THE GREEN LANTERN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22444, 13 June 1936, Page 14 (Supplement)

THE GREEN LANTERN

Bv BEN BOLT

I Author of - A Shot in the Night.** ®tc*« •tG.

CHAPTER Xll.—(Continued)

Inspector Godbold nodded, " I've bad Chojiro shadowed all day. Reports are commonplace. Tho Golden Carp i» under observation. Nothing unusual there. If there's anything in your notion it was all fixed last night. There hasn't been anyone of Spano's lot in touch with that crowd, I'll take onth." •' Goodl ... 1 hope I'm just chewing wind. . . . But this Norwod Hill. . . Whether young Michael walks in on us or not, I don't mean Monkey to walk out. Not if I can help it. I'll have his neck for this business of Teddy—l owe that to the lad'B memory—and I can get it here, better than in Chicago y can't stop out of a killing over here as easy as chewing gum, an' ' " Nothing's being ' overlooked. division is combing Norwod now—going through it with a dust-comb. . . Takes time, that sort of job, as you'll know, Sullivan, but as soon as there'? news I shall get it, and Spano's not a man to bo so easily overlooked, from your picture of him." "Nor Mat O'Hagan, either I" "No, They're pretty distinctive. And they'll havo to lie very low to be passed by." "Well, 1 guess I'll run over to Number 4 an' see if there's uews of. young Michael yet. Not that I'm living in j hope. . • It's a thundering sight I more likely that we'll get a wire from i him saying he's been turned loose on 6ome God-forsaken road Land's End way or Dartmoor than a next-door street in the city. But you never know. I'll give you a call if there's news, Godbold. i "Same here," answered the m- ! Bpector. Mr Sullivan took his leave, and as the night was fine and mild decided to walk to his destination He was in no hurry, for his expectation of early news was small, and he liked strolling in a city at night. As he walked he meditated on the news he had heard from his friend and colleague and found

some satisfaction in the thought that Spano was surely for it. London was not Chicago, where a killing more or less was the daily routine. He had the American officer's scorn of the tenderness of the English Police for persons merely under suspicion, and a contempt for the regulations that made anything in the nature -of the third-degree methods of his native land taboo, but he was prepared to hand the palm to the English courts every time. "Spano's stepped into it up to the chin, he chuckled to himself. "He's wriggled out of the hot chair oftener than any skate ought, but he's for the rope now, sure." As he strolled on an elegant young gentleman turning to look at a pretty lady who was stepping into a taxi collided rather sharply with him, and was instantly apologetic. "Awfully sorry, sir. I hope there's no damage done. Very careless of me. I happened to be looking elsewhere and—' "Yeh!" said Mr. Sullivan. "I 6aw her, brother, and I'll forgive you. But one o' these days if you ain't more careful y'll walk into a bus-end, an' then y'll bo real sorry." "I expect 1 shall Jeremiah I" laughed the youngster, and passed on. "They're all alike," mused Mr. Sullivan " Gay as larks even when they're going through it. Now there's the Honourable Pallisier —" His easy reflection broke off sharply, and his heavy brows creased over the keen grey eyes. "1 sure hope nothing's gone wrong with that kid. He's a goodish time in reporting. Ought never to have let him take on that job. . . . But who the heck could stop him?" The littlo uneasiness invoked by the remembrance grew as he walked on, and presently, became such a ferment of disquiet that when he canio to the next telephone booth he entered it, and after hunting up Pallisier's number rang up Calfington Mansions. Ho did not get Pallisier, but was answered by the voice of Rankin. "Who's that?" he demanded, and being informed asked if Mr. Pallisier was in his chambers. "No, sir," came the answer. " Ho went out this afternoon and has not yet returned." "Sent no message, I guess?" "No, sir." "Urn! ... If he comes in soon ask him to ring up Sullivan at Number 4. . . You got that? . . . Right! , . . Don't forget it. It's real important." "I won't forget, sir," answered Ua.nkin reassuringly. Leaving the box ho strolled on, trying to forget the disturbing thoughts which had awakened in his mind. He did not immediately succeed, but a little while later they vanished at a stroke. He was held up at a crossing and while he stood there, watching the stream of taxis and private cars glido by, his attention was suddenly arrested by a face at an open window —tho face of a man whose eyes blazed with sudden rago as they met his own. It was no more than a glimpse he had. the clash of eyes brief as a lightning flash, but sufficiently long for recognition. "By God," ho ejaculated aloud in his surprise. "Spano." He looked round for a taxi with the thought of following the gangster But no empty vehicle was immediately available and by the time one appeared, pursuit was beyond hope. Chagrined and disappointed, he took tho taxi that offered

