Boy's Cinema (1939-40)

Every Tuesday next few moments ho wondered whether he had wandered into a lunatic asylum. Armides began bcwilderingly by asking if the young lady Algy was inquirmg alter was the pretty girl with the green hair and the purple face. He continued by splashing paint down Algy's tie, the colour of which seemed to offend liim; and he ended by tipping a pot of paint over Algy's hVad. With roars of laughter in his ears, Algy staggered around blindly, trying to wipe paint off his face; he received two more pots of paint over his beautifully creased suit, and when Bulldog Drummond burst in, he was collapsed in a chair, weakly calling for help. "Be careful, Hugh!" cried Phyllis, who was just behind Drummond. Drummond did not hesitate; he leaped at the man who was posturing on the paint-smeared, slippery floor, and brought him crashing to the ground. By the time a policeman and a couple of ambulance men arrived with a stretcher, he had the wildly kicking " lunatic" pinned down. Swiftly Armides was placed on a stretcher and strapped down. A doctor hurried in with his bag, and they all crowded round. ''Butchers! Murderers!" bellowed Armides. "They're killing me!" "Steady, old fellow!" said the doctor soothingly. "What is it, doctor?" asked Mr. Barrows. "Plain case of lead-paint poisoning- painter's occupational disease. Mania— delusions, followed by spasms and coma." "And then?' ■'Oh, they usually come out of it, in time. It's a good thing you nabbed him .before he did any real damage." From the woebegone, paint-smeared figure in the corner came a protesting voice: " What d'you mean—before he did any real damage?" Still shouting, Armides, strapped to the stretcher, was carried from the flat. Colonel Nielson, attracted by the disturb- ance, arrived a moment later. He was dis- gusted to find Drummond once more on the spot; but he could do nothing, since the flat belonged to him. "Yes, our flat, colonel," Drummond grinned. "Did you catch the bank robber?" "No, we haven't got him yet, but he can't possibly get through our Unes." "Colonel, maybe I can " "Maybe you can what?" exclaimed Niel- son and Phyllis together, and the gnl added: "You're coming with me, Hugh Drummond! D'you want me to miss my train?" She was going to Prance to join hei BOY'S CINEMA Aunt Blanche. Nielson requested fervently that she take Drummond with her. "He'll be over for the wedding on the tenth, colonel," the girl laughed. "I hope you're coming?" "Well, if you're perfectly certain it's going to take place, I wouldn't miss it!" He gave them a pass so that they could get through the police cordon. Algy, wrapped in a sheet, and moaning gently, occupied the back scat of Drummond's car, greatly to the amusement of passers- by. Colonel Nielson sighed heavily, and continued receiving reports; but by that time Henri Armides was well outside the cordon, in the white, clanging ambulance. Nobody connected the mad painter with the bank robbery, but Bulldog Drummond was intrigued by a queer evasiveness he had noticed about Mr. Barrows when he said good-bye. A SHOT IN THE DARK WHEN darkness fell, Henri Armides wasted no time in escaping from the hospital to which he had been taken. He was assisted by the admiring Garvey, who was waiting outside the walls with a car and some clothes. Learning that the police had left the flat, Armides rubbed his hands and decided to go there at once. Using the useful window again, he entered the sitting-room, and, placing his flashlight on the table, began prising ofl' the loudspeaker screen. Then he stopped suddenly, his nerves tingling. A voice spoke from the darkness: "Well, if it isn't the poor, mad painter himself! Recovered quickly, didn't you? As a matter of fact, I was expecting you." Mr. Barrows walked slowly from a corner, a gun in his hand. He was smiling sardonically. " Is this where you hid it—in the radio?" "I don't know what you're talking about!" snapped Armides, facing him warily. "Oh, yes, you do, Mr. Bank Robber!" Barrows was enjoying himself. "No tricks!" "Well, why don't you call the police?" sneered the bank robber. "Why?" said BaiTows softly. "Oh, we don't really need them, do we? Let me see now, ten thousand pounds, wasn't it? Or didn't you have time to count it?" Armides smiled grimly. Some of his tenseness vanished. "I sec! A split, eh?" "You couldn't stop me if I took all of it," said Barrows sweetly; "but 111 be generous. Pifty-lifly agreed?" "You're a smart man, Mr. Barrows!" Armides grated. "Oh, you're pretty smart yourself," the manager smirked. "You know, it takes brains to do what you did to-day." "You'd belter turn off that light," Armides said quietly. "The police know this flat's not occupied." Barrows turned slightly towards the table. It was his last move. Armides leaped. There was the thud of a blow in the darkness, and a few .seconds later. Bulldog Drummond, drawing up outside in his car, heard a sharp bang. "Did we blow a tyre?" asked Algy, who was beside him. Drummond had received a telegram from Phyllis, asking him to send the radio set out to her. Since he wanted to have another look at Barrows, he had come to the flat himself, with Algy and Tenny, his solemn-faced manservant, to keep him company. "That was no blow-out, Algy! That was a shot inside somewhere! Come on— we're going in! You stay here, Tenny." They were leaping up the steps to the main door, when they heard a shrill whistle. Garvey, hidden in an alleyway, was warning his chief. "What was that?" Algy stuttered. "Something's up, Algy," Drummond said crisply, his eyes gleaming at the thought of action. "Come on!" Up in the flat, Hem-i Armides gave up trying to prise off the screen again and dashed for the window with the radio set; but his appearance on the balcony was seen by Tenny, who started shouting. Armides. with a curse, leaped back into the room. He was still there in the dark- ness, when Drummond and Algy burst in. There was some confusion when they found Algy had left the flashlight in the car. Drummond lit a match, looking for the light switch. Algy wandered across the room. "^Iothing here, Hugh," he said jauntily. Then he sat down on an armchair. His hair rose as it moved under him. He leaped to his feet, 5wung round with a choking noise, just in time to see a dim figure rising and to feel a crashing blow on his forehead. ^ " Butchers! Murderers! " yelled Armides. "They're killing me!" .\ovi_irli. r ibtti, l-j:-y>