Boy's Cinema (1935-39)

22 collecting Ins wits or uttering any sound when Tim stumbled over to him and knelt besido him. At any rate, he made no answer when the youngster anxiously questioned him regarding his injuries, and only stared at the boy dully. A small stream meandered through the defile, and after a moment Tim hurried over to it and filled his helmet with water. Then he returned to the prostrate hunter, who seemed to re- cover to somo extent when a refreshing draught of the cool liquid had passed his lips. "By gad!" Spencer whispered then. "'This is—the first time—I've ever used Dead Man's Pass—and it'll be—the last. I wish I'd believed—the stones I'd heard about it " lie stopped short, for at that moment a sound which was strangely out of keeping with the wilds of Tanganyika became audible to him. It was the sound of an internal combustion engine, and as lie raised himself on one elbow he saw to his amazement that an armoured car was approaching the defile from the south. His fust impulse on perceiving that machine was to make an effort to struggle to his feet, but Tim Tyler had Been the vehicle n» well, and suddenly the boy thrust the hunter down and flattened himself in the scrub alongside him. For he had recognised that armoured car as the "jungle cruiser" which had been designed by his father and which had somehow come into the possession of Spider Webb and his cut- throat gang. "Lie still, Mr. Spencer!" Tim jerked. "Keep under cover! The men in that contraption aren't to bo trusted I" lie went on to tell the hunter what lie knew of those men, and while he was describing their character the jungle cruiser halted at the mouth of the pass. Then out of it stepped Webb. < . i iy Drake and their associates, and a few seconds later the rogues were climbing that track on which Spencer's safari had been assailed. The natives of that safari who had sought cover from the rocks aimed by the gorillas, were still cowering under the projecting bulge in the cliff-lace, whither they had found shelter from tie missiles of their bestial foes. Even though the apes had now vanished f"- ..iii the upper ledge, the blacks shrank from (lie thought, of quilting their haven, and they had not stirred from there v. lien Spider \Vel>l> and hi- pang readied I lie point where the attack had occurred. A voile.'.' from the guns of Webb and I men dispersed the negroes, ho\v- « , and sent tlieiu scurrying along t terrace-like trail. It was a volley a I i! h echoed and re-echoed through II defile, at d, dow o on the bed of the ravine, Tim Tyler looked at Spencer ificantl as he heard it. Neither in nor the hunter could hat was happening up above on thai trail from which the two of them had fallen, but if (hey had been able to command a view of the track they * iU have realised soon enough that Webb and his gang must have witnessed the plight of the Spencer i from afar, and had made for Dead Man's Pass with the sole in- tention of securing any loot on which the) could l&\ hands. And there was loot in plenty fot the The equipment belonging to the safari was alone of considerable .value, and there was a large quantity of jvory tusks ;i. well - tusks accumu- late rl In Spencei and his employees Ali.v 7tti, IMS BOY'S CINEMA during a long sojourn in the northern wilds. Equipment, stores, tusks—all had been abandoned by the bearers who had been so summarily dispersed, and Spider Webb and his minions lost no time in gathering up the spoils. Unlike the safari, the crooks were not molested by the great apes who had lined the upper terrace a short time before. These did not reappear—per- haps keeping out of sight because of the shooting—and it was without incident that Webb and his party at length re- traced their steps along the ledge-like track and descended to the jungle cruiser. Only when the gangsters had regained the mouth of the defile did Tim and Spencer see them again, and something like an oath broke from the hunter's lips when he observed that the ruffians were heavily-laden with his possessions. Then, gritting his teeth, he watched them pile their plunder into the armoured car. In the meanwhile, Tim was wonder- ing whether the crooks were aware that he and Spencei were in the scrub, and intended to deal with them when they had stowed their loot aboard the "cruiser." But he was not destined to learn if that were the case, for all at once a band of horsemen hove into view some distance to the south of the defile, and at sight of them Webb and his ac- complices made haste to scramble into the armoured car. The oncoming horsemen wore the uniforms of the Ivory Patrol. They were the troopers commanded by Sergeant Gates, and with the non-com. at their head they charged towards the jungle cruiser. The ponderous vehicle was soon on the move, however, and at a pace equal to that of a galloping