Spicy-Adventure Stories v14n04 (1941-10)
Spicy-Adventure Stories v14n04 (1941-10)
Spicy-Adventure Stories v14n04 (1941-10)
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lobby to the hotel coffee shop, for with a smirk on her pock-marked
these two girls were typically face. It was the first time in her
American, well dressed, shapely, fifty years of precarious living
pretty and well aware of the fact. that she had ever possessed a thou¬
As they passed through the doors sand pesos at one time.
into the coffee shop, the clock read By nine-thirty the nude body of
exactly ten. the man who looked like an Eng¬
lishman was floating face down¬
pvNE hour earlier, almost to the ward in the Churubusco River. It
^ second, a man came out of a left a red trail as it floated along,
house in Coyoacan and started for like a white log.
his waiting car. It was a typically
Mexican house, in the better sec¬ HPHEY had finished their rolls,
tion of the city, not far from the and their eggs, scrambled with
armed fortress where the Russian Mexican sausage, when the man
exile, Leon Trotsky, had been who was obviously English came
assassinated. The man walked into the coffee shop. He raised a
through the flowering patio, past monocle to his washed-out blue
the singing fountain, smiled up eyes, peered around, and indicated
at the parrot that screamed down a table, not too far removed from
at him from a flowering retama. that of the American girls. Edith
He was, perhaps, thirty-five years Larsen went on chattering, end¬
old, with the blonde hair and ruddy lessly. But Marta Crane’s heart
cheeks of an Englishman. bounded and her pulse quickened.
He passed through a gate in the “Obviously English,” the note had
wall to where his limousine said.
awaited. Odd! Really odd! Where Deliberately, she smiled. The
was his chauffeur? But he smiled, Englishman blinked the monocle
and opened the rear door himself. out of his eye and beamed in an¬
“Buenos dias, senor. This, as swer. He arose hurriedly, ap¬
you see, is a gun! A gringo gun! proached their table. He said,
It makes a very loud noise and a “Pardon me, but if I am not mis¬
terrific hole. Please to enter, > taken you are—!”
senor, and do not wonder concern¬ Marta Crane smiled and inter¬
ing your chauffeur.” rupted excitedly, “Marta Crane,
The man in the tweeds, who Johnny’s sister! I knew you the
looked so greatly like an English¬ minute I saw you! Johnny said
man, shrugged, and entered the you were probably in Mexico
limousine. From across the street City.”
a uniformed chauffeur appeared— She extended her slender fin¬
not the original chauffeur!—and gers, and the Englishman grasped
slid beneath the wheel. The big them. “Old Johnny,” he laughed.
limousine meshed its gears and “Old Johnny, telling you Ronald
headed away from the wall. A fat Hargrave was here. Imagine!”
Mexican woman, the erstwhile Hargrave, Ronald Hargrave.
cook for this English-appearing She introduced him to Edith Lar¬
gentleman, peeped over the wall sen as a friend of her brother’s,
Ears Over Swastika 9
in one who moved with his catlike this table, waiting on that. He
grace, whose body otherwise whistled as he worked, he had a
seemed the acme of perfection. word and a joke for all. But Pablo
Indeed, many of the jovial pa¬ was waiting, waiting. At three,
trons of the Cafe de Paris often General Rafael Esparza alighted
slapped him on this rounded pro- from his Rolls-Royce, accompanied
truberance and called him, affec¬ by his too beautiful niece, Senorita
tionately, gordito, which meant, Dolores, and entered the cafe.
little fatty. Pablo did not mind. The proprietor hurried forward
He seemed to enjoy it. At night, himself, beaming, but Pablo was
in his sheltered room, he would before him. General Esparza, for¬
take off the sponge rubber pad mer governor of Oaxaca—virtual¬
with a laugh, repeating the word, ly dictator of four southern states
gordito, gordito. Then, as a con¬ during the upheavals of the twen¬
noisseur might handle a gem of ties—was a valued patron. He
great rareness, he would remove loved the arts, did the good gen¬
the big gun that rode there in a eral, and because he did not hear
special holster. well, his niece always came with
him. Pablo took his arm and
The gun was gold mounted. The guided him to his usual table,
butts were things of beauty, en¬ where he sat down carefully, as
graved in minute scrolls, and cur- fat men always sit down. Pablo
leycues, with the national arms of pulled out a chair for the beauti¬
Mexico on one side, some lettering ful senorita, who disdained him
on the other. The lettering read: haughtily. And without being
“Jose Maria Gardinia Guedea.” told, he hurried away for what
For Pablo, the innocent, pot¬ he knew would be their order.
bellied waiter, with such a pro¬
From the shadows, Pablo—or
nounced weakness for blondes, was
the Sabinas Kid, if you will—ob¬
the Sabinas Kid.
served the ex-governor a little
grimly. The Sabinas Kid had been
AT TEN past two, when the Mexico’s most romantic and dar¬
siesta hour was over, and even ing outlaw for years. He knew
the sleepiest of the small store¬ Rafael Esparza for what he was.
keepers had emerged yawning to In spite of the bushy white beard
take the shutters from their win¬ and the innocent-appearing blue
dows, the Cafe de Paris began to glasses, he knew Esparza had the
fill up. It was, in truth, the haunt grasping and blood-thirsty soul of
of artists, for the proprietor loved a tyrant and dictator. Esparza
the arts himself. A man could pay cared no more for the arts than
ten centavos for cafe con leche he did for human life—which was,
or the syrup like cafe extracto, perhaps a snap of his manicured
filling the cup with hot milk, and fingers—and yet day after day he
linger on for hours, discussing came to the Cafe de Paris. This
world problems with any and all puzzled the Sabinas Kid. And
who would listen. when he told his very good friend,
Pablo scurried about, waiting on Hargrave about it, Hargrave ad-
Ears Over Swastika 11
mirar que se claya como puna- smile. She cast a dark eye back
lada, over her shapely shoulders, and
los ojos que tienes yo te los the Sabinas Kid smiled.
quitara. . . The words were hummed again.
The Senorita Dolores stirred, “Woman that kills with your
she even dimpled in a red-lipped glances,
12 Spicy-Adventure Stories
Glances that stab like a dagger, gringo woman. Her fingers curled
Would I could take those eyes like talons. That one! She would
from you . . like to tear her eyes out!
Dolores Esparza bit her lip, her She might even have been an¬
eyes flashed. The Sabinas Kid was grier had she known what was
not even looking at her! For two transpiring. The girl from the
American girls, one blonde and Estados Unidos had asked con¬
one brunette, had entered and the cerning serenades, asked if it were
eyes of the Sabinas Kid were on true that Mexican cabelleros often
the beautiful blonde. She was played a guitar and sang love
Marta Crane, though he did not songs beneath the windows of
know it. beautiful women. The Sabinas
Dolores’ breasts filled with dis¬Kid conceded that such was the
dain—that turned to anger. Funny case—and asked where she lived.
that she should feel so about a Shrugging disconsolately, he re¬
simple waiter! She watched the plied, “But senorita, it is impos¬
Sabinas Kid seat the two gringoes, sible to ‘play the bear’ at a hotel.
and tried to keep the anger from Not too far out the Paseo de la
showing in her face. How he Reforma is a club, the Rancho de
bowed over them, how he rolled la Marquesa! Perhaps if you were
his eyes, damn him! And that to be there tonight?”
blonde hussy! Anyone could see But then he grew very, very
with half an eye that she was de¬ busy, and was called away from
liberately leading him on! the table. But he knew; the Sabi¬
nas Kid knew! And he was also
CHORTLY afterward Jose Ca- very suspicious. Not for nothing
stano entered. Jose was a man had he dodged federales and poli-
of indeterminate age, employed in cia secreta for so many years. He
some capacity by the government. knew the average American girl
He was a poet, too, whose poetry held herself well above even a
her uncle, Esparza, seemed to en¬ Mexican cabellero, or gentleman.
joy. Jose hurried to their table, Why, then, should this blonde of
bowed and kissed her hand, though such great beauty flirt with Pablo,
she almost snatched it from his a poor waiter, in a cheap cafe?
loathsome lips, before he spoke re¬ Away, the general is leaving!
spectfully to General Esparza. Duty, and all that, he smiled wry¬
Then he went to the next table, ly to himself. What was this ? That
where a group of Bohemians, or haughty, cold, senorita who was
would-be Bohemians, awaited. the general’s niece, looked mean¬
In almost no time at all he was ingly at the saucer where she had
reading his own poetry aloud. He sat. A paper’s edge protruded. A
read from manuscript, held high note! Hastily he picked up the cup
before his eyes, as though he were and saucer, managing to hold the
nearsighted. Dolores tapped her note in his hand as Dolores and
foot impatiently beneath the table the fat proprietor of the restau¬
and watched Pablo, the lowly rant led the white-bearded general
waiter, flirt outrageously with the through the door and helped him
Ears Over Swastika 13
but sending! Now what? This room room just vacated. He had been
was the next but last to the end right. The room boasted a com¬
of the •wing. A stained glass win¬ pact but complete sending appara¬
dow was set in the far wall. A tus. And there beside the bug lay
heavy chair beside it. Next the the message the General had been
door of the room itself was an old sending when so rudely inter¬
Aztec urn, squatty and thick, some rupted. True, there naturally was
three or three and a half feet in no address, but the wording was.
height. “Tungsteno y estano dos barcos
To think with the Kid was to act. Ingleses Progreso media noche.”
He drew the gold-mounted gun, There was no time to puzzle over
fired it twice and hurled the heavy it; he was afraid of discovery at
chair through the window. By the any moment. It simply meant that
time General Kafael Esparza two ships loaded with tungsten
opened his door, the Kid was and tin were leaving the port of
crouching behind the urn. He had Progreso at midnight. English
counted on the instant reactions of ships, at that! But to whom had
an old sildier, and he had counted General Esparza been sending that
rightly. Toward the broken win¬ message—and why?
dow plunged the fat old general, The Kid left it exactly where it
his gun in his hand. And before a was, having been careful not to
solitary servant appeared, the Sa¬ touch it, and hurried back to the
binas Kid had slithered through door. He held hit hat in his hands
the open doorway and was in the as he peered about the casing. A
16 Spicy-Adventure Stories
'C'lVE minutes later Marta He sang her love songs, low and
1 gasped. She saw a man in tender and filled with meaning, as
charro costume borrow a guitar only a Mexican can sing them. And
from a player in the orchestra. His then the theme “changed and he
hat hung to his back, secured by sang of death, death that must
a cord about his swarthy throat, come to all of us, reaching out its
his teeth gleamed, his eyes flashed bony finger to tap its victim on
as they roved the crowd in search the shou' 'or, death that is a little
for her. silver bird to nestle in the tangled
“Signal him,” said Hargrave skein of life.
sharply. But she shook her head He placed the guitar beside the
stubbornly. The Sabinas Kid saw table, pulled up a chair. The man
them, came across the flags of the in evening clothes glanced uneasi¬
pation with the grace of a cat. ly at the clump of cactus. The Sa¬
“ISenorita,” he bowed low, smil¬ binas Kid threw back his head and
ing, “I have come as I promised.” laughed. Marta Crane said sav¬
She was powerless to move! Any agely, “Go away! Go quickly! I
moment this man, this handsome know who you are! Can’t you un¬
flashing-eyed fellow, would die. derstand that you’re—f”
The Sabinas Kid, to die like a dog “Miss Crane!”
on these dirty flags. “Do not mind, my dear,” laughed
Somehow she got to her feet, her the Sabinas Kid, “but believe me,
face white, her hands trembling. I thank you none the less. I was
She turned to go, and the Kid’s not at all sure of you! Now!” He
hands pulled her down, his eyes shrugged. He turned savagely on
were cold and cruel. the man. “Two British ships leave
“Cannot you introduce me to Progreso at midnight, with tin and
your friend?” tungsten. Do you think they will
Hargrave, or the man who arrive safely?”
called himself Hargrave, started The man who called himself
to speak. The Kid’s hand slid past Hargrave leaped to his feet. Why
the guitar toward his armpit and didn’t that fool behind the cactus
the blonde man subsided. What do something! “I don’t under¬
difference did it make? The Kid stand—?” he faltered.
would soon be dead. “Then perhaps you will under¬
“Mr.—Mr.—Mr. Hargrave, my stand this! Perhaps you can man¬
friend Pablo—?” age to see the general and tell him
“Just Pablo,” smiled the Kid. the message was hardly in order!
“Did I understand you to say Har¬ For that message must be coun¬
grave?” The man in evening termanded!” He threw what ap¬
clothes was looking into the eyes peared to be a handkerchief on the
of death and knew it. “I once knew table. He took it by the corner,
a man named Hargrave,” mused held it high so the handkerchief
Pablo. “He was a great friend of unrolled and dropped its burden.
mine.” Marta Crane screamed. A pair of
Only those words, then nothing bloody ears dropped on the white
else but song for long moments. cloth.
18 Spicy-Adventure Stories
The man in evening clothes and hence was not at all surprised
gasped. He looked toward the to find him mixed up in such a
clump of cactus, his face white. thing. But who was his confeder¬
The Sabinas Kid nodded, laugh¬ ate? Why in the name of the Vir¬
ing softly. “You go, my friend?” gin did he come to such a place
And the man stood not on the as the Cafe de Paris, where the
order of his going. He shot across artists and poets foregathered.
the patio and through the hallway There, there was the sour note.
proper as though propelled by a It took him three days to find
gun. The Kid did not bother to the semblance of an answer. On
watch, nor to follow. He knew the two of those three days Jose Ca-
fake Englishman was headed for stano sat at the round table and
General Esparza’s to countermand read his poetry aloud. Pablo or
an order! the Sabinas Kid—did not care for
“My dear,” he said grimly, “the Castano. The poetry was lousy,
man you introduced as Hargrave although the listeners always ap¬
is not Hargrave. Hargrave was plauded. Castano paid the check.
my friend.” He told her the story, It was the directness of the old
leaving her stunned and speech¬ general’s blue-spectacled gaze that
less. “You are no longer of any puzzled the Kid.
use to your country in Mexico. I On the third day, the general
think it best to start back for the waited until past time for Castano,
Estados Unidos at once! No, no, do then departed. And the Kid was
not thank me, you thanked me sure there was a connection. That
enough when you tried to warn me night, holding Dolores in his arms,
of that one behind the cactus.” He he pondered the question. He was
took her hands and gazed into her almost positive that there was a
eyes. “I was unsure of you, my connection, that Castano obtained
dear. Now I am glad that I know the necessary information from
truth—and sorry you cannot stay.” his government associates, and
He watched her go across the passed it to the general.
flagstones, her high heels clacking “You must go, my dear,” whis¬
rhythmically, and was truly sorry. pered Dolores, “it is near dawn.
