Boy's Cinema (1930-31)

6 Bull Black approached Briney with a ■cowl as dark as his name. A heavily- built man with a deep chest and the face of a tyrant, he was a fair seaman, eminently capable of handling a ship— and capable, too, of handling a crew, 80 long as he was given free use of his fists. Harry Drake was not too partial to him, and more than once he had been compelled to check him for his brutality to the men. But Harry Drake was not in view, and, brushing aside a sailor who stood in his path, Bull Black stepped up to Briney, swung him around by the shoulder and snarled a command at him. "Stow that cursed noise!" he said. Briney looked at him cheerfully. "I think it's pretty," he declared, without offence. "Oil, you do, do ye?" growled Black in a tone that was dangerously quiet. There was an inhuman leer on his ugly face, and his naiTow eyes seemed to fasten on the point of Briney's jaw. "Well, then," lie went on, "what do yuh think o' this?" And with the words he swung a fist like a hammer and knocked Briney sprawling. Black made a gesture as of dusting his hands, and then swaggered aft. A moment later he caught sight of Drake and Bonnie near the stern of the vessel, and after pausing to watch them for a few seconds, he changed his course and strode in the direction of Ben Arnold's ttate-room. Arnold had received a visit from Arlene Chandos, and, like Bonnie and Harry Drake, the two were discussing the prospects of the voyage—though from a very different angle. "Listen, Ben," Arlene was saying, "supposing we find Professor Adams alive and kicking, with a few million dollars' worth of radium in his posses- sion ?" "We won't find the professor," Arnold retorted. "We'd have heard of him before this if something hadn't hap- pened to him." Arlene was silent for a spell. Then she laid a hand on Arnold's sleeve and looked at him appealingly. "Ben," she said, "there's something else I want to ask you. Bonnie Adams doesn't mean anything to you, does she? If I " "Now get this, Arlene," Arnold in- terrupted. "It's the radium I'm after —nothing else. But I brought her along because she might remember something of that chart her old man carried. When she's served her pui-pose " lie shrugged, and: " Well, this island we're bound for is dangerous," he continued, "and acci- dents—are likely to happen." There was a tap on the door and Bull Black entered the cabin. "Mr. Arnold," he said gruffly, "you'd better look out for your captain. Him an' the Adams girl are up on the after- deck cooin' together like a pair o' turtle doves." Arnold bit his lip. It did not siiit him to stand by and watch Harry Drake wii ig Bonnie's confidence, but for the time being he did not care to interfere. "I can't afford to quarrel with Drake until wo sight Danger Island," he mut- tered. Before more could be said on the sub- ject a voice was heard all over the ship. It was the voice of the look-out in the iross-trees. and Bull Black pulled open the door lo catch his words. "Row-boat three points off the star- board bow!" Black and Arnold stepped out on deck and e:!counli'rpd Harry and Bonnie as NovciiibiT '2Slli, 1931. BOY'S CINEMA they approached the bulwark. The Englishman had a pair of field-glasses in his hand, and he focused them on a dark object some distance away. "What is it, captain?" Bonnie asked. " Some sort of a canoe," Harry answered. "But I can't make out what's aboard her." "Let me tee," put in Arnold, and, taking the glasses, he studied the small boat for a moment. His attention was still fixed on it when he saw the flutter of a strip of white cloth waved in a signal of distress. "Hold your course, captain," said Ben Arnold curtly. "But" there's an SOS coming from that boat," Bonnie interposed. "We must go to her." "Miss Adams is right," Harry ob- served, and raising his voice: "Port your helm I" he called to the man in the wheel-house. "Port your helm, sir," the man at the wheel repeated, and immediately afterwards the Lottie Carson was heeling over on the starboard side as the steersman altered her course. The distance between schooner and rowing-boat rapidly dwindled, and soon those on the deck of the Lottie Carson were able to make out the half-naked figure of a huge negro. There was another figure in the boat, that of a white man, but he was quite motionless. The nigger alone moved, rowing like one in the last stages of exhaustion. When they were alongside, one or two of the hands threw a rope-ladder over the bulwark and then proceeded to help the big