Boy's Cinema (1935-39)

20 not have been necessary, for with the brilliant ray of the torch playing on them the diggers .'.tumbled off along the tunnel piteously, like men temporarily blinded. Dreer followed them, and as he and his subordinates departed, the man with the torch began to descend from the trap-door via a steep ladder which Toni now descried, the girl also observing that the trap-door did not close as it had formerly done, having apparently been wedged open. A second or two later the man with the torch was beside her, and she saw then that he was the individual who had stared in at. her through the window of the hut up above. She saw, too, that he had the appearance of a seafaring man, and that in place of his right hand a villainous-looking iron hook protruded from under his sleeve. Yet his face did not strike her as being nearly so fright- ening as when she had first set eyes on it a few minutes previously, though there was an expression of singular craftiness upon it. "I'm Cap'n Cuttle," he said sharply, on reaching her side. "And you? Who are you, \oung woman?" The girl answered him in tremulous accents. "Toni," she rejoined. "Toni Morrcll." He stared at that, as if the name was familiar to him. Then he bent a penetrating gaze upon her. "Movrell?" he jerked. "Did you say Morrell? By thunder, if ye're lyin* to Die " "I'm not lying to you," Toni pro- tested. "I'm telling you the truth. What does my name mean to you, any- way?" He made no response to that ques- tion, but turned his head in the direc- tion which Dreer and the diggers had taken, as if wishing to satisfy himself that they were out of earshot. Then he leaned towards the girl with a secre- tive air. "Keep quiet an' do as ye're told," he muttered. "Ma\be ye've found a friend. Maybe I'll be that friend, even though it suits me to cruise along o' Carter Collins—an' I might mention that a friend can come in mighty handy for people as find their way to this island uninvited. Now turn around an' walk down that tunnel. (Jo on. turn around an' walk—and keep walkin'." He directed the ray of the torch past her shoulder; and. glancing round, she noticed that another tunnel branched off from the one into which she had fallen. She hesitated to enter it, how- ever, and was looking at it askance when Captain Cuttle repeated his in- structions imperatively—so that, re- solving to put her faith in the hint of friendship that he had given her. she moved towards the other passage and advanced into it as he had commanded. Captain Cuttle watched her until she had disappeared from view. Then he wheeled and climbed nimbly up the steps that led to the hut above, the torch held in his left hand, the iron hook that, served him in place of his missing right hand clawing raspingly on the ladder's rungs. Once in the hut he hastened to the door of the dwelling, and, opening it, he stood on the threshold and listened in an attentive manner, his head cocked on one side. To his cars came the sounds of strife —sounds that issued from among the rocks not far from the hut—sounds that indicated Larry Kent, was still battling with the guards in Carter Collins' pay, Larry, in fact, was fighting like a madman, and, although the two rogues who had pounced on him had been rein- February 25th, 1939. BOY'S CINEMA forced by three other look-outs and by Collins' agent, Grindley, the strength of the opposition only seemed to inspire the young reporter to herculean efforts. Again and again his bunched fists bat- tered home against the villainous faces of his swarming foes. Grindley he laid low with a flashing upper-cut that stretched the fellow senseless. The shore-guards, in their striped jerseys and bell-bottomed slacks, he knocked down in swift succession, as if they had been skittles in a bowling-alley, and notwithstanding that they scram- bled up time after time to renew the combat, he finally broke away from them and sprinted like a hare in the direction he had seen Toni Morrell take earlier on. Running through the rocks as his enemies were mustering for pursuit, he came upon the clearing occupied by the stone hut. where Toni had sought refuge, and as he espied Captain Cuttle stand- ing on the threshold of that hut, he made straight for him, bundled him back into the interior of the. dwelling and stepped in after him. slamming the door behind him as he entered. Recoiling before the newspaper man, Cuttle glowered at him. "Take it easy, young feller," he bit out. "Ye're on dangerous ground." "You're telling me!" Larry retorted fiercely. "Listen, I don't know who you are, but have you seen anything of a girl around here? Come on, answer me—and talk fast!" Captain Cuttle nodded towards the open trap-door. "If you mean the Morrell girl, she went down there," he grunted. Without pausing to launch any fur- ther questions, Larry bounded to the trap-door and started to climb down the ladder that reached to the underground