1936-03-28 — Page 11

RAJPUTAN CREENDLIC

THE CHINA MAIL SATURDAY, MARCH 28; 1936

The Speed-Boat Conspiracy

(Continued from Page 2)

They turned the headland and Alcame in sight of the old break- water jutting out from à small bay

PŁO-BRITISH INDIA-APCAR AND only sign of life was EASTERN & AUSTRALIAN LINES

MAIL AND PASSENGER STEAMERS

TAKING CARGO FOR

Straits, Java, Burma, Ceylon. India. Persian Gulf. West Indies, Mauritius.

Eas:

at

You'h

Africa, Queensland Porta, and Red Sea, Egypt, Istanbul. Greece, Levantine Ports, Europe,

3

Kev'nor

reckon

of

"Evenin", skipper, busy these days."

ye're not 20

CELTA

"No, I don't think anyone about the octopus any more," agreed been. bad Hawke "Business has these last three days, but it'll pick up when the August rush comes.

my

PRESIDENT LINERS

are

LUXURY LINERS

Fast and Smooth Riding

TO SAN FRANCISCO

LOS ANGELES, NEW YORK, TO SEATTLE, VICTORIA Fin Shanghai. Kobe, Tokobama | Via Shanghai, Kobe and Yokohama

and Honolulu

Midnight Apt.

10

Free Lincola" Pres. Hoover Pres. Cleveland Prez. Coolidge Pres. Taft

m, Apr. 18

$ 2... May 6 Sam, May 16 $ 2. June 3

Fine, and it was proved that a strong detective. It was Ben Carter. under-current would have borne any sunken body far out to sex instead of bringing it ashore with the tide.

At least ten different people swore they bad seen the octopus that lurk to the right. In the woods at the ed in those depths, and Ben Carter's back of this bay a few columns of theory became the best accepted smoke arose from hidden cottages them all. Probably everybody in the don't mind waitin' a while."

The fisherman set down his basket Over there lived a few hardy neighbourhood believed in that octo

pus except Dixon Hawke.

and looked across the bay. fishermen, who depended mostly

"No octopus would live in British "I don't like askin' ye," be diawl-) on their lobster pots for their liv-water for more than 1 month. heed, "but it'd be a fair favour to me

"Too cold. They're if ye could put me across to ing. Gannock Head was a great told Tommy.

trying to make out that an octopus lobster-pots. I'm that tired to-day I place for lobsters.

matched Vie Leach's father away don't know how to set one foot afore! Every eye on the boat was keen five weeks ago, and that it was still the other.

But don't 'ee do it, skip-1 ly on the alert, but they did not there the other afternoon. It isn't per, if ye don't feel like it There's

The convincing. And I don't think there not many in these parts as'd put see anything in the water.

sturdy is any octopus or sea-monster living sea with Ben Carter after what hap

тан from:

to the Leaches. If ye're scar- pened a figure trudging up the cliff on the that could match

speedboat travelling at thirty other side of the bay, a basket on an hour without upsetting the sed-

"Seared!" grinned. Hawke, "What That would be Ben Then what do you

hap-do they take you for, the Old Man his back Carter, they said. and they yelledpened what we're going to find Of course, it was just

of the Sea, or a new kind of Jonah?

EUROPE coincidence

NEW YORK Vik Manila, Singapore, Colombo, ¡to him

out quite unofficially. No one down that it happened to those two when But owing to the wind he did here takes us for any thing other than you'd just been on a run with 'em Bombay, Soer, Part Said, Naples,

Genos and Marilles not hear them, and they proceeded holiday-makers with a love for

that octopas the Maybe it's the time over the long line of floats that sea. This morning I bought Flash feeds, or the sun strikes the water at

Pres. Harrison 8.00 am. Mar. 29 an angle which lets him see there's

Pres. Bayer marked the position of the pots. Ladr."

