The Story of
THE PHANTOM
THE
SLAVE MARKET OF MUCAR
LEE
FALK
Co-published by Avon Books and King Features Syndicate
AVON
PUBLISHERS OF BARD, CAMELOT, DISCUS, EQUINOX AND FLARE BOOKS
PROLOGUE
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
Over four-hundred years ago, a large British merchantman was attacked by Singg pirates off the remote shores of Bangalla. The captain of the trading vessel was a famous seafarer who, in his youth, had served as cabin boy to Christopher Columbus on his first voyage to discover the New World. With the captain was his son, Kit, a strong young man who idolized his father and hoped to follow him as a seafarer. But the pirate attack was disastrous. In a furious battle, the entire crew of the merchantman was killed and the ship sank in flames. The sole survivor was young Kit who, as he fell off the burning ship, saw his father killed by a pirate. Kit was washed ashore, half-dead. Friendly pygmies found him and nursed him to health.
One day, while walking on Ihe beach, he found a dead pirate, dressed in his lather's clothes. He realized this was the pirate who had killed his father. Grief-stricken, he waited until vultures had stripped the body clean. Then on the skull of his father's murderer, he swore an oath by firelight as the friendly pygmies watched. "I swear to devote my life to the destruction of piracy, greed, cruelty and injustice, and my sons and their sons shall follow me."
This was the Oath of the Skull that Kit and his descendants would live by. In time, the pygmies led him to their home in the Deep Woods in the center of the jungle where he found a large cave with many rocky chambers. The mouth of the cave, a natural formation formed by the water and wind of centuries, was curiously like a skull. This became his home, the Skull Cave. He soon adopted a mask and a strange costume. He found that the mystery and fear this inspired helped him in his endless battle against world-wide piracy. For he, and his sons who followed, became known as the nemesis of pirates everywhere—a mysterious man whose face no one ever saw, whose name no one knew, who worked alone.
As the years passed, he fought injustice wherever he found it. The first Phantom and the sons who followed found their wives in many places. One married a reigning queen, one a princess, one a beautiful red-haired barmaid. But whether queen or commoner, all followed their men back to the Deep Woods, to live the strange but happy life of the wife of the Phantom. And of all the world, only she, wife of the Phantom, and their children could see his face.
Generation after generation was born, grew to manhood, assumed the tasks of the father before him. Each wore the mask and costume. The folk of the jungle and the city and sea began to whisper that there was a man who could not die, a Phantom, a Ghost Who Walks. For they thought the Phantom was always the same man. A boy who saw the Phantom would see him again fifty years after; and he seemed the same. And he would tell his son and his grandson; and the grandson's son and grandson would see the Phantom fifty years after that. And he would seem the same. So the legend grew. The Man Who Cannot Die. The Ghost Who Walks. The Phantom.
The Phantom did not discourage this belief in his immortality. Always working alone against tremendous— sometimes almost impossible—odds, he found that the awe and fear that the legend inspired was a great help in his endless battle against evil. Only his friends, the pygmies, knew the truth. To compensate for their tiny stature, the pygmies mixed deadly poisons for use on the tips of their weapons, in hunting or defending themselves. It was rare that they were forced to defend themselves. Their deadly poisons were known through the jungle, and they and their home, the Deep Woods, were dreaded and avoided. Another reason to stay away from the Deep Woods: it soon became known that this was a home of the Phantom.
Through the ages, the Phantoms created several more homes or hideouts in various parts of the world. Near the Deep Woods was the Isle of Eden, where the Phantom taught all animals to live in peace. In the southwest desert of the New World, the Phantoms created an eyrie on a high sheer mesa that was thought by the Indians to be haunted by evil spirits and became known as "Walker's Table"—for The Ghost Who Walks. In Europe, deep in the crumbling cellars of an ancient, ruined castle, the
Phantom had another hideout from which to strike against evildoers.
Hut the skull cave in the quiet of the Deep Woods remained the true home of the Phantom. Here, in a rocky chamber, he kept his chronicles, the written records of all his adventures. Phantom after Phantom faithfully wrote his experiences in the large folio volumes. Another chamber contained the costumes of all the generations of Phantoms Other chambers contained the vast treasures of the Phantom, acquired over centuries and used only in the endless battle against evil.
Thus twenty generations of Phantoms lived, fought, and died—often violently—-as they followed their oath. Jungle folk, seafolk, and city folk believed him the same man: the Man Who Cannot Die. Only the pygmies knew that a day would always come when their great friend would lie dying. Then, walking alone, a strong young son would carry his father to the burial crypt of his ancestors where all the Phantoms rested. As the pygmies waited outside, the young man would finally emerge from the cave, wearing the mask, the costume and the skull ring of the Phantom; his carefree happy days as the Phantom's son were over. And the pygmies would chant their age-old chant, "The Phantom is dead. Long live the Phantom."
This story of the mysterious slave markets of Mucar is an adventure of the Phantom of our time—the twenty- lirst generation ol his line, lie inherited the traditions and responsibilities created by lour centuries of Phantom ancestors, one of whom created the Jungle Patrol. Thus, today, our Phantom is the mysterious and unknown commander of this elite corps. In the jungle, he is known and loved as The Keeper of the Peace. On his right hand is the skull ring that leaves his mark—the Sign of the Skull— known and feared by evildoers everywhere. On his left hand, closer to the heart, is his "good mark" ring. Once given, the mark grants the lucky bearer protection by the Phantom, and it is equally known and respected. And to good people and criminals alike—in the jungle, on the seven seas, and in the cities of the world—he is the Phantom, the Ghost Who Walks, the Man Who Cannot Die.
Lee Falk
New York 1972
CHAPTER
1
I 111: OLD TRADE LIVES
The shriek of a tropical bird disturbed the heavy silence of the afternoon. Thin shafts of burning sunlight found difficulty in penetrating the steaming recesses of the jungle. A snake slithered across the path and a water-buck, pausing to drink by a muddy stream, lifted its head, startled. For it was not the wind, hot and heavy, blowing olf the furnace of the desert beyond the forest, that disturbed the wild and savage creatures of the jungle, but a man-made intrusion.
