1940-12-18 — Page 23

Wednesday,

HONGKONG TELEGRAPH

·YOU THINK IT'S:-

FUNNY

HUH?

OH, YOU WOULDN'T

HUH7

December 18, 1940,

By Walt Disney

DONALD DUCK

OH, GOODIE!

YOU'RE JUST IN

TIME TO GIVE ME :

YOUR OPINION OF

MY NEW HAT!

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IN

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LANE, CRAWFORD, LTD.

ace of British

Tiger Standish, ace

THERE WAS THE SOUND OF A SNORT.

THERE

"But the devil of it la." complained Sir Harker Bellamy, bitterly, "that I am being held directly responsible! As though my Department had to bet as nursemahl for every chit of a child who wants its bottom smacked}" -

Tiger Standish, who had dropped In to make lits daily report, looked at his superior offeer. Y., that branch of British Intelligence which was concentrating on enunter-explanage work, was being kept pretty busy these days, but he felt a certain amount of sympathy for Bellamy as the latter poured out his plaint. Later, he was due to transfer that sympathy from his superior to himself-but .nt the moment this knowledge was increifully hidden from

him.

So it was that he lightly put the question: "What are you bell-aching about now, you old buzzard?"

Bellamy sighed as though in all the world he could not find an understanding soul.

"You've heard of Blånen Tedworth, I suppose?" blu tone now sardonic.

"Well, I'm not quite bind in both eyes yel-you ment the wench who was palling up to the Nazi bosses until quite recently."

"That's the one. She's the daughter of Lord Bevington, Headstrong as a wild colt. Got smitten with this tier. Youth bug and was willing to throw up everything, Inclttling her nationality, In order to lend a hand in the movement. which was to regenerate the world. Excuse me for a moment while I spil."

On

"There's

Having done this office, Bellary continued: nothing very much wrong with the girl fundamentally, I suppose-bul, as I say, she ought to have had her bottom smucked at Intervals from the age of seven upwards. That would have taught her sense. She's nineteen now, by the way. As you know, she's only just been able to get out of Germany; the Nazi bosses, including Himmler, Chief of the Gestapo, thought she might have a

have a dangerous influence on her former

name need pal, whose

need not be mentioned, and so, at the outbreak of war, they played safe and popped her into a concentration canp. Not one of the worst ones, it's true, but suelently had to cure

cure the fair Blanca of her former berolled infatuation. Last week, owing to the influence of the American Embassy in Berlin (who, of looking after British affairs now), she was ecurse, are released. The authorities, after the ballyhoo tripe of the Mitford girl, were not going to take any chances; con- sequently there were no reporters, no news-rect operators, und no publicity whatsoever when Blanca Tedworth landed in Folkestone four days ago."*

Standish, putting up a huge hand to his mouth, did his best to hide a yawn.

"How many more instalments, B?" he enquired. ' "Only two-and they're both very short. The first s that the girl has disappeared, and the second is that you've damned well got to find her."

Tiger bounded up from his chair.

"Well, that's a nice thing to say!" he cried indignantly. "Haven't you got anything better to do thon to send me scouting round after-chit-of-a-childa2.

Bellamy took his time to light the short, black pipe which he had just filled with evil-looking plug tobarro.

"I thought you'd say that," he replied ainiably, "but if it's any consolation to you to know it, this is a very important job of work."

"It's a job for the police?"

"No," he was uncompromisingly informed, "It's a job for Y.1. And you're the mun to do it--there's no.one better."

Tiger began to lume afresh.

"Where do we come into 117" he retorted. "Principally because our agent, 27, was able to see the Tolworth girl just after she crossed the German frontier, and being hard-pressed, gave her the plans of an entirely new calling bomber about which the Nazis do not want

that anything known. You remember

business over Belgium the other day "

"You mean when a German 'plane shot down two Belgion fghters7"

Bellamy nodded.

"Yes. Those fighters were shot down because the pilot had had the strictest instructions that in no circumstances whatever was he to allow his machine to be examined by anybody outside Germany-not even by a neutral."

