The Wilmington morning star., 1940-12-09
HAPTE FORTY EIGHT

Gun was telling his story ana
making a good job of 1t. Gun naa
IN axiom-that when 1t was Iee 20
,ary to lie, the thing to DO was a.,
Nays to keep as closely as possible
10 the truth, and so the tale 1has
ne told the meeting was, nor y,
less. the tale of what really nau
happened on he islar wiz aht-
exception that the cast was sns
" altered. Thus, Coral played ~
sctive part in the proceedings, ana
he characters of Gun and trent
were interchanged. ~.
The prisoners had escaped, ano
blown up the munitions. ~ nau
been killed in the fighting. Inc eS-
nlosion had set light to the gaso'
Inc store and practically the whole
n1ace had been decimated. He had
managed to save the n plane,
and he and Coral had flown over IN
that. He had been badly burned
about the face in saving the plane.
"Weu, Captain" was Stems
comment, when he had finished
Eat least one things pretty clear
about it. You showed a hell OF a lot
of grit. l congratulate you"
There came a murmur OF ap-
probation from the others, and Gun
felt a first class hypcrite. 1t was
well that the bandag,5 obscured
his guilty flush.
Then somebody said:
well, the point now is - what
are we going to do about 1t? start
all over again? And if SO, how?'
Its a pity about Otto" SAID
else. He had the brains,
had Otto. If he was only here
"Indeed!" cane a quiet, gutteral
voice from behind Gun.
There came a gasp OF astonlSa-
ment, and, in some cases, OF fear,
from those assembled. Someone
had entered the room unnotlced
while they were talking and now
was standing just inside the door
way.
And that someone was Otto
Britton-or Pullinger.
Gun turned very slowly to look
at him. He knew the voice instant
ly he heard it-and he knew more
than that. For him, the game was
up.
He glanced at the grim face of
the mar in the doorway, and then
at his wrist watch. Ten minutes,
before the police were due, and in
ten minutes E!
With q grim satisfaction, how
ever, he realized that this would
make no real difference, after all.
The place Vas already surrounded
the secret passage guarded. Not
one of these men was likely to es-
cape his just deserts. The only diff
ference would be that HE would
not be there to know about it-un-
less one knew about these things
from what the spiritualists called
1.-THE Other Side"
He felt it was bad luck that
after all he'd been through, ana
when he had been SO near to bring
ing the thing off SO neatly. But
then he knew life was like that.
Then he thought, grimly, that any
way this would be the last disap-
pointment he'd have to take from
it. Then he thought of Coral-per-
haps she had heard and managed
to escape in time. After all, the po-
lice were close at hand-she would
only have to run across the gar
den. They would let no one leave
the place. He shuddered as he
thought of Coral's fate if Otto did
manage to get hold of her, even
for five minutes before the police
arrived. He must contrive to hang
matters out, somehow.
There had been a long silence,
all of them staring in amazement
at the newcomer. Now Stein spoke,
in a high, startled voice:
1T really is you, Otto? We've
just been told you we're killed"
oh? And who said that?"
In Otto's small eyes was the look
of an enraged and dangerous ami
NAL, as he glared at the assembled
men.
Stein pointed to Gun.
He did! Captain Trent"
Otto turned his gaze on Gun, and
his expression was far from pretty.
Trent? That is not Trent. Trent
was shot by those accursed Eng
ishmen. This one is a lara
traitor-A SPY"
REIA LANAN- COTIRT pm