negro aboard. The white man was carried up the rungs a moment later, and as he was brought on deck— a thin, wasted figure that seemed more dead than alive—Drake and his com- panions crowded round him. Next instant a scream broke from Bonnie's lips. "Daddy!" came her startling crv. "Oh, it's daddy!" "^ Arnold, Bull Black and Arlene Chandos exchanged glances but said' nothing. Then Bonnie spoke again itr a voice that trembled with anxiety. "Take him to my cabin," she said to the sailors who were carrying her father. "And someone fetch my uncle. Oh, quickly, please!" "Come on, boys," Harry put ig- crisply. "Hustle up there." "i Professor Adams was borne to Bonnie's state-room and laid on a bunk there, Arlene Chandos, Ben Arnold and Harry Drake remaining with him, together with Bonnie and her Uncle Anthony. The professor was unconscious, but a stiff drink was poured out for him, and as it passed his lips he seemed to revive a little. He was a pitiable spectacle, however, alirunk to a skele- ton, and wearing clothes that were tattered and begrimed, while a dark stain over his breast showed where that bushman arrow had struck him. One glance at him and his brother Anthony knew he could not survive much longer, and as the. professor opened his eyes the unnatural bright- ness of them told how near he was to his end. His strength sapped away by privation and loss of blood, he had no stamina left to help him recover from his terrible experiences. "Kamago," he whispered, as he stared past the group in the cabin, see- ing only those past events with which his waking memory tortured him. "Ramage—poor Ramage. Speared as Every Tuesday we ran for the boat. But his was a quick, easy death. He didn't linger on as I'm lingering." "Daddy!" Bonnie cried, flinging her- self down beside him. "Daddy, don't you know me ?" The professor's brain cleared as that well-known voice called him to his present surroundings, and a look of recognition dawned on his haggard face. "Bonnie," he faltered huskily. "Bormie! Is it really you?" "Oh, daddy," she told him in a tone that trembled with emotion, "I'm thank- ful—thankful that we arrived in time." The professor gave a wan smile. "I'm afraid you didn't quite arrivs in time, Bonnie dear," he murmured. "Listen, I can't last much longer, and there is a great deal I must tell yoii before I go." From the inside of liis shirt he pulled out the chart of Danger Island and the fragment of gleaming black rock that was wrapped in it. "Pitchblende, Bonnie," he whispered. "The treasure I was after. Rich in radium of untold value. See. See the radium in it. And there are vast deposits ot that pitchblende located on the chart. Take it, dear. I charge you to find that radium field and save it from impostors and adventurers. Pre- serve it for the good—good of humanity." "Daddy," Bonnie urged, "you mustn't worry yourself about the treasure. You must rest a while." Again that wan smile flitted across the professor's face. "Presently I will rest," he said. "I have only a few minutes left." His voice was growing weaker and his mind began to wander again. "For days and days we drifted. Danger Island— coast of peril—dark jungle. Wild beasts—savages, they killed all my companions." Harry Drake laid a hand on Anthony Adams' sleeves. "Can anything be done for him, doctor?" he said in an undertone; but the older man shook liis head sadly, his lean, aristocratic features wearing' an expression of utter hopelessness. "No, notliing," he made answer. "My brother is dying." ' "Bonnie," the professor was saj'ing, "Bonnie, swear to me that you will carry on." She promised brokenly, and he lay back with a look of contentment. "Radium," he murmured. "Rarest and most ti'Casured substance of tho civilised world. Vast deposits of it, Bonnie. Mankind must benefit. Radium ! Radium ! ' His eyes closed, and a tremor passed through his shrunken frame, the tremor of his last breath. "Daddy!" tlie girl cried. "Daddy! Oh, he's gone—he's gone !" A sob escaped her, and she was racked by a fit of weeping. The others in the state-room tried to comfort her, Ben Arnold and Arlene Chandos making a great show of sympathy. But it was some time before Bonnie could speak. She pushed the chart and the frag- ment of pitchblende into Arnold'* hands. "You'd better keep this for me, Ben," she said trustfully. Arnold's grasp closed on map and pitchblende with an eagerness tliat ho could scarcely conceal. Nor could he refrain from exchanging a glance of keen satisfaction with Arlene Chandos.