Not quite so savory as yours, but a reputation. Your friend here will testify that they are very handy with their fists.”
“Nuts!” Red said. “If you have anything to tell us, tell it!”
“In my own good time, my friend,” Ogden said and his cold eyes bored into Bed. “It might relieve your mind to know, Barnes,” he said, turning back to Bill, “that your young friend Sanders is safe. From the report I have he is a better combat pilot than you are. And that report comes from no less a person than Claw Lawson.”
“Claw Lawson!” Bill said. The image of an evil-faced man with a hook for a left hand flashed through his mind. He knew “Claw” Lawson as founder and leader of a nefarious squadron of fliers who would undertake anything criminal if it promised to pay enough money. “What has Claw Lawson to do with Sanders?”
“Claw was out scouting your ships when they got up this way,” Ogden said. “He ran into young Sanders alone over the Gulf and thought he would make' you one less. But Sanders out-fought him and forced him to peel off to get patched up. Sanders started to follow you, but had to turn back. He landed at Flat.”
“Thanks,” Bill said, and he meant it.
“But about your bomber, Barnes,” Ogden said. “You probably know that I was forced to get out of New York a few months ago. The way things turned out I had to stay out. So I had to find a new way to live.
“An item in a New York newspaper caught my eye and attracted my fancy. It told about all the gold that is being moved from the Orient to San Francisco these days. It mentioned that they did not let the authorities in San Francisco know of the day of arrival until a day or two before the ships arrived. It was thought that was because of all the war trouble in the Orient. It suggested an idea to me. It suggested that one of those ships could be robbed at sea, from the air. I used to be something of a flier myself, Barnes.”
He waited a moment, hoping Bill would ask him about his flying. But Bill did not open his lips.
“I got in touch with Claw Lawson and he said he thought it could be done,” Ogden went on. “But if we put men on one of the boats coming from the Orient to subdue the crew, what would we do with the gold after we had it? If we transferred it to a yacht or a tramp we might buy. United States destroyers would catch up to us. I thought about your bomber. I know a great deal about that bomber now, Barnes. I know it will carry nearly six million dollars in gold bullion. That is just about what these shipments come to.
“We figured we could take the gold off the boat from the Orient, load it on your bomber and then load it on a yacht a couple of thousand miles away, where no one would possibly look for us.”
“Why did you want Red Gleason up here?” Bill asked.
“I didn't,” Ogden said. “We tried to think of a way to get you up here with vour bomber. We planted a girl on Miss Reynolds as her secretary. We knew, impersonating Miss Reynolds, she could give you a plausible reason for coming up here with your men and your bomber. But you didn't fall for it. You sent Gleason. So we had to get him so you'd follow to rescue him.
“You see, Barnes, we had figured on your reputation for sticking your nose in other people's business. It worked; you came. There will be a steamer along on the Yokohama-San Francisco lane tomorrow. She is carrying a little under six million in gold. After we figure nearly a million for our expenses, we will have about five million left. That will keep us for a couple of years, and we won't be bothered by having G-men chasing us all over the world.”
“Why won't they chase you?” Red Gleason wanted to know.
“Why?” Ogden laughed. “Because they'll think Barnes and his men committed the little act of piracy. You're known to be up in this section. But no one knows why. After we've loaded the gold aboard a yacht that is waiting a couple of thousand miles from here, your bomber and your men will be brought back near the scene of the holdup, Barnes. Destroyers will find your men adrift in the bomber without supplies, fuel, or radio. The bomber will be identified as the plane that carried' away the gold. And your men will be in it, dead.”
“It won't work,”' Bill said. “What about the gold?”
“There will be a little of it left in the bomber,” Ogden said. “Just enough to make it incriminating. They won't know what happened to the rest of it. They will think your men threw it over-board when they found themselves in danger of sinking. A very neat little scheme, eh? Right from the beginning it has worked like a charm.”
