Boy's Cinema (1939-40)

Every Tuesday Two police officers were liirkirif? un- ol)triisiv(»ly in the backKroiiiid, suiiimoiiod by Tod fonio wliilo before. '"You (ixed the mask so that. Pi-ofessor Leoi.ard would be killetl," artiisi'd tlie colonel, "and von would be the only one who knew the cotnpleto formula." "That's a lie!" shouted Jordan desper- ately. "I had nothinff to do with it !" "It's too late for denials now, Jordan. Arrest him !" John advanced and gripped the assistant's arm, and the two police ofTicers closed in on him as he began to strugfjle. A squad car was in the yard and ho was hu.'^led into it and taken away JOHN PLAYS A PART NOTHING had appi'aretl in the news- papers about the death of Phil Dunlap, out I lie slory of Jordan's arrest was not sup- pressed by the authorities and it was splashed upon fiont pages the morning afterwards, ll was stated that he was being held without bail on suspicion of being a member of a spy ring. BOY'S CINEMA "The real professor will have to keep out of sight, and you'd belti>r take over his fpiarlors —a furnished flat in Vermont Avenue." Phil was buried that day, but not even his sisler was pcM-rnitled to attend the funeral, lest spies should be present. In the afleiiiooti John and Ted removed their belongings to the ihirdfloor flat Professor l.,eonard had taken for his stay in Washington but had vacated a few hours before. Next morning the newspapers announced that the professor would make another d("monstratioii with his lethal gas at the Harding jjroving grounds on the Wednesday of the following week, and the aiuiomucnK^nt was accompanied by a picture of John which purporti'd to be a picture of Professor Leonard. The Harding proving gromids forimd part of a military airport, and on the day appointed a number of oflicers were on the field in company with Government agents. The demonstration was to be (limed, and two sergeants were in charge of a movie camera. The gates of the airport were guaided, but a tall youth with an ice-cream tricycle was arul hailed at some distance from two hu^o circles marked with wliiloniii^ upon the (fraiin. John addressed the group. ' " Uy way of comparison, gentlemen," ho saiti, "the f)ilol will first drop a bomb con- taining the gas now in use. Then lie will drop one coiMairiing my new gas." "And both bombs contain tin; same amount of concentrate, professor?" a.^ked one of tho ollicers. "Idenlical," John replied, and add<'d : "I've mixed a chemical with each gas so that they'll both be visible and therefore photo- graphic." He turned to the sergiiant in charge of the movie camera. "Arc you ready ?" "All ready, professor." John raisi'd his right arm, Ted waved tho flag, and a bomb fell from the aeroplane and e.xpjoded in the heart of one of the circles. White smoke ciept acro.ss the grass but did not extend beyond the chalk line. "Notice the small area the gas covers, gentlemen." said John, "and how slowly it spreads. My gas will cover an area ten times The professor held out the mask. " This inhalator valve—it's been tampered with ! " he raged John and Ted went to the War Department to see Colonel Scully, and John had a daring scheme to propound. "Piofes.sor Leonard is unknown," he said. "He's never been photographed or received any publicity other than by name. So there's no reason why I couldn't be Professor Leonard, and Hall my trustwortliy assistant." "With what object?" the colonel inquired. "Publicise the fact that I'll demonstrate with his gas on our proving grounds, and I'm sure it will bring some of the spy ring into the open." "That's a fine idea," approved the colonel. The scheme was discussed in all its details, and lie arranged to attend to the publicity end of the demonstration. " But you'll have to find a fresh place to live," he said. "Don't forget Dunlap was taken home by his murderer.' "Professor Leonard* might happen to live in tliat building," John contended. "Our flat's on the second floor, his is on the fourth. And the spies have never met his sister." Colonel Scully smiled. "We'll make all" arrangements," he said. permitted to pass in as freely as a postman, and no one dreamed that he was a spy. There was ice-cream in his box on wheels and ho sold quite a lot of it to the staff, the day being hot and oppressive: but there was also a tiny movie camera in the box, actuated by clock- work, and its lens was against an incon- spicuous hole in the front of the box. A military pilot took off in a bombing machine, and as he circled over the field Ted stood beside .John, shirt-sleeved, and holding a white flag. The pilot had been instructed to drop the first bomb when the flag was waved, and to drop the second when it was waved again. "We're safe," John confided to Ted, "if Jordan is the only member of the spy ring that knew what the professor looked like, but was he?" "Well," Ted responded brightly, "if we weren't, we're going to a lot of trouble for nothing." "You'd better get out on the Geld and watch for my signal." "Okay, professor." Ted went off across the turf with his flag that size, and it will spread much more rapidly. Watch." The bomber was sweeping back across the field from far away. He signalled to Ted and Ted waved the flag. But nothing hap- pened, and one of the officers cried out that the bomb mtist have.caught in the rack. Several long moments pa.ssed, during which the machine banked and turned, and then a bomb was seen to be falling. Tod was right in its path, and John yelled to him to run. He did run, and he never had run so fast before in all his life. But the bomb struck the ground and exploded within a few feet of him, and he was seen to fall an instant before a great white cloud of gas concealed him from horrified eyes. John rushed to the car in which he had arrived, whisked the professor's mask from a seat and put it on over his head, then leapt on- to the running-board of an ambulance whose driver had started the engine. The ambulance careered across the field and stopped ovitside the pall of smoke, and John was off the run;i'»g-boa«d and lost to sight before it had stopDod. He stt\mbled over th< January Cth, 1940.