The Sabinas Kid was a romantic! And you were asleep anyway.”
Then he glanced toward the clump “No, no. I was but thinking little
of cactus where lay an earless dead dove. And why should I go? It
man, and spat. is still dark and your uncle is al¬
most blind.”
pABLO, the waiter, had a prob- “That,” she ejaculated, “is what
lem. He was only half through, you think. Do not let those glasses
his debt to Paul Lucas only half fool you. It is only recently he has
paid. General Rafael Esparza was been wearing them, the hateful
the man who sent the forbidden things. And how he guards them!”
messages on a secret radio. But The Sabinas Kid sat bolt up¬
where did he receive his informa¬ right. Hunch struck him hard and
tion? The old dog would cross his suddenly. Slyly he said, “Ah, well,
own mother, Pablo was certain, I go. You do not love me anyway! ’ ’
Ears Over Swastika 19
“Why should I
go?” he said, “Your
uncle is almost
blind.”
general’s niece were ill, and re¬ Jose Castano started to cross a
ceived a sullen headshake in reply. street on his frantic way back to
He led the man to his table, shrug¬ the office, when the dark Bolls
ging, and another waiter took his blocked his path. The door flung
order. Pablo, the dog had not re¬ open. Inside he saw General Espa¬
ported for duty. rza, but he was still uncertain. His
Jose Castono appeared with a eyes must have been playing him
sheaf of poems and asked the same a trick! But no! A gold-mounted
question, also receiving the same revolver was pointed at him. He
answer. His cohorts and hangers- got in. But quickly.
on appeared as if by magic, and In the woods about Toluca, on
soon the little man from the gov¬ his knees, Jose Castano cried and
ernment bureau was reading his prayed. A knife was gleaming in
poems aloud. He had finished the hand of the man who towered
three torturous—but applauded— over him. This one said, “You are
sonnets when it happened. A Bolls a slimy little rat, Castano, too
Boyce appeared before the door— puny to kill. The plan you used
the first having gone on shortly was very clever. So I will not kill
before. you, but I will take a souvenir!”
Dolores and a uniformed chauf¬ The knife flashed and Castano
feur helped the obese General screamed once and fainted.
Bafael Esparza from it and into
the cafe. Never would the inmates 'T'HE fat cook in the walled house
of that cafe get over the shock of 1 at Coyoacan pursed her lips,
what followed. General Esparza and her eyes were shrewd. The
arose from his table and bowed newcomer who glanced about so
deeply to the incoming General furtively, said, “But Madre de
Esparza! Each man wore blue Dios, I tell you today was the day!
glasses. Each man wore a mili¬ I am the Sabinas Kid, I risk life
tary uniform. It was so ridiculous and liberty. I was to meet him here
that all laughed, and it was the today, at his house! ’ ’
niece Dolores who laughed loudest Slyly she said, “But he will not
of all. She laughed until her be back until evening, senor. Could
breasts threatened to erupt from there be a message?”
her dress, until tears streamed He pondered. “Say to him that
down her face. But the incoming I shall meet him at the south gate
general turned and literally gal¬ of the Esparza house tonight at
loped back to his car. The ama¬ nine thirty!” Then he was gone.
teur poet snatched his poems and The cook grinned. The Sabinas
ran for the door. Kid. The south gate! He did not
And no one noticed that the gen¬ even know that his friend—that
eral first on the scene went quickly Lucas who had called himself Har¬
through the kitchen. No one no¬ grave—was dead! Hastily she
ticed that the Bolls was now wait¬ tossed her apron aside and went
ing for him at the end of the alley. out the back door. This one should
It slid swiftly away in the proper be worth much more than a thou¬
direction. sand pesos.
Ears Over Swastika 21
TPHE blonde man who so greatly His hands began to shake, his
A resembled an Englishman and eyes to protrude. It was a leaf
was not, realized he had this torn from an American catalogue
one chance for redemption. He advertising various mechanical
crouched in the bushes outside the means for cheating at cards and
south gate at fifteen after nine, a dice. It read: “This liquid, when
German Luger tight and hot in applied to the backs of cards, im¬
his fist. At first sight of the Sabi¬ mediately dries and is invisible to
nas Kid he meant to fire. the naked eye. But when those in
But the Sabinas Kid had been the secret, gaze at these cards
there since nine! There was scarce¬ either through our special eye-
ly a sound, scarcely more than a shade, or better still, through our
gasp, as the knife did its work. specially ground spectacles, the
Presently the Kid opened the marks or the writing is plainly
gate and went into the Esparza seen. It is well worth—!”
grounds. And just as on the first But the general got no farther.
night, the moonlight revealed the His chest rose and fell rapidly; he
high spiderweb of the general’s was on the verge of apoplexy.
aerial. The Kid said aloud, “Now, Someone knew! Someone—! God!
Lucas, most assuredly you do not There, neatly thumbtaeked on his
expect me to deal death to this door were four human ears! Two
one ? He can no more help plotting of them were slightly clotted and
and conniving than—!” dried at the edge, at least. The
He shrugged dolefully, and pon¬ other two seemed to drip blood
dered his problem there in the even now, and they had a back¬
pathway. At last he grinned and ground ! They were pinned against
hurried along humming “Perfume a small flag, whose marking was—
de Gardenia” beneath his breath. a swastika!
General Esparza was hard at
The Sabinas l£/4! The killer of
work at his books. Also he was
killers! He slanj&aed the door and
waiting for a communication of
threw the heavy bolt, leaned
some kind from that Castano, who
against it sweating and panting.
had been so frightened that after¬
Then he approached the accusing
noon at the Cafe de Paris. Dolores
radio set.
—and the general grinned fondly
—had admitted that she had hired The Sabinas Kid tiptoed from
a gay dog to play the joke. God his place of concealment down the
love her, she had a sense of humor. hall. He placed his own ear
He quit his laughter! Tappety- against the heavy panel, and
tap-tap! “Come in,” he called. But smiled. From behind the heavy
nothing happened. He called again. door came the crash of glass, the
Could his ears be deceiving him? tinkle of breaking instruments—
He went slowly to the door, opened He walked softly down the hall
it. Immediately his eye caught a humming “Perfidia.” Friend Lucas
piece of paper fluttering floorward, was avenged, and Dolores was
as though it had been tucked into waiting in her room about the
the crack of the door. corner. . . ,
HAMMOCK
T HE folkways of the Manaos
had become an open book
nothing was aimless, and every
movement was subordinated to
to Hollis, after he had lived fear of the two great enemies—
for two years beside that great the piranha and the driver ant.
tributary of the Amazon. The folk ■•These, too, had their rhythms,
were the tapirs and the deer, the though they were obscure to Hol¬
armadillos, the sloths, and the lis. The piranha, the fresh-water
howler monkeys, the rodents, and shark, small, but incredibly vora¬
the screeching parrots. There was cious, made the river a death-trap
a rhythm in all their movements; to any living thing that let itself
LAND By
HUGH SPEER
greeting Mm, and the sight of her Lying in his hammock, slung be¬
brought back to Hollis the memory tween two trees in front of the
of just such a girl, who had thrown shack, within the clearing, Hollis
him over when his father sent him vegetated, as the sloth might be
to the pen. said to do. His animal needs were
He had gone to see her when he satisfied, he still had a half-bottle
was released, because he was des¬ of whiskey beside him, rendering
perate about her, and there had unnecessary the labor of breaMng
been an ugly scene. Well, all that out another from his store. He was
was in the half-remembered past. thinking of the girl on the launch,
“Hello there, Hollis!” a few days before, and wondering
That was Cunningham. He was whether he would ever shake off
a man in his early forties, with a the lethargy of Hammock Land,
hard, shrewd face, the typical cos¬ find some more diamonds, and go
mopolitan adventurer. Cunning¬ north.
ham and Da Silva were notorious He hadn’t seen lea pass, and yet,
even among the crooked adventur¬ looking down in the moonlight and
ers of the Amazon ports. Hollis not seeing her below, he knew that
had met them at one of the coastal she had gone to meet the tribesman
ports. somewhere in the forest.
Cunningham stopped beside the The thought amused him, and
girl and put his arm around her. then an unexpected spasm of anger
He turned to leer at Hollis. gripped him, and jolted him into
He waved his hand. “I’ll be see¬ activity. He dropped to his feet
ing you, Hollis,” he called. and slung on his belt with the
The girl looked up indifferently loaded automatic. It wasn’t jeal¬
for a moment. The Brazilian beau¬ ousy provoked him, but one of
ties waved mockingly, and the those spells of irrational anger
launch went on, rounded the point that take possession of white men
of land, and disappeared from in the tropics. He started along the
sight. forest trail, not knowing quite
what he meant to do.
TN HAMMOCK Land the dulling The trail led to the diamond
A of the mind is accompanied by a pocket. It had been an old passage¬
compensatory development of in¬ way of the wild-rubber gatherers
stinct. It is the dull-witted shrewd¬ a few years before, and of course
ness of the ant-eater, or of the would long since have been obliter¬
sloth, pendent beneath a branch ated, save that the peccary herds
and yet alive to danger. Hollis had and solitary tapirs found it a con¬
known for a long time that lea had venient runway. They had tram¬
a lover among her own tribe, pled down the undergrowth, but
though he had never been able to they had not overcome the lianas,
detect the man from among the In¬ wMch wreathed themselves among
dians who occasionally wandered the trees, forming almost impen¬
into his camp to exchange a slaugh¬ etrable barriers across the trail.
tered pecarry for some cloth or Crawling beneath the creepers,
flour, or trade goods. Hollis worked his way along until
Hammock Land 27
28 Spicy-Adventure Stories
neath the crumbling quartzite, lay Yet the carcass had been eaten.
a fortune for the gathering. And, It was alive with driver ants, which
as Hollis stooped, a gleam of yel¬ had already picked it almost clean,
low caught his eye. and other swarms were approach¬
He reached down and picked up ing from all directions, legions of
another diamond, equal in size and them, in rows and columns as or¬
color to his best. derly as an army. The knowledge
He put it in his pouch, and stood of this treasure had already been
there, musing. Nothing to keep telegraphed far and wide among
him from returning, except that the ants everywhere.
this was Hammock Land, and lea For a moment Hollis stared,
was alluring and satisfying to him. hardly able to realize what this
Ica, now having a rendezvous with portended. But then he knew. It
her Indian lover 1 was the first principle of all men
along the Amazon, white or brown,
He laughed — and then his
to leave no food supply that could
trained eyes saw that they had
entice the predatory insects.
been here only a little while before.
They would finish the capybara
There were the faint marks of
and then scout around for other
fresh footprints about the entrance
prey. They would come to his
of the pocket. Then Ica knew about
camp. The capybara had been
the diamonds!
placed there deliberately to attract
the insects. If lea and her Indian
TTE FOLLOWED the faint im- lover had done that, it meant that
pressions of their naked feet they were conspiring to consign
back to the trail, lost them, and, him to a dreadful death and then
with the instinct of the savage, in¬ rob him of his diamonds and his
stead of returning along the path supplies of food and trade goods.
by which he had come, struck off And they two, being Indians, pos¬
along another one that wound out sessed the secret that no white man
from it, crawling again beneath the had ever discovered, of moving un¬
lianas until he reached a tiny open scathed through the deadly swarm,
glade. Then he saw something that by means of some unknown drug
halted him with a shock of horror. that they daubed on their bodies.
Here, in the middle of the glade,
lay the freshly killed carcass of a A LREADY some of the ap-
capybara, a large rodent some four proaching swarm seemed to
feet in length, and a prized source have detected Hollis’s presence,
of food among the Indians. for scouts shot out from the lead¬
No Indian would have left that ing files and made toward him.
carcass uneaten, unless for very Hollis lost no time in returning to
special purposes. It had been shot, his camp. He knew that the driv¬
for the tiny darts were sticking in ers, with their infernal intelli¬
the side of the face. And, again, no gence, would send those same
Indian would have killed a capy¬ scouts to survey the land before
bara with poisoned darts, which attacking. They would not come
would have rendered it inedible. that night, nor the next day. Prob-
Hammock Land 29
ably the next night would see them ter! It was their bodies that one
launch their assault. loved, not their souls.
The three great oil-barrels, And it wasn’t difficult to de¬
brimming full, with inter-connect¬ ceive them. Hollis didn’t quite
ing pipes, stood side by side above know what he was going to do
the circular trench. It needed only about it, but he managed to keep
the twist of a cock, a lighted match, Ica from knowing that his auto¬
and the camp would be surrounded matic was in his belt.. He knew
by a river of flame. how short his time was—but the
Hollis surveyed the barrels and vast lethargy of Hammock Land,
then went back to his hammock. and the warmth and comfort of
He was lying still in it when he Ica paralyzed his mind.
saw lea glide like a wraith to her
place beneath, and glance up at * I ’HEY came down the Manaos
him. Her pale brown body 1 in the afternoon in a small
gleamed in the rays of the moon¬ power-launch, and, when he saw
light that straggled through the them, Hollis knew that he had been
trees. Suddenly Hollis laughed. subconsciously expecting them—
Why, nothing mattered, since only Cunningham, Da Silva, and the
lea was real! girl.
He saw her start in consterna¬ Da Silva and his partner made a
tion, and beckoned her from the characteristic pair. Cunningham
hammock. For a moment she stood was an American, but Da Silva
poised and statuesque, her brown was in part of negroid origin. A
body more perfect than any sculp¬ grossly fat man, of about Cun¬
tor’s dream, her little breasts out- ningham ’s age, clad, like him, in a
thrust beneath the tattered gar¬ suit of soiled whites, with a wide-
ment. brimmed straw hat framing his
Then, with an answering laugh, dripping face. As for the girl, she
lithe as a forest creature, light as looked as hard and cool as ever in
a bird, she precipitated herself up¬ her white frock. She was carrying
ward into the swinging hammock. a white parasol.
