Boy's Cinema (1939-40)

6 •IS ciiijeily and bravely as any legendary hero. And it's up to us to carry on his work—you as much as Ted and me." Ted called to him, and he went out into the sitting-room. "A man brought that." Ted held out a crumpled one-dollar note. "Where's the man?" asked John, smoothing the note and studying some pencilled writing on the back of it. Ted replied that he was out in the hall, and was instructed to bring him in. John went back to Eleanor. She was still kneeling on the window-seat. "Do you recognise this handwriting?" he questioned. She took the note and looked at it with wet eyes. "Yes," she said, "it's Phil's. 'Finder take this to Apartment D, Drayton House, Twenty- Eighth Place, receive twenty more.' " She slid off the seat and went out with him into the sitting-room. Ted had returned from the hall with a woolly-headed negro who was holding a check cap. "Where did you find this dollar bill?" John inquired. "In a gutter, on tiie far side o' town," the negro told him. "Do you remember the exact time and place?" "Yassiih. I don't find many very often, hut when I does I remembers. It was about five in the mornin' on Elm Street."' "Where on Elm ?" "In front o' Dr. Carter's Sanitarium." "That clears up the ' Dr. C ' in Phil's note- book." muttered John. 9 "Are you sure you got the right addre-ss?" asked Ted. "I'm positive." declared the negro. John gave him twenty-one dollars, keeping the original one-dollar note, and he went off grinning all over his ebony face. "John, just what does it mean?" faltered Eleanor. .lohn replied that he w-as not sure. "But I have an idea," he said, "Ihat Pliil might have been taken to the leader of the spy ring in such a way that he was unable to identifv the location." "Probably blindfolded," suggested Ted. '.'Oh. I .see," said Eleanor. "Then if ho dropped the dollar note as he entered, or loft, the placp, he could learn the location from whoever brought it liere." "That's ivist the kind of trick Phil would have used," declared Ted. ^^ " So now wo have three things to work on. said John. "The message he tried to write in his notebook, this dollar bill, and the ring." "What ring?" asked Eleanor ni surprise. "This one." John produced the curioiis diamond ring. He had taken iiossession of it at tlie same time as the notebook. "Have you ever seen this before?" "No, I haven't." Eleanor was emphatic. "Where did it come from?" "From 'the little finger of Phil's right hand." . -^^ "I never knew Phil to wear a ring! Tod scratched his chin and pondered. "Shall we call on Dr. Carter?" "No, it's too soon for that." John put away the ring. " We must get definite proof. First, we'll go to the American Chemical Compan>—I'm pretty sure that's what Phil meant by ' Ainer ('hem.' The American Chemical Company's plant was an extensive one, on the Virgim'a side of the Potomac River. John and Ted set out for it almost stiaightway. and in the office building they secured an interview with the general manager of the concern, a stocky but sharp-featured man in the early fifties, named Wilson. John showed his credentials to the startled g(>neral manager, and also the page in Phil's notebook. "One of our men was killed last night," he .said. " He wrote this note before he died. Sin<'e it refers to your company we felt that we should start our investigation here. Are you developing any formulas or products that might interest foreign spies?" "Yes. several things," Arnold VA'ilson replied. "We're demonstrating a new lethal gas lo-nighi," January 6th, 1940. BOY'S CINEMA It was John's turn to be startled. "What's the importance of this new gas?" he inquired. "It's military value. It's many times stronger than any gas previously known. Perhaps I'd better phone Professor Leonard and postpone to-night's test." "No, no, don't do that," protested John. "Just proceed as if nothing had happened, and don't mention our visit to anyone." " Vei-y w-ell," said Wilson, and added as an afterthought: "Oh, Major Nichols, of the War Department, is to take part in the test." At eight o'clock that evening John was one of a group of men who gathered round the steel door of an experimental gas-test chamber at the factory. Several of those present were mechanics employed by the company, but three were Army officers. Colonel Scully was present. Professor A. "V. Leonard was a man of about John's height and build but several years his senior. He was dark-featured and he parted his hair in the middle. He had an assistant with him named Jordan, who seemed to be efficient but nervous. A motor- ambidance stood ready for service in the yard, and the men in charge of it were stand- ing by. The test chamber was air-tight when its steel door was closed, but there were observation windows in its steel side. "Have you checked the gas connections?" Jordan addressed one of the mechanics, who assured him that everything was in order. "Quite ready, professor," Jordan informed Leonard, and Leonard turned to Major Nichols, a dark-haired and dark-eyed officer, who was in mufti'and wearing the "saddle " of an extraordinary-looking type of respirator. "I wish you wouldn't insist on making this test, major," he said in a worried voice. "Backing down on your claims, professor?" asked the major. "Not at all, but this mask of yours will be no