SCORPION’S REALM

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 248, 1 August 1946, Page 7

SCORPION’S REALM

Serial Story:

BY L. C. DOUTHWAITE

(Copyright)

CHAPTER XL HUE AND CRY Colin, in bed in a room around the angle of the corridor, stirred uneasily. And if at first his sleep-engrossed brain attempted to dismiss the sound that conformed so grotesquely to the pattern of his dream, an ever-alert subconsciousness continued insistently to sound the alarm. With that urging; insistent, persistent, the heavier mists of sleep dispelled. He stirred and with the movement trepidation increased. Then, like a hammerblow to his brain, with the movement came conviction. What had disturbed him was a cry —and that cry one of fear.

Heart pounding, he sat up in bed. No repetition of the cry; no sound; no movement. Yet in his very bones he knew something was wrong; in addition that the cry could have come but from one member of the household. It had been the shriek of a girl; one, also, that was not unfamiliar. In the. last half-dozen hours this was the third time he had heard that same cry.

With the silence his training taught he slipped out of bed and into the slippers ,and dressing gown the forethought of his host had provided. Automatic at the ready, he tip-toed noiselessly across the floor; as cautiously opened the door and peered down the corridor.

Except for the narrow oblong of the -wall-space upon which the branchcorridor opened, he could see nothing. He listened, and so faintly he could not be entirely sure it was not due to his own imagination, it seemed to him that from the hall below came a tiny sound that might or might not have been the creak of a floorboard.

Instantly he was into the main corridorsand, from the landing, was peering over the bannisters —in time to gain an impression of something disappearing into the cloakroom at the further end of the hall. And spreadeagled and inert on the floor, a few feet from the doorway, was the body of a man.

It was as, frantically, he turned from the balcony-rail to the stairhead that, in the same swift silence as a moment previously he himself had come, from the door of Beth’s • room issued the dressing-gowned figure of Dr. Gage, and in the right hand of that strange man was one of his longbarrelled duel-pistols, while from his pocket projected the silver-mounted butt of that weapon’s fellow. As, side by side, they passed down the stairs, it was characteristic of those two high adventurers that no word was exchanged; the situation was only too clear for there to be any necessity for comment. Arrived at the hall, their first swift glances showed the prostrate figure to be that of Waters, who, as a measure of precaution when the rest of the household retired, had been left on guard. Equally apparent was it that lie had been “coshed.” Then further movement to the stairs disclosed Chief Constable Parrot, an overcoat over his pyjamas, and an automatic in his hand scampering down to join them. With the girl’s safety at Stake, and every split second vital, there was no time for first aid even to Waters; like a streak Colin was through into the cloakroom to be confronted witJi widely-opened cupboard doors. ‘Beyond those —only a yawning space. It was at this moment realisation came to Dr. Gage of how unduly optimistic Cocky Flute had been in his assurance that, watching the machinegun parts being lowered through the coalhole in Pineapple Court, he had escaped recognition by those two triggermen for The Scorpion, Dago Mike and Busker Bert; in addition he realised that in not confiding in his henchman, Waters, the secret of the concealed elevator, he himself had been guilty of an error of judgment. His head over the gaping shaft, he listened intently. From below came no sound. Providentially, though the day was broad sunlight, he had thought to bring a torch. He flashed the beam down the shaft. There, half-way up, was the roof of the cupboard that was the elevator, and a moment later he was across the. room to that cupboard’s fellow. Swingingopen the door, he pressed hard against one of the pegs projecting from the inner w r all.

Nothing happened in response; no sound of machinery. The face he turned to the others was that of a man engaged in an only-just winning fight for self-command. “From the bottom they’ve sent the elevator half-way up, and then smashed the dynamo,” lie said, and Colin realised the controlled fear in his voice. “Is there no other way down?” he demanded. .

Dr. Gage replied: “There’s a way round, probably,” and Colin darted a quick keen glance at him. “A way round to where?” he asked and in turn saw Dr. Gage look to Parrot, whose eyes had lost all trace of their customary laziness, and whose grim jaw was out thrust. “To the place of which, with his last breath, Humpy O’Grady raved,” Dr. Gage said quietly. “The cafe of Wu Ting, ill Marigold Street, that is known as The Red Dragon.” There was silence for a moment. When, breaking into that hiatus, Dr. Gage turned directly to Parrot, miraculously lie had pulled himself together again. "If you take my advice,” he said auietly, “you’ll not be in too great a hurry to report this to Scotland Yard. Or, if you feel it your duty to do so, at least you’ll advise the Commissioner to take no action until we give the word.”