pony it rolled into the defile and clattered past, the patch of scrub in which Tim and Spencer were lying. Shortly afterwards Gates and his detail swept by the covert that Tim and the hunter were sharing. Yet as on a pre- vious occasion their pursuit of the armoured car was in vain, for, although the gorgo seemed to be blocked at its northern end by a precipitous rock-face, there was a narrow "cut" leading off In the left and opening on to an exten- sive valley, and within a few seconds of the jungle cruiser negotiating this gap a shattering explosion brought about a cave-in that effectively stemmed the on- rush of the troopers. It was an explosion caused by the bursting of a grenade hurled from the armoured ear, and the landslide that occurred as a result of it choked the fissure through which the vehicle had rumbled. As for Gates and his men, they were luckily short of the gap when the collapse took place, and. though baffled in their pursuit of the Webb gang, they might well have thanked their stars that they were not lying mangled under hundreds of tons of debris. 'i'li«' trooper- had no choice now but t; tine in their (racks, and it, was as the? were coming back through the defile thai Tim stood up and showed himself, noting as he did so the look of surprise that dawned on the face of Sergeant. Gales when the latter recog- nised him. ''Vou!" the non-com. blurted, on drawing rein beside Ihe patch of scrub. "What the blaze are you doing up in this territory?" Tim answered him quietly, stating thai ,he had set out from Amhesi for I he north liee.iu.--e he believed il was in these regions thai his Father had dis- appeared. Then he went on to describe Every Tuesday all that had happened after he himself had encountered the Spencer safari. "But where did you and your men spring from, anyhow, sergeant?" he asked, when he had finished his story. "We were bivouacked not very far from here," was the reply, "and when wo heard shots a little while back we took horse to find out what the trouble was." Gates now turned his attention on Spencer, and, though he had soon satis Bed himself that the hunter had not been seriously injured, it was obvious to him that ho had suffered a severe shaking. Consequently, ho decided to send him down through the jungle to Ambesi with an escort of two or three troopers, and, on the natives of Spencer's safari reappearing timorously on the track above, the sergeant sum- moned them down into the defile, motioned to a group of saplings that grew near the mouth of the gorge and instructed the blacks to fashion a litter for their master. The saplings served that purpose ad- mirably, the stems being broken or! short at ground-level and lashed to- gether to form a stretcher on which Spencer was laid. Then Gates ad- dressed Tim. "You're going back to Ambesi, too," he announced. The youngster began to protest. "I can't go back, sergeant," he said. "My father's up here somewhere, and I've got to find him. Listen, you may bo able to help me find him, and. it you do, it's more than likely that he'll be in a position to put you on the trail of Spider Webb." "What makes you think so?" Gates queried. "Well, I've already told you that the aimoured car Webb and his gang arc using is the one that belonged to my dad," Tim reminded him. "Yes, you did tell me that," Gates conceded. "But look here, kid, my job up here is to investigate the attack on Jim Conway's safari, and I've an idea that a tribe known as the Bat- wongas may have been responsible for it. They're a bad bunch, who are rumoured to take their orders from a renegade white man, and in dealing with them I'll have plenty on my hands without the added responsibility ol ing that you don't get into any mis- chief. So I'm sending you back to Ambesi, and that's final." Again Tim tried to expostulate, but the sergeant interrupted him. "You heard me, son," he declared, "and it's no use you arguing. This territory up here is no place for a kid like you." Lora Graham's Proposition BORNE on the improvised Stretcher h> the clack boys of his s:fan Spencer was being conveyed along the trail that cleaved the jungle and linked the northern wilds with Ambesi, and behind him rode throe Ivory Patrolmen and Tim. the having been provided with a spare pony that had belonged to Sergeant Gates' detachment. As for Chiles and the rest of his detail. they had returned to the base camp they had established, and more than two hours had elapsed since the party bound for Ambesi had separated from them, During those two hour-, the troopers who were acting as escort to Spencer and his employees had kept a close watch on Tim lesl he should attempt to give them the slip and head north- ward again in spite ol the sergeant's commands. Bui the lad had given every indication ol being resigned to the idea t l going back to Ambesi, and