Tiger cat down again and filled his own pipe. This business was becoming more interesting: I was just like Bellamy to hide the truth as long as possible. One result, he supposed, of having spent over thirty years in Intelligence.

"Did she hand over the plans?" he asked. This time Bellamy shook his head. "When I said Just now that she landed at Folkestone" it was more or less a figure of speech. I should have sald she was supposed to land at Folkestone. The truth-or what at the present time must pass for the truth is that when her father, Lord Bevington, went to meet her at the landing-stage, he found no one amongst the passengers who corresponded in the slightest degree to his daughter."

user whistled.

Tiper

.?"

Then

what happened?" Bellamy shrugged his "Who can say shoulders like a weary Titan who finds the weight of his urs Intolerable; "all we do know is that a girl resembling labours Bianca Tedworth got on the boat at Calals

to you to discover the rest, my boy."

"I'm not Sherlock Holmes."

; It's up

"And l'in certainly not Watson," rejoined his superior, and turned to the papers on his desk.

The certainly wasn't good enough, and Standish voiced his disgust.

"She's probably at the bottom of the Channel-what's the good of sending me off on a wild-goose chase like this?

where the hell do I start, anyway?", And

Whereupon Bellamy became as mysterious as though he were playing himself in a sensational film, "Going first of all to the door, as though suspecting a possible caves- dropper,

ho closed the heavy mahogany again, and returned to his sent. After that, he spoke.in a whisper for a few more minutes.. At the end of that time, Tiger Standish got up and knocked the ashes out of his pipe.

"It looks like one chance in a million," he summed up. "It's the one chance in a million that sometimes comes off, my boy," was the answer he received,

THE LADY

with the

WALT

secret agents, meets

GAUDY PAST

get good servants during wartime in London, it was still more dificult to procure them in the country. The ordinary weman might have managed, but the Countess had her own fixed, and somewhat peculiar, Ideas about the servant question: she would employ no one on the male side who was not both young and good-lonking. This determination of hers added considerably, of course, to the dimculties of the present situation.

What was more, Neverne Castle was situated a very lonely part of what has frequently been described na mast delectable county in England. The castle, which anted back to the early 14th century, was not, strictly speaking, built on Sussex land at all; it had been erected, according to history, by a direct descendent of William the Conqueror, who had perched his new home on the very edge of the Sussex cliffs. But, the intervening centuries, with the assistance of the sea, hnd enused serious erosions to take place. With this result: between the mainland and the castle keca, there was now a stretch of over 200 yards of sea, which, for several months in the year, thesed and formed, shrieked and shrilled, banged and battered against both the cliffs on the mainland and those which surrounded the present abode of the Countess of Alittenden.

The man who was bound for Neverne Castle, there to take up the position of new butler, sat upright in the small boat which acted as ferry. The rustic who propelled the oars looked at him with a kind of shrewd, quizzical interest.

"I 'opes as 'ow you'll like it there, mulster," he vouch- safed: "I'll be all right if you keeps on the right side of er Indyhip. Leastways," with a snigger that might have been the cloak for scine secretly amusing thought, "that's what they do say round about "'ere."

By

Sidney Horler

"Mind your own business,' Was the stifly-uttered carment,

"I was only givin' ye a bit of advice, maister," went -on-the-rustic-but-seeing-Qut-bis-passenger was inno mood for further converse, he concentrated on is oarsman- ship and, within a few moments, brought his boat to the castle landing-place.

A few mules later, John Giles was interviewing his new mistress. The Countess of Mittenan was a woman, he was now able to observe, of perhaps 55 years of age- and a bad 55 at that. As though to fight the ravages of time, her ladyship retorted to a make-up that was not 'co much elaborate as excessive: her lace looked us though one would have to scrape off the paint with a knife before coming to the skin beneath Her. hands, too, were unpleasant-veiny, dead-coloured, with the long, pointed nalls looking as though they had been dipped in blood.