"What!" gasped Tommy

Pres. Wilson The isherman nodded said some of the men

eighty towards everything that ever hap heavily.. "I don't know much about

pened.

"The speed-boat?”

it sound likely. fathoms.

things, but and I got

it very cheaply. Then ye'll take me, and the finest because nobody else would buy it at lobster in me pets to-night shall te any price. Sam Leach's widow wantyourn fer supper."

of Thanks!" drawled the owner ed to sell it. She hated the thought of owning the boat that had killed Flash Lady, and cast of.

to It was Dixon Hawke who sug-her husband and her son."

Kawke had learned well how "Rut what for. Guvnor?"

handle that speedboat, and once he gested they should run across the

"Because you and I are going in was clear of the quay he opened ber bay and find Ben Carter, who must) have been with Vic Leach when for the passenger carrying business, out until she roared across the bay

At least I am. I'm going to adver-like a comet through the sky. tise trips out round the spot where Sen-Carter sat down closet to tha! he got into his speedcraft.

A five minutes' run, and then aithe Octopus Mystery took place. I'll detective and pulled at his pipe.

"Gave two hundred fer her, didn't ten minutes' stiff climb up the clif give some of these jaded holiday-

That was nearly four hundred ber. to the woods, and they found makers a thrill, and at the same time ye themselves confronted by an elder care a few honest shillings. Tommy." less than old Leach gave fer

Tommy did not grin. He knew Jest shows what a few sudden deaths more in it than that in a craft will do fer her." en-there was

a Hawke would not waste his time in Dizon Hawke laughed

such fashion if he had not got some! strong reason,

PENINSULA & ORIENTAL FORTNIGHTLY The sea was immensely deep there shocked out of his usual cool

MAIL STEAMERS DIRECT ROYAL

UNDER CONTRACT WITH HM GOVERNMENT All sailings are subject to change or deviation with or without notice

4

There was no sign of a body, no sign of a corpse. The sea lay green and cold-looking on all sides,

PENINSULAR & ORIENTAL SAILINGS hiding its secrets well

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Now is the time to

visit

y fisherman who sat in the trance to his cottage mending basket.

1

cried,

"Hulic, what's up?" he seeing by their faces that some- thing was amiss. What brings you all over 'ere?"

They soon told him, and his face became the picture of unbelieving horror. He tugged at his beard and almost choked.

second "But that's the It-it can't be true. Bull.

"I'm game, guvʼnor.”

T

Burke. As the top.

these

"Yes, I expect if I disappear in the same way she'll be given away. But don't forget I had to repair her Band. forget to tell you that you're bows, where they'd hit the leaving. Your holiday is up,

and bank" you'll be off to-night, leaving me here aloze."

A Roaring Trade

"Huh?" The fisherman directed him to the line of floats, and soon they were hanling in pots and pull- out the contents. It was a tick. Lish

this at all, sir?"

There was such reproach time! bov's voice that Hawke could

help grinning. I saw

"Eh, what? Me not going to be 10 job, for some of the lobsters had in the big pincers, but Carter knew the not knack of snapping them up without

running any TiSKE.

Vic step back into his boat an'

丸

That's only officially, Tommy. As True to his word. be picked out a matter-of fact, you'll go only as far good two-pounder for the owner of

as Hindborne, and take a room for the boat, then nodded towards the

old breakwater. yourself there.

"Before dawn you'll be down on

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Pres. McKinler Pres. Grant Pres. Jefferson Pres. Jackson

TO MANILA

Apr. 10

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May 8

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Hong Kong Bank Building.

Telephone 28021

water same-

half-hour

to in-

an' walked down the breakwater/out printed notices and had them control board, swirled the boat round had risea and was ready to meet him. | Hawke recovered nfciently

Australia & New Zealand your way?" asked Hawke casualty. 25. per head per trip.

lands of Sunshine and Romance.

"Down Under" you wal fee: a new being and even if you are not inclined towards Surfing, Fishing. Shonting or Mountaineering you will find that the Antipodes have plenty to offer you-including 25/- for your pound.

