The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-12-14
STEALING BOMB SIGHT
CHAPTER xxIII

Cne ROcKlng R IanCn naQ SVayeQ III the car when the woman left him. The car had showed no lights for the last mile or so, but just rolled slowly over the flat, comparatively barren land. The man sat in 1t quietly now, waiting his moment. He would have to time himself well, then act swiftly and efficiently.
 He could see window light or two which he knew was the ranch house. In hangars to the lett of the house he could see lights also, and knew that the army officers and mechanics would be there = they even slept within few feet of their planes.
 When half an hour had passed he quietly left his car. In a small canvas pack he carried tools - a powerful pair of steel cutters, hack saw with extra blades of the hardest metal, a short stubby crowbar, four sizes of files.
 Under his coat was belt hold ing an automatic pistol. A second and smaller pistol was slung in a shoulder holster out of sight under his left arm.
 Outwardly, the mans clothing was neat and of excellent quality so that if by chance he should be seen and recognized he would ex- cite no suspicion. Simply by drop ping his bag of tools out of sight he could well assume a normal role with no one the wiser. With no houses save those at the ranch, though, and no road or trail along this fiat mesa area, he didn't ex- pect to encounter anyone.
 He walked cautiously to within 100 yards of the hangars. There at the edge of the cleared landing field, he lurked in the foliage of mesquite shrub, waiting.
 The field was long smooth plain from which even the small rocks had been removed, but its boundaries were marked by Span- ish dagger growths, mesquite, greasewood, sagebrush, and few scattered boulders. Recently, too, a f.ye-strand barbed wire fence had been built around it to keep of roaming cattle, horses and men. To be that much more ahead he slipped through the barbed wire, but stayed back near the shrub bery so that his form could not be seen. Constantly he stared toward the Bailey mansion, a two-story ranch house of stone and pine logs.
 Over the ranch house roof came a sudden lick of flame. It died down, sprang up again still higher. Alm ost at once other flame tongues showed. He glanced at the hang ars,, anxiously waiting.
 Tn just two or three minutes the fire grew to astonishing proportions over the house, he had planted his inflammable material well. He could hear the constant sound of music and laughter there as he had heard since he first neared the place, but still nobody had discovered the fire.
 All at once, though, he heard shout.
 "Oh-O-O-O-O, HELP" Some- body yelled, then came series of shriekings, and in the mounting glow there he could see people running.
 Further shouts came, louder and more frantic.
 A door in an airplane hangar popped open and somebody looked out. At once the person turned back inside, called loudly, and ran to the other hangars nearby and sounded the alarm. Men came streaming out and ran toward the ranch house.
 When he saw the last person leave the hangars, the man con- cealed near the fence grinned in elation.
 "Perfectp he breathed. "The whole place desertedp
 He sped across the opening and stopped at the first hangar. There, to be doubly sure, he paused and waited moment He looked in the hangar and called out Mo- body came, nobody answered. He went to the big ship.
 He had expected the compart- ment used by the chief bomber to be locked, but to his delight he didn't have to use his tools here. One strong pull threw latch and opened teh tiny cabin door. With his pocket fiashlight, then, he sur veyed the scene.
 "Ah-h-h-h-!" he breathed in exultation.
 There before him was precisely what he wanted and meant to have.
 There, in housing no bigger than small overnight bag, was the one s.gadget'' which nations were willing to sacrifice lives and fortunes to own. There was Americas most val uable military secret!
 He was kneeling to inspect the instrument when he suddenly heard noise of running feet nearby.
 Two in each hangar!" a voice shouted
 The man crouched, gun in each hand, ready to kill He hardly dared breathe while a form dashed into the hangar and took fire ex- tineuishers from the walls, but GO seconds later he knew he was alone again. He reholstered his pistols and resumed his task.
 He knew the bomb sight was sealed in metal so that he could not feasibly see it's inner workings now. But that did not interest him. He wouldn't have understood them anyway, for he was not that technical. But he did know enough to appreciate the importance of them, and of course any sealed metal housing could be easily open- ed later and the parts laid bare for minute scientific analysis and copy- ing. His cue, he told himself with satisfaction, simply was to take the whole thing. He set to work.
 First, Q metal arm as bie as his I1|fd|e finger was found welded to z1e side frame. He tried h'1 upHcf~