The twentieth century had penetrated even to the edge of the desert, bringing with it schools, factories, and other improvements of man. But in the desert itself little had changed in a thousand years and in the jungle beyond life and death went on much as it always had. Though the footsteps of man were not unknown, even here in the jungle, the creatures of the wild had learned to fear man with good reason.
Today the cries of men, the creak of leather and straps, and the occasional agonized groan of a camel, were the causes of the disturbance. The striped skin of a tiger, rippling with muscle, blended with the stippled sunlight filtering through the fronds as the beast jumped down from the bole of a fallen tree. The shuffling footsteps of the camels passed not a dozen yards away, but the great animal had already passed like a shadow into the deeper forest beyond.
There were about thirty camels in the bedraggled procession that passed from the bleak spaces of the desert into the grateful shade of the forest rim. The men riding the camels were mostly Arabs and Berbers from the border tribes. They wore ragged clothing and their turbans were worn askew on their greasy hair, but their knives and other weapons were well cared for and the hard look in their eyes betrayed the fact that they were ready to kill quickly and ruthlessly if there was profit in it for themselves.
At the head of the procession rode an Arab whose soft leather boots, gold rings on his fingers and jeweled kris at his belt proclaimed him to be of superior quality. His piebald pony kept deferentially a few paces or so behind the white horse ridden by his companion, who was evidently in charge of the entire caravan and whose followers treated him with respect. This rider, who gazed so arrogantly forward as he eased himself in the saddle, had a brutal, high-cheekboned face with the skin tanned the color of old leather. His close-cropped blond hair showed gold in the sunlight as he removed his pith helmet momentarily to wipe the sweatband with a red-and-white handkerchief.
A gold tooth glinted in his mouth, re-echoing the pale shade of his hair. He replaced the helmet with a sigh and spurred his horse forward. He wore a sweat-drenched open-neck shirt and brown riding breeches held in with a heavy-buckled black belt that strained against his stomach. His thickset body exuded perspiration at every pore. A Luger in a black holster slapped gently against his thigh as he rode.
"This desert gets hotter with every year that passes," he told his companion in a hoarse, guttural voice. "If ever I give the trade up, heat will be the cause."
The man at his side, who had a narrow face bisected by a black pencil mustache, smiled a lopsided smile. "You say that every trip, sir. That is why the jungle comes as such a refreshing change. Now, to a man of the desert like myself . . ." The thickset man spat heavily over the pommel of his saddle.
"Desert men, Zadok," he said. "Don't talk to me of them. We all know what desert men are like. Cruel, degenerate, and infinitely cunning. As I've cause to know."
He pointed meaningfully to a thin white scar which ran down over one high' cheekbone on the right side of his face.
The man called Zadok flushed beneath his dark skin.
"You must speak as you believe, sir," he said. "But as in all nations there are good and bad. There are desert men and desert men."
The big man granted and spat again.
"Perhaps," he rejoined grimly. "You are of the desert, 12
Zadok Things are different for you. I have yet to find a good one."
He smiled a cruel smile, his fleshy lips drawn back from his strong yellow teeth and passed a hairy forearm across Ins mouth. he glanced ;it his wrist-watch frowningly.
Another three hours," he sighed. "Then we reach Mucar, not ahead of schedule."
He turned  to regard the stumbling line of men that stretched out hundreds of yards in the rear.
"Though God knows what this lot will fetch in the market," he said disgustedly. "Some trips it seems hardly winili the bother. They are a poor lot, Zadok, even for this country."
Zadok reined in his horse a little in order to drop back from his master, and shrugged.
"If you would rest them more, sir," he said, "they would be in better condition. More food and water, perhaps."
The big man in the pith helmet swore. He looked back over his shoulder sardonically.
"You wouldn't last five minutes alone in this trade," he snarled. "Your methods would liquidate any profit in no time. Men have changed. In my day the human frame was built to stand more."
Zadok tell silent as the procession got into its stride again. It was useless to argue with the big one. But Zadok smiled quietly to himself, his head turned aside into his face scarf, as he thought of the excellent profit he made each time they came to Mucar.
Behind the two leaders, forty-five men and five women stumbled and fell, rose and fell again, as they walked behind the camels, grass head-ropes about their necks, their hands bound firmly behind their backs. The old slave caravans, once banned under a wise and liberal government, lived again, and the ancient, forbidden routes were alive once more in the twentieth century. And the ancient city of Mucar, a timeless, forgotten town at the edge of the desert, had the largest and most profitable slave market of them all.
It was dusk when the caravan came to Mucar, the sun throwing long bars across the sand dunes as the camels once again turned into the fringe of the desert, away from the dim, green edge of the jungle seen beyond the horizon of shifting sand. But the air was cooler now and a chill wind blew, whirling minute grains of sand in their faces, so that the slavers and camel drivers pulled their headdresses round their faces.
The shadows of the camels were long, thin silhouettes on the stippled edges of the dunes and the high, lonely cry of a muezzin calling from a tower in the city came to their ears. Even the big man was silent and affected by the weird beauty of the scene until they presently came to the principal gate of the city, which was guarded by sullen, bearded men with ancient Martini-Henry rifles in their dirty hands.
Zadok spurred his horse forward and made themselves known to the guards, who were strangers to him. Mucar was one of the most heavily guarded of the desert cities and its trade was not advertised to the outside world. Had the caravan not been accredited and expected the slavers might have been massacred on the spot or, at best, turned back into the desert again. Even the man with the cropped head looked with respect at the hard-bitten faces of the sentries as the gates were unbolted for them to pass.
He had now donned a large black mask which covered the upper half of his heavily jowled features, and he would keep this on while he was in the public places of the city. He swiftly made for a tavern where he was known and expected, while Zadock whipped the weary band on to the great central markets where the auction would begin at midnight.