On the way down your life aboard will be as you wish, quiet hectic for the E. & A will humour your every whim.

thing, and one or two asked Hawke

came

hia

was an extremely strong hook with

push off. I heard him run across the bay. You're coddin' me!"

"Now if we'll be so kind as to set They assured him that they were in deadly earnest, and when it the beach and hidden in Flash Lady.me there I'll be most way home. I dawned on him that they really Right forward there is a long locker,jean jest taste that first cup of tea o

and in that I'll stow some food and mine. Bare stuff fer refreshin' meant what they said he broke books for you. Your job will be to man is tea."

The speedboat came round, and at out into a fresh outburst of horri-hide in there all the time I'm afoat,

the reduced speed glided wards and never let yourself be seem"

“Is case of what. sir?" asked the breakwater. tefied explanations.

"Vic ran me across to the pots,

surprised boy.

Carter told him where the water! jest as his old father used to do

"In case that octopus tries to whip was deepest, and stood up to make afore him." he said. "When I'd me over the side one of these days his leap ashore. Just for a moment

or two he steadied himself with finished there he set me ashore on when I'm out alone, Tommy."

back, then So it was fixed up, and that even-hand on Hawke's

he wrath. The wire-cutters, splashed in-, here? Where's Carter?" the end of the breakwater. I said

the crumbling to the water; and Tommy Barke "Down under there, where he good-night an' be grunted. Nevering the whole of the little post knew jumped and resched

glimpsed a metallic streak running ought to be" growled his assistant. Looks like a good day to-morrer," from an old ring-bolt on the bottom "I don't know how he did it, guv'nor, Mr. Brown up at the Crown' was was a talkative one was Vic Leach. that the yountster with that nice steps Then he started that motor of his going back to London.

he pronounced, pointing to the red-step to somewhere under the water but he got you in the

sunset. Hawke saw Tommy off at the sta-dering

and "Good-night

Again the speed-boat flashed along-how. There's a wire in the scheme, an' I saw him spin her round near-

side, and this time the boy leapt on and he was going to cut it." Away she tion, and the youngster faded from thank "ee" ly in her own length.

The Saberman Hawke turned away towards the to the breakwater.

Not for another jumped, an' 1 shouldered me basket Westbridge-on-Sea, while Hawke got

at A clenched fist met Tommy in the posted announcing that he was pre-in a rash of foam, and set her

the very full speed for the headland. pared to make runs over

face and nearly knocked him back vestigate, and then an amazing thing

to light an' up the cliff home."

By a miracle of into the water. Murder From Ashore

Hooked into his belt at the back "You didn't look back once on spot where the tragedy occurred for

-Time we went home to our tea, balance he managed to fall forward At that some of the local men be-Tommy" he said, above the drone instead and Carter kicked at

Ane wire attached. This wire was for he had told nobody at this

gan to wish they had bought the of the motor. "I'm beginning to be-hend.

about a hundred yards long, and at sleepy little port that he was the soredboat and thought of the same lieve we're wasting our time. We've -Dur little spy!" he hissed. "Now the other end, was twisted round the

it'll be the pair o' ye.”

ring-bolt on the bottom step. That famous Dover Street detective.

Then followed

wild.cussle across was all, but it was enough week, and you'll be getting corn No: why should I? I'd seen all to be taken on as extra hands, but done this stunt for more thaz

fer he turned them all down, declaring

The clever fendi mattered the I wanted to see of the sea

lieve I'll bother to

water. Ben Carter was the strong detective. Tve never heard of any- Me tea was what he could handle the Flash Lady quite through sitting so long. I don't be the six-feet width of the old break- twelve hours. OT

His voice

suddenly

ander of the pair, but the bey was far thing simpler or more devilish. Car-* I wanted. At the back o' me mind! "Serves 'im right if the bloomin'

there

* crashing sound as į more «gale.

