The Wilmington morning star., 1940-12-06

CHAPTER FoRTY-sIX
About midnight, in a little cuoo.
hole tucked away at the BACK .
some offices in Whitehall, a SUN
nolent. lethargic radio operator Ne
came suddenly galvanized IN .
blazing life when his receive
blared out: v
&C to x. Tony. Tony-G. to x
Tommy. TOMMY"
* to G. Toni. Toni-x to G.
Toni Toni. Call received, avail
vo,,r message. Toni. Toni.
There was a short pause, ano
then the message came through:
&C. to x. Been prisoners. just
got away, after rough time. have
details very serious plot. 1mmedl-
ate action necessary. Have H. and
No. % with me. No. % and sell
must operate in France. Propose
sending H. to you with written re-
port. Need landing and temporary
accommodation il France. Can you
arrange? Strict secrecy necessary.
Await reply. Tony Tony.
The operator replied, on his own
responsibility:
* to G. Toni. Toni. Have to get
in touch with x. Replying soon as
possible. Operator.
In less than fifteen minutes X
was %unearthed at the London house
of an eminent statesman, and a
ten-minute race in a taxi brought
him to his office. The operator
had never seen him appear quite
50 excited-though it is doubtful
if a stranger would have noticed
anything!
And half an hour later the plane,
flying over the Mediterranean sea
picked up the following message:
tx to G. Toni, Toni. Glad you're
safe. Arrangements made air sta
ton at Nantes. You will be expect
ed. Await your messenger.
To which came the reply:
some time today. Some sleep es-
entail. Making for Nantes. We are
flying monoplane tr. S. GIG. Tony.
Tony"
When Gun had seer the gaso-
line store on the island go up he
had chuckled. 1t is doubtful
,,,I,o4bor bo would boyo Jopo ca
could he have realized the effect of
this. For there was gasoline stored
there, and gasoline makes a col
umn of flame by night, and a pillar
OF umberella-of smoke by day.
And the wind had dropped before
morning, so that from the island
of Zante, not so many miles away,
the glow in the sky was noted at
night, and the great smudge of
black smoke in the morning.
Zante reported the matter to
Athens. Athens instructed that a
plane should be sent to investigte
The plane returned with the repor
that there seemed to have been a
disastrous fire, and that there were
survivors left on the island. This
was reported to Athens.
The authorities at Athens knew
that the island vas leased to one
Wilbur K. stein, a German-Ameri-
can millionaire, who was using it
for some secret flying experiments
he was backing. He was liberal
about payments and, after some
consultation, they decided that the
least they could do was to look
after the survivors. And so, in due
course, a Greek gunboat sail for
the island, where it picked up an
eraged Otto and twenty-three
survivors. And, again in due course
and after a breakdovAc of the
engines in the middle of We Ionian
seat landed them at Athens,
where Otto was able to charter a
plane and head for France.
At Nantes the plane FIR. S. GIG
was expected, and as soon as Tom
my had made his landing, her crew
we're well looked after. Food and
sleep were immediate essentials,
and after a solid meal, two hours
in bed and Gin the case of two of
them) a hot bath and a shave, they
felt much better.
Gun then had a consultation
with Coral, in the course of which
he elected n very interesting and
important fact-that Trent h a d
v been seer at either the near
Cannes air station or the Nest al
Bella LANAN-COURT RE