There was conviction in his tone, foreknowledge even; in any event, the detective knew sufficient of the one by whom that advice was proferred not to treat it lightly. “If mv estimate of the situation is correct,” the Doctor went on quietly to explain, “there’s no immediate danger of injury to Miss Deustone. At the moment she’s too valuable an asset—a hostage whose chief value lies in the circumstances that not yet has she been harmed.” In spite' of the awful significance of those two heavily emphasised words, and in view of the past record upon which that carefully-considered theory was based, a moment’s reflection convinced them of the fundamental soundness of this. For with all the resources

of the Foreign Office, the Home Office, and Scotland Yard devoted exclusively against this one master criminal, and with as unofficial coadjutor the organisation of which Dr. Gage was head, it must, they knew, have become apparent to The Scorpion that his bid for world domination through world degeneration was heading swiftly for disaster. Unlike the first, then, this second abduction was not so much in furtherance of that campaign, as for the definite object of strengthening his hand in a last desperate throw for the personal freedom that now, from the inevitable wreckage of his hopes, remained the one advantage he might hope to salvage. Parrot left, then, to send in his report on the lines suggested. In the meanwhile it was necessary to break the news of this new abduction to Lord Stenhouse, and the task was not a pleasant one. Nevertheless that very gallant gentleman had no word of reproach either for Dr. Gage or Running Waters.

“Obviously, in fighting The Scorpion,” the stricken man admitted generously, “who from half a dozen observation posts could report upon your goings and comings, it would be necessary to have a second exit from the house; one, moreover, that was known only to yourself.” Dr. Gage, ministering to the now slowly-recovering Waters, nodded. “Except that, if only as a precautionary measure, I should have had more confidence in our friend here,” he qualified. The injured man stirred; his eyelids fluttered. A quarter of an hour later, except for an extremely . sore hear, apparently but little the worse, he was sitting up. A CHAT WITH THE SCORPION “All I know,” he said in answer to their questions, “is that accordin’ to instructions I patrolled the ’all. Hour after hour passed an’ nothin’ happened. Then suddenly out of the blue, as you might say, just outside the cloakroom door, which was open, the roof fell in an’ a boiler exploded in my ’ead an’ the floor got up and ’it me.” Dr. Gage’s large-scale map of the district showed that, occupying what practically was an island city, direct approach to Wu Ting’s might be made from five different directions. Two, at the back converged toward if arrowhead fashion, while the front directly faced a thoroughfare that branched off at rght angles to the street in which the premises were situated. Presuming only that it was of sufficient height, never in his life had Colin known a city building from which, and, in all directions, could be obtained such a clear field of vision—or of fire. “That position was not chosen without reason,” Dr. Gage remarked, when this was pointed out. “And in view of what we were told by Cocky Fluke, it would seem to be about row that it’s advantages are due for exploitation.”

From a drawer in the surgery writ-ing-table he took a pair of high-power-ed glasses, and with these led the way upstairs. The house was high and narrow, so that they passed three stories before eventually they emerged to a railed and flattened roof, and from which arose, Colin noticed, an unusually wide chimney-stack. Following' the line of Dr. Gage’s outstretched arm, Colin saw, far to the right, and projecting like a watchtower above the surrounding buildings, a roof even higher than the one upon which they stood. The ‘Red Dragon,” the Doctor explained and as he looked through the glasses Colin saw a new grimness steal into his face.

“And there you have tlie reason,” Gage supplemented, handing tlie glasses to Colin, “why I advised Scotland Yard to postpone a raid. At least,” he added, “until after our own interview with The Scorpion.” And as Colin took his observation, the sun, streaming directly upon the roof a good half-mile away, was caught up and thrown back in a diamondsparkle from highly-polislied metal. To Colin who, in Vancouver, bad received instructions in more than one method of defence, the attitude of the figures grouped about that glittering focalpoint was not without significence. For upon the roof of the Red Dragon machine-guns were mounted, and further inspection, showed, at the further side, the heads and shoulders of a second crew.

As Colin handed back the glasses he saw that Dr. Gage’s smile was grim. “The Scorpion’s last stand,” he said, and thought for a moment. “What he has in view for to-night I don’t pretend to explain,” he went on at last. “Wliat I do know, however, is that any direct approach to the house by any considerable number of men would result inevitably in the loss of valuable lives.” Buzz-buzz-buzz! Buzz! The sound, low but clear, came from immediately at tlieir back. Colin’s glance of inquiry was met with a smile. “Come,” the Doctor said, and led the way down the ladder-like steps to the room below. Here, however, instead of passing directly to the stair-bead, he crossed to the opposite wall. His hand hovered for a moment, and part of the wall swung open, disclosing a flight of steps. At the top was a room so small that, once the Doctor had passed inside to speak to the one, who, earphones over his head, sat at the ledge upon which was the instrument, it was necessary for Colin to remain outside. It was not for a moment that he realised this tiny station as a part, actually, of the unusually large chimney stack he had noticed on the roof. For two or three minutes, the Doctor remained in conversation with the alert-faced operator, and when at last he turned away there was a gleam in his eyes that told Colin of something afoot. To his disappointment, however, it was not until they had descended to the hall, where there was breakfast on the table, that his host made any reference to anything whicn might have been communicated to him in that brief interview. Even then it was indirectly. “Can you pilot an aeroplane? ho demanded shortly. Colin smiled.

“My last six months’ war service was spent as an instructor in the air force,” he said, a reply that appealed to be satisfactory. Gage said nothing more on the subject, however .and while they breakfasted, some of tlie police who during the night had acted as cordon about the decimated building outside were busy with axes and crows, breaking through the roof of the elevator. (To be Continued.)

The characters in this story are entirely imaginary. No reference is intended to any living person or to any public or private company.