Evening star., 1941-06-08

where, and the trailer don't even have to be
in the same place when the birds fly back to
it. We can operate up and down the coast,
and the cops will never know -"
Easy. Pete said Little boys have big
ears
Tom was still on the trailer tongue and
in his notebook he'd put down the name of
the bird and its time of arrival, just as Dad
had instructed. But you can't buy these
homers, he said. These are for the Army.
Dad worked with pigeons in the last war; and
now with the defense program -"
I'VE know, kid" the man said. 1--WE saw
the piece in the paper about it. That's what
give us the idea" Then he added: I'VE never
offered to buy anything" - with a slight en-
phasis on the word buy"
A hand seemed to tighten inside Toms
chest and he knew all at once who these men
were and what they were going to do, and why
at the very first sight of the slender man there
had been that vague feeling of unpleasant
familiarity. AS the man mentioned the piece
in the paper, Tom remembered.
This was the face he'd seen in the news
paper few weeks past. Tom had studied the
picture at the time. after Dad had read the
piece aloud to him and Mother; and Tom had
felt that of all the mean and vicious people
in the world, this man must be the very
worst. He remembered the name now
Robindale. Head of Ring" the newspaper
had called him - the leader of gang who
were running diamonds into the United States.
1t wasn't being smuggler that made Robin.
dale the lowest man on earth - in Toms
opinion - but his method of using homing
pigeons to fly the gems into this country from
ships at sea.
AL his life Tom had loved pigeons and es-
pecially the homers, with their bright eyes
and the broad skulls that allowed for more
brains than other pigeons, their strong shoul-
ders and well-set chests. and the graceful
wings that could take them hundreds of miles
over strange territory and bring them un-
erringly to the home loft He'd heard Dad
tell about Cher Ami, who had flown a mes
sage that saved the Lost Battalion in the
Argonne, who ID flown through shot and shell
to return, even though wounded in one wing
and carrying the message dangling from the
remains of shattered leg
Yes; and there was Big Tom. who came
through with his breast pierced by machine
gun bullet; and Spike, and President Wilson;
and there was Mocker, who'd served so
nobly that at his death he was given full mill.
tary honors at Fort Monmouth. That birds
descended from this heroic strain should be
employed in criminal way seemed to Tom
violation of everything decent, and the man
who forced them to srnuggle was vile
According to the newspaper, Federal men
had raided the loft to which the pigeons were
returning from the smuggling ship, capturing
three men but not Robindale, the leader. The
ship had taken the pigeons on board month
earlier, when sailing from San Francisco. had
picked up the gems somewhere on the Jour
ney, and when off the California coast on its
return. the birds had flown the diamonds in.
Have got my lipstick on crooked, KIDD"
Robindale now was asking, and Tom realized
he'd been staring through the little window
of the trailer at the man. Toms chest was
very tight now. He got off the trailer tongue
and leaned against it, suddenly weak so that
he needed the support. He put his hands in
his pockets and gripped his legs to keep from
shaking. He tried not to show his fear. He
didn't want Robindale and the ruddy man
to suspect that he knew who they we're.
Il think you got something there, Rob
bic, the fat man was saying, nodding his