Show BOMBS BURST ONCE CHURCH THE STOUT SO Curtis and his arc already on way to Libre when he receive a note Irom Mitchell them not to When they arrive in Libre they find both Zora and her husband It Is Mitchell's Job as chief engineer for a fruit company that Jeff has been called to fill Later Jeff's friend Bill Henderson is also and Jeff his ol m ordering him and the Mitchells because they had found n clue U the coins on at the Other sinister figures are the company Dr and the Myden and Jeff and Lee discover their housemaid Is spying on them and has replaced Jeff's cartridges with A man named Collins arrives from the Canal Zone to sec Now Jeff Is to meet Jerry NOW CONTINUE WITH THE STORY CHAPTER XV Curt left the bedroom door ajar for better circulation of air than he could get from the two-foot lattice-work portion of wall under the He and himself on the bed under the mosquito bar Emilio hadn't simply went on smoke curling up past his squinting left eye Curt had no intention of falling he only wanted to his But he was so muscle weary that he did succumb to a catnap with one ear on the The click of the outer door latch brought him He glanced at the luminous dial of his wrist He'd been dozing for i nearly an Quietly he left the bed and went to the but remained out of the wedge of light coming from the The door was wider ajar than he'd left He grinned to Because of the fan-shaped layout of Curl's bungalow was in plain view of the used as a clubhouse outside of meal He could see Emilio enter the screen-front select a table where he had good view or the lighted porch he'd just and settle He was joined at once by a couple of natives Curt recognized them as j under Al Random and a pack of cards was Curt grinned That should tie up the hombre He made quick time of dressing A minute sufficed to pull on shirt and but it took I longer to lace up his high He I slipped a flashlight into a hip pock- buckled on his gun belt He thought of his But he couldn't step onto the open screened porch without the risk of being so he did without He had one further He'd like to make sure that no one entered while he was gone and discovered his Emilio had a Duro had a Curt skidded a magazine across the landing it up against the screen door as though it had so No one could enter without displacing nor could anyone enter and leave and replace the magazine in just that Quickly he unhooked the rear window screen and swung to the ground Some hundred yards up- river irom the dock were a dozen or more wooden dugouts belonging to natives in the company's taking advantage of every black Curt made his way to He played his flash selected worked its line over the that held it to avoid trouble in duplicating the knot on his crawled was waiting for slapping viciously at He seized the nose of the dugout to pull it onto the he you'd been any longer you'd have found only These mosquitoes are big as Curt said Let's get away from the bank and light It'll help their pipes doing the work of smudge get the But remember His curiosity got the better of hirn before he was bumped Mitch made a secret trip over here one just as you're doing I and for the same The Old Man told two are better than so I don't spill till you cut me in on Curt something rotten on the griddle over I can it but I can't identify You've heard of Zora Mitchell's of and Bill Mitch's killing wasn't grudge Mitch knew something that had him in a if you can imagine him getting worked up over Monahan gives me that But what was Mitch is Zora's Bill's Monahan doesn't know That's why I want the low-down on There may be a clue He you know Mitch had been sabotaging the engineering I Slowing it down to such an extent the whole tract would have been washed out come next That wasn't like Why'd he do It ties in He supplied briefly facts t About the bodyguard who was more like a the housemaid who spied on his home the faulty About being reprimanded by for hiring Collins you must have worked up some kind of I had a momentary brainstorm the other Curt that Army plane made an emergency landing at San You know about that For an instant I figured Mitch had got the wind up over those two planes we fly They're He gave a sour things Mitch had let drop indicated that perhaps he had the Panama Canal in But was no He undoubtedly knew those planes could be used to damage the Canal if that's what he had in mind thing I figured was that maybe had political If he did have plans for a dictatorship unfriendly to the United cut Man Moore's in a position to and he says positively there are no political strings to your friend far's he exclaimed no would-be dictator announces himself in never known the boss to be Curt Curt gave a short there are other things wrong with that idea Let's have the your pal Apolonio comes from an old family down this You'll recognize the family grandmother was Luisa Lara Or did the stuff come from via who married a His mother was the only daughter of that She married a German name of The Kuhl-mans had a