The slaver was back well before then, in rare good humor; with him were other slavers from the far parts of the desert, who were his drinking companions. They strode up and down the stalls in the private parts of the market which had been put aside for the slavers' use. Here the wretched human wares which would soon be on view were meagerly fed and rested until they could put on a show of simulated vitality when their turn came to go under the hammer. The big man laughed with satisfaction as the nude forms of five fine-looking Circassian women— the only females in his group—cowered under the buckets of water emptied over them by the grinning Arabs.
He sold one of the girls, a particularly desirable and nubile beauty of eighteen, to a colleague at a good price. He was in high good humor when it was his turn to present his wares soon after 1:00 a.m.
His was the second batch of the night and prices were warming up. He got better-than-average prices for the men and the women sold for sums which even he felt to be satisfactory. This was saying a great deal for a charac- ter compounded of ninety percent greed and ten percent self interest. The big man was humming under his breath us he carried his clinking leather bags from the rostrum to n private stone-walled room at the rear of the market.
Gold was the only currency in use here—gold coins, glittering and jingling through the fingers and on to the cold surface of the stone table lit by the flickering flare of two hurricane lamps. Zadok's eyes gleamed as he watched the master count out the ever-growing piles. The addition was finished at last and the slaver pushed his pith helmet to the buck of his head and filled his whiskey glass. He poured another for Zadok and the two men drank silently.
"To increasing prosperity," he said. He smacked his lips and refilled their glasses. The whiskey was provided by the city of Mucar, so he could afford to be generous.
Zadok stretched himself and arched his thin form languorously on the rough wooden bench opposite his companion. He wondered idly where all the slaves Went once they had cleared the city. Some back to the desert tribes undoubtedly; others to hidden oases or mountain castles where no white man could guess their fate, much less interfere with the age-old trade. By dawn the inhabitants of Mucar would go about their business once again and no one—-especially those in authority—would ever guess that an illegal auction had taken place during the small hours of the night.
The big man yawned and scratched beneath his mask.
"I'm tired," he said. "But I suppose I'd better see Prince Selim before I sleep."
Zadok nodded, getting up from the bench.
"It's been a good night's work, Saldan," he said.
The big man snarled. Purple showed on his cheeks beneath the mask. He stepped forward, the muscles on his forearms quivering. Zadok staggered as Saldan's hand struck. The crack of the blow sounded like a pistol shot in the quietness of the room. Zadok fell against the wall. His face showed an ugly yellow where Saldan's open palm had cut across it. Blood trickled slowly from the corner of his mouth.
"Fool!" the big man hissed, his breath whistling through his mouth. "How many times have I told you never to use my name in public?"
Hatred flickered in Zadok's eyes as he stepped forward.
"I'm sorry," he gasped. "It won't happen again."
"Just see that it doesn't," said the slaver grimly, picking up the loaded bags on the table before him.
Zadok passed his hand across his face; it came away scarlet. He went silently out into the night.
It was almost dawn when Saldan's white horse clattered into the courtyard of a heavily guarded villa in the Old City. The moonlight glinted on swords and pistol barrels as guards came forward to take his horse. They relaxed when they saw who it was and one went running on ahead, opening the great iron-bound doors and bounding up the marble steps. Saldan knew that by the time he had reached the ornate mosaic-floored hall of Prince Selim's residence, his arrival would have already been noted by the ruler of Mucar.
His footsteps echoed hollowly through the corridors as he made his way towards the old man's private apartments. Nubians, heavily armed and with naked scimitars in their hands, stood before the entrance to the women's quarters.
Saldan advanced over a floor of blue-and-gold inlaid tiling of exquisite beauty as a dark-skinned body servant bowed deferentially before him.
"Prince Selim will see you now, sir," he said softly.
"I'll bet he will," Saldan said sardonically to himself as he jingled the money bags contemptuously, elbowing his way past the guard and down the room. It was a strange and exotic chamber, lit by small oil lamps of weird and bizarre shapes, suspended on chains from the slatted ceiling and which cast shimmering bars of light into every corner.
Prince Selim was a man of about seventy who was reputed in Mucar to keep twenty or thirty young wives actively occupied. Saldan himself doubted this, but he knew it pleased the old man to have people think so. He bowed stiffly from the waist and came to a halt about three yards away from the ruler's carved sandalwood throne, waiting until he was bidden to come closer by an imperious gesture from Selim's clawlike hand.
Saldan smiled and took the leather-backed armchair Selim indicated to him. But first he put down the bags on the ornately carved table at his elbow and bent once again over the emaciated fingers the Prince held out to him.
"Some refreshment, my dear sir," said Selim in quavering tones. Saldan sat back in satisfaction as sweet Turkish coffee in small porcelain cups and plates of sweet-cakes with syrup and arid little biscuits were placed between them.
Only when he had eaten did etiquette permit them to 16
talk business. Prince Selim was a striking-looking man, despite his advanced years. He wore a richly embroidered tunic of slashed silk, on the front of which dully gleamed the golden disc of the Order of Allah, which he had instituted only a half-dozen years before. Though he and his son were the only people in the kingdom allowed to wear it, Saldiin admired it a great deal. He could not help wondering how much it would fetch, deadweight in the market every time he visited the Prince.
Jewels blazed from the ornamental turban Selim wore on his, head, in deference to the local people, for he was completely Westernized and paid little more than lip service to local custom. He wore an elaborately chased dagger with a gold hilt in his belt of doeskin and his trim heard was more often to be seen glinting in the sunshine of Deauville or Cannes than in Mucar—at least, when the slave routes were impassable and it was the closed season for the market, which happened briefly twice a year.
Surprisingly well-preserved teeth—they were the Prince's own, Saldan had on good authority—smiled beneath the beard as Prince Selim swallowed the last of the coffee and returned the cup to the chased gold tray. But then an expression of displeasure passed across his features as he glanced across at the big man's mask.
"Must we have this masquerade every time you visit me?" he said wearily.
Saldan frowned. "Yes, your Highness," he said, "until we are alone." Selim shrugged.
"As you will," he said. "Let us be alone now, then. There are others to come after you."
He clapped his hands and his body servants took out the tray and the coffee service, leaving the two men alone in the brilliant flickering of the lamps.
Saldan yawned again as he took off his mask.
