Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1923-04-27
CHAPTER XIII
Jack the Climber.

JACK tne ClImDer.
MI. William Spencer, after arriving
In the fallow-field where stood the
clump of bushes that hid the broken
Indian motorcycle, made a rapid sur
vey of the situation. He resumed his
task of quartering the ground for
tracks.
This, being unfruitful, occupied but
a little time. He gave it up and went
forward again, dipping down into the
crag-pits beyond.
Billy had formed upon the factors
already in his possession a theory
which appealed to him strongly. He
hoped to prove 1t. But the hope was
very slender.
IF I'd only got wise to this two
days ago." he said gloomily. Il might
have done something. But there's no
saying how old the tracks are. Ana
there's so little time"
He looked about MIN thoughtfully.
The area of the %crag-pits covered
some twenty acres a wide bottom OF
red sand studded here and there
with tangled bushes. The place was
shut in by low red bluffs of coraline
crag, with a few gaps in them through
which winding paths sioped up to the
higher ground.
"The soil tells me nothing" said
Billy to himself; "too loose and wind
blown to hold a trail more than two
a But there's five-maybe six
caves, most of them too plain ana
easy-anybody can see 'em. Still, I'll
60 over them. My own first. l guess
there's nobody could have found that"
He wound his way through the
bushes to the screen Of brambles that
masked the cave where Aimee had
taken refuge on the night of the bur-
glary, and after scanning the ground
near it's approaches, pushed the briars
aside and entered cautiously. The
cave was empty-save for that super
motorcycle, the Flying Sphinx, which
stood waiting in patient dumbness at
the far end, weeping slow tears ct oil
into a little pool beneath the silencer.
Billy laid a hand upon his Arab
steed, and sighed. Then his face
frightened amazingly.
your time'Il come again and
mighty soon" he said with affection.
He turned, and left the cave. 1t was
holy ground to him now; for one
night it had been Aimee's refuge.
He passed farther along the pits,
inspecting a second and much more
obvious ave on his way. He was just
about to emerge from 1t when some
thing caught Billy's eye, on the far
side of the pits. He shrank back
quickly into the caves mouth and flat
tened himself against the wall, watch
ing.
The object which gave him pause
was very small, and fully four hum
dred yards distant. But it showed
against the skyline and to h eye of
a frontiersman anything that cuts the
skyline, and that moves ever so little,
is at once apparent. What Billy saw
was the upper part of a head, peering
over the edge OF the little cliff on the
opposite side.
A pair of shoulders followed the
head, and their owner was obviously
watching the pit with a desire to dis
cover whether the coast was clear.
There was a curious furtiveness about
the figure that presently appeared,
and dropping down the cliff by a steep
path reached the lower ground and
crossed it at a rum.
Billy crept from the gloom of the
caves mouth and, crouching behind
the briar bushes, peered through the1
eagerly. The running figure was a
woman-a small woman clad in a
~khaki-colored dust-cloak, carrying a
little red bundle. She ran with a
STOPPING gait, bending low as she
threaded between the bushes. She
reached a point against h cliff on
Billy's side, three hundred yards far
ther along, close by a tangle of under
growth. There she halted, and, look
ing round her quickly. disappeared
with extreme ~suddenness.
Great Christopher % said Billy.
He rose to his knees, staring at the
place where she had vanished. His
eyes were bright, his face had lit up.
81 was right" he said in a hushed
tone. But, gee! / never thought of
this"
He rose, as If II follow, but on Sec
ond thoughts subsidized again and
waited. He remained there fully ten
minutes, when the figure ~reappeared,
and hurried along the pit bottom In
his direction.
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