learn many tricks many ropes I 1 was about to say that amber was an individualist too but easy to reach through her emotions emotions she very much enjoyed playing the part I 1 gave her which was that of the lovely siren in an assignment of this nature we always have a girl of her type along the first time amber saw me zorie orie interrupted she stared at me as if I 1 were a ghost ghost I 1 know now she thou thought 9 ht I 1 was anna boland mr lanning chuckled yes you gave her a dreadful shock it if she spent her life in martinique ti how did she know anna boland she did not know anna miss corey amber was a resident of martinique but she spent a large part of her life in the states at least she went to finishing school and college there miss boland was pointed out to her twice once in a new york night club and once in martinique A large part of the treasury of france something like four hundred million in gold bullion is stored there you know anna boland was in martinique doing a little snooping in spite of being a british agent anna boland was ambers ideal anna was beautiful clever and a witch she was quite in the tradition she had no conscience there was no trick in the bag she hesitated to use to her love was a weapon or a tool men lost their heads over her amber in this assignment tore a page from anna bolands book she used love as a tool at deasis least she tried winthrop lannings eyes were partly lidded he looked more ylli cal than usual 1 I think you would do marvelously in this work because your innocence is such an excellent cloak for your cleverness im afraid im too human too zorie said besides I 1 could never work with you youre too suspicious too obstinate in this work my dear girl suspicion is ah yes I 1 know the one firm foundation but ive listened to you argue ive heard your opinions youre what we call back in ellery ton a conclusion jumper ive suspected this for some time mr lanning now im sure suspicion is no longer your slave its your mas terl winthrop lanning started from his chair he was suddenly wary just what are you saying miss corey ill give you a perfect example zorie quickly answered you honestly believed that what paul duncan said on the lanai tonight was the truth it was the truth it was a malicious lie but you leaped at it because you were so willing to be suspicious my dear miss corey he answered with his most urbane smile 1 I am not a fool perhaps I 1 am always suspicious but I 1 am always clever too sometimes I 1 am almost psychic steve has been clever altogether too clever he has had me fooled a great deal of the time he almost had me fooled tonight vt do you realize zorie stopped him that paul did not know what he was talking abour why did he say it he and I 1 happened to overlie overhear ar your conversation behind the hedge with steve and pierre your plans for tonight paul said what he did merely to upset steves plan by destroying ying your trust in him mr lanning was staring at her curiously this is most interesting miss corey but I 1 think you are being a little too clever yourself your fiance was very convincing he accomplished his purpose nicely but my psychic sense tells me that your fiance was telling substantially the truth why zorie demanded because it was a very dangerous moment for youl you it was safer to be suspicious I 1 you being clever or psychic you were playing safe I 1 my candid opinion is that you picked that moment to lose your nervel nerve winthrop La lanning sank back in his chair he was smiling mysteriously TO ITO BE CONTINUED |