(COPYMGUTJ

A THRILLING STORY OF MYSTERY AND ADVENTURE

itself and drove the rest of the way to Grosvenor Gardens. He was in tue act of paying the driver, when Ilingrose ran from the houso and across the pavement. "Got in, Sullivan," he said. "Th®[ e ' 8 news. I'll toll you as we go. J hep he snapped directions to tho fclix !" driver. "Amritsar Lodge, Anthoa Road, Norwood Hill." Tho taxi-man looked ft little doubtful. "Getting late," ho said. "And its a longish way out o' my beat. "Oh, got on, and step on the accelerator. Charge what you like an' lio abed in tho morning. . . . This is a police job." "Very well, sir." Ringrose followed Sullivan into tho taxi, slammed tho door, and as tho vehicle rolled oil' the detective demanded sharply, "What the heck's up?" "Amritsar Lodge is tho nestingplaco of your chum Spano. . . . Had a message quarter of an hour ago from Inspector Godbold. He was starting there right away, after telephoning Z division to close all bolt-holes." "He won't get Spano 1" replied Sullivan with conviction. "Why.not, you old dufferP" " Because he ain't there. I glimpsed him in a taxi not ton minutes back, looking as savage as a bear." " They'll be thoro to welcome him when he arrives." " How d'yoti know he ain't departing P Looked to me as if somethin' had put bis liver out of order." "Well, we shall see!" 14 Where did Godbold get the news?" " From that taxi-driver at the hospital. Seems the poor chap revived long enough to answer the question which Godbold's watcher put to him, find the message was telephoned to Godbold right off." " Must have got there just after I left," commented Sullivan. " Yes! And if that lot had Michael—" "That's a cort!" "Then we'll find him at that house. " I ain't so sure of thefc —Monkey Spano is a downy guy, an' thrifty,

too. He ain't going to leave nothinc valuable lying around. . . If he was quitting then I'll lay a hatful of dollars that Michael Swinuerton had been quit before, and if he ain't been turned loose is 6afely cached in some new place or is laid out for keeps." " I hope to Heaven you're wrong. Sullivan." "So do I, boy. Trouble is that I'm tolerably certain that I ain't. Monkey Spano has had a jolt and wasn't feeling good about something or other. But we'll see. Y'have hoard all the other news mebbe?" " Most of it. but nothing about Bill Pallisier." "No, he ain't reported yet. I rang up his number just now. I hope no harm has happened t6 the boy Hu takes big things as if they were a lark, an* whilo high spirits are all right in their way—• " Don't worry about that/side. Palhsier isn't so hare-brained as he mako> out. He'll show tip in the end with some tall story of his adventures which will make us all laugh." " Well, I hope we get the laugh all right, but as y'know that Swingler's Wharf was a darn desolutc place—just the sort of locality for rubbing out a troublesome fellow with the river handy to carry away the evidence." " Sullivan, that liver of yours is out of order, badly, to-night." " Mebbe! Mebbe!" agroed tho detective, and stared out of the window. Then he asked suddenly: " What sort of a place is this Norwood Hill?" "Don't know properly. Never drifted that way. I3ut I've a notion that it's a suburb of the bettor-class sort. Very respectable and so on, you know." " Um! Spano 'ud pick that sort of show, for cover. Nobod.v 'ud think of looking for a racketeer among the bourgeois. Odd thing too that those fellows most have a hankering to bo reckoned respectable and to run with decent folk in tho end Troublo with 'cm is that they can't shed the g&ngs they run, an' are kept at the wheel until they get bumped off for good." Tho detective produced a rank cigar, lit it, and smoked in silence, whilo Kingrose stared out of the window immersed in his own thoughts, and remained so until tho taxi pulled up rather sharply. Then he heard the driver's voice asking for information. " Say, old man, whero'e Anthea Road?" "Second turn further "up! Who're you looking for?" " Dunno the name of tho party. House is Amritsar Lodge." " The deuco it is! You wait a minute." A helmeted head appeared at the window, and P.Q.K. glimpsed a uniformed policeman. He let down the window and met the glare of a flashlight. then heard tho officer's voice. " You two gentlomen going to Amritsar Lodge?" " Trying to," snapped P.Q.U. " Turn that darn thing out of my eyes. Want, to blind me?" " That's all right, but—" " Don't bo an idiot, constable. We're all right, having an appointment with Inspector Godbold. I suppose we'll be stopped by half the Z division hoforo wo get to him.' " Shouldn't wonder,'.' laughed the constable, reassured. " There's a raid or something on. Don't know what tho trouble is exactly, but—" "Wo do! Second turn further up, did you 6ay?. . . Go ahead, driver." (To bo continued daily)