protection wliatever against my gas." "Ridiculous! You say your gas has a phosgene base. I helped develop this respirator, and it's proof against any form of phosgene." "Oh, not this type," the professor asserted. "I've tested it. Now, if you feel the slightest throat stricture signal us immediately." Major Nichols put on the mask of the respirator, climbed into the chamber, and sat down on a chair. The steel door was closed, and .Jordan called out to a workman : "First cylinder, fifty centimetres." Gas from a cylinder hissed into the chamber through a pipe. "Fifty centimetres," reported the work- man. Major Nichols seemed, to those who were watching him at the window, to be quite unaffected by the gas. "Want to give him another fifty, pro- fessor?" asked Colonel Scully mockingly. "No!" The word was barely uttered when the major sagged forward on his chair and pitched headlong to the floor of the chamber. "Get him out of there!" cried the colonel in alarm. "Turn on the blowers!" shouted Professor Leonard. "Clear the gas out!" E.xhaust pipes were opened, the gas was ejected, and men holding their breath got the major out into the air and removed his mask. Oxygen was administered, and he came to almost immediately and smiled feebly at Leonard. "I'll take back everything I said, profes.sor," he nnnnuired. "That was a dangerously close call," said the professor. "Well, I asked for it." "Better take him to hospital," suggested Colonel Scully, but the major sliook his head. "Not yet," he said in a stronger voice. " I'm all right, colonel. I want to see the rest of the experiment." He removed the "saddle "of the mask with his own hands, and the professor wms pre- vailed upon to proceed with his demon- stration. "Now, gentlemen," he said, "you see that the ordinary mask is powerless against my gas. However, I'll go into the gas chamber Every Tuesday myself, using my own mask to prove that it is the only one the gas cannot penetrate." The colonel asked him if he was quite con- fident it would protect him. "Quite," he declared, and called for his assistant. But Jordan had disappeared, and one of the mechanics stated that he had gone oti to the laboratory to get an aerometer. "Oh!" Leonard seemed annoyed. "Did he take my mask with him?"' "No, it's here." A mechanic stepped for- ward with a simpler-looking respirator than the one the major had worn. "Mr. Wilson," said the professor, as he was being helped to put on the raask. "will you take charge of the cylinders? I'M take five hundred centimetres." The general manager assented, and John looked on while the mask was adju.sted and its wearer was helped into tiie clianiJ>er. The door was closed, and two cylinders were emptied without seeming to affect the inventor of the mask; but before a third cvlntder could be brought into use he was seen to rise from the chair and totter towards the fastened door. Wilson bellowed orders, ti.e gas was blown out from the chamber, and the door was opened. Professor Leonard got otit unaided, freed his face from the mask, and rejected hands that would have helped him. • "No, no, I'm all right !" he g8.=5f)ed. "After the first whiff I held my breath t" "You shouldn't have tried it witli so much gas," reproved Colonel Scully. "I've checked this mask against two thousand centimetres !" "Then what went wrong?'' a.sked Wilson. The professor held out the mask. "This inhalator valve," he raged. "It's been tampered with !" " Who had access to the mask besides vour- self?" It was John who put the question, and the reply was what he had half expected : " Only .lordan, my assistant, si-ni I trust him implicitly." "Get him," John said to tho general manager; "but don't let him know the professor entered the chamber." Jordan was in the laboratorj', speaking to someone on the telephone, whan Arnold Wilson looked in at the door and called his name. He put the telephone down iininedi- atoly. "Something wrong?" His voice was not quite under control. "Nothing wrong. They want you at the test chamber" "Oh, all right!" With an air of non- chalance Jordan went out with ttie general manager to the test chamber,-where the others were waiting. "Oh, .Jordan," said the profes.sor. "in view of what happened to Alajor Nichols, the colonel IS reluctant to let me demonstrate the n&w mask. Tell him your opinion of it." "Why, it's perfectly safe." asserted the assistant. "We've both tested it a number of times." "You sec?" The professor smiled at the colonel, and the colonel looked sharply at Jordan. "Would you be willing to wear it your- self?" "Why, yes—er—of course." "Perhaps I'm being over-fussy, but this country can't afford to run the risk of losing a man of Professor Leonards vatiie. Since you are willing, Mr. .Jordan, go right ahead." "We'll (ninip in five hwidicd centimetres," said the professor. .Jordan gulped, licked his lips, and stammered : "I'm sorry, professor, but I don't think I can do it. I—I—I haven't felt very well all Vvoning." His face had gone paper-wliito; his eyes ■^cro frightened. "Sur(>ly you're hot afraid?" chided his employer. " Oh, no—no, it's not that. I—I j«st don't feel up to it, that's all. I—I don't know exactly what's wrong with me." "I do!" thundered the colonel. "You know that mask is defective!" "Defective?" echoed Jordan. "Why, that's ridiculous I" 1