Hollis caught her and gripped Out of the launch behind them
her tightly, and they held each stepped two bestial-looking ne¬
other in their swinging nest. Hol¬ groes. It looked like trouble.
lis’s hand ripped through a tear Cunningham advanced, hand
in the cotton rags, and found the outstretched, a grin on his face.
pliant coolness of lea’s body. His “Well, how’s things, Hollis?” he
lips closed feverishly upon hers. boomed. “I want you to meet
“Do you love me, leaf” Madge—Miss Madge Leroy, my
“Always I love you,” answered leading lady. I told her about you,
the Indian girl. and she was curious. Thought
Hollis laughed again, but silent¬ we’d run down and visit with you.
ly. Ica, fresh from the embraces You know Da Silva, of course.”
of her Indian lover! But all wom¬ La Silva extended a flabby hand.
en were like that, as treacherous “I guess I know everybody in
as jungle snakes. What did it mat¬ (Continued on page 84)
SHANGHAI
U NTIL the shot sounded up¬
stairs, the hottest night¬
Jack Friday, expatriate Ameri¬
can soldier of fortune and co-pro¬
spot in Shanghai’s notori¬ prietor of the dive, was in his pri¬
ous badlands district was hum¬ vate office behind the main bar¬
ming with drunken revelry. Then room when it happened. He was
a vicious splat of gunfire slugged going over the ledgers with the
at the face of the midnight, put¬ regal blonde girl known as Singa¬
ting an end to merriment and the pore Lily, his partner in the enter¬
clink of glasses, corking the tinkle prise; but that upstairs pistol-re¬
of a tinny piano and the jingling port brought him out of his chair
of cash registers. Every vestige like a released spring. He said:
of noise was wiped out like marks “What the hell was that?”
on a blackboard under the sudden Singapore Lily might have had
swipe of an eraser. a last name, back in the States, but
China hut in all Asia. The police trician neck topped with hair like
knew him from Vladivostok to the so much burnished gold. Jack Fri¬
Malay Peninsnla as a magnet for day, admiring her, wondered why
trouble. It seemed to follow him he had never thought to fall in love
like lightning seeking a lightning with her—or at least to make an
rod. If anything went wrong now, occasional pass.
he’d be kicked back to the United Maybe it was because he had
State? so fast it would curl his learned the hard way, never to
teeth. mix business with pleasure. And
Which deportation was a pos¬ Singapore Lily was strictly busi¬
sibility he disliked to think about, ness in this partnership. She was
because there was the little mat¬ after the dough, first, last and al¬
ter of a homicide rap against him ways. She seemed to be saving it
in San Francisco. It was a killing for something.
he hadn’t done, but they pinned He saw her walk out around the
it on him just the same; and the bar, into the crowd’s frozen
fact that the crime was twenty silence. He heard her saying:
years dormant would make no dif¬ “What’s the matter with you
ference to the Frisco cops. As far dopes? Some wise apple sets off a
as they were concerned, it might firecracker for a practical joke—
just as well have been day before and you act like a bunch of fugi¬
yesterday. tives from an air raid! Come on,
So he nodded and let Singapore step up and have a drink on the
Lily go out to investigate the gun¬ house. Here, bartenders, set ’em
shot they had just heard. Lily was up all around.”
a dame competent to handle any It broke the spell. Laughter and
situation that might come up, he music swelled again, gay and
realized. It was queer that so much strident as ever. Over in one cor¬
capable self-assurance could be ner a jane squealed in mock fear
rolled up in such a lovely looking as a Lascar deck-hand tried to pur¬
package, he mused. Watching her loin a brassiere strap for a sou¬
as she went toward the door, he venir. Somebody else dropped a
couldn’t help admiring the way coin in the mechanical piano,
she was stacked up in that white brought three minutes of discord¬
satin evening gown. ant boogie-woogie. Free drinks
You can’t beat white satin on went down willing throats.
voluptuous woman-curves. Espe¬ Singapore Lily flirted her hips
cially when the cloth clings like away from the playful pat of a
skin, the way it did on Singapore tipsy paw. She wormed her way
Lily. Her thighs were flawless through the throng; made for the
columns rippling under shimmer¬ staircase that led upstairs, where
ing whiteness, and her lyric hips the private dining rooms were.
had a rhythmic impudence when Nobody paid much attention to
she walked. A creamy expanse of Singapore Lily now.
bare back swelled out of the waist- Nobody except Jack Friday. He
low cut of the costume, melting had a hunch what was coming. It
into gorgeous shoulders and a pa¬ made him uneasy.
Shanghai Sellout _ 33
me—if it’s so. Unless the two of the astringent odor of burned cor¬
you had some unfinished business dite, for another. Jack Friday
upstairs, maybe?” went straight to the only closed
Singapore Lily’s lush, firm door and thrust it open.
breasts rose sharply; it was the A girl screamed.
only indication of her tenseness. It was a tiny scream, to match
She said: “Don’t be a dope, pal. the dainty little red-head from
Jack and I are business partners, whose taut throat it issued. See¬
is all. Were you headed anywhere, ing her cowering over in a dim
Jack?” corner, Jack Friday froze at the
threshold and felt a sudden surg
TJE CAUGHT the significance of ing sensation within his veins, a
her question. It was really curious tingling such as he could
not a question at all; it was a com¬ not remember ever having experi¬
mand. He bottled his wrath. enced before.
“Thought I’d run up to see how It was the girl who did this te
things are going in the private him. She didn’t seem to belong in
rooms.” Shanghai; certainly she was out of
“Swell. Then you won’t be us¬ place in the badlands. Anybody
ing the office for a while. I was could see that. Why, damn it all,
just going to invite Bennie in there she looked sweet. Clean. Decent!
with me for a drink. You don’t Not her costume. That was
mind?” dance-hall stuff; pert short shirt
Jack Friday minded like hell, with spangles, thigh-length black
without exactly knowing why. He silk hose, bare midriff, a red bra-
was well aware that Lily had a top bodice that met the minimum
past she never mentioned; and he of concealment for her perky lit¬
suspected that if she kept Bennie tle breasts. They were delicious,
Chong occupied with lasses it those dainty mounds of charm;
wouldn’t be her first attempt at ripe like miniature melons cupped
that sort of bribery. And Chong in the conforming red mesh that
must be kept occupied for the next was cut to flag the eye. The rest
few minutes; that was certain. of her. measured up, too. She had
All the same, Jack Friday didn’t the smallest feet and slimmest
like it. He liked it less when Lily ankles Jack Friday had ever seen;
and the half-caste went into the of¬ the most sweetly taperd legs. Her
fice and shut the door after them. hips were boyish, her features
Lily, he concluded, was getting the gamine. And her hair was loose
rotten end of the partnership in flame, almost as scarlet as her
this instance. mouth.
Cursing silently, he went up¬ Jack Friday said: “What the
stairs. damnation hell are you doing in an
There was no mistaking the outfit like that?” Which indicated
room in which the shot had been the effect she had on him. He
fired. No other private chamber didn’t ask her what had happened;
was occupied just now, for one he didn’t even look at the corpse
thing; and your nose could follow of a man sprawled on the floor
Shanghai Sellout 35
near an upset table. All he wanted Nothing else would stop her from
to know was why this flame-haired yelling her lungs out, it seemed.
girl should be clad like a dime-a- Hating himself for the needed bru¬
dance “hostess,” when she really tality, he stung her across the
belonged in some exclusive finish¬ cheek with his open hand. Once.
ing school. Twice. Splat-splat.
The fight went out of her. She
TNSTEAD of answering, she moaned and collapsed against him,
started to scream again. He her body trembling like a wind-
went hurtling toward her, caught whipped reed, her breasts rising
her in his arms, clapped a palm and falling close to his chest. He
over her lips. “Nix, hon! For felt the soft movement and it
God’s sake, nix!” churned a hot storm of emotion in
She fought him. “You can’t ar¬ his veins.
rest me! No—I’ll k-kill myself He said: “For the love of cripes,
first! I—” I’m not the law. I’m Jack Friday.
He slapped her. He had to. I run this joint. Now what the
36 Spicy-Adventure Stories
hell are yon doing here, a nice girl After all, lives are a nickel a dozen
like you? What happened?” in the badlands ... Oh, good Hod!”
She stared up- at him. “You— “Wh-what’s the matter?”
you’re Mr. Friday? I didn’t He was staring at the man who
realize—” lay sprawled on the floor, the man
“Why should you?” whose chest was a welter of thick
“B-but, I—I w-work for you. I red horror. But Jack Friday was
started tonight. Singapore Lily paying no attention to the wound.
hired me. I—I do a song and dance He was looking at the death-pale
turn.” face—
He closed his hands on her “That guy’s a member of Ben¬
shoulders, angry not at her but at nie Chong’s secret police!”
Lily for having hired her without “D-does it make any di-differ¬
first asking him about it. Not that ence? Murder is murder . .
Lily ever asked him about engag¬
ing entertainers; that was her TACK FRIDAY jerked her to-
province in the partnership. But ward the door. “Sure. But lots
damn it, Lily should’ve known bet¬ of times you can get away with it
ter than to take on this little chick! in Shanghai. I mean, if the man
Any fool could see that this one you knock off doesn’t happen to
was out of place in a dive like Jack be anybody. In this case, baby, it’s
Friday’s. a different story. To bump a Jess-
“What’s your name, hon?” field Road policeman is like buying
“M-Marcia Durkin. I’m from yourself a ticket to hell!”
Des Moines. I—I came here with a Panic slithered into the Durkin
vaudeville troupe that went girl’s greenish eyes. “I — I’m
stranded. And—and tonight, just scared! You’ve got to do some¬
as I was about to start my first thing for me—get me out of here!
song, th-this man grabbed me. He Please! I—I’ll be nice to you—
dragged me up here to a private I’ll—”
room, started to—” He ripped out a grim: “Stow it.
“So you shot him.” Come on. We’re leaving by the
“I had to,” she whimpered. “I back way.” And he half-led, half-
had to. Oh, please—don’t let any¬ dragged her to a rear staircase.
thing happen to me—!” And she They went flurrying downward,
welded her dulcet figure so close and out into the night.
to him that he could feel the wild “Where do you live?”
beating of her heart. It was a She seemed almost afraid to
pleasant feeling, just as her frag¬ speak, even in a whisper, as they
rance was pleasant. And when she reached his parked car. “I w-was
kissed him, the taste of her lips in a hotel. But they locked me out
made him drunken with a dizzy ex¬ when I couldn’t pay my rent. I
ultation . . . haven’t any place to g-go.”
Then, presently, he dragged He thought of his own bunga¬
himself back to reality. “I don’t low; decided against it. In case
ask that sort of pay,” he growled. anything went wrong, that would
“I’ll get you out of your jam. be the first place Bennie Chong’s
Shanghai Sellout _37
hoodlums would search. Moreover, that very decency could be made
it was too far away. Singapore the bond that would always hold
Lily’s home was nearer. And her to Jack Friday.
safer, probably. He crushed her in his embrace.
Jack Friday drove like a fiend “I love you, baby.”
through the dark, crooked streets “You—you want—?”
of the sprawling badlands district. “Yes,” he grated through a
Five minutes got him to Lily’s cot¬ working kiss. He jammed her
tage. He had no key, his partner¬ against the wall, pinned her there
ship with the voluptuous blonde with his mashing weight. He felt
woman not extending that far; but her breasts yielding to him, flat¬
he was very handy with the thin¬ tening tautly. Her mouth was
ness blade of his pocketknife. He sultry with surrender; she
picked the lock and said: “Okay, moaned, and then she stopped
kiddo. In here and don’t make any moaning . . .
lights. Find the bedroom and turn
in. “I’ll take care of everything.” A HELL of a honey moon, he
The small vestibule of the cot¬ thought, driving back to the
tage was very dark, very intimate. dive. Five blissful minutes in a
Marcia Durkin clung to Friday’s dark vestibule. No ring. No hunk
chunky frame, her breath hot, her of paper to make it right. And
words pleading. “I w-want to go now, ahead of him, a corpse to be
home. To the States. I — I’m disposed of; the corpse of a man
f-frightened here!” She kissed him his bride had murdered!
again. An ordinary corpse wouldn’t
That was when he realized he have been so bad. But this was
was in love, for the first time in a a Jessfield Road cutthroat, one of
life deviously spotted with many Bennie Chong’s secret-police bully
casual affairs. This was the real boys. If Chong ever found out
thing, he told himself. To him this what had happened, Jack Friday’s
girl represented suddenly all the number would be up. Fast.
realities he’d never had: a home, He braked his car to a silent
maybe kids, a way of life too long stop behind the night club. Using
denied him. the back door, he skulked inside
An ugly thought came to him. and upstairs. He gained the pri¬
Suppose he saved Marcia Durkin vate room where Marcia Durkin
and then lost her? He didn’t think had killed the man who was as¬
he could stand that. Women had a saulting her.
habit of forgetting favors, he re¬ The body was where Friday had
membered sourly . . . left it. Now he raised it to his
But there was one way to make shoulder like a sack of meal. He
sure this one would never forget. carried it down and out into the
One way to bind her to him for¬ night; started toward his car—
ever; and not merely through The ray of a flashlight stabbed
gratitude. She was decent; she had his eyes and Bennie Chong said:
proven that by shooting the guy “Why didn’t you wait a while, pal ?
who had tried to maul her. Well, I’ve already sent for a hearse.”
38 Spicy-Adventure Stories
ing something, but kept her voice tise for dancing girls, get them on
stoppered. Bennie Chong flipped the elbow. Makes it not quite so
away the cigarette and said: tough on them when they get
“Lily’s part of it. But that’s per¬ shipped to the interior for the
sonal. It’s a business deal I’m Japanese soldiers, if they’re on the
offering you.” pipe. A jane in a dream doesn’t
“Name it.” mind so much what’s happening to
“So I’ll name it,” Chong said. her. Ahpien’s a humanitarian
“Ahpien.” thing, that way.”
Jack Friday sat up. So that was The smirk on the half-caste’s
it. Opium! Chong wanted him to face was almost too much for Jack
turn his joint into a hop-house. Friday to endure. It would be so
Peddle narcotics. Other evils damned easy to leap up now, grab
would follow; they always did. the fellow by the gullet, finish him
You started with providing ad¬ once and for all. Of course that
dicts with pipes and layouts and a would mean Jack Friday’s own
place to rest on their elbows. Pres¬ immediate death at the hands of
ently you were in the game up Chong’s men. But it would be
to your throat: You were recruit¬ worth it, almost.
ing new customers—guys and Except for the red-haired Mar¬
girls who’d never touched the cia Durkin.
filthy junk before. The thing was What would become of Marcia,
an endless, widening circle. The without a protector? How would
more new addicts you created, she get out of her jam, find pass¬
the more ahpien you sold. The age back to the States? And how
more you sold the deeper you got about that interlude in the vesti¬
in with the criminal element. bule? After a thing like that,
Pretty soon you never could get would it be fair to make her a
out. widow before she was even mar¬
ried. . . ?
TTHE Jap-dominated local gov- Friday thought about this, and
A ernment had good reason for suddenly realized he had to live.
desiring the spread of addiction. He had to let Bennie Chong take
It narcotized the citizenry, made all the chips in the game—for Mar¬
them less liable to revolt against cia’s sake.
alien overlordship. It made them He looked up at the half-caste.
passive. It was a trick the Jap¬ “You win, if it’s okay with Lily.
anese had been using throughout After all, she’s my partner.”
every Chinese province they’d Chong looked at the regal blonde
ever conquered. woman. “Well, baby?”
