Boy's Cinema (1939-40)

Every Tuesday Vivid drama and high adventure surge through the pages of this pulsing serial story of the men who keep watch and ward on the American seaboard READ THIS FIRST Boroff, outlawed scieritist, international menace and creator of a deadly vapour which he calls disintegrating gas, agrees to supply the compound to a foreign Power known as Moravania. Arnatite, a substance found only in the United States, is the basic chemical of the terrible gas Boroff has invented. He has obtained a large quantity of that sub- stance, and, as its export is rigorously controlled by the American Government, he attempts to smuggle it to Europe aboard the Carfax, a tramp steamer. But the Carfax strikes a reef off the Maine seaboard, a?id Boroff is recognised when he and the crew are rescued by U.S. coastguardsmen from a station near the city of Portland. He o?i.ly succeeds in making his escape after killing a young ensign named Jim Kent, whose elder brother Terry, a lieu- tenant in the Coast Guard, vows to track Boroff down. Terry Kent has three icilling helpers in his fiancee, Jean Norman, who is a reporter on a daily newspaper, the girl's brother Dick, a rising young analytical chemist, and a Press photographer named Snapper McGee, who works in co-operation loitli Jean. A glass bulb containing a small quantity of the disintegrating gas comes i7ito Terry's possession. Dick Norman consents to analyse it, but is frustrated by hirelings m the pay of Boroff, into whose clutches Jean lias mea?nuhile fallen. Terry manages to board Jean's car, which Boroff's emissaries have commandeered. Clinging to that car, he is conveyed to a warehouse in lohich Jean is a prisoner, and in the course of a fight there, he falls into a lift-shaft. He is lying at the bottom of that shaft when the lift begins to descend upon him from an upper floor, Boroff and two more of his associates being in the elevator. Now Read On A CLUE SLOWLY descending, the massive freight-elevator containing Boroff, Krohn, and Rackerby was within a few feet of the shallow well in which Terry lay when all at once the revenue officer bestirred himself. He had sustained a blow that had momentarily stunned him, and even now he was in a dazed condition. But with an effort he shook off the effects of the punch he had received, and as his brain cleared he became aware of the imminent peril that threatened him. The base of the hoist was desperately close to him then, and there was no time to scramble out of the well into which it must settle, so that for an instant Terry believed nothing could save him from being crushed to death. Immediately afterwards, however, he discerned a strong block of wood resting on its side on the bottom of the lift-shaft, and Vi^ith swift presence of mind he seized it and planted it in an upright position. It took the weight of the elevator and withstood the pressure of that heavy con- traption, jamming it at a height of about three feet from the ground floor of the warehouse. Next second Krohn, Rackerby and Boroff sprang from the hoist to land beside Thorg, who pointed mutely into the well below it. The three men who had jumped from the elevator followed the gesture, and promptly clapped eyes on Terry. The Coast Guard lieutenant was now making an attempt to clamber from the bed of the liftrsliaft, but at sight of him Boroff kicked at him savagely, and, the foreigner's boot driving against his forehead with cruel BOY'S CINEMA impact, Terry slumped back into the well and knew no more. Yet even as he fell, the unmistakable note of a police car's siren reached the ears of the scoundrelly quartet by the elevator- shaft, and, taking the alarm, they blun- dered to where Weis and Dodds were huddled—those two rogues who had been laid low by the fists of Terry Kent. Dodds and Weis were hauled to their feet and were hustled across to a back door of the warehouse. It was a door which opened on to a yard in which a powerful automobile was standing, and Boroff and his party had piled into that automobile and driven off when the police car whose siren they had heard drew up at the front entrance of the building. A couple of uniformed representatives of the Law charged into the warehouse, accompanied by Dick Norman and Snap- per McGee, and with determined mien began to scour the premises. They were unaware of Terry's presence on the bed of the lift-shaft, but their search carried them to the third floor and the room wherein Jean had been imprisoned, and they had released her and made th^ir way down to the ground floor again via a stone staircase, when movements beneath the jammed elevator attracted their attention. Terry had come round again, and was struggling to climb up through the aper- ture between the base of the hoist and the ground-floor level; and, ci-ying out as they perceived him, Jean and her rescuers hurried to his assistance. They pulled him forth and helped him to his feet, and, drawing a hand across his brow, Terry spoke to his fiancee in a fervent tone. — "Thank heavens you're safe, Jean!" he said. " I knew something had happened to you when I saw those crooks were using your car. But how did Dick and Snapper come to find this place?" It was Jean's brother who answered him. "Just after you left Snapper and I out- EPISODE 5 :— The Mystery Ship RALPH BYRD AS TERRY KENT side my laboratory, we spotted these speed cops driving along the street," he explained indicating the two police officers. "We hailed them and told them what had hap- pened, and with their help we managed to track down Jean's car. But I'm afraid we arrived too late to grab any of the gang we're up against, Terry. There's not a sign of them in the place." "So they made a clean getaway, did they?" Terry muttered. "Well, that's too bad, though I guess I can count myself lucky to be alive." He gave a bi-ief account of the fight in which he had been involved, and then, questioning Jean, learned how she had been decoyed to the warehouse; and after hearing her story he turned to her brother again. "I suppose there's no use me coming back with you to your laboratory?" he said. "You can't find out anything about that gas now." " No, I can't find out anything about that gas now," Dick Norman assented. "But I can tell you this, Terry. Zanzoid is one of the ingredients employed in its manufac- ture. I recognised its presence when I was reducing the compound from a vaporific to a fluid condition." "Zanzoid?" Terry echoed. "That's a new one on me. What's zanzoid?" Dick enlightened him. "It's a rather rare mineral. It's only found in certain paits of Asia, and the fact that there isn't much of it around ought to make any shipment of it fairly easy to trace." Terry fingered his chin meditatively, then after an interval of silence he glanced at his fiancee. "You'd better give these police officers a description of the men who held you prisoner here," he suggested. " If a general alarm is broadcast, those rats may still be picked up. Meanwhile, I'll borrow your car, if you don't mind. I want to get to the Coast Guard station as quickly as I can and report to my CO." Jean, placing her car at his disposal and informing him that she would collect it at the Coast Guard station in due course. Terry was soon driving in the direction of his headquarters; and on arrival there he at once repaired to the office of Com- mander Bnvie. his chief. n.'.tober 14th, 1989.