"Yes," she said in hoarse low-pitched voice that grated on her listener's cats, your references appear to be quite satisfactory. Giles, and when I spoke to the agency this morning, they said that they were sure you would give ine Food service. I hope you will be very comfortable here, Giles.'

Conventional words, but the new butler did not like He remembered the the smile which accompanied then. words of the gnarled old boatman. They were likely, he considered, to become prophette.

"I hope, too, your ladyship, that I shall give you good service," he replied--but he spoke in German Instead of English.

The Countess put one of the claw-ke hands up to her mouth. Even so, a sharp cry of mingled surprise and alarm broke from her lips.

"Who are you?" the demanded sharply, one hand new to her breast: and why do you speak to me in German?" The new butler did a surprising thing. Instead of replying. he took from his waistcoat pocket a dise that seemed to be made of silver, or some other gleaming metal.

"This is why he replied, showing it to hur now his voice held only authority.

* *

And

IN A DUNGEON FAR BELOW THE ROOM IN WHICH IN

TINS CONVERSATION HAD TAKEN PLACE, a girl who, but for her modern dress, might well have been a cantive of the original owner of Neverne Castle, crouched against the demp wall. She crouched for a very good- reston-around her right ankle was a band of steel. Attach- ed to this was a thin, flexible, but very strong chain made of the same metal, terminating in a staple driven well into

the 15-foot thick wall.

The girl was Blanca Tedworth.

They had gone down to the saloon, her companion had ordered a whisky and soda for himself and a coffee for her; cho had taken ʼn first slp--and then that awful darkness had ecme, enveloping her about like a black blankel...

There was nothing between that. memory and the Infinitely more horrible one of waking up in this dreadful place, which she now knew to be a přison-cell from which there could never be any cseape, What had happened to her; where she had been taken; who was responsible for taking her there, all these things were insoluble mysteries, The brutal fact that this was reality and not a nightmare, out of which the might mercifully awake, was sußelent. She wished she were dead.

WITH THE FIRST SOUND OF THE BOLT OUTSIDE THE DOOR BEING DRAWN, she awoke out of her lethargy, springing to her feel, her captive's chain rattling as she did so.

It was a man who now come Into the pince; before, it had been wepen. Two women-one thick-set with a cold, hard, unpleasant face, who looked like a servant of some kind, and then another-a more horrible creature this --because, possibly due to fear of showing her face, she. wore a mask. Both these weren hatt frightened her out of her few remaining wits-but neither had induced her to tell the truth. She would not tell the fruth-not even if they killed her for it. Beenuse, she felt, this resolve was the only possible reparation she could make to her country, for her former foolhardy conduct. Besides, so much was at stake..

The Intruder, who was a stranger to her, drew up a three-legged stool, which was one of the few pieces of "furniture" in the dungeon, and regarded her intently.

"Do you want to leave here, Miss Tedworth?" he asked. "Because if you do, it will be quite a simple matter, you know."

She mistrusted his face just as much as she mistrusted His voice. Like the women before him, he would name his conditions; she knew that.

"You realise, of course, that very quickly I must be found? My father is a very important man in this country.

The man put up his hand, smiling as he did so. "How do you know you are in England, Miss Tod- worth?" You may still be in Germany."

She shook her head.

"No, I know that's not true,"

"Why do you say that?"

"Because if I

I were in Germany, there would not be

all this recreey-that wernan who comes in wearing a mask would be able to show her face.""

This time the man's smile was even more odlous. "Perhaps the mask she wears is much more pleasant then the face underneath," he commented: "but we waste t'me. What did you do with those plans, Miss Tedworth? Tell me that and you shall at least be given a more suitable loaging. You must find this place very dump."

As though to give emphasis to his words, he pulled up his cont collar and shivered. It must a most realistic bit of acting, but it male no impression to her.

"tell you what I have repeatedly told those two women-I know nothing whatever about any plans."

He jumped up.

