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Show 5& bombs burst mtiWi WfiW'IY GRANVILLE CHURCH 'y&LpC THE STORY SO FAR: Jeff Curtis and hii wile, Lee, are on their way to Tlerra Libre wnen Jeff receives a note from Zora Mitchell warning them not to come. Later be learns from Jerry Mclnnis that Zora's husband has been murdered and that It is his Job as chief engineer for a fruit company that Jeff has been caUed to flU. When they arrive In Tlerra Libre, Jerry tells Jeff there is something strange going on. Jeff and Lee meet Montaya, Jeff's employer, and go with him to San Alejo, where Montaya tells them that Zora Mitchell has "committed suicide." Neither Jeff nor Lee believes that her death was suicide. Zora, they agree, was not the type to commit suicide. Jeff suspects Montaya of arranging, ar-ranging, or at least of knowing about both Zora's and her husband's death. NOW CONTINUE WITH THE STORY CHAPTER IV Every day was a new day at San Alejo, fresh and cool and clean at dawn no matter what the blazing gun might bring later. Even the asphalt underfoot was toned up by the dew as Curt swung along for his early appointment with Montaya. Curt's mind should have been toned up, too, by, the tangy air so much like a Fall morning at home, but his last words to Lee just now he'd read the pucker between her eyes were still in his ears. "Don't you be worrying about Zora Mitchell," he'd told her. "I admit suicide doesn't sound like her, but we hadn't seen her for six years and that length of time will work changes in any of us." "It was her little girl I was thinking think-ing of," Lee had answered him soberly. so-berly. "I'll find out about her." Curt made his way to Montaya's office, a high-ceilinged room pan- W.N And if you should interest yourself in the case, you might perhaps invite in-vite a similar fate, no?" Montaya put an end to the subject sub-ject with an apologetic flash of teeth. "I cannot risk that. Engineering work is behind schedule. I need you so very badly, Mr. Curtis." The next hour was spent in meeting meet-ing key workers of the general staff, persons with whom Curt would have frequent contact. It was a whirlwind tour. The bulk of employees, numbering fifty to sixty, six-ty, were Americans, with a sprinkling sprin-kling of Britishers and other Europeans. Euro-peans. Then said Montaya, "This is the best time of day for you to meet Dr. Toenjes. Later he ;s likely to be in the field." Using a handy phone he called for the laboratory, and when he got his connection spoke in French. "French?" queried Curt, as the other hung up. "I thought the name was Dutch." Montaya smiled perfunctorily. "Oh, Dr. Toenjes also speaks Spanish Span-ish and English after a fashion. He is more successful with French. You do not, then, speak French?" As Curt shook his head, "I thought not. He will use English with you." The Agricultural Department occupied oc-cupied an adjacent building, filling a corner left by the administration administra-tion building and the hospital. Montaya Mon-taya pushed on through the outer office, vacant except for a young man typing cards, and on to a door at the rear. In the huge working laboratory there was shelf upon shelf, and row upon row, of carefully labeled boxes and jars. Along one side of the room a number of steel filing cabi- I.U. S&K.VICE. rttof ' dumpy, bearded man had, he'd sold Montaya on it pretty solidly. At last, as final courtesies were being said, the worthy doctor lei down the bars. He asked with what could best be described as a cunning cun-ning look, "You blay gribbage, ja?" "Cribbage?" Curt laughed. "Sure, I know the game." "Goot We blay sometime, ja?" "Certainly." Montaya explained as they left the laboratory. "Dr. Toenjes' one regret here is that he has no good opponent at his favorite game." He smiled politely. po-litely. "He is very good at it. I hope, Mr. Curtis, you will be able to stand up to him." Curt chuckled. "If I can't, I'll sic' my wife onto him. She can play the game backwards and forwards." He added, with another chuckle, "If he'll comb out his beard first." Their final stop was the engineering engineer-ing office, a one-story structure, square like the laboratory. It occupied occu-pied the corner between the general offices and the clubhouse, thus completing com-pleting the layout of principal company com-pany buildings about the square and balancing the community center. Here Curt was introduced to his own staff. It was now midmorning. Three draftsmen were at work, two at detail drawings, the third on maps. One room was reserved for the field men when they came to San