“Ah,” Friday grunted. “Just “Whatever Jack says,” Lily’s
opium. Nothing else, of course. voice held no emotion.
No sidelines?” Bennie Chong chuckled. “Excel¬
“Well, perhaps a bit of spying lent. So now we’ll say nothing
on people we suspect of disloyal¬ about my dead man. He was a
ty,” Bennie Chong said easily. louse anyhow. I’ll drop his carcass
“And it would be nice to adver¬ in the Whangpo. Tomorrow I’ll
Shanghai Sellout 41
send you a few aphien layouts and she wrapped her naked arms
a list of people I want you to work around him, welded her voluptu¬
on.” He beckoned his two under¬ ous body to his stalwart one.
lings, and they all went out.
“Jack,” Singapore Lily said. I1TE WAS startled. Also he was a
She came over to him, tried to help little thrilled—and furious at
him to his feet. When she leaned himself because of the pleasure
to help him, the front of her cos¬ this contact gave him. Damn her
tume fell away from lush white soul, she’d been doing this very
breasts. Once upon a time he had thing with Bennie Chong not thirty
admired those beasts. Now he minutes ago. . . . v"
hated the very sight of them. He Swelling pressure against his
pushed her away and told her he chest, woman-soft, was driving
could take care of himself. him off his chump. He cursed him¬
Her eyes held a queer glitter. self for it even as he kissed Singa¬
“You don’t really think I told pore Lily again. He knew he was
Bennie Chong what actually hap¬ arousing her to white-hot fervor,
pened upstairs, do you?” because the same thing was hap¬
“How else did he learn?” pening to him. And he hated it.
“I couldn’t hold him here. Some¬ But he continued, because he
thing seemed to be pulling him to had a reason. It was screwy, he
the second floor; he was, well, like thought. A while ago he had gone
a ferret scenting game. Jack, I— through an identical scene with
I didn’t tell him anything. He just Marcia Durkin in order to bind
went upstairs and found the Marcia to him, irrevocably. Now
corpse, and then ... he and his he was making love to* Singapore
men waited for you, out back. He Lily in order to rid himself of her,
acted as if he knew what you’d likewise irrevocably. It almost
do. I couldn’t warn you. They had didn’t make sense, but it seemed to
me tied up in the office here.” work.
Jack Friday didn’t believe her. He fastened his mouth to her
She was a beautiful and very throbbing throat. He ran his fin¬
damnable liar, he told himself. gers over her shoulders, down her
But an idea was dawning in his smooth back. He said: “Now,
aching head; and he pretended to baby.”
believe because it suited his new She moaned: “Yes . . . now. . ”
purpose.
He said: “Okay, Lily. So you T ATER he poured two drinks,
didn’t rat on me.” He sank his gave her one. “I guess you
fingers into her soft creamy shoul¬ know I trust you, eh, Lil?”
ders, and he kissed her roughly She raised the glass to her swol¬
on the mouth to prove he wasn’t len lips. “Here’s to us.” That was
sore. answer enough.
It had more effect than he had He said: “Look, Lil. About that
bargained for. She whimpered: little wren, the one that bumped
“Oh-h-h, Jack . . . darling ... I’ve the Jessfield Road monkey.”
waited so long for that.. . ! ” And “What about her, Jack?”
42 Spicy-Adventure Stories
got a pile stashed, haven’t you? She stared into his eyes. “Jack,
You’ve been saving your cut ever listen. You’re in love with Marcia
since we hooked up. I always won¬ Durkin, aren’t you?”
dered why.” He wanted to say yes, goofy
She drummed on the desk. “Ill over her! And once I get her out
tell you why, Jack. Some day I of this hellhole you’ll never see
hoped to ... go back home. With either of us again. You can play
enough cash to see me through, around ivith your precious half-
so I wouldn’t have to do...” caste till your own shin turns as
“Wouldn’t have to do what?” yellow as his, for all I care!
“The things that sent me out to But instead, he forced hot denial
China in the first place,” she an¬ out of his mouth. “In love with
swered bitterly “I was a small that poor little tike? Certainly
town girl. From the wrong side of not!”
the tracks. My old man was the “I see,” Singapore Lily said.
only parent I ever knew. He kicked “By the way, where did you hide
off with the d. t. ’s when I was just her?”
past fifteen. From then on I was “In your cottage. I had a hell
on my own. If you get what I of a nerve, I guess.”
mean.” “No, Jack. That was okay. It
He felt uncomfortable. But what was a smart move. Wait here a
the hell, he told himself. She would minute.” She went out of the office,
do all right, now that she had her and when she returned she had a
connection with Bennie Chong. tin cash box under her arm. She
She would make another pile of opened it and extracted sheaves
chips for herself without half try¬ of currency. American money.
ing. She had what it takes. “Five thousand, maybe a little/
He said: “Look, Lil. This is more,” she said. She handed it to
what I mean. Suppose you buy him without counting it. Her fin¬
me out. Take over the whole joint. gers were trembling a little. She
I’ll sell you my half for . . . have said wryly: “There goes my fu¬
you got as much as five grand?” ture.”
His conscience squirmed like a
TT WAS a shrewd estimate, based cesspool full of maggots. He was
*- on what he knew she had drawn hard, he tried to tell himself; he’d
from the business since it opened. always been hard and he always
“I’ve got just about that much,” would be. Why the hell should he
she answered slowly. “You want worry about Singapore Lily and
me to give it to you so you can take her dreams of some day returning
the little redhead back home, eh?” to the States? Nuts. It was Marcia
“Well, it would only be tem¬ Durkin he must think about, Mar¬
porary,” he said defensively. “I’m cia of the dainty figure and hot
coming back for you pretty quick, mouth and innocent sweetness.
remember. And meantime you’ll You couldn’t call it crooked to
be coining cabbage hand over fist, double cross a dame like Singa¬
what with playing Bennie Chong’s pore Lily when you were doing it
opium game.” for the sake of someone like Mar-
Shanghai Sellout 45
cia Durkin. Lily knew how to look heart!” He doubled his fist and hit
out for herself; Marcia didn’t. her on the jaw.
A man had to do what was right. She went sailing across the
He took the currency. “Thanks, room; landed on a davenport with
baby. Want a bill of sale for my her skirt up around her step-ins.
half of the business?” “Jack—!” she whimpered. A thin
“No. Why should I want that? trickle of blood wormed out of
You’ll be back . . . you said.” one corner of her ripe red mouth.
“Sure I’ll be back. But right “Jack—no—” She tried to pull up
now I’ve got things to do. Got to the bodice of her dress where it
get Marcia. Arrange passage on had slipped down to expose her
the next boat. A million details; snowy charms.
you know.” He cursed her. He turned on his
“I’ll go with you, Jack.” heel and dashed out of the house.
He didn’t want her with him, Jesshield Road wasn’t far away.
but he didn’t quite know how to To Jessfield Road. Headquar¬
tell her. Well, that was okay. Let ters of the puppet government
her come along. He said: Let’s secret police. Bennie Chong’s
headquarters. That was where
go.”
She settled beside him in his he’d find Marcia Durkin. That was
car, her long tapered legs where Chong would take her. And
stretched up under the instrument the things Chong would do to her
panel, gleaming silkily in the dash- were various and savage ...
light. They were gorgeous legs. She’d be given a shot of dope.
That would be to kill her resis¬
Too damned gorgeous for a rat
tance. Then Bennie Chong would
like Bennie Chong . . .
take her to a room. When it was
“We’re here, Jack,” she re¬
over, Marcia wouldn’t want to be
minded him. He had almost driven seen again—in Shanghai or the
past her bungalow. States or anywhere else. She’s be
dead, in her soul. Her sweet young
HE STOPPED the car. They body would go on living for a
went up to her porch. The while, a play toy for the Jap army
front door was open. A funny feel¬ of invasion deep in the interior;
ing slugged Jack Friday in the pit but Marcia, the real Marcia,
of the stomach. “Marcia—Mar¬ would be as dead as if they’d put
cia—! he called. a bullet through her brain . . .
Marcia wasn’t there. Marcia J ack Friday damned his car be¬
was gone. cause it was slow in starting. He
He turned on Singapore Lily. damned himself because he hadn’t
“You stinking, dirty witch!” looked after his battery properly.
“J ack—” The current was weak. The motor
“While you were out getting the turned over with maddening lazi¬
money you contacted Chong. Told ness. Then the whole machine
him where he could find Marcia. seemed to settle down and get go¬
You knew I was in love with her. ing. He gunned it.
You crossed me. Damn your (Continued on page 91)
46
DANGER
R OY CRAIG stood on top the
levee and looked out at the
Craig swallowed at the lump
forming in his throat. He could
flood that swirled beneath feel his muscles growing stiff and
him. Trees, logs, an occasional trembling. His eyes moved down
negro cabin, dead animals, all over the curve of her breasts, the
bobbed in the yellow water that slim waist, the hips tight-fitted by
stretched for more than amile. the white dress. His voice was taut
He turned to the girl beside him when he said, “I’ve kept the nig¬
and smiled. “I’ve spent my life on gers working on the levee since the
the Mississippi,” he said, “but this river started rising. I knew that if
is the damnedest flood I ever saw. it broke I’d be ruined; but it won’t
It’s already higher than the old break.”
levee, and a damn’ good thing I’ve Suddenly she had her arms
had my niggers putting sandbags around him, her body pressed flat
up here for weeks.” against him, her head tilted back,
“Is there any danger!” she lips parted. “I can’t wait until we
asked. “I didn’t know what might get married, Roy. I can’t! I can’t!
happen to you down here if the That’s why I drove down here. I
levee broke. That’s why I drove want to be with you now!”
down.” She looked up at Craig “Nell.” Craig said huskily. His
and he saw in her eyes that it was arms were tight around her, flat¬
not fear which had brought her tening her breasts against him. He
down from New Orleans. It was kissed her furiously. His right
something much more interesting hand slid down her back, tight¬
to him. ened.
“Roy! Roy!” She whispered the
r^RAIG didn’t answer. It always
words into his mouth. Her left
^ took his breath away to look at
hand pushed through his dark
this girl. She was tall and slender
hair; her right hand beat convul¬
with long blonde hair, but her
sively at his back.
skin had an olive tint and her eyes
were surprisingly dark. She wore Craig felt his knees trembling.
a white, short-sleeved dress and “Let’s go to the house,” he said.
the high curve of her breasts She moved slightly away from
molded it closely against her. In him and his left hand rested upon
the long moment that they stood the full mound of her breast. His
looking at one another her breath fingers tightened. “Oh Roy!” she
began to quicken. said, and stood still, trembling.
frum cross de ribber wants to see big, hairy fingers hung only slight¬
you. Dey say hit’s moughty im¬ ly above his knees. His face was
portant.” square and brutal.
Craig’s lean, sunburned face Jim Bates, sitting on the coun¬
darkened. “What three fellows?” ter, looked like a grimy, unwashed
“Dat Mistur Bates, an’ Mistur Humpty-Dumpty. His big belly
LeBlaine, an’ Mistur Verot. Dey’s overflowed his belt and hung in
down at de commissary.” sagging roles of fat above his legs.
“All right,” Craig said. “Tell His head was egg-shaped with
’em I’ll be there in a minute.” He squint, colorless eyes. Sitting be¬
turned to the girl. Her lips were side him was the gaunt, lipless,
parted, hungry, her eyes wide. Death’s Head of a man who was
“Damn it!” Craig said. “They Pete Verot.
would have to come right now.” “Hello,” Craig said. “Is there
“Will it take long to see them?” anything I can do for you?”
“I don’t have an idea what they
Verot moved then, letting his
want. There’s been bad blood be¬
lank body slide off the counter like,
tween my family and the Verot’s
the links of a chain. He was even
for two generations. It’s fiftteen
taller than Craig but so lean that
years since Pete Verot put his foot
his dirty clothes seemed to flap
on this plantation and my father
about him as though he were made
kicked him away then. That was
of sticks. “We have come to do
just a year or two before Dad died,
something for you,” he drawled.
but he wasn’t too old to kick a
“We’ve come to warn you that the
Verot. LeBlaine and Bates are low
levee on this side of the river is
type Cajuns. They’ve never even
going to break soon and that it
come here before.”
would be best for you to take your
“Let’s see them, and hurry,”
cattle and niggers and whatever
Nell said. She caught Craig’s
you can move from your home—
hands and pressed them for one
and leave. Immediately.”
second hard. Then she turned
quickly and started down the side Craig’s dark eyes opened wide,
of the levee. then slitted, turned hard and glit¬
tering. The muscle in his big
TT WAS semi-dark inside the shoulders stiffened. He leaned
Aframe commissary and accus¬ slightly forward. “How’s it going
tomed to the bright glare of the to break?”
sunlight Craig could scarcely see Jules LeBlaine lurched forward.
the three men seated on the coun¬ He looked like an ape in the semi¬
ter to the right. One of them had darkness. “We’re gonna blow it
a shot-gun across his lap and two up. And it wasn’t my idea to come
more guns were propped nearby. and tell you. I jest as soon you
Nell stopped at the door, waiting. drowned. I come here because
Jules LeBlaine moved the gun Verot said we oughta.”
from his lap and slid off the coun¬ “I’ve never thought much of
ter. He was a giant of a man with your family,” the calm, drawling
shoulders like a stevedore and his voice of Verot said. “But a gentle-
Danger Preferred
man’s code demanded that I tell crop which would have allowed
yon.” him to marry Nell and to repaint
“I see the Verots are still bor¬ the old home in which four genera¬
rowing things they have no right tions of Craigs had lived, to equip
to,” Craig said flatly. “You’ve bor¬ the whole plantation and start it
rowed a code and your great¬ going in a modern, paying fash¬
grandfather borrowed fifty thou¬ ion ; it would all be gone. He’d be
sand dollars from a Craig. Neither a pauper, and Nell. . . .
of you pay them back.” He did not even hear her steps
Verot’s dark face flushed. His behind him but all at once her
lips twisted, then went straight hands were on his arm, pulling
again. “I’ll let that pass,” he said, him around to face her. “What are
“since enough is happening to you you going to do?” she asked. Her
anyway. There’s too much water face was a pale blur in the gloom.
in that river and our side of the He sucked a long breath into his
levee is weak. I don’t want it to lungs, straightened his shoulders.
break because I’ve got crops there. “I’m going to send you and the
If this side breaks, it’ll ease the niggers away. And I’m going to
presure. You understand.” stay here. They may blow up my
He picked up his gun, held it levee, but somebody ’s going to get
carelessly in the crook of his arm hurt when they do it.”
but the muzzle centered on Craig. She put her hands flat against
“So I suggest you take your nig¬ his chest. Through his shirt he
gers and leave—before tonight.” could feel the warmth of them, feel
He bowed ironically and walked his skin tingle under their touch.
out. LeBlaine and Bates followed “You’re not going to send me
him. away. I’m not going to leave you.”
