Boy's Cinema (1930-31)

22 The Kidnapping of Drake. SHORTLY after Ben Arnold ■jvishcd tlio girls good-night, Arleuo Chan- dos retired to lier own room, and Bonnie was left alone with her thoughts. Harry Drake figured in them prom- inently, and, looking baek on the inci- dents of the voyage, reflecting upon the deep friendship tliat they had formed, she found it harder than ever to believe the accusation Ben Arnold had levelled against liim. Indeed, she could not help reproaching herself for doubt- ing Harry, even moraentarilj-. Her mind being in this vein, she sud- denly stood up with the intention of seeking out Harry and telling him her true sentiments, and no sooner was the resolve made than she slipped out of the room. The sound of nmsic and conversation rose to her from the saloon, and, her recent experience in the bar-room still fiesh in her memory, she recoiled from the idea of renewing her acquaintance with it. She therefore descended by a back-stair that brought her into the street via a side door in the premises. She had not the least idea where Harry was to be found, but it occurred to her that he might return to Lascara's in the hope of seeing her again. Poss- il)ly he was even there now, and she decided that she would wait near the main entrance on the ofF-chance of see- ing him. She walked round to the mean thoroughfare that ran past the front of the building, and with that she heard a familiar voice humming the opening bars of a sea-shanty. Next moment Briney emerged from Lascara's bar- room, and the girl immediately con- fronted him. "Briney," she said—"Briney, have you seen Captain Drake?" "Why, yes, Miss Adams," the sailor answered, touching his cap. "I just .stepped out for a breath of air and left him in Lascara's dive with the rest o' the hoys." "Will you tell him I'd like to see him right awav?" Bonnie pleaded. "Sure 1 will," was the cheerful answer. " I'd do anything for you, Miss Bonnie." The big sailor walked back .into the bar-room and gave Harry the girl's message. Tiie Englishman instantly rose, never for a moment suspecting that evil eyes were watching him from Lascaia's back room and that his de- parture was the signal for the Zarbessa to shadow him "Drake goes." Lascara said to Arnold and Black. " I tell Zarbessa to .steal out by back door and make up on heeiu. Then I follow and see thev get heem all right, ch?" In the meantime Harry had passed out into the .street, and there he came face to face with Bonnie. "You sent for nie?" he said, a little stiffly, for, though he intended to safe- guard her interests, he was still smart- ing under the impression that she had believed Arnold's lying story concerning the bar-room fracas. "1 had to sec vou, Harry," sho told him urgently. " Will you—will you walk with me a Jittlc way?" Ho nodded and they began to stroll along the street, the two of them com- pletely unaw.iro that they were being tracked by a band of dark, silent figures. They came to a kind of market-place, populous and filled with a great clamour, and made their way through it to a strip of open country behind the town. A hush fell over that same market-place as the Zarbessa appeared, and men cowered into dark corners as i)ecember lOtb, 199L BOY'S CINEMA the savages fded after their prey. Then came Lascara, watchful as a cat. Bonnie and Harry wandered towards the fringe of jungle, bat were still some little distance from it when the English- njan called a halt. "It's not safe to go too far from the town," he mentioned. "Whatever you want to say to me, jou can rest assured that we won't be overheard here." "Oh, Harry," she began, and in spile of the gloom he saw that her face was raised appealingly, "I want to speak to you about this voyage to Danger Island. I proniised father that I'd go on—carry out fiis dying wish. But—I can't! I can't go on without you, Harry. I don't know why it is, but somehow I'm afraid !" Her impassioned tone aflfected him powerfully, and he took hold of her hands with a gesture of sympathy. "It's been my belief all along that you have reason to be afraid." he told her. " Almost from the beginning I distrusted Arnold, and as for that henchman of his. Bull Black " "I think Black is the one who first made mo suspicious of the whole busi- ness," Bonnie said quickly. "There's something about him that makes me shudder, and Arlene happened to men- tion that it was he who recommended this terrible place of Lascara's." " Arnold and Black are hand-in- glove," Harry assured her, "and now they've got Lascara in their pay. But, Bonnie," he added eagerly, "are you trying to tell me that you don't believe what Arnold has been saying against me?" "I believe only in you, Harry," she answered. "I was a blind fool ever to doubt you. You're the only friend 1 have in the world now." Harry slipped his arms around her. Hor words had elated him, and in that moment he felt ready to match his wits and courage against all the villainy of Arnold's minions—to meet the ring of enemies with his own good men, and confound them in their nefarious cnter- FILM NOVELS FOR XMAS READING. " THREE WHO LOVED." The dramatic story o! a young bank cashier who lets his chum go to prison i'or a fault himself committed, be- cause the chum had played fast and loose with the girl be loved. Every Tuesday prise. With Bonnie trusting; in him, he would baffle Arnold's scheming Harry did not sec the figures that were stealing towards him througli the gloom, a grim cordon of devil-worihip- pers between him and the town. "Bonnie," he said, "you have notlimg to fear now that I know what I mean to you." " But we sail at sun-up," she told him tremulously, "and the Lottie Carson is leaving without you, under the com- mand of that awful man Black. Oh, I can't—I can't go on." "The ship that carries you won't leave mo far behind," the Englishman .^aid. smiling down at her. " Listen, Bonnie; I've made my plans. Briney and the boys are staunch. To-morrow " But he never completed the sentence. There was a sudden scuffle of naked feet in the grass, and next second a swarm of demon figures .sprang at him through the darkness. Bonnie uttered a shrill scream of terror, and as it rang piercingly on her lips a savage wrenched hor from Harry's grasp and swung her aside ere leaping forward to engage the Englishman. Harry saw the painted face of the jungle fiend, and an involuntary cry escaped him. "Zarbessa!" he jerked, and with the word he stepped to meet the black and ripped his fist to the bushman's hulking body. His knuckles drove mto the savage's stomach, and the negro fell writhing. His place was taken by another, who ran straight into a terrific punch that hurled him to the ground, but the two were only the foremost of a party that numbered eight or nine, and with ugly shouts the rest of the bushmen closed in. Harry snatched a revolver from his hip-pocket, but ere he could level it his hand was seized and the gun thrust up- ward to the sky. A shot crashed out, but the bullet sped harmlessly enough through the fronds of a palm, and in another moment the weapon had been wrested Irom the young captain's grasp. " RECKLESS LIVING." The lure of gambling bad been his downfall, and almost it lost him the sweetest and most patient of wives. A tale of the verge of the under world, starring Mae Clarke and Ricatdo Cortez. " THE GIRL HABIT." Famous for bis chivalry, a young man finds him- self in difiicuUies with an infuriated gangster. After many adventures be thinks he has reached a refuge in prison, but Starring Charlie Rnggles. Belly Compson and tonraa Wagei in ' Three Who Loved." Don't miss this bumper Christmas number of our companion paper •'SCF5E-EN SaOJE«.XJiiS.' ON SALE WEDNESDAY. PRICE 2d.