realms below. As he gained the foot of that ladder Cuttle descended the rungs as well, shutting the trap-door ir. the process, and, joining the news- paper man, the skipper shone his torch towards the passage along which Toni had vanished. "Go down there an' keep goin'," he said to Larry. "You'll eventually find the girl ye're lookin' for. She's on her way to a big house that stands a mile east o' the point where ye beached your launch." Larry glanced at the tunnel Captain Cuttle had indicated, then switched his eyes on the old sea-dog again. "Say, who are you, anyway?" he queried. "Captain Cuttle's the name." was the reply. "Cap'n Cuttle, what's been on this island longer than any livin' man, and what has his quarters in a cabin aboard an old frigate that's set high an' dry among the rocks not far from Carter Collins' home. But ye wire askin' after the Morrell girl, an' I've told ye where ye may find her." Larry stared at him in silence for a spell. Then without another word he turned and made his way into the pas- sage Toni had entered some time before, and presently the gloom of that passage swallowed him as it had swallowed the girl. Captain Cuttle remained by the ladder, a thoughtful expression on his face, and a quarter of an hour must have elapsed ere the strange little sea- faring man bestirred himself and shuffled over to a rock ledge on which a graven image in the form of a large frog was standing. With a queer smile playing about his lips the skipper pressed one of the button-like eyes in that graven image, and at. once the mouth of the sculptured frog yawned open, whereupon Cuttle spolte into it. Every Tuesday "Callin' Mr. Collins," he intoned. "Callin' the Shark!" The words were transmitted to the lounge of Carter Collins' sombre resid- ence, and Collins was in that lounge, receiving a report from Grindley, who had joined the owner of Treasure Island only a minute or so previously, and who^e swollen jaw te.-tificd to the pun- ishment he had recently received at the hands of Larry Kent." Cuttle's voice interrupting the story Grindley was retailing Carter Collins turned sharply towards the basinet helmet which adorned the sideboard that stood against one wall of the room, for it was through the visor of the helmet in question that the old sea-dog's call had reached the apartment. "Yes, captain, what is it?" Collins interrogated, bending towards the microphone that was concealed behind the visor. "Your lady visitor is headed your way through the tunnel that leads from the hut near Crossbones Cape," came the response, "an' her gentleman friend is a'-followin' her. That makes two more to divide the treasure with, hey?" A raucous laugh in the skipper's voice succeeded that last comment—a com- ment which the Shark chose to ignore, but. which seemed to irritate Grindley. " Why don't you get rid of that old fool?" the latter snarled. "You ought to have thrown him off the island when you bought it. He gets on my nerves." "If you had as much brains as Cuttle we'd probably have the treasure by now," Collins retorted, at which Grind- ley's upper lip curled derisively. "Brains!" he scoffed. "He's as nutty as a fruit cake." The Shark's eyes narrowed. "You think so? Well, I don't, Grind- ley. But go on with your report." "There's not much more to tell," his henchman growled. "I stowed away in that launch just before Kent alii the Morrell girl hi-jacked it, and I was mixed up in the fight that your guards started when they tried to grab that smart-aleck reporter. Say, how did one of your Mole Men manage to make a break, anyhow?" "Through carelessness on the part of Dreer. Don't worry, Dreer won't be so lax again. I've told him what will happen to him if any of the other diggers stage a getaway. H'm, I'm glad to hear, anyhow, that one of the shots we took at the Mole Man you refer to was effective—and that he died before he could say too much." There was a silence, and then Grindley spoke again. "What do you intend to do about Kent and Toni Morrell?" he asked. "I've found out that Kent is a pal of Thorndyke's, and as for the girl—well, I'm pretty sure Faxton gave her his half of the treasure map." "But she may not have that half of the map on her," the other countered. "Si;e may have memorised it. In any event, I'm going to give her a pretty free hand for the present—and h,r friend Kent, too. We'll see that they don't get off the island, but otherwise we'll treat them well enough for the time being and simply keep watch on them. If the girl thinks she and Kent have nothing to fear, she may get care- less and give us some kind of a lead on that buried hoard of untold wealth I've been trying to find for years." He paused, and a baleful glint showed in his eyes. "Yes, she may get careless." he re- pealed, "and give us some kind of a lead that I can link up with my half of the map. Then with the treasure in mv grasp—well, it will be curtains for her and Kent."