He put his hands on her shoul¬
D OY CRAIG did not even turn to ders. Even now he could feel de¬
watch them go. He stood star¬ sire for her trembling like an elec¬
ing into the gloom of the building, trical current through his body.
pulling a long breath into his Perhaps he’d never have her now.
lungs. So it was as simple as that. . . . Tomorrow he might be only
Either he left and allowed them a water logged corpse tangled in
to blow up the levee, or he stayed thick brush somewhere near the
and drowned when they did it. Two Gulf. But by God! He’d died fight¬
sticks of dynamite would blow up ing!
a hole in the top of the levee and “You’re going,” he said flatly.
the water tearing through would “They are three to one and I’ve
do the rest. His cotton and sugar two miles of levee to watch. You
cane, the negro cabins, even his know what’ll happen to anybody
own home would go under that here when that levee goes.”
howling yellow flood. Autumn She came close to him, her
would find' him with barren, mud- whole body tense, vibrant. He
covered acres—and ruinous debts. could see the rise and fall of the
What had promised to be the white dress above her breasts, her
best crop he had ever raised, the wide, dilated eyes. “I’m not go-
54 Spicy-Adventure Stories
ing,” she said. There were finality “I’m staying,” she said. “With
in her voice. “If you die, I’m go¬ you.”
ing to die with you.”
He argued, but it did no good. ’T'WILIGHT was a blue and
“I’m going to stay,” she repeated. purple haze darkening the
“You can’t make me leave.” river, throwing dim shadows over
Shuffling steps sounded on the the muddy road that ran past the
commissary porch. Craig turned to commissary, past the deserted ne¬
see the old white-haired negro gro cabins, and on out through
coming through the door. “Well, long, flat fields of sugar cane. Roy
Mistur Roy, you sho. ... He was Craig rested the butt of his 30-30
close enough now to see Craig’s on the levee top, looked off to
face and he stopped suddenly. His where his home was a white
mouth opened and the whites of shadow behind tall oak trees.
his eyes began to expand. “Lawd Then he turned and looked down
Gawd, Mistur Roy! What...?” at the girl beside him. “If the levee
Craig’s voice was low-pitched, doesn’t break,” he said, “that’ll be
brittle. “You go out and get all our home. If the levee does break
the hands together. Tell them to —” he made a gesture with his left
load as much of the live stock in hand—“we won’t need it.”
the trucks as possible and go to “It’s not going to break,” she
New Orleans. Stay at Beroot’s. said. She was very close to him
Get every hand on the place, and now, her head tilted back so that
leave this afternoon.” the line of her throat was a smooth
“Lawd Gawd, Mistur Ray, that curve. Her lips were parted, and
ain’t. . . .” looking into her eyes Craig saw
“You go do what I told you. Now the quick, passionate shadows be¬
get started.” ing to move. “We’re alone now,”
“Yas, sur, but dis is : hore sum- she whispered. “There’s not any¬
pen. Hit ain’t.. . .” The old negro body within miles.” She sat down
shuffled out of the door muttering. on the levee’s edge, and pulled him
Craig turned back to the girl. down beside her.
His eyes came up from the slen¬ For perhaps five seconds they
der, stockingless ankles, over the sat, very close and yet not touch¬
straight sweep of the white dress ing, each feeling the steady, furi¬
that suggested the beauty of the ous growth of passion within their
legs beneath, over the curving blood. Craig did not hear the girl’s
hips, the flat stomach, the swelling long breath, but he saw the line
of the high breasts, to the loveli¬ of her breasts rise higher, sharper
ness of the girl’s face and the against the white dress, saw the
glory of her long blonde hair. He little pulse quickening in her
wanted her to stay, wanted her throat. The muscles of his fore¬
close-locked in his arms—and he arms and shoulders were stiff and
knew that if she stayed it would trembling. Blood began to ham¬
probably mean her death! mer in his temples.
“You’ve got to go,” he said “Nell,” he said huskily. In the
huskily. “Got to.” thickening twilight a mocking bird
Danger Preferred 55
started to sing, but neither of them gether, bodies clinging like mag¬
heard it. nets. He could feel her lips quiv¬
And then, suddenly their arms ering under his. She had twisted
were tight around one another, so that her dress was pulled above
their mouths pushed hard to¬ her knee and now his left hand
brushed the smooth, sunbrowned
skin. “Roy!” she moaned. “Roy!
Roy!”
Only another moment and her
breasts stood high and trembling
until his chest was against them,
flattening them.“ Roy ... Roy ...” tonight. They’ve got all day, and
she whimpered. And then, “Dar¬ . . .” His voice clicked short. His
ling!” Her long blonde hair shook right hand scooped up the rifle.
loose and his fingers tangled in it. From behind the commissary he
had caught the whisper of steps
■pvAWN found them side by side sloughing in the mud.
on top the levee. The girl’s “Get inside the building,” Craig
head was cradled in Craig’s right whispered. “There’ll be bullets
arm, her face against his chest. flying. And keep talking as if I
Her long blonde hair was tousled had gone with you.” He stood up,
under her head; one gold strand flatfooted, the butt of the rifle un¬
fell down across her breast and der his right arm pit. He waited
Craig’s hand. until the girl was inside the build¬
Craig raised his head. By the ing, her voice drifting out to him.
growing light he could see the Then he went down the steps
commissary looming up out of the silently.
mist, the muddy road stretching At the bottom he stooped and
out through the sugar cane. He peered under the commissary. The
blinked heavy, sleep-leaded eyes, floor of the frame building was two
wondering why Verot and the feet above the ground and close
others had not come during the against the back corner he could
night to carry out their threat. It see giant, overall-clad legs.
wasn’t like the tall, gaunt man to Craig’s lips twisted silently.
back down. Time and again dur¬ “Jules LeBlaine.” Finger on the
ing the night Craig had patrolled trigger, muzzle centering on those
the whole length of his levee, but giant legs. Craig waited.
nothing had happened. “Drop that rifle and put your
He leaned over and kissed Nell. hands up.” The voice was calm
She stirred and her eyes opened. and drawling.
“I wasn’t asleep,” she said. Her Roy Craig cursed silently, sav¬
hand slid across Craig’s cheek, fin¬ agely. He dropped his rifle and
ger tips trembling, sliding down¬ straightened, turning. Pete Verot
ward. His whole body stiffened, stood at a corner of the negro
his fingers tightened on her breast. cabin across the narrow road, a
shotgun at his shoulder. Behind
T ATER they sat on the commis- him was Jim Bates. Watching Le¬
sary steps in the early sunlight Blaine, Craig had allowed the
and drank milk from a cow which others to slip up on him.
had been left behind, ate cheese A sense of bitterness, of utter
and bread from the commissary. frustration welled through Roy
Craig’s rifle lay just to the right Craig, twisting his lips into a dis¬
of him. “They must have decided torted smile. They had tricked
not to try to blow up the levee,” him as though he were a child,
she said. “Maybe they were afraid beaten him with pitiful ease.
to come while you stayed here.” His eyes moved along the row
Craig shok his head. “The crest of negro cabins, beyond them to
of the flood won’t reach here until the sugar cane fields, swung to the
Danger Preferred 57
white, tall columned old house that LeBlaine crawled to hands and
had been the home of the Craigs knees, cursing deep in his throat.
for so long—the home to which he Craig’s fist whipped up. But his
had planned to bring Nell. And knees had slipped in the mud again
now it would all go under a yellow and the blow landed glancing. The
flood. And Nell.... giant’s arms circled his waist,
“Good God!” he said half aloud. tightening like a vise, crushing the
What would they do with her! air from his lungs.
Even if she stayed hidden until Nell’s shrill scream ripped the
they had killed him, planted their air. Craig twisted slightly, saw
dynamite and gone, she wouldn’t her fighting with the egg-shaped
stand a chance to escape. The Bates, saw the man’s hand catch
flood would get her. That would the top of her dress, rip down¬
be better than being in the hands ward. A white breast quivered into
of a human ape like LeBlaine. view and Bates crackled even as
the girl’s hand struck him.
rTHE giant came around the cor- Then Pete Verot brought his
-L ner of the building, grinning gun butt down on Craig’s head.
nastily. “Where’s that wench of
you’rn! I heard her talkin’!” He /CONSCIOUSNESS never left
stooped and picked up Craig’s ^ Craig completely. He heard
rifle. voices sounding far away and
Roy Craig dived. His shoulder meaningless, felt himself being
struck LeBlaine just above the half dragged, half carried. Slow¬
knees and both men smashed down ly his brain began to function, his
into the mud. He heard Bates’ eyes blinked. The voices came
shrill scream, Verot’s curse, knew nearer, took on meaning. He was
that the others could not shoot for conscious of Nell’s angry sobbing,
fear of hitting LeBlaine. He heard of Bates’ peering voice saying,
the clatter of heels across the com¬ “She’s a right pretty thing, ain’t
missary porch, caught one glimpse she. This is gonna be good.”
of Nell running toward them. Craig shook his head, tried to
Craig rolled, twisted his right wipe the mist from in front of his
hand free, and swung. The blow eyes. His hand was jerked back.
landed on the giant’s ear and he “He’s cornin’ to,” LeBlaine said.
bellowed, flung his shotgun aside “It won’t matter. He won’t get
and lunged. Craig tried to twist out of that river once he’s thrown
away, but his knees slipped in the in it.”
mud and the giant’s shoulder “Neither will I if he drags me
struck him. They went down to¬ in.”
gether. “Hell,” Bates said, “shoot him
Somehow Craig got to his knees. and fling him in. But I ain’t ready
He had only a split second in to shoot the girl yet.”
which to win: he had to knock the Fury shook through Roy Craig,
man out before the others reached clearing his vision, though there
him, get the rifle and shoot across was still a terrific pounding under
the giant’s body. his skull and his muscles were
58 Spicy-Adventure Stories
mud and up the levee bank drag¬ at his bonds. He heard nothing,
ging two fifty pound sacks of salt. not even the sullen mutter of the
While Yerot kept Craig covered, river a few feet away or the girl’s
Bates tied one of the sacks to his occasional cry from down the
legs, tripped him, and tied his levee, the angry sound of Bates’
arms around the second bag. and LeBlaine’s voices. For a full
Abruptly Nell’s scream jerked minute he twisted feet and wrists,
high and terrible in the air. Craig jerked and tugged. His skin
twisted his head, saw her fighting cracked under the ropes and blood
with LeBlaine. The giant had torn oozed, but there was no slacken¬
the dress from her completely, was ing.
trying to lift her as she beat at his It wasn’t a long struggle, but it
face. Her long, curving body was was a furious one, straining every
clothed only by a pair of silk step- muscle and fibre in Craig’s body.
ins that molded the full thighs, the And when he lay still, panting, he
soft flanks, the slim waist. Her knew that it was impossible, to
breasts shivered and jerked as she free the ropes.
fought. Craig’s face was wet with pers¬
LeBlaine’s hands pawed at piration now, his lips stiff and
them, at the stepins. He was mak¬ cold. Under the weight of the sack
ing snarling, animal noises deep his heart pounded heavily, like a
in his throat, never feeling the rock heating at his ribs. There was
girl’s blows. only one chance left—and no time
“Hey!” Bates screamed and ran to waste.
at LeBlaine. “She’s mine first. I Slowly, fighting his way, rolling
got her first!” He tried to push the and twisting, Roy Craig moved
giant away, but LeBlaine tossed toward the river’s edge.
him to one side, caught the girl up
in his arms and started toward the ‘C’OUR complete rolls he made,
edge of the levee. Bates followed, A then paused, lying on his face
cursing furiously, beating fat two feet from the levee’s end. He
hands against his back. twisted his head, looked out at the
“You two settle it" the gaunt expanse of yellow, rushing water.
man drawled. “I’ll get the dyna¬ A whole tree, torn up by its roots
mite.” He leaned over Craig and somewhere to the north, broke the
smiled. “I don’t think you’ll leave surface* rolled over slowly, and
while tied to that salt. It’s not so went under again.
heavy, but you can’t use your legs Craig’s teeth made loud, grat¬
or hands. You may be able to roll ing noises. What chance did a man
to the edge of the levee and watch have in that flood, even unham¬
LeBlaine with the girl. And while pered by any weight? The strong¬
you watch think of the time your est swimmer would be a feather
father told me to leave his planta¬ against the current.
tion.” He spat in Craig’s face, The water was within a yard of
turned and walked away. the levee top and Craig began to
Slowly now, face gray beneath tear with his finger tips at one of
the sunburn, Craig began to work (Continued on page 94)
The LONGEST
V ANCE MADDEN stared an¬
grily into the calm eyes of
our belief that he was dead—killed
by certain of his underworld
the French police prefect. enemies. But when you registered
He said: “See here, monsieur, at the Hotel de I’Est, your resem¬
I don’t like this. Don’t like it at blance to his man was immediately
all. I’ve been in Saigon exactly noticed. Obviously, it was our duty
four hours; and now two of your to investigate.”
Cambodian constables yank me
out of my room at the Hotel de Y/'ANCE MADDEN grinned wry-
I’Est and bring me down here to ’ ly. He heaved his thick-chested,
your office. You ask me a lot of muscular body out of the chair in
damned fool questions. You even which he had been sitting; stood
take my fingerprints. What’s be¬ up to his full six-feet-two of
hind it? I’m an American citizen height. “Who was this chap who
and my credentials are okay. So looked so much like me?” he asked
what?” curiously.