"A good night's work, your Highness," he said. "We sold forty slaves at two thousand a head."
Prince Selim frowned in turn. He picked delicately at his teeth with a filigree-work toothpick.
"I think not, Saldan," he said. "My steward tells me it was fifty slaves at three thousand a head!"
Saldan shifted uneasily on his armchair, but he did not seem at all put out. It was the expected thing, after all; a sort of protocol the two men observed whenever they met. Saldan did his best to cheat the Prince—he did cheat him in any event for his prices were never correctly reported to even the Selim's steward—and the old man
always tried to get the better of him. In the end, they were both satisfied.
"As you wish, Your Highness," he said easily. "But I would ask you to be kind enough not to use my real name here. Even the walls have ears."
The Prince smiled a thin smile.
"Your real name is the only weapon I possess. Do not try to cheat me. Then perhaps we shall get on better."
Saldan smiled a thin, insincere smile in his turn. "We are both slavers, after all."
The Prince put a fine lace handkerchief to his nostrils. "I don't like that word either," he said. "It is not seemly that you use my city as an auction block."
Saldan closed his eyes and squinted over his nose at the Prince.
"I don't see you objecting to your half share, your Excellence," he observed.
The Prince smiled again. "Touche. You are so right, my friend. We are merely playing with words. After all, as you intimate, this is a good arrangement."
Saldan counted out the money in silence, then waited until the Prince's steward had checked it and put it in the safe behind the tapestries to the rear of the throne. He rose and put the remainder of the money in a big leather pouch at his waist. He lingered, one hand on the doorknob of the salon.
"After all, if you're dissatisfied, Your Highness, I can always find another place for my auction block."
The Prince was at his side in an instant. Humor shone in his eyes.
"I do not think that will be necessary, my friend," he said. "And neither do you. This is too good an arrangement to consider terminating."
Saldan bowed stiffly.
"As Your Excellency says ..."
He stood aside so that the old man could precede him. Despite his years the Prince had the erect carriage of a man thirty years younger. The two walked out through a side door into a courtyard lit by wall sconces and soothed by the splashing noises of many fountains.
He slipped his arm through the big man's as they walked.
"We all wonder how you obtain your merchandise in such an arid region," he said. "In the mountains and deserts and jungle, it must be difficult."
Saldan disengaged his arm from the other's.
"Thats my business," he said shortly. "You'd better tell your men I'll have another shipment ready for you in a month's time at the dark of the moon."
Saldan paused and looked long into the Prince's eyes, he leaned forward slightly and the Prince recoiled, even his iron will subdued at the purpose in the other's gaze.
"remember, Your Highness," the big man said with great emphasis. "My business is my business. I want no one spying on me when I leave. No one knows who I am and where I go and live. My identity and purpose in life are my business, too."
"Certainly, my friend," said the Prince, glancing round thoughtfully in the early dawn light. "As you say."
lie saluted Saldan in the Arab fashion. The big man bowed over his hand once more and was then gone like a shadow through the archway of the court. A few moments later the clatter of horses' hooves sounded in the outer courtyard. Selim walked to the arch and watched silently as Saldan and Zadok spurred their horses out into the growing dawn.
An old man, a trusted confidant of the Prince, sidled up to his side.
"Who is he, sire?" he whispered. "Where does he go and how does he obtain slaves in such quantity?"
The Prince shrugged. He stood, still as the dawn itself, wilh his cloak wrapped around him to keep off the dew.
"Who knows, Ali," he said. "As long as he brings US gold, who cares?"
CHAPTER
2
JUNGLE PATROL
A scarlet jeep bounced down the jungle trail and skidded dangerously on two wheels. Tim Ricketts, spinning the wheel, desperately hoping to keep the vehicle upright, inwardly winced. Colonel John Weeks, local commander of the Jungle Patrol, tightened his mouth round the stem of his pipe and grinned inwardly. Ricketts was one of his newest officers, but a likable youngster and one ever ready to show off. The coloncl only hoped he wouldn't overdo it.
The jeep shot through the white stone archway of Masara, Jungle Patrol post Number Eight, and skidded to a halt in front of the main building.
Ricketts got out and saluted the colonel. His eyes anxiously searched his superior officer's face.
"Next time try to keep a bigger percentage of the wheels on the ground," Weeks told the youngster gently. He suppressed a grin as he ran up the steps, across the balcony, and into the first-floor suite where he had his office. Big rotary fans in the ceiling redistributed the stale air.
"I'd like a word with you, Tim," he said as the young officer paused on the landing. He ushered him into his office and closed the door. Ricketts sat down nervously opposite the colonel, who slumped at his desk looking in the center drawer for his pipe cleaner. The next three minutes were occupied in ferociously cleaning it out and relighting. When he had tamped the tobacco down to his satisfaction with a square, stubby finger, the colonel gave a sigh of satisfaction and sat back behind the desk. Wreaths of blue, fragrant smoke started fumigating the gnat population.
"It's all right, Tim" he told the somewhat apprehensive figure in front of him. "I'm not dissatisfied with your work. I called you up here for a purpose. I've got a job for you."
he stabbed with his pipe over his shoulder, down at the inner courtyard of the headquarters.
"Tell me what you see down there."
Ricketts crossed to his side and looked downward. He
	saw two tough-looking men, one squat and bald, the other
	dark haired and about fifteen years younger. They sat manacled together on a bench on the bare stone floor. Opposite them, a member of the Jungle Patrol stood guard with a loaded rifle.
Ricketts frowned at the colonel, as though suspecting some double meaning in the question.
"It looks like another pair for Masara Prison, sir," he said. "Did you have some special reason for asking?"
The colonel's eyes flickered. He gave his pipe an impatient tap until it was burning properly again.
He had a strong, square face with a tough, good- natured look about it. A wide mouth seemed full of square teeth re-echoing the theme of his face. His thick blond hair was cut classicly and brilliant green eyes looked keenly at his junior officer. A red silk scarf was tucked casually into the collar of his open Jungle Patrol khaki shirt which bore the pips of his rank on the shoulders. He wore a Browning revolver in a Sam Browne belt at his waist and two frayed medal ribbons showed on his shirt front. Immaculately creased khaki slacks descended to his mirrorlike brown boots, lie stood up abruptly and joined Ricketts at the window.