"way to you ne? It's no use-and it only makes you suffer more. Now, Miss Tedworth, you shall have one inst chance. And when I say last I mean it. Again he suited nction to words, but this time the piece of pantomime was sinister; putting a hand into his cont pocket, lie took out a' revolver.

"You are becoming a liability, Miss Tedworth, and so, unless you give me the information 1 require, you will have to die, I am afruid."

**T.

A wan smile spread over her pale face.

"I'm not afraid to din-I want to die," she replied.

The further words died on her lips; the man opposite her saw her face grow rigid, whilst her eyes seemed to be on the point of falling out of her head.

"What is it?" he asked grumy.

The reply did not come from the girl; it came from behind.

that

"Drop that gun-and put up your hands!" said a voice sounded like an accusing judge's: "you have played your last masquerade as a British officer, liere Ollo Weiss; your famous impersonations as a captain of the Tanko Corps are now at an end. Drop that gun, I tell you."

Even so the Nazl spy would have got his revenge by shooting the girl had not Blanca Tedworth suddenly ducked. The bullet which had been intended for her, brain squashed itsalf against the dripping wall of the dungeon.

The next moment Tiger Standish had leapt on the man from behind and had brought him crashing to the uneven stone floor. The chained girl watched, in mingled fascinated horror and relief.

the terrible struggle which ensued.

If the German was strong, Standish was stronger. Moreover, he was fired by burning sanse of anger. That any girl, let alone a girl of Bianen Tedworth's gentle upbringing, should have been treated ilke that was a slight to the whole British race.

The third blow that he amushed to the Nazi's face completed the job.

*

THANKS for the flowers, B.," replied, Standish, “but after all it wasn't so difficult. After you had given me that tip about the Countess of Mittenden, I made a few enquiries on my own, and discovered that she had been So bemused was the in her misery that, for many one of the most prominent pro-Hitlerites before the war- hours now, she had remained practically motionless in that a fervent Nuremberger and an even more forvent Munichols. animal-like

more than one respect. position. Every vestige of faith that she had A lady with a goudy post in

I found that, amongst her past, Delving a little deeper into had was now gone; she realised that her plight, although

during her husband's feilme, 100, hef Was although, pitiable,

almost Incredible, Indeed,

many lovers-and hopeless.

naughty girl was the Baron von Stumm. As you know, Chained there like an animal deep down beneath the earth, with no light beyond the storm lantern, B. or If you don't, you ought to know-the Baron was whose wick was trimmed from time, to time, kept scene- one of the high lights in pre-Hitler Germany: us a matter of fact he was a big bug in the Intelligence Service. When times without food and even without water, she longed

the Nazis

ceme into power, they took over all the archives for death.

oling old Secret Service and, you may bol, with charac teriale German thoroughness, they marked the Countess of Mitténden's name with an X They decided, of course, that she was very likely to be useful later on.

But death seemed still far away. It was her robust strength that kept her allve--and, for the first time since she was born, she cursed her youthi

One of her many troubles was that she could not remember, the Immediate past; she could recall getting on the cross-Channel boat along with a lot of soldiers coming on- leave, at Catals; she could recall going on deck and

to two officers; one of whom she remembered;" wearing

WEB

"How useful she was proved by what I saw in that dungeon at Neverne Castle, She had been warned to expect a visitor, and when an elderly woman, accompanied by a

·Bilum cfeer.

THE COUNTESS OF MITTENDEN. HAD LEFT LONDON talking the uniform of the Tonk Corps. It was this offeer Standish waved his pipe as though it were a musical

("who wants to be blown to bits by thong dreadful bombs? How I do hate that mm Hitler!") and was realding in her country sent, Neverne Castle, in the county of Sussex. The move had had its diundyantages. The staff problem, for. fostance: whilst It, was, Extremely dimcult to

who asked her if she would like to have some:coffeeand, because after all she had gone through, the very light of

conductor'r. baton.

"My dear BI" he chided; "where are the brains of yester

a British face made her almost ill with happiness, she had year? The elderly lady was Blanca Tedworth, of course." agreed.

*

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