The prefect smiled. At that mo¬ “We never knew his real name.
ment a clerk entered the bare little He was known as Sapphire Slade.”
office, laid a photographic print on “Sapphire Slade ? Funny name.”
the police official’s desk. The clerk “He collected sapphires, mon¬
whispered something. Vance Mad¬ sieur. They were his passion, his
den couldn’t hear what the fellow mania. His presence in Indo-
said. China raised le diable with the na¬
Then the prefect dismissed his tives.”
underling, turned to Madden. Vance Madden raised an eye¬
“Monsieur Madden,” he said quiet¬ brow. “How so?”
ly, “we owe you our apologies. “Because Slade had a habit of
From your fingerprints, we have obtaining sapphires which had
learned that you are not the man been stolen from sacred native
we suspected you of being. You temples—from idols. We could
are free to depart. never prove positively that he
“In explanation of your being himself did the actual stealing. He
brought here, I may say only this: probably bribed crooked priests—
You strongly resemble a man who or obtained his sapphires from na¬
has given us much trouble in the tive thieves. In any case, he dis¬
past, here in French Indo-China. appeared about a year ago. Word
He, too, was an American. It was trickled through that he had been
61
62_ Spicy-Adventure Stories
ise.” Deliberately she drew the front of him. It was the native girl.
kimono farther open. “See!” she She took the knife full in her
whispered. “Me yonng. Me not breast.
old woman.” It bit into her flesh, sank hilt-
Madden started to refuse once deep to her heart. With a gasping,
more. Then he reconsidered. May¬ agonized shriek, the girl went
be this little almond-eyed cutie down. Blood streamed over her
could tell him one or two things bosom. The glaze of death was al¬
that he wanted to know. He smiled. ready in her widened eyes. Her
“Okay, baby.” crimson-tipped fingers clutched
The girl plucked at his coat, spasmodically at eternity.
drew him toward one side of the
saloon. Half-way across the floor, A RED film of rage hazed over
something happened. The girl’s r%' Vance Madden’s narrowed
ivory-yellow face went suddenly eyes. “You murdering hound!” he
pale. She froze in her tracks. bellowed. He sprang, hurled him¬
Vance Madden stared at her. self like an avalanche toward the
“What’s up, baby?” he growled. half-caste who had thrown the
She didn’t answer him. Didn’t knife. His hard body smashed into
have time. Because a hulking, the man, bowled him backward.
slant-eyed half-caste was plung¬ Madden’s fist flashed up in a
ing toward her, cursing like a fiend. venomous uppercut that exploded
The man was drunk; and there was against the half-caste’s jaw with
murder-rage in his red-rimmed sickening concussion. The man
eyes. “Slut! Daughter of a ca¬ toppled, fell on his face. And as
mel!” he roared out in coarse he fell, his skull cracked against
French-Chinese. And then he the edge of a chair. The sound of
grabbed at the girl. it was like the splitting of a co¬
She tried to elude him. His fin¬ conut. Blood and grey brains
gers caught in her kimono, ripped oozed. .. .
it from her shrinking body. She The American turned, stared at
cried out in terror. the startled faces which surround¬
Vance Madden rasped a curse. ed him. He licked his grim lips.
“Lay off her, you damned Chink!” “Anybody else looking for
he gritted. And he flung himself trouble?” he rasped.
at the half-caste. Nobody was. Madden walked
The man ducked him. Like ma¬ out of the dive on the balls of his
gic, a glittering knife appeared in feet. He started back toward his
the drunken half-caste’s fist. Mad¬ hotel. He walked slowly, taking his
den, off-balance, went plunging time. His jaw jutted pugnaciously.
past his adversary. And then, And then, three blocks farther
while his back was still turned, ahead, he heard a woman’s sudden
before he could whirl to protect scream.
himself, the half-caste raised his It came from direetly in front
knife; threw it viciously. of him, around a dark corner. Mad¬
Madden saw the blade coming. den heard it again, ear-piercing,
And then an ivory figure leaped in freighted with helpless fear. He
64_ Spicy-Adventure Stories
hastened his pace; broke into a 'T'HERE was a cool, wet cloth lav-
loping run. He rounded the cor¬ ing his temples. A subtle fra¬
ner. grance was in his nostrils. Gentle
There was a girl. A white girl. hands touched his cheeks.
She was in a rickshaw. Her rick¬ Vance Madden opened his eyes,
shaw-boy lay crumpled between his stirred a little. He looked up.
shafts, battered into unconscious¬ Someone was leaning over him. A
ness. And three thug-like natives girl. A white girl. The blonde girl
were hauling at the girl, pulling of the rickshaw—the one who had
her out of the cart despite her fran¬ been attacked by those three native
tic struggles. thugs.
Madden saw that a clawing, She said: “You must be quiet,
clutching hand had ripped at the Mr. Slade.”
front of her dress. He saw that He stared at her. Her eyes were
she was very young, very beauti¬ azure pools, shadowed by trouble.
ful, very blonde. And then the Her lips were full, crimson, very
American had launched himself in¬ kissable. Her hair was like yellow
to the thick of it. corn-silk—soft, wavy, infinitely
Typically, he didn’t think of his beautiful.
Webley. Fists were made for fight¬ As she leaned over him, her
ing men; and Vance Madden was a torn frock gaped open, so that he
fighting man. He slugged one of could see the swelling crescents of
the three attacking natives; her milk-white breasts; could see
smashed a vicious blow at the fel¬ the deep, delicious valley between
low’s mouth. The native screamed them. Her skin was satin-smooth,
and went reeling backward, spit¬ flawless—
ting blood and shards of betel- And she had called him “Slade.”
stained teeth. He frowned. Sapphire Slade ...
Madden caught the second native that was the name of the man
around the waist, lifted him as Vance Madden was supposed to re¬
though he were a toy. The man semble. The man who was dead
shrieked—and Madden threw him, —murdered by his enemies in Sai¬
square at the remaining thug. gon’s underworld. Once more Mad¬
Skull smashed against skull, and den looked up at the girl. “Where
both kidnapers went down. am I? What’s happened?” he de¬
Then, from behind, the Ameri¬ manded. “And who are you?”
can heard pattering foot-falls. He “You’re in my home,” the girl
pivoted. He -was a thought too whispered softly. “Just as the
late. Somebody bashed him over fourth native leaped from the shad¬
the head with a length of iron pipe. ows and hit you over the head, the
Madden felt a Niagara of pain police came. They wanted to take
drowning his brain. Blinding lights you to a hospital. But I insisted
blasted his eyeballs. The street on bringing you here. I owe you
came up to meet him. He threw out my life. I want to repay you if I
his hands to save his face. Then, can.”
for a long while, he didn’t know “Who are you?” Madden asked
anything at all. again.
The Longest Way Home 65
“You’re too beautiful to be real!” Shan will not entrust the work to
Madden breathed. Then in a whis¬ others!”
per: “What’s to he donef” “What do you mean?” Madden
“But I am real... ! We’ll have rasped.
to go through with this or Fang “You know quite well what I
Shan will suspect me of double- mean, Slade. My men told me they
crossing him!” had killed you, a year ago. They
Abruptly the girl went limp in lied. I shall punish them for that!
Madden’s arms. . . . Fortunately for me, when you
went into that saloon on the Street
of Five Serpents tbnight, and
rpiiEN, long moments later, she
killed that half-caste, one of my
■*- smiled at him, dreamily. “You
men was in the place. He saw you,
will always love me, Sapphire
recognized you. He slipped out
Slade? And perhaps you will some
and told me that you were in Sai¬
day bring your collection of sap¬
gon”
phires here for me to see ... ? Say
The snarling Asiatic raised his
yes ... it’s your only hope of get¬
voice. “Wang Sing! Li Po!” he
ting out alive. . . .”
called harshly.
Slowly, Vance Madden got to his Madden heard shuffling foot¬
feet. He smiled. “Why should I steps. Then two lowering natives
bring my sapphires some other entered. “You called us, master?”
time? I have them with me now,” one said.
he said quietly. “Aiel I called you. Did you not
The girl went white. “You fool tell me, long months ago, that you
—you’ve signed your own death- had killed Sapphire Slade? And
warrant !” she gasped in a choked that his sapphires were missing
whisper. And then a door punched from his carcass?”
open; and a voice said: The two natives blanched. They
“You are quite right, Felice. He looked at Vance Madden—and fear
has signed his own death-war¬ leaped into their slanted eyes. “A
rant !” ghost! He has returned from the
Madden whirled. A man came grave!” the second thug wailed in
toward him; a man clad in the yel¬ terror.
low robes of the mandarin caste. Fang Shan, their master
An Asiatic, slant-eyed, cruel-vis- sneered. “You lied to me, you
aged, thin-lipped. He held a Luger dogs! You did not kill Sapphire
in his right fist; and the weapon’s Slade! This man is no ghost—and
muzzle was trained at Madden’s his very presence in this room
heart. proves that you lied when you told
Madden said: “What the bleed¬ me you had murdered him!”
ing hell!” “Master—we slit his throat! We
The yellow man grinned. “So swear it!”
we meet again, Mr. Sapphire “Sons of turtles! You would still
Slade! And this time, you will not cram your falsehoods into my
escape the death which I have teeth?” Glaring fury slithered in¬
planned for you. This time Fang to the Asiatic’s demoniac eyes.
The Longest Way Home 67
air of caution, she slowly undid curves of that satiny skin that fad¬
and loosened the laces of her blue ed enticingly into frothy lace and
silk bodice, so that the material, warm shadows.
instead of binding, now fell loosely In a few seconds, with the blood
over the clear outlines of firm, pounding in his head till he
youthful breasts. thought his temples should crack,
he gathered Camille in a crushing
HTHIS simple, deliberate act sent embrace and picked her up from
A D’Artagnan’s blood humming, the chair, stifled her little moans
transformed the fire of his hot of pleasure with his mouth smoth¬
Gascon’s temper into an emotion ering her.
more tender and consuming. For a Never had a duel or a. sword
moment, he eased the pressure of scrimmage with three of the Car¬
his clasp about the girl’s slender dinal’s guards caused D’Artag¬
waist. The sudden release allowed nan’s knees to shake as they did
the already loosened silk of her when he lifted this girl, like a
bodice to fall half off her smooth feather doll, warm and slender and
shoulders. loving, in his arms. . ..
“My soul, but you are sweet!”
D ’Artagnan breathed hoarsely. CO completely overwhelmed was
But even this small talk taxed him, ^ the young guardsman by his
for he was unused to saying pretty infatuation that, an hour later, it
things to a woman. Instead of talk¬ took some seconds of listening be¬
ing, therefore, he kissed Camille fore he recognized the voice, ac¬
upon the throat above the throb¬ companying the pounding at his
bing treasure which tantalized him. door, as that of Athos.
Camille made small gasping “Un moment, mon ami!” D’Ar¬
sounds, and the blush that started tagnan, leaving the girl, hastened
around her eyes spread swiftly to the front room and unlocked the
downward and transformed the door.
flawless whiteness of her breast “Pardieu, Athos, what has taken
to a faint couleur de'rose. you?” Paling, D’Artagnan fell
“Monsieur D’Artagnan!” she back a step, for the stoical mus¬
murmured into his ear. “You drive keteer’s eyes glittered, and his
me. . . . mad!” But at the same mustache twitched as it did only in
time her low laugh sent her sweet those rare moments -when he per¬
breath tingling across the hairs mitted himself to show excitement.
behind his ear; far from objecting Inside, Athos closed the door
to such madness, she helped it by carefully; he asked coolly, “You
crossing her knees with a seeming¬ have the Queen’s messenger here,
ly careless gesture so that be¬ my dear D’Artagnan?”
fore D ’Artagnan’s unbelieving yet “But—of course! That is,” he
eager eyes was laid bare a portion stammered, “she—we are waiting,
of the curving white flesh above Athos. . . . But how did you
her knee. Never had D’Artagnan know?”
felt 'the thrill that suffused him as “Where is she?”
his avid eyes caressed the sweet “Camille!” Still unable to banish
After Night 73
74 Spicy-Adventure Stories
T HE broad-shouldered Amer¬
ican who lolled in his chair
office of the cabaret. Suave, im¬
maculate in a shantung suit, his
and stared somberly at the slanted eyes inscrutable as the
colorful whirl of dancers in the moonstones that gleamed in the
ballroom of Chow Kit’s cabaret only ring that adorned his long
was still sober, though he had nailed, thin hands. The Chinaman
spent all evening challenging was sizing up the colorful whirl
native liquor to do its worst. His of bailarinas whisked about the pa-
white duck suit was still neat, and vilian by dancing soldiers, sailors,
he was clean shaven, but his crag¬ and white civilians.
gy, bronzed face was drawn and Exotic girls of every shade from
deeply lined, and his blue eyes walnut to old ivory. Malay, Japan¬
werfe haggard. ese, Chinese; Eurasians, and
Lieutenant Dan Slade, posing as mestizos whose touch of Spanish
a dishonorably discharged soldier, blood gave them an inflaming
had come to Manila to find out glamor that no white woman can
how Datu Ali, the Moro rebel down have. Those girls had the inside
in Jolo, was getting United States rumors of Manila—but try to get
government ammunition. at the truth behind their dance
Chow Kit was the answer; but hall smiles!
try and prove it. His fleet of in¬ Chow Kit, seeing that business
ter-island trading boats had a doz¬ was good, turned back to his office,
en times been searched for con¬ leaving Slade to continue ponder¬
traband, but in vain. The only re¬ ing on a bedroom and bottle ap¬
maining move was to get the low proach to the theft of government
down on that crafty Chinaman by ammunition.
a flank attack directed through the
chain of dance halls and bawdy PRESENTLY the office door
houses that made him wealthier again opened. The girl who
every day. emerged could have no more than
Slade spat disgustedly as he saw a drop of Malay blood. The slant
Chow Kit emerge from the private of her dark eyes was scarcely per-
76
“You will both take a ride in the waiting
boat,” Chow Kit said. “And sharks dis¬
pose of bodies very discreetly. . . .”
reached across her table for a His story had spread. She was
match. sorry for him.
His glance shifted from the pert “To hell with the States! Not
breasts that rounded out the after the deal I got. Just pure
shimmering bodice, lingered along luck I didn’t get three years and a
the inviting curve of her waist and kick, instead of a straight bobtail.
the blossoming richness of her So I’m staying. From now on.”
sleek hips. Finally he noticed that
her tiny feet were encased in scar¬ TN THE Islands, jobs for white
let sandals. men are as scarce as bailarinas
Slade slid from his chair and who can say no. A nipa shack and
planted himself beside the New a Tagalog girl to hustle the
Idea. groceries is the only career left
“Let’s dance, chiquita,” he pro¬ to a white drifter. Slade was pav¬
posed as he caught her hand. ing the way for someone to hint
Agata Moreno’s clinging, sup¬ that a rebellious Moro datu down
ple curves aroused more than in Jolo could use desperate Amer¬
Slade’s hope of information. At ican renegades as well as stolen
the end of the dance, as she headed ammunition.
for her table, he countered, “Nuts Agata’s dark eyes were troubled.
on that notion! Let’s go home and She was white enough to sympa¬
talk—” thize with the American outcast
“About how nice a shack we can in a way no native woman could.
keep on thirty pesos a month!” Which made her valuable.
mocked Agata in English almost “Don’t be stupid!” she whisper¬
devoid of accent. “Don’t be stupid, ed as she seated herself on the
Dan.” arm of his chair. “Go back. While
“Thirty pesos, hell! Wait till I you can.”
tell you who I am, and then we’ll “Go back with me?” proposed
get your suitcase and spend a week Slade.
or two in Baguio.” Her brows rose, but her smile
Sade, short circuiting all argu¬ contradicted the shake of her head.
ments, headed Agata toward one “Sure you’ll go,” Slade urged.
of the square, bamboo houses on “As soon as I can raise enough
the main street of the village just money for the two of us to
off Paranaque Road. They’re travel.”
primitive things, these nipa shacks, And that was an offer that few
with floors of split bamboo. mestizas can decline, coming from
Agata’s shack, however was ritzy. a white man, even if he is a rene¬
She had wicker furniture, and an gade.