"I certainly did, Tim," he said. He stood looking silently at the sullen figures of the two men in the yard below them.
"You know Masara Prison?" he continued. Ricketts shook his head.
"I've never been there," he said with a faint grin. "Either professionally or otherwise."
The tall figure of Weeks relaxed.
"You'd remember it if you had," he said. "It's a forbidding place."
He frowned again and made furious sucking noises with his pipe.
"It's supposed to be escape-proof. Come over here."
He led the way across the office to where a large-scale map of Number Eight Patrol's area of authority sprawled in scarlets, blues, and greens across the wall. He stabbed with the stem of his pipe at the intricate mass of lines at the fringe of the map.
"Here's Masara, as you can see. Now here's Masara Prison. Look at the terrain."
Ricketts studied the map intently.
"It seems to be swamp on one side and sea on the other."
"Exactly," Weeks replied crisply. "The two remaining sides are rocky cliffs and one, in fact, is almost impassable without ropes. What's your opinion about that?"
Rickett's eyes gleamed.
"I'd say it was about impregnable, sir," he said.
The colonel nodded. They went back to the window. The older man's jaw tightened as he clenched the stem of the pipe.
"So would most people," he said. "That's why something's badly wrong up there."
He opened a drawer of his desk and took out a folder. "Now look at this."
He thrust a large, glossy photograph into the junior officer's hand. It was a picture of Masara Prison. Grim walls rose frowning to colossal heights. The thick walls and the turreted towers were built in the Moorish style. The place seemed to be bristling with gates and watchtow- ers. Ricketts was puzzled.
"You obviously have a problem, sir, and I take it you're going to get to it," he said dryly.
Weeks permitted himself an open smile.
"Well done, Tim," he said. "You're definitely improving."
He rubbed his hands with satisfaction.
"You see those two down there?"
He indicated the two men on the bench again. "Petty criminals who've been hanging around the waterfront for years. They got into a bar fight last week, smashed up a lot of property. They couldn't pay and they were violent when the Patrol arrested them."
He shrugged.
"So now they're en route to Masara. The judge gave them six months apiece."
He turned back to Ricketts who was still staring downward into the yard with a somewhat baffled expression.
"It may be news to you, Tim, but in addition to all the safeguards you've been studying, Masara has also got armed guards and fierce tracker dogs on constant patrol. Yet, despite this, the place has the worst escape record in the country. The underworld buzz is that the place has
paper walls. Those were the exact words in their somewhat picturesque phraseology."
He turned moodily to his desk and sat down. Ricketts went slowly back and sat opposite. Colonel Weeks riffled about among the dossiers and took out another document.
"Item," he said. "Last month there was a break. The month before the same thing happened, and the month before that."
He turned the sheet impatiently.
"Great!" he said ironically. "Before that we had a two-month lull."
"It all sounds impossible, sir," said Ricketts.
"Precisely," said Weeks. "That's why I want you to go up there. I want you to take charge of the new prisoners and have a talk with the warden. Make it clear to him he's got to tighten his security. The place is becoming a joke."
Ricketts got up and put on his cap. He saluted the colonel with an excited expression on his face.
"Any other special orders, sir?"
Weeks drew fiercely on his pipe, the red glow momentarily making his normally impassive features look quite militant.
"You start first thing in the morning," he said. "I shall want a full report."
He called Ricketts back as the youngster got near the door.
"Something else, Tim. If the warden can't handle it you have my full authority to tell him—direct from me—that I'll take it straight to the governor! And that's a promise."
"Yes, sir!" said Ricketts, conscious that this was his first full-fledged independent assignment.
He clicked his heels and went out rapidly. Colonel Weeks grinned and drew on his pipe. He sighed heavily. He got up again and went over to the window. He was still standing like a statue when one of the native troopers entered.
The truck rumbled up the hill the next afternoon, thick red dust coating its entirety, Ricketts tooling the heavy vehicle over the rutted, poorly kept road. In the rear, the two prisoners for Masara were guarded by men of the Jungle Patrol. Ricketts had taken a short-cut, but he was beginning to regret it. He wondered what Weeks would say if he turned the truck over or wrecked the springs. He saw with relief that they were now turning out of the jungle and onto the paved road that ran across the rocky hillside and curved round to the prison.
Masara was an impressive sight viewed from below, and as it slowly drew closer, Ricketts became more and more incredulous of the prison's recent reputation. It seemed impossible that anyone could escape from the massive fortress, which towered high above them. There were three security checks before the truck ground to a stop in an inner courtyard, locked doors clanging shut behind them. As the two new men were hurried into the office, Ricketts and another junior officer, Sam Coates, went down a corridor to the administration block.
Here they had to fill in a card to see the warden and were eventually led to a tiled corridor bathed in the glare of artificial light. They were shown to a padded bench and left to their own devices. A senior prison officer came back presently with a deprecatory smile.
"I'm sorry for the delay, gentlemen, but the warden's extremely busy today. We won't keep you waiting longer than necessary."
In any event, it was nearly two hours before the inner door finally opened and a tall figure in a peaked cap beckoned to the two Jungle Patrol officers.
"This way, gentlemen. The warden expresses his regrets at the delay."
The two men passed an outer office, where typewriters were pecking busily, and were ushered through an oak door. A gray pile carpet seemed to stretch out for hundreds of feet in front of them. The warden sat behind a massive mahogany desk. There was a magnificent view of the distant desert with its fringe of jungle through the picture windows behind him. The blinds were down, diffusing the glare of the sun.
The warden was a big, hard-looking man with a strong, square face. His blond hair shone in the sunlight as he got up to greet them.
"Do sit down, gentlemen. What can I do for you?" said Warden Saldan.
CHAPTER
3
PAPER WALLS
Ricketts and Coates sank into the two leather chairs indicated by the warden.
