Evening star., 1925-01-25
CONTINUED from Yesterdays Starr


The little Chief looked very stern
and grave SIS he gazed on the scene,
and 1t was he who put the cushion
under the Presidents head and cover
ed him. He left the note in answer
on the table.
Find something to cover the girl,
Seton he said. "She is thinIy clad"
'Boon's flying coat will do for Miss
Torrance sir" 1 said and with very
queer feeling. although I knew she
was unharmed, 1 put the coat about
her. I turned to find the master look
ing at me strangely.
Who did you say the girl WASP"
ne asked.
Miss Torrance. sir. The Presi-
dents niece"
Then she must be related to that
David Torrance who was something
of a physicist twenty-odd years ago?"
His daughter. sir"
Il knew David Torrance well-and
his wife" the chief said slowly "I
did not know they had a daughter
He walked over to the sleeping
girl, and said. with a little plying
gesture of his one hand:
Poor child! She can never have
known her father
He turned his mild gaze on me,
emotion or pity that had seemed to
lie in his voice.
Come. Seton" he said quietly.
This night you and l have lit such
q candle Pray that Benjamin
Whitcomb has courage worthy his
great responsibility"
We went out by the window, clos
ing it behind US.
For the next week we did not move
from the plateau. except twice by
night to pick up wireless messages.
The effect of our answer to the Presi-
dent was difficult to gauge from what
we picked up. but certainly our
method OF making the reply was
banded about in wonderment from
coast to coast. That there was no
likelihood of an armistice being de-
clared we knew from the speedy pur-
suit of US by Boon and company. who
were patrolling within-for the Mer-
lin--two hours flight from our lair.
Whether they had come upon such a
hot scent of us by accident or not we
did not know, for certainly we had
done everything that varying speed Of
flight, and varying direction, could
compass to confuse pursuit. The
point that interested the Chief about
the crew of the Merlin was the pres
enCe of Lamont, who, he declared on
the evidence of several of Lamont's
papers on physics, had one of the
keenest brains in America.
Il should like to meet Mr.. Lamont"
the master said to me in his gentle
way. Il almost wish we had kid
naped him at Washington, my dear
Seton. And if Mr. Boon shows signs
of coming any closer to our hiding
place, l may begin TO regret we
did not capture him also. Lamont
in one of his papers, made sur
prising mistake for him in an other
wise interesting speculation on the
variation of elrctrons. think
might ma ke his error clear to HIM"
I'VE may have Boon and him down
on us at any miurG. sir" | laughed.
I'VE might kidnap them then"
Within a fortnight my jasting sug-
gestion came to earnest reality.
severe storm broke over us on the
following week. and it lasted off and
on for six days. with extraordinary
electrical disturbances in the at
mosphere. We Stacked then, until on
the Saturday night in the third week
of June we began a series of raids on
shipping on both sides of Panama
On the Sunday morning we knew that
Boon was hot after us--he was al
ways terribly frank with his wireless
messageS-but we went out again on
the Sunday evening and stopped a
mainland.
We were returning over Guayaquil
and flying quite low when we saw
the Merlin lying in the roadstead of
the harbor, a tiny little shape of dull
silver against the blue of the water. l
am certain that we saw her before
her crew saw us, and soon as l
caught sight of her 1 altered our
course to a good number of points
Southerly, but ! did not alter speed
until the harbor had disappeared
behind the mountains. When that
happened. I altered the course to its
real direction, and put more power
into the engines of the ship than she
had ever had before. She leaped to
1t as no air machine ever sped save
the Merlin herself. We did not make
for height, the time for that was not
yet We simply sped as though the
devil himself was at our tail.
A sharp lookout was kept astern
from every possible point of sight,
but 1t soon became evident that the
Merlin either could not take the air
or had failed to see US. l thought
the latter reason for her non-pursuit
most unlikely, and had two ideas in
my head. If the Merlin came into
view before we could get to our cav
ern, intended to overshoot the mark,
climb high, and send her down by
means of the rays. Clever as the plane
was. she could not get above US, and
under US she was completely at our
mercy, without the slightest chance
OF retaliation. But l did not want to
send her down in a place where her
crew would be unable to escape.
BY sheer good luck we were able
to be snug in the cavern with the
great doors shut before we saw the