THE FLYING COURIER

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 136, 12 June 1933, Page 15

THE FLYING COURIER

By BOYD CABLE.

Author of "Action Front!" "Between tho Lines," eto.

CHAPTER XXIII. — (Continued.) Glynn was satisfied with the explanation, which, seemed a reasonable one and of a clever precaution. From the windows of the car he saw they were driving rapidly, and even rather recklessly, through a number of streets, some of them rather mean and narrow, but knowing nothing of the city, was still entirely unsuspicious. But when the car pulled up suddenly in a narrow street outside a large lioiwe with a somewhat shabby and neglectedlooking exterior, he was very much surprised. "Aren't we going straight to the Palace of _ Napalt.ta?'' he asked, but again "Hasim" was glib with an answer. "Such was the plan that was given out," be said, "but again it was for the misleading of any possible evildoers who might be in wait on the road to the Palace. The Premier waits you here, to see what you bring to him." _ Together they alighted and walked side by side to the house door. By comparison with the blaze of sunshine outside, it was dark and dim inside the door, but Glynn stepped inside, still without thought of anything wrong. The door swung silently shut behind him, a pair of muscular arms clamped round his waist over his arms, and in an instant a swarm of men had seized him, clinging tightly to his hands, arms, legs and every inch of him where they could get a grip. Glynn tried to light back, not understanding the attack or tho reason for it, but only that it was attack and lie must fight. But against such odds he was powerless. For a few minutes ho rolled on the floor with his assailants hanging to him, trying to pass thongs about him as ho kicked, butted with his head, struggled to wrench Lis arms free, if only for an instant. It was no good. lie was overpowered, bound hand and foot, dragged to a bench and lashed down on it. His captors drew back and squatted; panting, to recover their breath and to nurse the bruises Glynn had managed to inflict in the rough and tumble. Then one who seemed to be a leader rose, and, producing a little key, gave orders to the others. Once again Glynn's clothing was wrenched open, his shirt roughly torn away, and the chain round his waist exposed. A light was brought, and fo:~ a minute or two the leader liddled with the key, trying to insert it in the, lock, finding he could not do- so. He left that for the moment and turned to an examination of the chain and case through the hasps of which the chain was passed. When he had satisfied himself that the case could not be opened without the chain being unlocked or broken, he called another man forward to have a trial with the key. This man quickly gave his opiniou that something had been stulfed into the lock, and an effort was made with the wires and various implements to pick it clear. But the liquid glue foiled all these efforts and the leader began to

grow impatient. - WWliile this slow performance went on, Glynn tried to believe that delay might be helpful, that his capture would quickly be detected and a pursuit set on foot. But the very unhaste with which the men worked was clear indication that they felt themselves safe and in no need to hurry, and Glynn was forced to the unpleasant conclusion that, no matter how energetic a search might be set on foot, it must take time, perhaps hours, to track down where the car had set him down. From the talk of the men about him, he understood that they meant to waste no more time. An order was given to brinrr tools —hammers, cold chisels and files," to break the lock or cut through the chain. Glynn groaned at the thought that at last he was beaten, that on the threshold of success he was to be robbed of the film he carried. This was bad enough, but the next turn of the talk sent a cold chill down his spine. A big bu.'ly man with a badly squinting eye and a repulsively ugly face, pushed forward to the leader and, with a gesture towards the helpless figure of Glynn now stripped naked from the waist up, he offered to make a quicker work of it than ever they could of cutting the chain. "I have been a butcher, and I can be a butcher again," he said brutally, in reply to the leader's question of how he would work quicker. "Cut the man in halves at the waist and the chain is free. Give mo a butcher's cleaver and I'll put the whole tiling in your hands in three minutes." "There is something in that," said tlio leader thoughtfully, "and the master said nothing of it mattering if the man were killed. 0 Go then, and find your cleaver." The others were so casual and coldblooded in their reception of this proposal that instinctively, Glynn knew it would be hopeless to make any appeal to them. He thought of Norah and anfain groaned to himself. °To follow what "-as to happen, it is necceeary to go back a little in the tale and to bring in another character new to us.