The sun made a shimmering halo of Saldan's head as it •truck like a knife through the slats of the blinds. Ricketts looked from the gold plaque on the desk—which said in curlicue script letters: WARDEN KARL SALDAN— back to the hard, creased face of the man behind the desk. He hardly knew how to begin what he expected to be a difficult interview, but the warden solved it for him. He leaned back in his black-leather padded chair and threw out his big hands expansively.
"Always delighted to see the Jungle Patrol. If I can be of help, I will do what I can ..."
Ricketts uncrossed his legs awkwardly and put his khaki-clad body more at ease in the chair. It was obvious that Coates was going to let him to do the talking. The hoarse, guttural voice of the warden disturbed him. He wondered if he had heard it somewhere before. Though the man before him looked benevolent enough in his immaculate gray lightweight suit with a blue bow tie (loating crisply against his shirt-front, the face above the tie was harsh and lined by time and passion. Ricketts thought to himself that it would be no good putting a soft, easygoing man in charge of a prison full of convicts.
Ricketts coughed embarrassedly as the warden asked his question again, looking expectantly from one to the other, as he swiveled his chair.
"It's a question of security, Warden," Ricketts explained. "The authorities are becoming a little disturbed by the number of breakouts from Masara in recent months. Quite frankly, my colonel's more than disturbed by the situation."
Here Ricketts broke off to smile pleasantly at the burly form of the man opposite him. The response was not a good omen for the interview. Saldan continued to stare at the young officer bleakly, twirling a pencil restlessly between his strong, blunt hands, as though his suppressed fury would snap it at any moment.
Ricketts broke off his smile and plunged on.
"You know Colonel Weeks, I expect, Warden. He's a first-class officer, and if he's disturbed you can bet there's something to be disturbed about."
Saldan commanded silence with a wave of his hand.
"Come to the point, Lieutenant," he said softly.
Ricketts felt a little out of his depth, but he plunged on.
"Colonel Weeks has asked me to urge greater security here," he said.
He started back in surprise as Saldan brought his clenched fist down with a tremendous crash upon the desk, sending papers billowing high in the air and causing the inkstand to jump a good two inches off the tooled red- leather surface. The man was in a towering rage. His eyes narrowed to slits and blood suffused his cheeks until he looked almost as dark as a native.
"He's disturbed!" he flared. "Your colonel! Do you know the problems here, young man? Has he any idea what I'm faced with daily, what we're all faced with? We're badly understaffed. We need more guards! Those I have are underpaid. The equipment is a hundred years out of date and the communications are obsolete. Masara may look impregnable, but I can assure you it is a surface mirage only. Tell your colonel that."
He paused, gazing savagely from one officer to the other. Neither of them spoke. He started off again, emphasizing his points with jerking motions of his stubby fingers.
"Can your colonel get me more guards and bigger salaries? This is a problem for the national administration and they have already received my strongest possible protests."
Ricketts managed to break in at this point, interrupting the Warden's excited flow of words.
"But, sir, with these walls and the thickness of the doors, the place ought to be impregnable, even without extra guards. Just how do they escape?"
Saldan's face started to turn purple.
"There's no such thing as an escape-proof prison," he snapped. "How do I know how they escape? If I had the answer to that, I'd make sure it never happened."
I le snorted to himself and looked them over menacingly
again.
ricketts stood up abruptly, Coates at his side. He felt a little more secure of himself as he looked down at the bulky figure of the warden.
"Perhaps, if, as you say, the guards are underpaid, there might be bribery involved. The Jungle Patrol could help in Unit instance. We could put in a few undercover men with instructions to report to you personally and no one else."
This time Warden Saldan seemed about to take off through the ceiling. He jumped excitedly from his chair, his face dark with anger and started pounding on the desk again.
"No!" he barked. "I am in sole charge of this prison! I am the arbiter of what goes on here. I'll run my prison and I promise not to tell Colonel Weeks how to run his ide. This is no business of the Jungle Patrol. Take care of your own work!"
"We're getting nowhere like this, sir," Ricketts interjected. "The idea of our coming here was to be helpful."
Saldan paused as though the idea hadn't occurred to him before. The room was suddenly silent. A wintry smile broke out on his face. The effect was startling.
"Well, well, gentlemen," he said with an attempt at heartiness, "I mustn't let myself get carried away. The problem is a worrisome one, as you've pointed out. But I would like to emphasize that Masara Prison's record is no worse than that of other prisons in the country. There are breakouts from time to time in even the best-conducted penal establishments, as I'm sure you're aware."
"Well, thank you, sir," said Ricketts when the other finished. "I don't think we can carry this any further for the moment. The colonel asked me to tell you that he intended to approach the governor on the matter. You see, sir, it does concern the Patrol indirectly, as we then have to go chasing after these criminals, once they're out of your custody."
Saldan thrust his big hands behind his back and locked one set of stubby fingers through the other. He braced himself as he held his rising temper in check.
"Very well, gentlemen," he said. "Please tell your colonel that I am already in touch with the governor. He is unable to offer any suggestions of value at the moment. What your colonel might be able to achieve in speaking to him is beyond me . . ."
He shrugged. Ricketts put on his pith helmet and
saluted the warden. Coates, who hadn't spoken a word throughout the entire interview, followed suit.
He stepped forward to shake Saldan's hand as the two men prepared to leave.
"You understand, sir, we're merely passing on the message as we were instructed," Coates said placatingly, pausing at the door.
Saldan nodded briefly, shaking hands with Ricketts. He inclined his head toward the pair.
"Message noted," he said curtly. "Good day, gentlemen."
The door closed behind them and they were once more in the outer office, escorted by the senior prison officer.
"We achieved a lot there," said Coates sardonically as the two men got in the truck. The heat struck them like a sword as the heavy vehicle lurched through the prison gateway and back onto the mountain road.
"More to the point," Ricketts said, spinning the wheel to avoid a boulder that had fallen from the hillside. "What do we tell the colonel?"
Coates looked at him quizzically.
"Good question," he said.
Warden Saldan sat in silence for at least ten minutes after his visitors had left. The glare of reflected light from the windows made a bronze mask of his features. Then he made up his mind. He leaned forward and pressed one of the push buttons set in a panel on his desk.