American style bed instead of a Agata’s smile was becoming
grass mat. more personal, but she hesitated.
Agata’s eyes narrowed specula¬ “We’ll get married,” he added.
tively as she regarded him for a That was the ultimate bait. And
moment. Then she said, “Let’s not the only way a bobtailed soldier
talk about Baguio. Why don’t you could raise transportation across
go back to the States?” the Pacific would be in some illicit
Enemy Operative _79
enterprise. She’d talk to Chow play. But with his clinging, quiv¬
Kit, now. “How about it?” ering armful, the munitions situa¬
And before Agata could answer, tion in Jolo became quite unim¬
Slade’s arms closed about her. portant.
Despite her parrying gesture, he “Don’t . . . you’ll get my dress
found her unwilling lips. Unwill¬ all rumpled up. . .”
ing—but only for a moment. She Well, that might arouse Chow
broke away, but only to be drawn
Kit’s suspicions. Slade’s embrace
closer, to have her mouth seared relaxed.
anew by that savage kiss.
And then Agata let out a yeep
Agata was a fragrant armful,
that shook the nipa thatch. The
and as Slade’s embrace tightened
sudden flurry of arms and legs
about her, he forgot that he was
searching for information. Her caught Slade off balance and the
treacherous footing of bamboo
slender hands clawed at his face,
but he evaded their attack, kiss¬ slats did the rest. He clutched at
ing her throat and shapely empty air and crashed to the floor.
shoulders; and as he shifted back As he gained his knees, he saw the
again to her crmsion lips, she no cause of Agata’s sudden alarm;
longer struggled, but clung to him. not Chow Kit but a bronzed Amer¬
Each supple, rounded curve was ican with shoulders as broad as a
quivering, and as one hand probed box car and a face like Gibraltar
on a stormy night.
the sleek folds of the apricot satin
skirt that was working its way One glimpse of Agata’s dis¬
over her knees, Agata shuddered, mayed recognition and the new¬
and sighed luxuriously. comer’s wrathful amazement told
Slade broke away long enough Slade that Granite Face was very
to catch a fresh breath, but her much at home in that shack. Nor
questing lips followed his. was there any time to spring the
“Don’t!” she begged; but her one about waiting for a street car;
dark eyes were misty with prom¬ not after the display of ivory
ise. “Stay away from here, Dan! tinted flesh that had greeted him
It’s dangerous.” as he reached the threshold.
“What are you afraid of?” Slade Granite Face crossed the room
retorted. like a carabao charging through a
“Chow Kit,” she tremulously cane brake. Slade escaped utter
whispered. “He’s been making a demolition by flinging himself
play for me ever since I came clear of a devastating fist that
here. I just about convinced him would have lifted him through the
that I do nothing but dance—but roof.
if he suspects—oh, don’t you see, Socle!—Slade’s return bombard¬
I won’t be able to stall him off any ment. The explosion caught Gran¬
longer—I’ll have to leave here— ite Face like a pile driver, but it
he’ll kill me—and you—” was like spraying a roman candle
against the side of a battleship.
T^HAT rang true; which made They closed in as Agata, getting
Agata all the more worth a her legs, her streaming hair and
80_ Spicy-Adventure Stories
now flanking him right and left. dred peso notes seconded the grow¬
From the corner of his eye, he ing conviction that Captain Dwyer
caught a glimpse of Agata’s hand was not entirely what a well regu¬
—hut he had no time to wonder lated officer should be.
what her contribution would be “Nomura-ro” was engraved
this time. across the center of the card. Be¬
It looked like payday on neath it was a street address. At
Paranaque Road— one end was a column of Japanese,
And then the lights flickered out. and in a corner were the words,
Slade, milling the splintered re¬ “Shigashi San—0 Shoku Kabu”
mains of the chair, ploughed Shigashi San was the lady who
through the enemy’s line. A long had given the captain that card.
bound carried him to the veranda; The words that followed her name
and another flung him clear of the indicated that she was the reign¬
pack. He landed in a heap at the ing beauty of the house.
foot of the compound palisade, Such luxury might not be be¬
stumbled over a stray pig, and yond the means of a captain, but
headed east. Native legs were not Slade’s suspicions became more
long enough to break his lead. As pointed as he recollected that the
he reached the highway that led Nomura-ro belonged to Chow Kit;
toward the Walled City, a grin that it catered to the wealthiest
crinkled his battered face. sports of Manila; and that a
For some reason, Agata had patron who had established him¬
given him a break. self followed the oriental custom
of running a charge account.
TVTEARING Cuartel d’Espana, he What an officer does with his
1 * hailed a Red Diamond. As he spare time is his own business; but
boarded the cab, he fumbled for once his taste for Asiatic diver¬
his wallet. He drew two from his sions became noised about in the
pocket. For a moment he was per¬ somewhat straight laced military
plexed ; then he understood. circles, it would be somewhat too
The extra item was Granite bad. Evidence of indebtedness to
Face’s roll. Chow Kit would be more than
Slade went through the contents. enough to finish his career.
The wallet belonged to Captain Chow Kit could thus demand
Rupert Dwyer, Post Quarter¬ government munitions as the price
master at Fort McKinley. He had of discretion.
charge of enough ammunition to
equip a datu’s army. Lord knows A LL this flashed through Slade’s
how many thousand rounds were mind as he stepped into his
stored at McKinley for the coming room and set to work obliterating
target season. the marks of battle.
It proved nothing, but it was a An hour later he was present¬
strong hint. able. And Shigashi San’s card,
And one card among the others being unmarked by any handwrit¬
that filled a compartment of that ing would get him an audience
wallet upholstered with five hun¬ with the lady without arousing
82 Spicy-Adventure Stories
Hammock Land
[Continued from page 29}
that she had played, maybe. . . . The two roared approval. “Good
Oh, well, what did it matter? Noth¬ boy! Take another drink!”
ing mattered in Hammock Land. shouted De Silva, clapping Hollis
Da Silva was fingering some¬ on the back. “You’ll show us in the
thing, and suddenly Hollis clapped morning. And don’t try to slip
his hand to his throat, and realized away, because we’ve stove in the
that the little bag was gone. Da bottom of your boat, and my man
Silva had it. He tumbled out the Jose’s keeping guard aboard the
yellow stones into his palm. launch.”
“Pretty, Hollis,” he jeered. “I won’t,” said Hollis.
“Yellow, but good. And where
TTE POURED another drink
those came from there ought to be
a fortune waiting. You sign over with a steady hand, and, as he
that claim to us, for value re¬ drank, he felt a sharp sting on one
ceived, and show us where it is. ankle. Then on the other. The bat¬
That’ll be all. You’ll get your fare tle had begun, and there was no
back to the States. How about it, doubt as to the result, unless he
Hollis ?” filled the trench with blazing oil.
Behind the two men Madge was Even then it was doubtful, for the
signaling “yes!” The two were drivers were moving steadily
watching him intently. Hollis was across the clearing.
trying to collect his thoughts. To Da Silva yelled and clapped his
hell with the diamonds. It wasn’t hand to his ankle. Then he looked
the diamonds that made him hesi¬ down and saw, and his voice went
tate. It was the thought that, de¬ out in a shriek.
prived of them, he must leave Cunningham saw too, and both
Hammock Land behind him and go were too expert in jungle ways not
back into the world. No more days to realize the meaning of that
and nights of perfect peace, lying black swarm that, with incredible
sluggishly in his hammock, with swiftness, had covered the floor of
his bottle beside him. the shack. As they turned to run,
Cunningham raised his revol¬ Hollis barred the way.
ver. “Think quick, Hollis!” he “No use trying to make the
snarled. “We’ll get the stones any¬ launch,” he said. “They’ll get you,
way.” cut you off.... I’ve got some oil.”
He was drunk enough to shoot. He raced out of the shack
Hollis realized that. And still he toward the place where the barrels
hesitated. And then, glancing stood, crushing the insects under¬
down, he saw that the clearing was foot in thousands. He beat at his
a swarming mass of driver ants, body, but already he was covered
moving toward the shack in ser¬ from head to foot, and he could
ried columns. The leaders, head¬ feel the bite of the mandibles
ing the files, were just entering the through his clothing. Behind him
room. ran Cunningham and Da Silva,
Hollis burst Out laughing. “I’ll and the negro, Sam. It was only a
trade the diamond claim for my short distance to the launch, but
life,” he answered. before they could reach it they
Spicy-Adventure Stories
would be a crawling mass of the launch, where Jose, mad with fear,
deadly drivers. was slashing at the painter.
And the drivers had the instinct
of sublime strategicians. They A FIERY wall now barred the
were already at the launch—they ^ exit for Da Silva and Cunning¬
were everywhere. Hollis heard ham, though the circle of flames
yells from aboard, and saw the had not quite closed. They raced
negro Jose running up and down up and down it, screaming, beat¬
the deck, fighting the swarm that ing at their bodies, tearing at their
was attacking him. His screams faces, which had become gro¬
blended with those of the three tesque, blood-stained masks. Sud¬
others. Madge was running at Hol¬ denly Cunningham wheeled upon
lis ’s side, sobbing, and Hollis saw Hollis and fired at him.
that she, too, was already covered The slug hissed past his head.
from head to foot. Hollis closed with him, trying to
She was tearing at her clothing. wrest the revolver from his hand,
Hollis couldn’t wait to help her. but terror had invested Cunning¬
Their only chance lay in that ring ham with the strength of a mad¬
of fire, and each second was of man. A blow with the muzzle
crucial consequence. He himself across Hollis’s face sent him reel¬
was in agony from the bites of the ing back. Falling, Hollis clutched
swarm that had fastened upon Cunningham about the legs, and
him. the two dropped along the edge of
He turned the spigot, and the oil the fiery wall. They grappled each
gushed out. He managed to get other, Hollis smashing his fist in¬
his hand into his pocket, found a to Cunningham’s face, and, with
box of matches, and struck one. It his other hand, trying to snatch
went out. Hollis struck another away the weapon. They writhed
and flung it into the seeping beneath a crawling film of biting
stream. Instantly the oil blazed devils. And then suddenly a girl
up, running along the trench. appeared, running out of the for¬
But a whole precious minute est toward the little gap that still
would elapse before the river cir¬ remained in the closing circle of
cumnavigated the trench, and the fire, and Hollis recognized lea.
drivers were not waiting. She was nude, save for a loin¬
Beyond the trench Hollis saw cloth of woven bark that covered
Sam running, shrieking with pain her hips, leaving her limbs and
and terror, toward the launch. He bosom bare. As the girl darted in¬
stopped suddenly, and began tear¬ to the clearing, Cunningham
ing off his clothes. Underneath, screeched, shook off Hollis’s
Hollis could see that his whole clutch, and fired at her. Ica tum¬
body was a mass of the crawling bled, caught at her breast, and
furies. Streaks of blood began to dropped.
stain the negro’s skin, and he Next moment Hollis had the re¬
howled wolfishly as he struggled to volver in his hand. He pressed the
free himself of the swarming dev¬ muzzle against Cunningham’s
ils. He stumbled on toward the throat and pulled the trigger.
Hammock Land
The slug tore through the mus¬ Madge. She had torn away her
cles at the side of the neck. Cun¬ clothing, and he began frantically
ningham howled, seemed to rocket brushing away the drivers. Little
to his feet, and shot through the flecks of red had already sprung
closing ring of fire, his head hang¬ out over the girl’s body. Hollis
ing grotesquely upon one shoul¬ fought furiously, forgetting the
der. pain that racked him. But
Da Silva was cursing and try¬ the drivers were swarming up
ing to draw. Hollis fired again, Madge’s legs as fast as he brushed
and shot him through the body. them away. The main body of the
The Portuguese dropped into the devils had crossed the trench be¬
heart of the flames. And now the fore the circle closed, and, now
circle of fire had closed. that the fire was beginning to die
Beyond it, Hollis could see Cun¬ down, more and more were cross¬
ningham, stumbling in the wake of ing, making a bridge of the count¬
the negro, Sam. Jose had slashed less bodies of their dead.
the painter, and was trying to push Hollis could hardly see the girl
off with an oar. Sam sprang through his swollen eyelids, his
aboard, and the two men grappled body was afire, and weakness was
each other, swaying to and fro up¬ creeping over him. Yet strangely
on the deck of the rocking launch. he was conscious of a sort of re¬
conciliation with life. For of a
rFHE end came almost instantly. sudden Hammock Land had
1 Hollis saw Cunningham leap passed away, and death no longer
aboard. For a moment the three had any significance.
men were a whirling mass, and In that moment Hollis was
suddenly the launch capsized, aware that Madge hadn’t betrayed
spewing them into the water. him.
Then, righting herself, she drifted As if she understood, she smiled
out upon the bosom of the Manaos. at him. “He made me do it,” she
The fearful shrieks that rang said faintly. “If I hadn’t, he would
out indicated the end. And what have killed you. Forgive me!”
was there to choose between being Hollis held her close for a mo¬
picked to the bone by driver ants, ment, and then resumed his hope¬
and slashed to ribbons by the less struggle with the drivers.
voracious, merciless piranha?
Hollis caught at lea and dragged TCA came crawling toward them
her back from the circle of the through the black masses that
roaring flames. There was not a littered the ground, and Hollis,
single driver ant upon the girl’s while his tired hands automatic¬
smooth body. But there was a mass ally brushed the insects from
of clotting blood above her heart, Madge’s body, watched the prog¬
where Cunningham’s slug had ress of the Indian girl. She came
pierced her. crawling on all fours like a dog,
Perhaps a half-minute had leaving a trail of blood behind her,
passed since Hollis turned the and stretched out her hand. In it
spigot. He ran to the side of was a little ornate vase, one of the
90 Spicy-Adventure Stories
pieces of cheap trade goods that streaming thickly over the bridges
the Indians prize, and originally it they had built across the dying
had held some cheap perfume. flames. He ran back into his shack
She gestured toward Madge. and brought out an armful of
“When you made love to her, I clothing—shirts and two rain¬
ran away,” she whispered. “I— coats, a pair of boots, and a pair
came hack, because—I knew—the of little slippers that had been
drivers were coming.” lea’s.
