Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1935-07-04
BY SAX ROHMER

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dot in the blue-was rapidly disappear
ing around the tail of the island.
He set out running again. but had
not gone fifty yards when a second
time he was pulled up sharply. From
the north, far over the sea, beyond
the rocky headland which embraced the
port, beyond the island, came echoing
and re-echoing the sound of a mighty
explosion. -.
Jack Rattray, chief officer of the
Wallaroo, was powerful swimmer
When that rain of Yu'an's machine-gun
bullets had swept the sea he had
ducked under the protection of the
floating deck chair. He discovered that
by resting his chin upon a crosspiece
and swimming steadily, he could propel
1t without any very great effort. He
knew, provided he could escape bull
let, that it would be possible to keep
afloat for hours. But that CHASTITY
stretch around the wreck was now
bristling with sharks fms!
There were fewer sounds from the
few poor survivors. But the protecting
1 deck chair, so far, had escaped the
attention both of the marksmen and
of the sharks.
Rattray summoned all his resources
He meant to survive the tragedy. He
must survive it.. A floating deck chair
and one mans undaunted spirit meant
the difference between immunity for
these CHASTITY murderers and that day
of reckoning which he swore, with
clenched teeth, should come to them
gentle, almost imperceptible' cur
rent, was bearing him Stewards. He
tried to visualize chart of the Red
sea and the approximate positions of
steamers. He was many miles off the
track, and dusk was near His proper
course, then, was to steal southwark
on this gentle current, and then edge
in towards the tail of the rocky island
since rescue by passing steamer was
almost out of the question.
He was now more than mile from
the scene of the disaster. He swung
around. The submarine and the dhow,
the latter with two boats in tow, was
making for the head of the island. 1t
was screen from behind which, doubt
less. they operated
And, so carefully does Fate weave
those comedies in which willy-nilly we
all play part, that it was almost
exactly at this moment that Dawson
Haig walked down the little jetty to
| where the motor cruiser was moored.
A pockmarked negro, whom he re-
membered, and an Arab boy, were on
board. They stood up and stared at
him suspiciously as he came hurrying
along the stone pavement.
"Orders!" he said, sharply. "Ko-
seif!'' but as he sprang on board, the
crew of two continued to regard him
with DOUBT 1tE and hesitation.
"Hpgryl'"s he cried, and swung the
formidable club he carried. The negro
glanced helplessly at the boy-and the
latter threw off the rope. At last the
game was in his hands!
By dawn he would be back in
Koseir. There was a wireless station,
and small English colony. He was
no longer "Joseph," but had become
again in spirit and in fact Detective
Inspector Dawson Haig.
He peered anXiously ahead. The
leading motor cruiser was not in sight.
Even if car waited at Koseir, which
he suspected would be the case, he
could have it intercepted. The game
was in his hands.
The course, as he remembered, lay
due northwest from the bay for the
first forty or fifty miles. There, out
of sight of the mainland, it skirted that
long, low island. Thence it bore north
along desolate coast for three hours
or more, then westerly again, sweeping
out seaward to pass Jeddah, and nor
northwest to the petrol station. He
might find himself in difficulty, there
Probably they had some means of com.
munication.
Exultaton, doubt, fear fought for
supremacy in his mind. They were
three hours out from the base. and the
long, low island was dropping astern
Four more hours before that swing
around which would point their bows
to the African coast-which would
seem to bring him nearer to Eileen!
They were drawing in to the main
coast again. Suddenly, Haig sprang
to his feet, shouting excitedly. Almost
under their starboard bow floated a
piece of wreckage which looked like a
deck chair. Then, beside it, a
head bobbed up.
Aswami Pasha, swathed in bandages.
came out of Doctor Oestler's room on
the ground floor of the old palace.
into a tiled corridor. He walked along
to that little lobby which opened on
the courtyard inside the entrance gates,
He would he disigured for life Kid
Brown, in passing. his cunning fighters
brain keyed up by the imminence of
death, had left this ineffaceable mark
of his trade upon the man whose bullet
had sped him. All the pston-rod force
81 ,l,o III.