In Number Four Cellblock, three floors below the Warden's office, a bell rang sharply in a glass-fronted cubicle. A squat, bald-headed man in gray convict's clothes looked sullenly across to the cubicle, his heavy hands grasping the bars.
"I thought you said Masara had paper walls!" he said bitterly to his companion, a younger, dark-haired man.
The other grinned, his face twisting sardonically in the cool dimness of the cell.
"Just have patience, Pat," he said. "You'll see."
One of the prison officers appeared at the end of the corridor.
"Zadok!" he shouted. "You're wanted upstairs."
A thin man in a turban, and wearing a ragged shirt and trousers held up by a tattered scarf, shuffled down the corridor. His narrow face smiled ingratiatingly, giving his features a lopsided effect. His pencil mustache twisted as though the guard had given him exciting news.
"No hurry!" he said. "I'm on my way."
"Who the hell's that?" said the bald-headed man incuriously. "They employing local labor in the prison service now? If that's the standard of the guards, it shouldn't be too hard to get out."
A gigantic Nubian, with a polished torso gleaming in the few bars of light which came in through a cell window opposite, laughed hoarsely.
"Zadok's one of the cons," he said. "He's a trustie now. lie's been here so long he's taken out a mortgage on the building."
He tittered at his own joke.
"What's he done?" said the dark-haired man.
"Murder in spades," said the Nubian laconically. "Gun- i mining, slavery, cathouses; you name it, Zadok's had a hand in it. He's been here twenty years. Nobody knows how many more he's got to go."
The bald-headed man whistled, impressed despite himself.
In the corridor above Zadok walked easily, like a free man. He knocked deferentially at the outer office door and was escorted into the warden's office by the senior prison officer. Saldan nodded and the other withdrew, /adok waited until the door had closed behind the officer and then he crossed over and threw the catch. He sat down insolently on the edge of the warden's desk and leaned over and helped himself from Saldan's silver cigarette box. Saldan sat and watched him unwinkingly. He didn't seem to take offense. He merely reached in his pocket, dug around for a gold lighter, and lit the cigarette for the Arab. Zadok sat for a moment or two, idly swinging his leg and feathering blue smoke at the ceiling. It went straight up until the fans caught it and dispersed the pattern into the four corners of the room.
"Well?" he asked, with narrowed eyes. "As the genie said in The Arabian Nights, you have called, master, and I am here."
Saldan sat back with an abrupt movement of his heavy body. The white scar shone dully against the brown of his
face.
"You can save the jokes," he said curtly. "You won't laugh when you hear what I've got to tell you."
He opened a drawer of his desk and reached for a cigar case. When he had cut and trimmed it to his satisfaction, he lit up and puffed with visible pleasure.
"You might go and sit in the chair," he said to his companion. "You're not in the camp now."
Zadok shrugged and lowered his rangy body into the leather armchair recently vacated by Ricketts.
"What's the trouble?" he said.
"Plenty," Saldan answered. "Two officers from the Jungle Patrol were just here. They want to know why there are so many breaks."
The Arab's narrow face wrinkled in fury.
"Are they on to us?" he said. "If I thought that, there'd be a few throats cut ..."
Even Saldan was momentarily alarmed by the savagery on Zadok's face.
"Take it easy," he said. "I don't think that for a moment. The record at Masara isn't exactly calculated to inspire confidence in the authorities."
He remained seated, looking down broodingly at the surface of his desk, as though he could see the answer to his problems written on its placid leather surface. The smoke from his cigar rose to join that from Zadok's cigarette, until it, too, met the agitated air near the ceiling.
"There are a number of ways to look at this," he said. "And the trade is too good to give up."
Zadok glanced at him anxiously.
"Do you think we ought to go through with the break tomorrow?" he asked.
Saldan drummed with his heavy fingers on the desk. He laid his cigar down on the edge of a massive earthenware tray in front of him.
"We must go ahead, Zadok," he said at length. "Everything is arranged, though it may be the last for a while. Circumstances would appear to indicate prudence."
He went over to the window and, narrowing his eyes against the glare, looked across to where the arid waste of the desert began.
"The patrol may try to sneak a stoolie in," he said. "We shall have to watch for that."
Down below in the exercise yard, men were beginning to form up into gray lines and shuffle along the sand; only thin beams of sunlight filtered through, but the coolness was welcome. Here and there, others, tired of walking, rested against the walls or gathered for conversation in aimless groups. There were shouts and bursts of laughter as Zadok reappeared, walking with a swagger among the long lines of shuffling cons.
"Did the warden apologize for keeping you here?" shouted the bald-headed man. Another burst of laughter greeted his sally.
Zadok grinned his lopsided smile.
"He knocked off fifty years for good behavior," he said. "I only got sixty to go."
There was silence instead of the expected laughter at his reply. These hard-bitten men looked at Zadok with approving respect. He saw the expression in their eyes and laughed again. He wandered over to a group which contained the new men. He glanced at them, measuring them carefully in his mind's eye.
He approached the dark-haired, younger man first. He leaned casually against the wall, squinting up at the frowning battlements above them.
"How would you characters like to blow out of here?" lie asked.
The dark man blinked. He grinned.
"Great." he said. "But how? The place is like a fortress. We've only got six months to do, anyway."
Zadok shrugged.
"All right," he said. "I thought I was doing a favor. If you can really afford to spend six months in this stinking hole, it's all right with me."
He made as though to move away but the bald-headed man was in front of him, blocking his path.
"I'm interested, if our friend isn't," he said, with a glance at the dark-haired man.
The other shifted his ground.
"I didn't mean I wasn't interested," he said. "But look at Masara. The sea on one side, swamps and dogs on the other, and rocky cliffs on the remaining two flanks. It's impossible."
He flung up his arms in exasperation.
The bald man looked suspicious for a moment.
"Yes," he said. "What are we gonna do, swim across the ocean? And if you've got so long to do here, why don't you blow, too."
Zadok smiled one of his lopsided smiles.
"All in good time, my friend," he said, laying his hand on the bald-headed man's arm. "I come and go as I please. Are you interested? That's all I want to know."
