Boy's Cinema (1939-40)

18 Dupres, Mayoi- of Targemont—I will see that they man-y!" Nielson—in nasal agony because of the pinch of powerful snuff he had accepted —thanked him heartily. He really wanted to help Phyllis to pin Drummorid down; and besides, he wanted to arrange things so that he conducted his criminal cases in peace in the future. He explained the situation to the girl. "Ah, mademoiselle," said Dupres, stroking his beard, "you have come for Captain Drummond? He is here in Targe- mont's impregnable jail—believe me, safe for you. Never again shall mam'selle weep for her truant lover. You shall be married here at once." "Here—in jail?" said Phyllis faintly. Aunt Blanche laughed. "It's the only way you'll ever get him." A few minutes later the whole party— including two clerks to register the mar- riage, and a couple of gendarmes—strode along the corridor to the cells. But they had barely reached that con- taining Bulldog Drummond when the roar of an explosion stunned them. They cannoned into one another as plaster and rubble rained down from the ceiling. Half- blinded and choked by the clouds of dust, they got in each other's way. "The scoundrel!" the mayor howled. "He has blown up my jail—my beautiful jail!" Gaston and the turnkey wrenched open the door. The cell was wrecked. Lying in one corner was the wizened little Garvey, unconscious. Of Drummond there was no sign, and the huge hole in the wall showed which way he had gone. "Stop him! After him, Gaston! Don't let him escape!" shouted M. Dupres. "Oh, if he'd only waited a minute later!" moaned Phyllis, frantically brush- ing dust out of her "hair. "Phyllis," sighed Aunt Blanche, "what does it take to convince you that he really doesn't want to get married? ' THE ELUSIVE BRIDEGROOM HUGH DRUMMOND had learned enough to convince him that Phyllis, while she had the radio, was in great danger. He knew now that his talkative cell-mate and his chief were responsible for the bank robbery. Armides had thoughtfully sent a meal in for his assist- ant, and hidden in the wine bottle was a deadly little apparatus hardly larger than a rifle cartridge. Proudly Garvey pointed to the little plungers on the end by which one set the timing, and then buried it in a crack which he found in the far wall of the cell. "All we 'ave to do is to set the timer," he explained. "That'll give us time to pack it between those stones. Gimme your coat, sir." He packed their jackets round the bomb, and then retreated with Drummond behind the rough table which they had upended at the other end of the cell. Drummond wondered whether they would be alive to see the result. But when the smoke cleared a little he saw that a large hole had been blown in the outside wall. He himself was intact. So was Garvey until Drummond heart- lessly slogged him on the jaw before leap- ing through the hole to freedom. Once outside in the darkness, however, he was a little bewildered. The town was a maze of ancient wooden buildings and narrow, winding alleys. He heard the hue and cry behind him, and started running. His freedom was short-lived. Half the townspeople, besides numbers of gen- darmes, seemed to be chasing him. They popped up in his path no matter in which direction he ran. In the end they cornered him in a cul-de-sac. Protesting loudly, he was marched back to jail, where he was surprised to find his friends all looking the worse for wear. "Bravo, mes enfants!" cried the mayoi*. "We will marry him, dead or alive!" Drummond was already embracing Phyllis. "One would almost believe he meant It," said the puzzled mayor. •N'ovember IStli, 19Si). BOY'S CINEMA " Strike while the iron is hot, monsieur," Nielson whispered. Drummond expressed his willingness to be married then and there; but first there was the matter of the radio. He was only reassured when Gaston confirmed that it was safe in the next room. The marriage ceremony was well under way, when Hugh Drummond started. Next door a muffled bang had sounded. "What's that?" He leaped over a chair and dashed into the next room, just in time to see a figure scrambling thi-ough the window. And the unknown had the i-adio set in his hand. The noise had been caused by one of the valves rolling off the table. "He escapes again!" howled M. Dupres. "Stop him!" Once more the quiet of the little town was disturbed by wild shouting and the pounding of many feet. Drummond chased after the dim figure of Armides, and everybody else chased Drummond. Twisting and turning, Armides did his best to elude Drummond. But his grim piusuer was gaining steadily. His face twisted with rage, Armides glanced round, then leaped at a flight of wooden steps which led up the wall of an old inn. Drummond was only a few feet behind him, and Armides lashed out savagely with his foot, driving him back as he scrambled on to a narrow balcony. Panting, Drummond hauled himself up and closed with the crook. Armides fought like a wild-cat, swinging murder- ously with the radio set. Drummond gave back blow for blow. Armides drove him off with a cowardly kick, and dashed to a small door. Again Drummond went after him. Locked together, they swayed against the low railing; it gave with a loud splintering sound, and they dropped