CHAPTER XXIV. A Murder Repaid. When tlie train from Karachi had arrived, few of those waiting paid any attention to the ordinary coaches and the passengers getting down from them. But amongst the travellers were four men who had made the journey for the purpose of making what further attempt might be possible to rob Glynn—a possibility that was destroyed by Glynn being carried in the prince's private coach and with a strong guard. These men had seen all that Glynn had of the attempt to wreck the train, and although at first they had not connected this with the courier's presence on the train, they quickly did when one of them recognised in the two trainwrecking prisoners a. man in the service of The Vulture But even then, of course, he might have been engaged on some other enterprise or by some other employer—for political or terrorism purposes perhaps. But when they reached Hydrapore and left the station, one, at least, quickly learned the whole of the "facts, andsome Others. A woman sidled up to him in the crowd, whispered a word and moved off with him sauntering along dose behind. In a shady corner of a quiet street she halted and squatted down, and ho did the same beside her. The man was the Indian, Dass, who had travelled with Glynn by the air mail. "Speak, wife of my brother Abdul Ali," he began, but at that she broke in with a gesture of despair—"Not the wife, but the widow of your brother. He died, was killed to-day." "Killed?" said the man slowly. "Was it an accident, or,is.there one to pay for the killing? And if there is, be sure, be very sure, 0 widow of my dearest I brother, that the debt will be paid."

The woman nodded, and bowed her face in lier hands. Dass leaned closer and whispered, "You know how dear were we two brothers, each to each; I, too, shall mourn him with you, but only after I have brought death to the death-bringer." Then the woman told her tale, and the man sat like a etone, listening without interruption. The Vulture had gone that day with his black slave, known to all men as The Killer, to tho rooftop of his house tower, and sent for Abdul Ali to come there to him. In a little time The Vulture came down alone to his rooms, and in yet a little time more Abdul Ali, as The Killer reported, "fell" from tho roof to the ground below. He lay there, all men fearing the wrath of The Vulture if even the dead body should be picked up, until at last his wife had crept out to him and managed to drag him a little way out of eight to where she could get help to bear him home. Only when he was there did she find he still lived, although all the bonce of his body seemed to be broken. She and some others did what they could, but he was beyond help and soon died. But before he died he told how and why he did, and that his brother Dass, who was even then 011 the train from Karachi, should be tokl quickly. Abdul Ali knew that his brother Dase was one of those ou the train, and when Tho Vulture made his plan to wreck it and would not be dissuaded although it meant death to hie own men, Abdul Ali, as the only way to save his brother,

telephoned secretly to the police making report of the plan and where the train was to be destroyed. So the train was saved, and Dass with it. But when The Vulture had news of this he suspected, remembering also that Abdul Ali had spoken of his own men and wishing to warn them to leave the train; and he questioned Abdul Ali, asking who were the four men. Then he, thinking that if it were known Dass, his brothel, were of the four, he might be suspected of treachery, lied and named four men without naming his brother as one. Then The Vulture pretended to be ; satisfied, but questioned others and found that Dass was one of the four. He sent for Abdul Ali to come to the rooftop, and he went, thinking it was to get further orders about another plan that had been made to carry off the courier by seizing the motors sent to bring him to the palace. So Abdul Ali went up to the rooftop, and there was left with The Killer, who threw him down and killed him. Dass sat silent and bowed for a time after the tale was ended, and then he asked, "This other plan to take the courier—did my brother say what it was 1" "No, except that he was to bo carried off from the station, and taken to the house ill the city that used to be that of The Vulture's mother, but is now empty." | "Then if the plan succeeded, the courier would be at that house even at this minute. And perhaps The Vulture would be there too, to see that which he carried?" asked Dass. "It may be. Ido not know," said the woman; and Dass rose quickly. And because of that tale, Dass went straight to the police, and when he said he had word of where the missing courier might be, he was brought straight to the head and made report of the house, adding that if the police moved quickly he could guide there men enough to surround the house and make sure that none escaped from it—no man of them from the highest born to the lowest. The police moved quickly, veiy quickly indeed. In fact, they could hardly have made better speed if they had known that at the moment Glynn's life hung by a thread, and the packet that might win or lose a prince's throne was on the edge of destruction. (To bo continued daily.)