Dynamite Valley

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 303, 23 December 1939, Page 8 (Supplement)

Dynamite Valley

Another Thrilling Serial By A Favourite Author

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ly lie Mine silent. lli s predicates ucu'-l- tliu.ii he had thought, uld gladly liavc changed places 'inlii\ sou, 'I'rotiuan and Bonito. pr< >Ihil >1 y were wandering li ii ma/.e of caves in an our (o get free. Kenny had c<l tin-in ms far as the pivoted I'uaMe to operate this, he had (1 in a lot of the creeping vines t tiro to them, hoping to smoke >ys out. lie had waited, but fin-mica there wasn't a 6ign. n-n hail thought of Thompson ie many stories he had heard of nan--of his claim to be a ,clant of Captain Thompson, the ; til hie know ledge of the buried :re. he-re he was now in Thompson's my, proceeding to Dynamite /, with apparently no chance of jetting back to civilisationl c are immediately above the now, boy. \ou are going to wl by means of a parachute, not until I get rid of these i." trapdoor was opened in the m of the 'plane. One by one ombs were dropped, their little liutofi opening and ensuring an landing. 6 your turn now, boy. Stand my refused. "You're going to my wrist* and ankles?" he . He had dropped his bullying and replaced it with a whining iat will come, boy. First, the hute harnosß. my still refused to stand. Pas•esistance, he argued, might yet him out on top. you're not on your feet in 10 Is you'll be forced out without achate. That would mean your .mbling, Kenny stood tip. The to which the silken envelope Xtached was strapped round his , with the rip-cord hanging i he could pull it easily. ankles were the"n untied, and lackles removed from hie wrists, my made a bound at Thomp>ut it was too late. Before his . could close on the neck of the he found himself hurtling gh space. he dropped into the storm he nbered the rip-cord. He fumbled , found it, and tugged hard. A hat seemed to dislocate every in his body, and Ambrose Kenny Iropping easily to the place he longed to viaitr—Dynamite y-

chapter viii. A Peep at the Mary Dear. "I never thought I'd see the stars agarin. Tracy Trotman's usual optimism was returning. "I expected to have to spend the remainder of my days crawling through caves." "You aren't going to see them for very long. Trot." "Why, Tommy? What is to prevent me?" "There's a beauty storm coming up. In a few minutes it will break, and then we're going to be glad we have a |*.'ifectly dry cave to retire into." *' T lT my rißht ' Tracy," Bonito upheld. "Can t you feel the strength of the wind? We are sheltered here, nutr if you care to crawl to the edge P !^ tfor,n i.uain you'll know." Its tliis lad for the cave, then," Trotman paid. "I could do with a sleep. And I can ahvavs sleep when the wind is blowing."

"We'll need all our strength if we are to get clear of this difficulty," Bonito said thoughtfully. "In my opinion we aren't any better off now than we were this time yesterday. It's a sheer drop from here to the valley. We haven't even a rope at present. We may even have to retrace our steps." "What! Go back through those gloomy old caves? I'd sooner do anything than that." Trotman shrugged his shoulders. "The climb down will have to be precipitous I>efore we tackle the caves again. I'm a born climber; got medals and silver cups for it." "Tracy is himself again; he has started to skite," Finlayson teased. "We can't do anything until tomorrow, so the best thing to do, as Trot suggests—get what rest we 1 can."

By this time the rain was falling in torrents, and the wind was crashing againet the cliffs in great gusts. The boys had moved a few feet inside the cave. Here they had sufficient shelter, and could yet see the outer world. Even though their position was perilous, they preferred to keep in sight of the open air rather than descend into the caves. Came to them above the noise of the storm the sound of continuous explosions. They listened intently, trying to place the source of the booming notes, "Those remind me," Bonito observed, "of that little machine-gun demonstrated to us by Thompson, only more pronounced. I wonder if 1)2 i.;. below!" "The sounds are coming from above," Finlayson declared. "I'm sure of that." "Imagination, Tommy." Trotman had taken sides with Bonito. "They are coming from the valley." He looked out. * Instantly a cry escaped him. Finlayson and Bonito hurried to his side to see what was wrong, heedless of the wind and rain. Almost directly above them was an aeroplane wreathed in electric light. it ap|>eared to be hovering above the valley. One, two, three —- They saw 12 objects dissociate themselves from the 'plane. A pause of a few minutes, and then something else dropped. Something that turned over and over before it straightened up. "That was a youth, Tommy, Trotman was still gazing at the aeroplane. "To me it seemed to have the cut of—" "Ambrose Kenny!" Bonito took the words from Trotman. "I'm sure it was. So that's Kenny's new scheme! He's using an aeroplane to get to the valley." "And a parachute! It isn't like Kenny to risk his life like that," Trotman reminded. "He was forced from that 'plane, I'm thinking." "Probably had a row with Bud Waltham and the rest of the party." This from Finlayson. "Bunnies!" Tracy was no respecter of persons. "Be your age, Tommy. The whole thing is quite clear to me. I have imagination, which you lack." Said Bonito: "I wish you'd put us wise then, Trot. I'm hanged if I can solve the riddle. I don't hold with Tommy's theory. Waltham wouldn't dump Ambrose right on the spot he wanted to reach." Let us go back to the time we spent with Thompson." Trotman had the whole night ahead of him. "We didn't have too comfortable a time. Nevertheless, the man showed us a very interesting little invention of his " "Those patent chairs that gripped our wrists and ankles," said Tommy, interrupting. "No, Tommy. That little machinegun. You'll remember it continued to fire stream after stream of bullets without any attention. I believe that Thompscm is using the same principle to drive an aeroplane."

(To be continued.)