The jar was filled with some aro¬ They smiled at one another
matic oil. Ica tried to say more, through their swollen lips in the
hut suddenly collapsed in a little, red glow of the dawn. Hollis raised
quiet heap at Hollis’s feet. But Madge’s feet and put the slippers
Hollis understood, and he stripped on them. He drew a shirt over her
the blood-flecked rags from about head, and wrapped the raincoat
Madge’s waist and began frantic¬ about her. Then he thrust his feet
ally smearing the oil over the into the boots and robed himself.
girl’s body, from her neck to her
The entire clearing was a mass
feet. He daubed it on her shoul¬
of drivers. They were in the
ders and between her breasts, over
house. The crepitation of their
her slender sides and down the
movements was a single note, as
smooth length of her limbs.
of a_ huge rasping file. But there
And, wherever the oil touched
was a clear space around Hollis
her, the devils dropped to earth
and Madge, and he took her by the
and heaped up a little pile about
her. hand and led her toward the
trench.
Hollis daubed the stuff over his
face and eyelids. He tore off his They overleaped the flickering
own clothes and rubbed his body, flames and reached the edge of the
and the scarified flesh appeared. forest. For a moment Hollis hesi¬
They stood facing each other, tated, then struck off along a path
racked with pain and yet miracu¬ leading eastward.
lously iree. There would be food at Indian
Hollis rubbed Madge’s little settlements along the Manaos.
feet, and then his own. He bent And eastward was the homeward
over Ica, and saw that she was way. A hard way, and a long one,
dead, but, even in death, she was but they were leaving Hammock
free of the swarming devils still Land and all the past behind them.
Next Month —
“Swordsman’s Choice”
by
HUGH SPEER
Shanghai Sellout 91
Shanghai Sellout
[Continued from, page 45}
He headed for Jessfield Eoad. triggered it. The roar it made was
Here was Bennie Chong’s head¬ music in his ears.
quarters—a big, rambling house He saw a closed door to the left.
set deep in tailored grounds now He made for it, smashed it open.
going to seed for lack of care. Jack Instinct had guided him this way
Friday slammed his car up the —or some power beyond instinct.
curved driveway; pelted his brake Fate, maybe.
pedal. He was out before the Bennie Chong was in that little
wheels had stopped squealing. He room. He’d been holding Marcia
made for the front door. Durkin is his arms. Marcia was
A plainclothes Mongol secret trying to adjust her abbreviated
agent tried to stop him with drawn skirt back in place. Bennie Chong
Luger. Friday tackled the man had Marcia’s lipstick on his
low, toppled him, got the gun. He mouth.
slugged its barrel across the yel¬ He stared at Jack Friday. “So.”
low man’s forehead before the guy He raised his hands when he saw
could even gasp. That made one the smoking Luger drawing a bead
less Jessfield Road policeman in on him.
the world. Friday said: “This is it, Ben¬
Inside, in what had onee been a nie.”
vast reception hall, there was now Then the red-haired Durkin girl
a regiment of desks. A renegade did a startling thing. She threw
Russian clerk sat at one of them. herself in front of the half-caste.
He was another of Chong’s slit- “Don’t you dare shot him!” she
throats. He saw Jack Friday com¬ caterwauled. “He’s mine, you hear
ing with that confiscated Luger, me? Mine!”
and he dropped a long knife out Friday felt his mouth going
of his sleeve into his hand. He dust-dry; a bitterness welled'into
threw the knife at Jack Friday’s his throat. “I don’t get it. I’ve
throat. killed two men to rescue you. I
Friday jerked aside, took the don’t get it.” The voice was not his
blade in his left shoulder. Hurt own. It came from his lips, but it
would come later; he felt nothing belonged to a corpse. At least it
now. Rage was his anethetic; he sounded that way to him.
was above pain, above everything Bennie Chong laughed. “Put
except a consuming hatred for down the gun, bud. Now that you
Bennie Chong and everything admit you’ve killed two men, I’ve
Bennie Chong represented. got all the hold on you I need. I
don’t have to bother with the
rPHE Russian knife-artist went frameup.”
down with a bullet through his “Frameup—?”
belly. Jack Friday gloated when Chong put his arm around Mar¬
the Luger kicked in his palm as he cia Durkin. “The kill in your up-
92 Spicy-Adventure Stories
Next Month—
“Drums of Madness”
by C. A. M. DONNE
94 Spicy-Adventure Stories
Danger Preferred
{Continued from page 59}
the sandbags with which his ne¬ jabbed like pointed ice into his
groes had reenforced the levee. He ears.
struggled until his fingers made
bloody spots on the burlap but the /^EAIG- whirled, sprinted across
bag wouldn’t move. His arms, ^ the levee, down the far side. He
bound to the salt, were helpless, heard the girl shriek again, swung
and he could use only his fingers. to the left. And then he saw her
Writhing, Craig slid his feet at the edge of the sugar cane!
over the edge of the levee. The She was lying on her back, the
muscles in his neck ached as he giant bending over her while they
twisted his head. He saw his fought like two animals. The man
ankles, part of the bag of salt slide was snarling; saliva drooled from
over. He wriggled farther and the his mouth—an insane beast.
whole bag went over, jerking down To the left of them, his head
on his legs, snatching him toward twisted queerly, lay Jim Bates.
the river’s lip. The sack tied to Near him was a shotgun.
his chest tottered on the edge of Craig went half mad with fury
the levee, then held. then. He yelled, ducked his big
shoulders and plunged forward.
The terrific current whipped
The giant heard him, swung
about Craig’s legs, driving them
around, still holding the girl with
downstream. His fingers clawed at
one hand. For a half-second he
the levee, leaving bloody tracks,
watched, motionless, while Craig
while he began to twist his ankles
rushed at him. Then he let go the
frantically against the ropes hold¬
girl and dived for the gun.
ing them. Very little of the salt
His fingers were on it when Roy
would have to melt before there
Craig was still ten feet away. He
would be some play to the ropes.
began to turn, swinging up the
Almost suddenly he felt the muzzle. Craig left his feet, head
weight fall away. The current first. The gun roared and flame
whipped his legs so high that he stung his cheek. Then his fore¬
almost lost his grip on the levee head smashed into LeBlaine’s
top. He skidded toward the edge, belly. The giant went over back¬
his fingers clawing wildly, furious¬ ward, dropping the gun.
ly. Finally he checked himself, Craig twisted and came to his
wriggled to safety. feet like a cat. LeBlaine was
With his legs free he managed slower, holding his hands over his
to kick loose a couple of sandbags, belly. Then like a bull he charged.
get much nearer the river. It was Craig made a half step to the
comparatively easy then to get the right, caught the shotgun by the
other bag of salt in the water and barrel and swung it, all with the
free his arms. He was standing up same motion. If he had been
when Nell’s high, terrible scream swinging a baseball bat he could
Danger Preferred 95
not have struck harder. There was “You’re hurt!” she sobbed.
a dull crunching sound as the “You’ve hurt!” She ran a finger
heavy butt landed on LeBlaine’s over the spot where blood was
temple. The giant went down like welling from his cheek.
an ox, his skull crushed. Craig dropped the gun, put his
It was the same instant that Nell arms around her, feeling the warm
screamed, “Look out! Behind curves of her body through his
you!” clothes. “It’s just a scratch. That
and my shoulder. But you. . .
The memory of terror came into
i^RAIG wasted no time turning.
her face for a moment. Then she
^ His knees doubled under him
smiled. “No. Nothing happened to
and he crashed down. He felt the
me. LeBlaine and Bates kept fight¬
hot streak of fire the buckshot
ing over me. Bates got the gun
made across his face before he
and LeBlaine took it away from
heard the boom of the shotgun.
him, broke Bates’ neck with his
Then he hit the ground and was
hands. Then he had come for me—
rolling, twisting his gun so that
just as you came.”
the butt was under his armpit.
Craig kissed her. His blood, al¬
He got one glimpse of Pete ready hot with anger and fighting,
Verot’s gaunt body, the skull-like was taking on a different kind of
face above the shotgun. The two heat. His muscles were trembling
explosions mingled so that it was as he held her against him. “Le¬
impossible to tell which had fired Blaine certainly didn’t waste much
first. Craig felt something stab time,” Craig said. “It took me
into his left shoulder. At the same months to get that close to you.”
instant Verot’s face went almost She smiled. “Yes, but you’re as
black. The gup fell from his hands. close now as he ever got and you—
He plunged forward. Oh Roy!—with you it’s going to
Nell ran to Craig, clung to him. be forever and ever.”
Next Month—
"Inca Cold”
by
LEW MERRILL
96 Spicy-Adventure Stories
Madden’s pockets. First he ab¬ saw the Asiatic lift Felice Car-
stracted Madden’s snub-nosed roll, dump her upon the cushions
Webley automatic. Then he con¬ of the divan.
tinued his search, relentlessly, And then Fang Shan went to a
quickly—without result. corner, picked up a length of iron
The Asiatic stepped hack, his rod. There was a brass charcoal
yellow face a thundercloud of baf¬ brazier in the center of the room.
fled fury. “Where are the sap¬ Fang Shan ignited the coals,
phires? Where have you hidden fanned them to a red-glowing,
them?” hellish heat. He thrust the iron
“Try and find out!” Madden an¬ rod into the heart of the fire.
swered evenly. Madden tensed. Was he to be
A sinister gleam leaped into tortured? Or had Fang Shan an¬
Fang Shan’s slanted, glittering other plan—far more bestial, more
eyes. “Aie! That I shall, offspring horrible?
of jackals!” Like a flash, he jerked
down a heavy length of velvet rope XJIS answer came too soon. The
from the drapery on the wall. 11 yellow man withdrew the iron
Then he leaped at Madden, rod. It glowed with white heat at
smashed him over the head with its far end. Madden stiffened—
the muzzle of the Luger. Madden and then his eyes went wide. Fang
staggered, stunned. Before he Shan had approached the semi-con¬
could regain his faculties, put up scious Felice Carroll. Now, slowly,
any resistance, the yellow man had he lowered the white hot iron to¬
tied Madden’s wrists and ankles, ward her breasts.
hurled him into a corner. The approaching heat awakened
Then, as the mists cleared from her. She stirred; stared upward;
the American’s brain, he saw Fang saw what was in store for her.
Shan grab the yellow-haired Fe¬ She shrieked insanely, blindly, a
lice Carroll, rip the torn dress gibbering scream of pure terror.
from her shrinking, lovely form. Fang Shan said: “Sapphire
She cried out; tried to struggle Slade. I shall count to ten. If by
free. Fang Shan struck her a vi¬ then you have not told me the loca¬
cious blow with his fist, and she tion of your collection of sap¬
went limp. phires. I shall roast my name in
Vance Madden saw red. Des¬ this girl’s flesh!”
perately he tugged at his fetters, Madden clenched his teeth.
while rage-sweat poured into his “You dog—you wouldn’t dare!”
eyes. But the velvet rope lield “No? Then watch! One—two-
firm. Helpless, impotent, raging, three — four — five—six—seven—
the American watched as Fang eight—” The glowing iron de¬
Shan looped more velvet cord scended. Felice Carroll screamed
about the girl’s arms and legs. He again; twisted; tried to shrink
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and enveloped in an enormous
cloak. Above the thin mustaches,
When answering advertisements please mention Spicy-Adventure Stories
MAGAZINE
READERS
Enemy
Operative
{Continued from page 83}
NAME...
ST. OR E.F.D...
.CITY*STATE ....
cannot bo Insured.
serted. Slade ordered a beer and mid gasp. A brazen gleam from
edged toward the booth. the darkness caught his eye. He
“Two-one six-nine six.” made a dive for his pocket as he
He recognized the number: Red recognized the little Buddha lying
Diamond Cab. Slade drained his in the dust. His own was still in
beer and stepped to the street. He place; it was the sergeant’s that
slipped one sock into the other, had rolled from cover.
then thrust the cake of soap into Slade stooped to pick it up. The
the foot of the inner one. Silent, hidden springs of the trick pedes¬
effective, and harmless. tal had responded to the impact
A moment later, the sergeant against the corner of the saloon!
ploughed through the swinging The Buddha’s body contained a
doors. His tropic tanned face was slip of paper. He struck a match.
tense, and his eyes instinctively “Sin Ban Fong is waiting” he
flashed right and left as he cleared read, which was damn little to
the threshold. Slade swooped from learn for his trouble!
cover; but some sixth sense He stuffed the paper and the
warned his victim. He jerked his halves of the image into his pocket,
head. The soapcake bludgeon regarded the prostrate sergent,
missed by a hair, instead of laying then used his victim’s shirt and
him out for a long count; and for belt to improvise gag and bonds.
the second time that evening, That done, Slade stepped into the
Slade has his hands full. saloon, slid ten pesos across the
bar, and struck a bargain with the
T>EFORE he could drop his now proprietor.
useless weapon, the Manila “Keep him on ice until morn¬
night blazed into a carnival glow. ing,” Slade concluded. “If he’s
Groggy and with legs limp as mac¬ here when I come back, it’s five
aroni, Slade tried to block the more for you; if he’s gone, you’ll
sergeant’s rush, but it was like get some of what he got. And
boxing with a kangaroo. One more when the taxi gets here, tell him
charge— it’s the wrong number. Sabe,
But before it connected, the Jiombre?”
sergeant, over reaching himself, He did; and Slade dashed back
tripped and sprawled headlong in¬ toward the Nomura-ro.
to the gutter. That gave Slade an The next play was to put the
instant’s respite. When the non- empty Buddha on Shigashi San’s
com regained his feet, the mill be¬ cabinet, and wait for someone to
gan in earnest. It was touch and call for the one the sergeant had
go for a moment, reckless, wrath¬ left.
ful slugging; and then Slade blast¬ “Sin Ban Fong,” he muttered as
ed home with one that popped like he slipped in through the back
a boiler explosion. door. Then, with a bleak grin, “I
The sergeant was frozen before hope the-enjoys waiting!”
he hit the ground. Slade settled Shigashi San, hearing him enter
back on his heels and drew a long the further room of her suite, ap¬
breath; but that was cut short in peared. Her smile was cryptic.
KNOWLEDGE
THAT HAS
ENDURED WITH THE
BYRAMIDS
%
A SECRET METHOD FOR
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W HENCE came the knowledge that built the Pyramids
and the mighty Temples of the Pharaohs? Civilisa¬
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started man on his upward climb? Beginning with naught
they overcame nature’s forces and gave the world its first
sciences and arts. Did their knowledge come from a race now
submerged beneath the sea, or were they touched with Infinite
inspiration? From what concealed source came the wisdom
that.produced such characters as Amenhotep IV, Leonardo da AMENHOTEP IV
Vinci, Isaac Newton, and a host of others? Founder of Egypt's
Today it is \nown that they discovered and learned to inter- Mystery Schools
pret certain Secret Methods for the development of their
inner power of mind. They learned to command the inner
forces within their own 'beings, and to master life. This secret
art of living has been preserved and handed down throughout
the ages. Today it is extended to those who dare to use its
profound principles to meet and solve the problems of life
in these complex times.
122
Enemy Operative 123
ANEW MM!
124
Enemy Operative 125
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