“What about me?” Bill asked. “If they don't find me in the bomber, they'll think I've double-crossed my men and got the gold away in some manner.”
“You?” Ogden said thoughtfully. “Oh, yes. I didn't tell you that you will be found dead in your Silver Lancer. That will puzzle 'em still more, eh, Barnes?”
“Yes,” Bill said, “that ought to drive 'em crazy!”
He reached forward and grabbed at the lapels of Ogden's jacket with his left hand and lifted him until his toes barely touched the ground. As Ogden started to squawk out a name, Bill's right fist caught him full on the mouth. The blow lifted Ogden through the doorway and out on the rocky ground.
Lippy Freeman had a gun in his hand as he came through the door. But he didn't use it. He pointed it at Bill's stomach while curses surged from his lips and he gave Ugly Barillo instructions.
Bill didn't even look toward Ugly as Ugly crashed a leather-covered blackjack on the side of Bill's head. His knees folded and he crumpled in an inert mass. An instant later Red crashed down beside him.
IX—RELEASE
WHEN Bill opened his eyes, the walls of the dark little hut danced back and forth. He fought an almost over- whelming nausea for a few minutes and opened his eyes again. He tried to struggle up from the bunk on which he was lying and found that his wrists and ankles and body were securely tied to it. A vision of Slip Ogden's sneering face floated before him and he cursed aloud.
“Are you all right, 'Bill?” Red's voice said from the darkness across the hut.
“Yeah,” Bill said savagely. “I'm fine! I'd like to——”
“Forget it,” Red said. “We've got to figure a way out of here. You've been out for hours. The BT-4 is riding on the harbor with those six biplanes of Ogden's. I heard her come in. They got her. I'm sorry to have to greet you with that. I found out from the plug-ugly who slapped you on the head that they got her by some ruse without injuring Bev or any of the crew. They dropped 'em off on an uninhabited island between Andreanof and the Island of the Four Mountains until they are ready to go back and turn 'em adrift aboard the bomber.”
“What about Shorty and Sandy?” Bill asked.
“I couldn't find out anything about them,” Red said. “You better take it easy and try to rest. You took an awful clip on the head.”
“I don't know what the hell else I can do!” Bill said. “No one has ever made such a sucker of me before. I've been leading with my head ever since this thing started. I deserve to get it clipped. Are you tied to your bunk?”
“Yes,” Red said. “But I think they'll untie us before they leave.”
“Leave?” Bill said sharply.
“They're getting ready to meet that gold carrier from .the Orient in the morning,” Red said. “They'll pick her up about four hundred miles south of here.”
“A nicely planned job,” Bill said softly. “They have men aboard to seize her and stop her engines when they come in sight. They'll take the gold off, load it aboard the bomber and fly it down near Midway Island to stow it aboard their yacht. The yacht will carry fuel for the bomber. After they've taken off the gold, they'll head for the South Sea Islands and disappear and my bomber and the Lancer will be found on the scene of the crime. Very neat, very neat.”
“We've got to stop 'em somehow, Bill,” Red said.
“Yes, we've got to stop 'em if we don't want to die. But how?”
Throughout the rest of the day they could hear the twin Diesels in the BT-4 being tested and re-tested. They heard the motors in the noses of the little red-and-black fighters roar to life and subside—heard the voices of their pilots as they worked over them.
Long shadows fell across the doorway and then night settled down on the lonely little island before any one came near them. Slip Ogden and Lippy Freeman and Ugly Barillo came back to their prison to gloat.
Freeman and Barillo put trays of food on the floor and unfastened their bonds. Bill's eyes locked with Slip Ogden's for a moment and held. Then he shrugged his shoulders and tried to eat the food before him.
“I thought you were a lot smarter than you are, Barnes,” Ogden said. “Any one of a hundred things might have spoiled my little scheme. But you stuck your head right in the noose and pulled it tight. Without your kind co- operation I might have failed. Now that gold is practically in my pocket. Because of your help I'm not going to pay
