Show If BOMBS BURST ONCE P CHURCH STORY SO Jeff Curtis and his arc already on way to Libre when Jeff receives a note from Zora Mitchell warning them not to Jeff Is to be chief engineer for a newly organized fruit They arrive In Libre to find both Zora and her husband and Jeff suspects they were dons with his and with bis friends Jerry Bill Henderson and Slats confirm his suspicions that there Is something strange going on and that Mitchell and Zora were killed because they knew loo Now on a tour of Inspection with he Is troubled by the apparently unfriendly attitude of Henderson and A talk with Monahan reveals that suspects something Is NOW CONTINUE WITH THE STORY CHAPTER The trip down river to was a running with the In the car going back to San Alejo they stopped but once at the culvert and cribbing on which Henderson's crew was still at Curt had to talk with get behind that reserve he'd met with learn some facts he could get his teeth Getting warnings was no good unless you knew what they were aimed But he needed a reason for for the senor was Curt told he wasn't satis-fled about the size of culvert being wouldn't take too much strain to wash out that he pointed to be safe than Mitchell passed on the the senor I have respect for his Curt on work for which I'm I take no one's word until I'm satisfied Curt clambered down the steep embankment to examine the concrete He squatted on his Henderson beside to make jottings in his little He measured the flume and hammered on An act for Dark for they were not many feet from By lowering their heads they could speak in tones that wouldn't carry to the man Curt wasted no put a note in my bag Curt I've got to have a long talk with But not here and not in front of manage it Slats Monahan tells me Mitch was worried for days before his That he don't He me In on Henderson's voice had gone Curt tried was he in a dither about getting to the Henderson looked the lanky man said only I know a fellow name of comes from my home and Mitch Henderson let go why I want to talk to to tell you just enough to keep you from messing around about Mitch's I know you from way back when something dirty what's done is done and it's no skin off your You keep out of it and I'll give you some good reasons soon's we can have a You leave it to I knew what to do and how to do and there's nobody waiting for me with a candle in the no skin off my Curt whatever did for Mitch is a danger to me by taking his won't be if you watch crunched on crushed rock as he tested a foothold for the easiest descent Curt rocked back on his made another note in his little then rose and climbed the embankment was patently annoyed but got into the car without a his foot on the running called down to the try to get up to San Alejo this Come to dinner Saturday night and meet the regained his suavity in a few minutes and began to talk of the work in general and plans for the have yet to go over the rest of the tract before getting down to I should like you to cover it tomorrow and the next I shall not be a lot of Curt said you use a Is there a place to land on the was the snap answer to will be fatiguing but you can do It by The main drain-age canal will take you one full and there you can use an outboard motorboat You can catch the rest on the second will bring you to Friday and Saturday you can study what you have then we can get together say There is so much to be no time to will do very am giving you a a sort of went you must not be I simply do not want anything to happen to that is Engineers with your background in this work we do not find you growing on Curt man's name is Emilio Tomorrow he will report to It is my wish that he go everywhere with when you are out on the observe this You will find him a competent stenographer and quite helpful In relieving you of minor Curt A bodyguard for That seemed to hint at danger to the Chief Danger with its roots in business as he'd thought briefly last night from a personal enemy of striking through an That would be a subtle sort of In the morning Emilio Vargas reported at Curl's He was a Curt found Emilio a good slick looking with sharp olive-tinted snapping He had pointed and perfumed pomade glued his black hair flat to his A a fancy chased affair in a holster that had seen hung at his From his mouth drooped one of the brown-jacketed Curt found Emilio a good guide and untiring in the the young man was as good at taking dictation in had So he was an He was also company of a sort In the two days allotted to Curt completed his Inspection of the engineering work throughout the On the drainage job he met two more old-timers he'd known when with They were cut off from contact and hadn't heard of Zora Mitchell's death until Curt spoke of it Emilio was close at hand and there was no discussion to be had with either Steve Harvey or Herb Lawson