A Soberside Story

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22459, 21 July 1938, Page 7 (Supplement)

A Soberside Story

(By V. B. Murray)

Johnny Dyne stiffened. He stood with jaw dropped and eyes wide ataring through steam rising in a hot cloud from a boiling pool at the entrance to an unexplored cave on Tower Island. Johnny, known at Mangahapara High School as Soberside, detective, the boy who never smiled, was exploring the island with Tiny Tanning, the biggest boy in the school, and Joe Dabblin. It was the last day of the school holidays. "Jingo!" he brdathed. "D-did you see that? A—a face. The face of a real man in the .cave." "A ghost," Tiny laughed. "How could anybody get into that cave. The boiling pool blocks it and there is no other entrance." "I tell you," Soberside remonstrated. "I—l saw a real face for a moment as it came into a shaft of sunlight. He looked like one of the worst of criminals." he proceeded. "He had short and straight black hair, long black eyebrows, narrow eyes, pointed nose, thin lips pressed close together and turned down at the corners, and a red scar across the right cheek. I saw the face as clearjy as I see you now. Then it vanished like a flash as suddenly as it appeared." Peering through the steam, Soberside tried to examine the sheer face of rock in which the unexplored cave was the only opening. So far as they knew nobody had been in it. The rock precipitous and as smooth as that which rose in the middle of the island in the form of a tower and which gave the island its name; no one was known to have been to its summit. , - , * j Incredulous, Tiny and Joe teased Soberside about "seeing things,' and continued to chaff him as they returned to the little, bay where they had left Soberside's outboard motor-boat pulled up on the sand. Stopping suddenly, they gazed about with blank faces. The boat had vanished! Marks showed where it had been dragged back down to the water and there were prints of a heavy boot v Soberside bent down to examine the sand more closely. "See if he's left his fingerprints," Tiny joked. ' „ "I have found fingerprints,' Soberside replied. "At least, marks of fingers. They belong to man who walks with a limp and has - the second finger missing from his left hand. See, the impression of one foot is heavier than the other,. He stumbled and put his left hand down to save himself. There is the mark. See! The .second .finger is missing. And we'll find our boat in the next bay. See how the seagulls are wheeling about. Following Soberside's suggestion they'walked over the cliff to the next bay . where they found the outboard motor-boat, with marks alongside it showing where another had been pushed into the water. "There must be some other entrance to the cave," Soberside said, as they sped homewards, and it is not far from where we left our boat. The man In the cava took our boat to make a quick get-away to. his own.". . T . .—« a Next day Tiny and Joe apjew with Soberside's theory. They stared in amazement when they saw their new form master, Mr Freckles, who, they were told, came from up north somewhere. He had snort, straight black hair, long black eyebrows, narrow eyes, pointed nose, and thin lips pressed close together and turned down at the cor-

TOWER ISLAND MYSTERY

ners. The right cheek was disfigured by a red scar. He limped, and the second finger was missing on his left hand. At morning interval the three boys avoided their form inati-s ana held a little conference- under n leafy plane tree in a corner of the grounds. "I'll bet he's a smuggler,"' Soberside suggested. "Huh!" Tiny replied. "A smuggler can only smuggle when he s got something to smuggle Jfom. "There are plenty or ships to smuggle from," Soberside retorted. "Home boats, for instance. An open roadstead like this must be the easiest place for smugglers to-work in. They are too easily watched, in the big ports." ; . • "Crummy!" Joe exclaimed. "There's a Home boat due to-day. My father sent some fat lambs to the freezing works last week and said

they would be shipped by the Rangamarino on Tuesday—to-day. Soberside glanced up at the school balcony, which faced seawards. A man was standing there with field glasses pressed to his eyes. "It's Freckles," Soberside satd. "We'll follow him after school. They did. In, the meantime, Soberside had cycled homeland borrowed his father's field glasses. Mr Freckles went to the cliff at the river mouth, lay flat on nis stomach, and levelled # his field glasses at the Rangamarino, a vessel of about 15,000 tons lying at anchor midway between Tower Island and the mainland. A string of two barges was being towed out to her. At anchor some distance to the stern of the ship was a fishing launch. . . _ „„.«,» The three boys lay down some distance from Mr Freckles, and Soberside looked through his field glasses, first at the ship and then at the launch, from which he could see a line of cork floats for nets bobbing about in the water. A man was sitting .on top of the engine house, looking towards the ship. Just then, Mr Freckles rose and walked away. The three boys lay quietly in the long grass until he was out of sight. .