number of but Apolonio looked so much like Grandfather that he became the old lady's was the chief moneybags of the old Lara so you can't blame Apolonio for taking the name of to please He could by you it was his mother's That's why I didn't know where the money came from for this outfit The fortune was always associated with the name he was educated at and spent some years in pleasure trips between his own country and the Slates and but he went home to stay when the old lady died and left him the bulk of No one knows exactly how many millions of pesos it ran but the guesses average fourteen to are some foggy spots to the One he got hooked up somehow in the Cedillo revolt in but got out of it with a whole never Had several affairs of the in his salad Most serious one was with a German countess a married added by the is his favorite foreign When there he uses his legal name of Something bothered slowed down in his suppose that raises the Nazi question in your It did with But never been known to have any connections with the Nazis nor any trouble with if thai means Curt said Those two square boxes They came from via On a Jap Those eight oversize coffins thai had bothered Mitchell came In on a Jap Jerry J What a dope I've I've known all along that the Dutchman's formula was no excuse for all this all spying on these And all the time the real answer's been staring me in the What a cluck I turned out to Here's one of the slickest Nazi was rubbing his let me in on should've seen it I did ask one You'll remember How could he sink so much money here when the cost of handling fruit will mean so much in competition with you one country that'd be darned glad to subsidize him within limits this close to the Panama Canal for favors received The kind of favors he's in a swell spot to give Nazi me a said A Nazi crew with in charge he's no more Dutch than I Overheard him and talking Assumed it was Dutch Now I know it was and they're not Curt sucked in his His voice came in a there's the answer to why why he wants a family man for his chief And the Hostages for my si lence against the time they learn I've discovered all this those birds mean Curt returned to his side of the his face the color of old newspaper yellowed by He knew now what kind of spot he was in more the terrible position of Lee and the But he That was the saving He and could plan against every contingency he had two major One was a friend across the Unlike was not going to play a lone hand Two so and his precious crew had no reason to suspect Curl's knowledge he must get hold of At once Slipping the cayuca's line over its shore stake exactly as he'd found Curt returned to his He must make certain his absence hadn't been Too much now depended on not tipping his The magazine he'd shied against the front door would but he couldn't see this from So he listened under his then climbed A glance from the bedroom onto the lighted porch The magazine was just as he'd left it Well in the Curt could see Emilio still at but now there were four men in the game The watchdog faced the lighted Who else was in the mess-hall Curt couldn't see from where he He swung himself to the ground took a position from where he could view the whole long room There were several small Curt accounted for young a few of the of the engineering most of the trainmen whom he knew by But Monahan wasn't nor Skirting the pools of yellow cast by the taking advantage of every Curt made his way to the bachelor quarters reserved for It was here Collins would have a room for the The building was simply a long string of small with a screened porch extending the length of There was one entrance from the footpath onto the Each room had a window in the rear another in the front wall beside the door which led onto the Soundlessly Curt made his way I from window to window along the I back of the Standing on I piles as it Curt could only reach I the window sills by and had to jump for a hand then chin himself to see Enough j light came through the front windows to show him each room dimly The first six rooms were not only empty but occupancy indicated only by a bag of sorts dumped on a or a bottle and glass on a or a package bought at the branch before it The seventh room showed a mussed There was no baggage in this no personal articles on table or just the rumpled bed and the mosquito bar swung aside to show that someone had lain here for a The eighth and ninth rooms were made up and but the tenth and last was Slats judging from the snore coming from under the mosquito That meant that Collins was But There were only two places where he could be in at tins time of night the mess-hall or his And he wasn't in either There was no other spot to hang Mulling this I Curt headed back for his bun- t He still kept under Near the river where everything was locked up for the night and only two lights showed one in the dispatcher's one in the dock office he stiffened into He'd caught sight of another likewise hiding Itself in shadow BE |