Alejo to submit their progress reports. There was a dark-room, and a big vault containing records and master charts. From photostatic photo-static machine down to electric erasers the equipment throughout was ultra-modern. Curt's own office was airy, light, cool, with both desk and big table on which to SDread out his papers. eled and furnished in unvarnished whitewood. An impression of coolness cool-ness was heightened by Venetian blinds and a grass rug. Curt came to the point before Senor Montaya could broach business. busi-ness. He said, suggestively, "The news of Mrs. Mitchell's death was a considerable shock to us to my wife and me." . Montaya looked at him in silence as though the words needed elaboration. elabora-tion. "I mean, we should hardly have expected suicide of Zora Mitchell, especially as she was leaving a small child." . "Nor did I expect it." The senor made this statement as a sort of admission. He fumbled among papers pa-pers on his desk, bringing forth two large square envelopes. From one he spread several photographs pho-tographs before Curt. They showed, from different angles, Zora Mitchell slumped over in a bamboo "peacock" "pea-cock" chair, her head at a curious angle. There was a bullet-hole In her left temple, and blood had run from the wound, coagulated, stained her dress. Her left hand, hanging over the arm of the chair, held a gun Curt recognized as a Luger. A Luger! he thought instantly. Funny! Where'd she get that? He recalled how Mitchell had always al-ways favored a Colt .45 against all foreign makes of small arms. Another question forced itself on jjjj a swivel chair between, a handy upright rack for rolls of blueprints. But the one thing which instantly took his attention was the huge aerial aeri-al photographic map of the C. A. T. tract permanently framed against the wall. Here was something! Montaya led the way across the room, to tap proudly with his finger tips. "I'd never hae gotten my planting under way without this." This map showed a rough triangle of about 20,000 hectares, or 50,000 acres. The Quebrado Mountains formed the western boundary. Along the south and east flowed the Masica River, joining the turbulent, unruly Rio Negro, the northern boundary, just below the rise of land where stood Tempujo. No buildings and no engineering work showed on the map. It had been made before any preliminary work had been done. But it gave Curt an instant picture of the entire en-tire project; of the drainage necessary neces-sary to clear the huge swamp, dotted dot-ted with stands of jungle; of the levees necessary to hold back the rivers; of the best terrain for spur tracks to feed the farms. "The Negro is a wild stream that requires taming," said Montaya. "We work on that now. Along here," he indicated with a pointer taken from a rack beside the map, "we make a twenty-three-foot levee. Your most important job, Mr. Curtis, Cur-tis, is to see that it is completed within the next five months. On that I gamble 8,000 acres of plant- Curt's mind. Why hadn't the physical physi-cal shock relaxed Zora's fingers and made her drop the gun? "Now, in the case of her husband, hus-band, we had no chance to obtain photographs on the ground. The body was moved to Tempujo. But we did the best we could. I had sketches made." From the second envelope Montaya Mon-taya spread out these sketches, and with them a map marked with an X and two photographs of the body as it lay on the flat handcar. "An inquest was held, of course, as in the case of Mrs. Mitchell. Both ah, incidents were quite properly prop-erly handled by our local police. We have a comandancia here, another at Tempujo." The sketches and the map were valueless, but the photographs . . . Curt picked up one of them. The picture was sickening, the body slashed and mutilated beyond recognition. recog-nition. Many of the cuts were clean, however, and something about these clean cuts rang a bell in Curt's mind. Yet the reason didn't at once click that cuts which didn't bleed had to be made after death, after the blood stops coursing in the body. "What about their little girl?" he asked. "Only five, isn't she?" "Ah, but it is sad about her. Poor little tiling. We have her at the hospital for the present, where the nurses can look after her. I am trying to get in touch with relatives in the States." Montaya stacked the photographs and sketches, replaced them in their envelopes. He drew from his pocket an oversize cigarette case and tamped against the lid one of the .special six-inch Turkish cigarettes he used. Apparently he was con-iidering con-iidering some problem. At