Soberside sat up and blinked through his black-rimmed spectacles? His mouth worked excitedly. »W—we're on to one of the biggest smuggling plots there has ever been in TNew Zealand." he declared. ''Those nets were not there to catch fish but benzine tins floating from the Rangamarino. They were acting as floats for something suspended from them and must have been thrown from the Rangamarino by somebody. Freckes is probably the newly appointed Mangahapara agent for a big and powerful smuggling combine, and what better way can he divert suspicion than by becoming a school master? We'll have to go to the island and search that cave. "How?" Tiny asked. "Leave that to me," Soberside replied. "We can't do anything till S&turd&v " i On Friday afternoon, Soberside l detailed his plan. The three of them would go out to the island in Tiny's canoe before daylight next morning, towing a plank .behind them. Hector. Soberside's young brother, would take the outboard motor-boat out to them a few hours later. The canoe was necessary for

the early trip so that they would make no noise. ' They reached the island at daybreak, bridged the boiling pool with the plank, and with the aid of an electric torch explored the cave, eventually coming to a wide cavern, where they deposited the lunches they had brought, including three bottles of ganger pop which Joe had made himself. Examining the cavern they whistled in surprise. Packed in a corner were several small tins, and puncturing one of them they found a black treacly substance. "Opium!" Soberside declared. They found further tins in another corner, then they felt hungry. They sat down and started on their sandwiches, which they intended washing down, with ginger beer. Joe cut the strings which held the corks secure. A sudden noise behind them made them turn. A man was standing there, so close that Soberside could have touched his trouser legs, his face unrecognisable outside the arc of the torch. The boys held their breath. The intruder broke the silence. "What are you boys doing here?" he snapped. .

The boys gasped. It was Mf Freckles! They were too amwd to reply, but they were saved »• effort. * Crack!'. Like a pistol shot. tt« cork flew from one of taejooMJaa, and it mutt nave eaughtilr ***»**? " in the eye, for he stood laajHb bis bands to his face. In a flash the trio leaped at ton. dragged him down, and yx» trasawj him up, using »eir bandkewJlW to bind his arms and legs. H* •£ fered no resistance, apparently icing stunned by the ttu. "I told you he was«in the saaa£ Soberside whispered. "Now paw the'torch out and be quiet, m.caay some more of the gang are Mom. Hist!", The light had been out only afaw seconds when sounds of vowe» eaaae to thero. The trio crouched, jmwaited in the darkness. A lap glimmered in an opening at_w other end of the cavern, and grew brighter, soon shining into tne cavern. The boys were about *» spring, when — ._ Crack!! The cork of another bottle flew out. The boys spra** and grounded one man. Taw other scuttled along the tunnel. Satisfied that the eouH deal with the man who had fagtn. Soberside set off after the otttß The tunnel rose steeply.forJ*.*** distance, eventually coming out ntt» broad daylight vlwj Soberside gasped as »« J2S**s down on to the, beach &»»**•*£ feet down. He was on top of tm tower, which was regarded a§ waSC L§oklng over the side Soberside saw the tujpW climbing down, using wont Jf**" driven into the rock.creggaMg handhold and foothold. Sobeewij after him. soon gatopf the sloping side of the hift jr££ he stopped, looked, and listen**. Then he gasped in «n« e,ne -. Rounding the point was a_*««« small craft slow chugging l*»w*S canoes, and dinghies, strung out » along line, and ™*»* ~£2B round the lot was the «*gg** motor-boat. For a Sooef* side remained unmoved, then*" realised what had happene**dw«| Hector bad toldl his Wends ***»R was afoot and had or* B fleet, manned by dozens of JP»» % bo thb time the fugttjve ** reached the beach and' «»• *g ing off in a dinghy headtet »* the fishing launch. If he ew*U" to 5 the launch t v % tr S fh , S could crash his way J" «,- fleet of flimsy boats. Those a" Koard mot V-boat saw-the m*g and sped up to the dinghy.• «K£ ing into it and "Pitting * *»• man was soon dragged out •» ! taken to the shore, where *f *£ ■ surrounded by the men and boy» ' who came with the fleet. -^j, Rushing downto them' S°°f££ » burst through the ™°*%£ZjZ* a man whom Soberside • Is Detective McAmber of the V*~ i police force. c n h«»rside in ** [ " He accompanied I climb up the tower and the cavern. Detectne »*- grunted when be aw the *anT*g . Ind Joe were Tnj^ [ m ; detective exclaimed. so&trsia* • "I knew all boasted, "that Mr Freckles w» ■ of the smugglersI T fS Ug ffiectS! B - rocked -* ! Mr Freckle, eithe££ r rfptective added. "Hes a S land to investigate this m ' way. you-ve roU, Y d^m P gang and the rest will be eaaj.