several feet to a steeply sloping roof, still fighting furiously. Watching with a crowd from below, Phvllis screamed: "Hugh! " "Don't worry, dear," said Nielson drilv, "he's enjoying himself." Drummond certainly felt little enjoy- ment when Armides stamped on his fingers and sent him rolling down on to a lower angle of the crazy roof. But Armides lost his balance, too, as he tried to run, and came slithering down after him. "Don't stand there doing nothing!" Phyllis cried. " Help him!" "He shall not escape!" Dupres roared. "Come with me! We will maiTy him, dead or alive!" Armides was now climbing a crazv ladder formed of rungs let into a nearby wall. With Drummond after him, he slithered down the next roof and found himself over empty space, with the dark street far below. He did not hesitate, with ten thousand pounds in the balance. Not to be beaten, Drummond followed, and Phyllis momentarily closed her eyes in horror. Algy and "Tenny were doing their best to join their leader, but they, too, were in difficulties. Algy, climbing a wall, got a grip on a chimney, which was slowly bending under his weight. Since Tenny was hanging on to him, it seemed they were liable to crash to the street to- gether, so Drummond's danger was out- weighed by their personal problem. Armides had reached the balcony of the inn once more. He was just trying to wrench the door open when Drummond came at him like a thunderbolt. In the struggle Armides, for the first time, lost his grip on the radio, and before he could retrieve it the door burst open and dozens of people seemed to stream on to the narrow platform. Drummond clutched furiously at Armides, but the crook had had enough for the time being. He darted away and disappeared amongst the shadows on the roofs. Drummond was prevented from following by the fact that Dupres and the gendarmes had hurled themselves ex- citedly on him. Everybody seemed to be shouting at the tops of their voices, including Drummond. Algy and Tenny, who had overcome the Every Tuesday insecurity of the chimney, arrived next, and after them Nielson and Phyllis. "What's this all about?" Nielson de- manded of the plunging Drummond. "Don't be a fool, Hugh! Stay here and get married!" "That's Armides," Drummond roared hoarsely, "the bank robber!" "What?" snapped Nielson. "Come on!" This time he was besidp Drummond in the chase; but Armides had disappeared. The only thing they had was the radio, which Drummond was clinging to lovingly. The whole party ended up at Aunt Blanche's house, with Drummond once more under arrest. Nielson's joke was going against himself now. for Dupres re- fused to release men to search for Armides until Drummond was safely man-ied to Phyllis. It had become a matter of honour with the little mayor. In the cosy living-room the ceremony proceeded. Nobody noticed a head slowly emerging from an old well in the middle of the lawn outside. It belonged to Armides, and his expression was not pretty. He was going to make a last at- tempt to get the radio set, which now rested on the table beside the group. Dupres was saying: "We proceed. In the name of the law, I declare Hugh C. Drummond and Phyllis Clavering bound by marriage." Armides' lips twisted as carefully he lifted from the window-sill a wine bottle that Therese had placed there. It was the work of a moment to release the safety catch of one of his bombs and drop it into the bottle. Then he hurried back to the well—to wait. Cheers and shouts of congratulation sounded inside as the elusive bridegroom was at last bound in matrimony. Then Drummond went to the radio and wrenched off the speaker screen. "The end of the trail, colonel," he grinned. Nielson gasped as a roll of notes was handed to him. "Good heavens! The London and Southminster Bank money!'' "Exactly." said Drummond, absently taking from Therese the bottle of wine she brought to him. "And now," chuckled M. Dupres. "we are going to drink to the health and happiness of Mr. and Mrs.—what you call them?—oh. Bulldog Drummond!" He broke off suddenly as Drummond began behaving like a maniac and rushing to- wards the window with the bottle in his hand. "Too late! You're married " Drummond was not listening. He had felt something rattle in the bottle as he lifted it. With one terrific swing he hurled the bottle out into the garden. It landed right on the coping of the wall in which Armides was hiding and next moment there sounded once more the roar of an explosion. A mushroom of smoke and dust hid the grave of Henri Armides. who had died by his own bomb. Drummond wiped his forehead and went to Phyllis. "Well, darling, are you all right?" She nodded happily. "Well, we're really married, eh?" "A quiet wedding." she smiled, "with a few intimate friends!" By permission of Paramount Pictures, Ltd., adapted from incidents in the film. " Bulldog Drummond's Bride," which has the following cast: John Howard as Captain Hugh Drummond Heather Angel as Phyllis Clavering H. B. Warner as Colonel Nielson Reginald Denny as Algy Longworth E. E. Clive as Tenny Elizabeth Patterson as Aunt Blanche Eduardo CiannelH as Henri Armides Gerald Hamer as Garvey John Sutton as Inspector Tredennis Neil Fitzgerald as Evan Barrows Louis Mercier as Mayor Dupres I