Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1935-05-24


Of course, and dig in during the day.
They run motorboats across nowadays,
high-powered craft developing forty
knots. I've seen 'em from the bridge
once or twice. They cross on dark
nights, as q rule"
But where can the markets be,
Jack?"
There's Mecca. That's still closed
city. Fee, up in Africa. And I'm told
there's small, sort of exclusive mar
ket somewhere on the Nile in Egypt"
rap on the door.
"Come in J" Rattray called. The door
opened and Eileen entered, closing 1t
carefully behind her.
1--WE caught them!" she declared,
her eyes sparkling with excitement
"at last!"
"What?" Dawson Haig demanded.
II saw the snake charmer slip a
note into the hand of Mr.. Len Chow
as they passed on the promenade deck,
three minutes ago!"
There was dance after dinner that
night.
Dawson Haig, desperately worried,
went up onto the boat deck, quite de-
serted at the moment, and leaned over
the starboard rail, at point just aft
the bridge, staring across calm sea In
the direction of the African coast. He
tried to think-to think calmly
The problem was one demanding the
exercise of all his powers. And, set
like a jewel in this dark affair, was
Eileen-a distracting figure Che could
not be blind to the truth), and one
upon which all too often he found his
thoughts focused. That Eileen had
twice proved of incalculable service did
not alter the plain fact that many
times when he should have been con-
centrating upon the mystery, he found
himself concentrating upon Eileen.
From professional point of view he
was faced either with something very
like ruin, or, alternatively, with tri-
umph which must prove stepping
stone in his far-fung ambitions.
Granted this success-now doubly to
be prayed for-he might dare to think
about Eileen as he longed to think
about her; not as the charming sister
Of an old friend, nor even capable
little helper, but as Eileen.
Where did the clew lie to these
mysterious activities? What should be
his next move? 1t was maddening to
watch, to know some incomprehensible
plot stretching from Limehouse to
Paris, Paris to Marseilles, and thence
to Port Said-further, perhaps,--was
fermenting under his very eyes, com
ing to maturity, and veto do moth
ing!
At which point in his reflections, he
was seized from behind in steely
grasp and lifted lightly, as nurse
might lift an infant! He was in the
grip of that creature of Yuan Hee
Sees called 1.-The Hangman." But of
this fact he was ignorant.
Swung back over the shoulder of his
unseen, but incredibly powerful assail-
ant, he recognized, with cold chill
Of dread, that he was about to be
hurled into the sea!
Automatically to his mind sprang
those instructions which every police
officer receives. in jiu-jitsu. His fists
were useless, flung high, impotent,
above his head. But the cunning grip
which told him that he was dealing
with an expert, held him so poised
that only at one moment-for which,
dangerously. Haig must wait-could he
counter.
That moment came-as the seeming
ly irresistible forward swing COM
menced which was to hurl him into
the sea. He checked a cry In his
throat He was icily cool. And, fol-
lowing the curve of that mighty throw,
instead of endeavoring to check it as
an Uniformed victim would have
done, he swung forward, drew up his
knees, and kicked backward with all
his strength!
1t was sheer guesswork, but one heel
registered duly upon the head of the
athlete who held him aloft
That death swing was never COM
pleted Haig dropped with a crash up
on the rail, hung perilously for mo-
ment-and felt a vise-like grip upon
his ankles.
He was tipped forward, forward, ir.
he saw the lights of
portfolios beneath the lower ones re.
Elected in the sea. He clawed at the
rail. That silent horror was behind him,
hanging above him!
Clutching grimly, he kieked--kicked
again got hold with his left
hand higher up, and realized that the
man was craning right over, was reach
ing down to relax that OBTAINING grip,
In desperation, resting his head against
the lower rail, he managed ut last to
free his ankles to draw his legs down.
Then, with all his remaining
strength, he shot both feet upward