theter must have had this coll of piano- realised im as well!" snorted though a heavy body had struck the of the octopus gets I sorta heard the roar

W2R aboard the speed-boat. As be by boat's motor as she cut across the jone wrathful long-shoreman, and thewale of the boat, The boat tiltjais. opponent's intention was to burl wire concealed about him when he

ed for a moment, and rocked dan-air into the sea. He resisted bay, but I did it without noticin', next needboat took eight passen- |

every means in his power, and std-got off this end he rested his hand gerously.

the e-on my back It was done naturally if you knows what I mean. gers, so with Hawke at the wheel

Tommy Burke, in the act of crawl denly, when they were on

enough.

suspected nothing. and of his cubby-hole for a treme edge, he gave a mighty twist when be jumped ashore he took the she had stopped, or anything like there was a cargo of nine, but the

his and a pell that, I might've looked round. detective knew there were really tens out

breath of fresh airs jerked up he had 'ascET- persons aboard, for

Carter instinctively pulled in the other end with him, leaving the coll the But she didn't!""

direction. and

Tommy to drop between the boat and He was just in time to see Hawke's opposite settia tained that Tommy was safely in his head in amazement.

steps. I Then somewhere between

remember he stooped to It was an old tricksteady himself on the stepa cubby-hole right forward.

That and Backwards went the fiaberman you'down on the breakwater an' pas-

It was going to be a dull job for heels disappearing over the stern of promptly let go.

was when he twisted the free end of sin's the headland the boy went over

of alarm he dashed out'jstraight into the water. the side." said one of the older fisher- the active youngster, but ixon Hawke the speedboat a cry

bosz sped One despairing cry came from his the wire round the ring-bolt. into the cockpit, and the last rays of That's jest how his father knew his assistant would not mind was took. Old Sam Leach bad jest when he realised the importance of the setting sun glinted on something lips, and then he sank, drawn down opened the throttle, the

to by that same mysterious eddy that away at thirty miles an hour, and that wire took a few seconds to un- set you down in the same way, had-

That morning they did a roaring thin and metallic which seemed

had sucked Hawke under.

wind, then-jerk? Something gave a "Guvnor! Gosh!"

Tommy Burke sucked in a terrific tog at my belt, and I was not he, Ben?

"Ay. I was talkin' to Vie about it trade They could not pick up peor down into the water.

He rushed at the wheel, swung kering breath, then raced down to the

over the side before. I knew where "Twas may opin-ple fast enough. There was always sydney as we came over.

ion that a great octopus or somethin' waiting list on the quay, and at

gerously on the water as he brought for the thin wire that he had glimps the boat that made the jerk so power- jo' that kind lives in that deep water 16s. a time the profits soon mounted round, and caused her to skid dan-jhattom step and reached under water (I was It was the terrific, speed of ed. When, he pulled something ful There was a thirty miles an an' snatched 'em both away,"

Dixon Hawke promised himself her about in a cloud of foam.

There was Dixon Hawke just dis the other end resisted him with all our pall behind it The current That started a fresh crop of con-that he would hand it all over to the jectures, and then someone remem-

Fund when the appearing under the water, evident his might local Lifeboat

Bracing his feet, he fought the down there did the rest, and it was He Carter's intention to cut the wire bered they had not yet reported theiress was Enished, but for the ly putting up a desperate struggle

tug-of-war of his life. matter to the police.

Tommy stared dumbly at the spot Straight over the spot sped Tom- for Hawke's life.

The wire cut into his hands, but where the scoundrel had gone down

Gradually be haai-for the last time, The afternoon was the same, andy, and, although he learned out and

missed by inches.

And by the way, there is no additional charge for Beck Cabins and Sun Deck Swimming pool, an Orchestra and a Se there is. c. Laundry.

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men

well alone.

If The

his task.

jup.

the trips began,

、

With

ceased.