length he said, picking his words, "It would be natural for you to want to see the murderer of Mr. Mitchell brought to justice. I also do. But I assure you everything was done that could be done. You may believe me, Mr. Curtis, it would be a waste of time for you to try where we have failed." Curt stared before he managed, "Oh. quite." "Splendid. Besides, shall I confess con-fess to a selfish ir.olivc? If if, I say, e have been mistaken and the murderer is still about, then he is a more clever man than we think. "Ah, but it is sad about her. Poor little thing." nets stood in a straight line. On the work tables were odd-shaped vessels alembics, glass funnels, retorts. re-torts. Dr. Toenjes, below medium height, in a dirty linen laboratory smock, proved a colorless individual. Indeed, In-deed, with his full-bearded face and careless dress he looked fair prey for a caricaturist. Near-sighted, he wore thick-lense spectacles which gave him a bug-eyed appearance. The first words were conventional greeting. Then: "Your shipment of ah, chemicals at Cabeza aroused Mr. Curtis' curiosity curi-osity yesterday," Montaya said. "I told him such questions were your special province." Geniality left the bearded face. Hostile gray eyes bored through the thick lenses into Curt. "You ver vonce vith der beebles across der riffer?" asked the Dutchman. Dutch-man. Curt nodded, smiled. Montaya's deprecation of the doctor's English hadn't been an exaggeration. "Six years ago. I know Panama disease has shown up with them and that they've tried a lime treatment for it. It was a simple question I put The quantity of lime landed on the docks" "Ah, ja. It iz trrooth I use der lime but alzo der Oder chemicals. Vat I use iz my zegred. Der bana-ana bana-ana pla-ant vill be der more healthy und vigorous from my chemical treatment utf der soil, und so ve combat der fungi more better as yet Den vill ve haff der reechest pla-anting in Tierra Libre." If Dr. Toenjes did have a miraculous miracu-lous cheap compound for soil treatment, treat-ment, something to allay the dreaded dread-ed fungus disease, something with which Associated could rejuvenate their- used lands, then there was good reason for guarding the secret "You still had frriends ofer der Negro vith Associated?" The amusement in Curt's eyes was a better answer than his words. The trend of the interview, Curt's feeling that Montaya was exhibiting exhibit-ing him to the doctor, a certain indefinable in-definable deference in Montaya's attitude at-titude toward the Dutchman, convinced con-vinced Curt that whatever the ing! "The Masica will hardly worry us this year. In fact, since the ah, unfortunate happening to Mr. Mitchell, Mitch-ell, I have halted work on the Masica Masi-ca levee and put those machines on the Negro levee. Flooding of the Masica will not endanger present pres-ent planting. "Along this line," he indicated with the pointer, "is our main canal. Already it has drained several thousand thou-sand acres. Here will be secondary ditches. But we have so much to do, yes, so many laterals to dig. The canals in the upper half of the tract must also be completed before be-fore the rains come. " "Now, we have four draglines and a three-yard shovel and 6,000 laborers la-borers at work on the engineering projects . . ." This wasn't even the beginning. More and more Curt realized he'd stepped into a man-size job. And with people who knew where they were going what they wanted and how to go about getting it. "Who made this map?" "Mr. Ryden and Mr. Lannestock," was the answer. "In a plane I chartered especial for the purpose, a year before I was ready to start work. It takes long to secure a concession, to plan. It is good work, no? They are competent young men. That is why I am so happy now to have them under contract. "Bueno. Here are progress reports re-ports on the Negro levee, the main drainage system, and the railroad. You will wish to look them over, but you will be brief agout it, no? Directly after lunch we shall start on an inspection tour of the valley. val-ley. For this we shall take the rest of today and tomorrow, so you will bring what personal articles you need for overnight. In the meantime, I have rauch to do myself my-self . . ." Curt hardly noticed Montaya's departure. de-parture. He even forgot the worries wor-ries in the back of his mind. What a job! The best equipment to work with, a challenge to meet, with the next season's rainfall the deadline. He swelled to the task, his eyes shone. He could have stood for hours before that map. Noon rolled around all too soon. (TO BE COXTI.MED) |
