Boy's Cinema (1939-40)

Every Tuesday Vivid drama and high adventure surge through the pages of this pulsating serial story of the men who keep watch and ward on the American seaboard READ THIS FIRST Boroff, a-eator oj a deadly compound known as disi7itegration ijas, and head of a ruthless orqanisation. has contracted to stipply quantities of that pas to Moro- imnia, a Central European potoer. Operating in America, he has fallen foul of the authorities there, and is wanted for the murder of a younq coastguards- man, named Jim Kent. The latter's brother Terry, a lieutenant in the Coast- guard Service, has sworn to track Boroff down, and possesses three firm friends who are eager to help him. They are his fiancee, Jean Ncrmaii, a reporter on a prominent newspaper; her brother. Dick Norma7i, a rising young scientist; and Snapper McGee, a Press photographer on the staff of the publication Jean repre- sents. Terrii obtains possession of a carton of gas-bombs manufactured by Boroff, and conveys them to Dick Norman for analy- sis. Later, however, Dick is kidnapped by agents in the pay of Boroff, and is left unconscious in a motor-truck that is set rolling in the direction of a cliff overlook- ing the Atlantic. Terry arrives on the scene in time to board the truck, but before he can leap from it with his fiancee's brother the vehicle dives over the bri7ik' (Now Read On) THE ELECTROSCOPE AS the motor-truck pitched over the brink of the cliff Terry Kent was thrown off his balance and lost his grip on the unconscious figure of Dick Norman, the pair of them finishing up in a heap against the fore-end of the vehicle's in- terior. , . Hurtling through space, the lorry and its two occupants plunged into the sea far below, and, striking the bosom of the ocean with a mighty splash, the machine foundered almost instantly an;J sank fathoms down, to settle amidst a tangle of marine growth. The inrush of water that swept into the truck and bore it towards the seabed uinned Terry and Dick within the con- fines of the vehicle. But fortunately the Coastguard lieutenant was still in posses- sion of his faculties when the lorry came to rest, and, clutching his friend's inert form, he contrived to win his way clear of the truck's interior with his insensible human burden and to swim towards the The lieads of the two men rose above the level of the ocean, and, staring about him, Terry marked a shelf of rock which formed a natural landing-stage in the shadow of the cliff and which afforded access to a ledge-like track that ran up the face of the precipice. He struck out for that projecting shelf of rock and, reaching it, succeeded in dragging himself and Dick Norman on to the craggy outcrop, and there, for a time, he lay motionless alongside his fiancee's brothel-, collecting his strength and gulp- ing air into his lungs. Meanwhile, up on the sloping terrain above the cliff-rim, Boroff's hirelings had turned to make for the road. Not for a moment did thev dream that the inmates of the truck could have escaped death. They were convinced that the revenue officer and the young scientist must have perished, and their one thought now was to head for Boroff's new headquarters away to the north. The sedan in which Ten-y had trailed them from Dick Norman's laboratory was standing empty on the road, and they scrambled into it. A few seconds later that car was on the move, and with the BOY'S CINEMA 19 note of its engine rising to a high-pitched whine, it proceeded along the coastal high- way at top speed. The caverns wherein Boroff and the members of his organisation had estab- lished themselves after their flight from the kelp plant were more than fifty miles distant from the spot where the motor- truck had dived to its watery grave. And as certain sections of the coast road were exceedingly tortuous in character, fully two hours elapsed before the men in the sedan reached the neighbourhood of the gang's remote and cunning hide-out. They disposed of the car by concealing it in a deserted bai-n, then marched to- wards the boulders that hid the entrance to the chain of caves, and shortly after- wards they were reporting to Boroff in the rocky chamber which he had fitted out for himself as a sanctum and study. Little did they know that in the course of the two hours during which they had been faring nonhward in the sedan, Terry Kent had laboriously carried Dick Norman to the clifftop over which the motor-truck had dived, and had been ultimately sighted by two mobile cops who had appeared on the scene in a police car. And little did they know that even while they were in- forming Boroff that Terry Kenc and Dick Norman were no more, the Coastguard lieutenant and the young scientist were actually located at the Central Infii-mary in Portland. -- Apart from one or two bruises, Terry was none the worse for his experience. But Dick Norman had not been so lucky, for a cursory examination of him had in- dicated that he had sustained severe injuries to one shoulder, caused no doubt when he had been hurled against the fore- end of the truck as it had lurched over the cliff. About the time that Boroff was receiving the false tidings that Dick and Terry had met their- end, the revenue officer was pacing up and down a corridor of the Central Infirmary with Jean Norman and Snapper McGee, who had been sent for EPISODE 11 :— The Sea Battle RALPH BYRD AS TERRY KENT immediately after Dick had been admitted to the hospital. Terry's clothes had been dried for him and, together with Jean and Snapper, he was awaiting news of his fiancee's brotJier, who had been placed in a private ward and who was at present receiving expert attention at the hands of a specialist known as Dr. Phillips, reputed to be one of the finest surgeons in America. The latter was attached to the hospital, and though he had been out of town when Terry and Dick had been conveyed to the infli-fnary, he had returned an hour later and had at once devoted himself to the task of ministering to the injured chemist. The ward to which Dick had been taken was at the end of the corridor which Teny, Jean and Snapper were now pacing, and when the door of that ward was eventu- ally opened and Dr. Phillips emerged fi'om the room, the trio in the passage hurried towards him anxiously. "How is my brother, doctor?" Jean asked the surgeon in a tremulous voice. The specialist answered her reassuringly. "He'll be all right," he declared. "His left shoulder was rather badly fractured, and he's suffering from concussion. But there's no need for you to worry. I fancy he'll be up and about again in a few days." Jean heaved a sigh of relief, as did Terry and Snapper. Then the girl spoke again. "Could I see him?" she queried. "Not right now, Miss Nci-man," Dr. PhilliDs replied. "I don't think it would be advisable, as he's only just recovered consciousness. But if you care to wait I'll take another look at him in half an hour of so. and if his condition is satisfactory I'll let you see him then." Jean inclined her head. "All right, doctor," she said. "I'll stick around." The surgeon passed on and entered a ward farther along the corridor, presum- ably to attend to some other patient who was under his care. As for TeiTy and Snapper, they elected to remain at the hospital and keep Jean company, and were loitering with her near the door of the room occupied by her bi'Other when suddenly she bethought herself of the newspaper she represented. "Terry," she announced, "I've no right N'ovember 26th. 1939.