aside from shop Friday morning he settled down in his office to a study of maps and progress hydrographic and various data of his hoarded from his tour of work north of the Negro a few years Much of it applied By noon on Saturday he was ready to start dictating memoranda to This took three during every minute of which the native smoked his brown Loosely they burned fast ash flew about at the slightest breath of He ran through two packages of them in this and Curt marveled that the man was able to work with his right eye constantly screwed against the smoke which curled First questions of the work at last on paper and out of the Curt phoned for an appointment early on then went It was his breathing space since arriving six days He played with the children for two Curt took quickly to Zora Mitchell's small The shyness of her first few days had worn off in he lively company of Buddy and and her loneliness for her mother was gradually Lee had seen to When it came time for the children's Lee broke up the play in brisk She sent Curt to the took charge of the and by the time Curt had had his bath and a and was stretched out on the bed for a few minutes of relaxation before the youngsters were out of the way for the night Dinner time This was the night Bill Henderson would be in for And that Curt was as he blew smoke rings He'd mako the mug But how to do it without Lee wising Thought of Lee was his Nemesis She came breezing Into the shooed him off the made him give Bill Henderson one no said she laying out a print planned dinner Unless he's changed I this Curt said He tucked a clean sport shirt inside his fresh white you I'll bet you the evening at the clubhouse that Bill gets here in one piece and I'll even dance with you without an Lee snapped him up on that a bet and I'll hold you to see If I I can get Ines to stay this In case the kids wake She whipped up the print put It and pushed hangers back and something to dance in She selected a pastel organdie and Curt found himself into to fasten the rhinestone shoulder The hour passed and Bill Henderson hadn't Curt became gradually quieter during that fiddling unconsciously with his Lee knew the knew he was puzzled and She ragged him some about giving her the evening so and made a show of getting out his coat and panama to be But they sat down to dinner The meal was not yet over when the phone Lee she one hand over the Her nose wrinkled as at a bad Dark And you're not to go back to the office you hear You lost fair and and it's my We're going to the Curt frowned as he took the receiver from words were crisp and have just been told from that Henderson has had an He is unconscious and sinking As you are an old friend be right You're of Can we use a we have no lights at the field for night You can get to the station in five Berry has been notified be Curt sprinted to the bedroom and returned buckling on his gun He grabbed up his coat and gave Lee a flying kiss and explained on the way to the Be back when I get Besides the mestizo In the car that clanked down the there was spotless as usual from fresh white shoes to the American head of the a young burnt-blond fellow named carrying tripod and was would appear he was drunk you know his So long as he did his job I had no but this There had been a brief rain tonight clearing the Though the airfield was a full kilometer grinding around a curve Curt saw plainly the lighted swimming pool and make out tiny figures Two more human ants were at tennis on the bright Very little was said during the run to which took scarcely thirty On the lower badly ballasted stretches the car rocked Young Lister chewed gum smoked his oversize Turkish lighting one from was on his third as they hit the many switches of the storage Berry Henderson was stretched out on an examination table in the in charge of a newly graduated from the Fisher's chief duties at had been dishing out quinine or bandaging minor hurts of the laboring and the present case seemed to be beyond But so was it beyond his Berry straightened up after an examination of only a few to shake bis he said legs and several ribs at least five or a blow on the back of the head that has probably fractured the the chest caved one lung It's a wonder he wasn't killed instantly or that he's lived this Bill Henderson was still though and frothing pink at the mouth in his wracking efforts to He'd lost a great deal of Young Fisher kept swabbing the clean with can't last more than a few minutes at Still about Henderson was the smell of raw Curt's thoughts were He'd seen so many men good clean of heart lose out here in the tropics because of Bill And only a few days ago Bill had said he'd been on the wagon for some To be with him might not mean what it would to but would he have gone to drinking when expected for dinner at San That wasn't like the old BE |