Hawke's assistant

jmoment he went about his work look with the current that sought to pull the feeling that he was fighting and let it go to the bottom

The launch sped across the bay

ing very pleased with himself. again, and this time Ben Carter came

Hawke Defies the Octopus with them. He pointed out the very

him down.

jexact spot where he had turned his the next day. Five days passed in tried to grasp the detective's hair, he he did not care.

back on Vic Leach, and they could

land

recent

+

Yard

ed it in, and something came with it. "But why, guror, why did he do So Last were they moving that A splash, and a figure in a sweater it?" all see the course the "Flash Lady this manner before the interest

·began to die

(not serwered until Hawie revealed must have taken to pass the bead-down, and each morning dawn found they were a quarter of a mile away came to the surface for a moment And that was a question that was

just where she did.

"The guy nor!" he gasped, and his real identity locally, and enlisted Tommy slipping into his cubby-hole. before he could turn her again. Then and then sank again.

he saw a figure hurrying along the

the mid of the police. It lay over a smooth, uninteresting Hawke met him at

Luzzed-again. a distance breakwater towards the steps.

and urg stretch of water, but, as they chuk along the cliffs each night,

He must have pulled in a hundred Then witnesses were Zound to It was Ben Carter, his basket left ged across it themselves, there was

behind, hurrying with

remarkable yards of that thin wire before Hawke swear that Ben Carter had many not a man there who did not hold his ed him to be patient.

Then gradually the visitors be- speed for a man of his years. In his came alongside, and then be caught times moaned at his ill-luck in not breath, and half-fear that a snaky

jhand was something that glinted, him by the arm and heaved him on to having runcient capital to buy a something would come out of the came fewer, Scotland depths and snatch him to a watery red the stair, but the general and, as he reached the top of the the bottom step. By terrife effort boat like Flash Lady. He had been

oxblic forgot all about it in some

for being able to afford such a money- new thrill, and matters at West steps, the youngster was amazed to be managed to get him up on to the madly jealous of the Leach family grave.

recognise them as a pair of wire-breakwater. Ben Carter's Theory

and there settled down to the cutters.

Water dropped from the detective's making craft,

Was bridge-on-Sea set

He had been doubt that it was his intention to Two days had passed, and the my-normal stodginess.

mouth, nose, and eara Tommy's Narrow Escape. stery had become the nine-days won-í. More often than not the owner of

under water nearly two minutes, and create such a superstitious fear of der of the country. The little ses the Flash Lady was to be found Hawke had disappeared Carter was completely water-logged But it among the other local' men that he side port had never had so many visi sitting idly in his boat with no pas had stooped down, and Tommy threw Tommy was a past master in the sit would be able to buy it for a mere

the throttle side in one mad effort of administering stificial reapirasong tors in the whole of its existence sengers to keep him busy.

minutes he But, as it happened, Dixon Hawke Newspaper men came down by the The wiseacres on the qaxy said be to stop the fisherman doing whatever tion. For a mad ten

at Hawke's arms, hung him gave it back to the widow of Sam dozen, and the bay was photograph would son have to sell and get out he wished to do. ed from every possible and impossible but they could not forget that he had Biff! He swung the Flash Lady head-down over the edge of the Leach, who wait to her brother for madera good deal of money earlier round broadside on, and pushed at break-water, and at last bed the natafsir sam, and the local Lifeboat. Fund "benefited to a considerable ex- the exposed seat of the fisherman's infaction of hearing hirf Bigh Dragging

in the just before sur

Then one evening, before sun- trensers with his right hand.

A little later the detective looked tent from Dion Hawke's holiday down, a burly figure with a basket Carter slipped forward on hands up at him with a faint smile on his arm shambled up to the idle and knees, and let out bellow of Ballo, Tommy, how

PCO BUILDING, CONNAUGHT ROAD CENTRAL. HONGKONG | anglo-

Phone 27721

out by the authorities, but in that depth of water it was almos impos rible to do anything much in this

worked at

activities.

did I get

no