The bald-headed man glanced at his friend and nodded.
"We're interested," he said briefly.
"That's fine," said Zadok. "Then we make a deal. I've got a friend with a boat. I'll explain the rest when we get back to the cell."
Ten minutes later, their break over, the prisoners marched back inside again to allow another group of men to occupy the exercise yard. The two new arrivals were in a large cell in Number Four Cellblock, which had bunks for ten men. One of those men was Zadok. After supper that evening, Zadok drew the two men aside. The others lay on their bunks and looked on incuriously. The bald-headed man, Pat, seemed uneasy.
"What about these guys?" he said. "If it's all so easy, why aren't they outside as well?"
Zadok looked at him, his eyes smouldering.
"First, you've got to be asked," he said. "Second, it's no good going out unless you've got an escape organization waiting for you. And you don't get that without me. Third, there is a payment. Either in money or in kind."
"We're flat broke!" said the dark-haired man, alarm showing in his eyes.
Zadok smiled.
"You've got muscle and talent we can use," he said. "Don't worry. We won't ask you to pay in money!"
The dark man drew back. He grinned.
"That's all right, then," he said.
He bent down as Zadok motioned them to a corner in the back of the cell. To their amazement, Zadok scratched with his fingernails in the darkest corner. Presently, a seemingly solid block of stone slid back out of the wall.
"We go out here," he said. "But not tonight. A friend of mine once told me about this passage."
The two new prisoners exchanged triumphant glances.
"I told you this place had paper walls!" the dark-haired man exclaimed.
In the warden's ollice, Saldan stood looking at the dying sun staining the rim of the desert with bands of blood-red and gold.
The senior prison officer, a hard-faced individual with a square jaw, stood at his elbow.
Saldan was the first to break the silence, clearing his throat ponderously.
"Tomorrow at this time they'll be out," the officer said.
"The last for some while, Larsen, unfortunately."
Larsen smiled sardonically.
He went over to join the warden at the window.
The two men stood watching the daylight die over the desert.
Larsen smiled again.
"More merchandise for Mucar," he said. The two men, silent and both engrossed in their own thoughts, watched the last of the light disappear across the rim of sand.

CHAPTER
4
ENTER THE PHANTOM
Colonel Weeks's normally impassive face had a fiery flush on it. He sat back in his armchair at Jungle Patrol Headquarters and stared stillly at Ricketts and Coates as they stood before him.
"What do you mean, nothing?" he said angrily. He felt in the drawer for his pipe and scrabbled about for the metal scraper. His eyes regarded the two men steadily.
"I'm waiting. The warden can't have just said nothing. What did he tell you about the escapes? And his ideas for preventing future breaks?"
"He just talked a lot of hot air," said Ricketts. He felt aggrieved at the colonel's attitude as he stepped forward to explain in greater detail.
"He didn't want any interference. He just kept repeating that his prison was understaffed, the men underpaid, and the security system obsolete."
"He said his prison record was no worse than others," Coates broke in, glad to take the heat off his brother officer.
Weeks put the pipe in his mouth so violently that he almost speared his throat. He bit on it so savagely that the two men in front of him thought that the stem would snap between his strong yellow teeth. Weeks took the pipe from out of his mouth as though it were choking him. He glared at it and put it down on the desk. Then he got up and started walking about the office, deliberately keeping his temper under control.
"Did he explain why—of all the dozens who've escaped from Masara in the past few months—not one has ever been seen again?"
Ricketts shook his head.
"He didn't go into any detail, sir," he said. "My impression was that he felt the criticism to be unanswerable and was trying to cover up by ranting."
Weeks smiled suddenly and stopped his pacing about, lie came to a halt in front of Ricketts and Coates.
"And I'm not helping by ranting in my turn," he said gently. "Point taken, gentlemen. Please sit down."
The two junior officers drew up their chairs as Weeks went back behind his desk. He picked up his pipe again, scraped the bowl, and busied himself in stuffing it with tobacco from an oilskin pouch. The fan cast fretted shadows across his face as it went tirelessly round on the ceiling. When he had lit up and the pipe was drawing to his satisfaction, he seemed relaxed.
"Well, now, Tim," he said, glancing across the desk. "Where were we?"
"We were commenting on Warden Saldan's inefficient prison as I recollect," said Ricketts. "The problem is, where do we go from here? I'm afraid Joe and I didn't make much of an impression on the warden. He's a hard character."
Weeks's eyes flashed as he took the pipe out of his mouth. He discharged a noxious mouthful of blue fumes at a squadron of insects which hovered between floor and ceiling.
"Exactly," he said. "Which makes the record of his establishment entirely incomprehensible to me."
He sat smoking silently for a few minutes more, his eyes searching the young officers' faces. Eventually, he made up his mind.
"Well, from what you say we won't get much help from the governor either. There's only one thing for it. Masara Prison is outside the Patrol's jurisdiction. I must go direct to the commander of the entire Patrol. Dismissed!"
The two young men jumped to their feet, put on their helmets, saluted, and went out.
In the corridor, they paused.
Coates looked puzzled. He turned to his companion.
"What did the colonel mean by "The Commander of the Patrol'?" he said. "I thought he was the commanding officer."
"So he is," Ricketts explained. "But we also have a supreme, overall Commander of the Patrol."
He smiled at the other's expression.
"You're new here, Joe; you'll get used to the setup eventually. No one knows the identity of the commander. And no one asks."
Back in the office, Weeks sat moodily smoking his pipe. Presently, he got up and went into a small inner office where he kept radio equipment and top-secret papers. He paused before a strong, steel wall-safe. He sat down at a Morse key and tapped energetically for several minutes. There was no reply. He sighed and got up again.
He left his office with a scribbled message on a sheet of notepaper. A sentry saluted as he went up the central staircase. On the flat roof the night breeze was welcome; it was even cooler in the great concrete shelter on the roof. The soft cooing of pigeons came from the cages within. Weeks tripped a light switch and stood blinking in the sudden glare. The soft murmur of the birds seemed to soothe his earlier anger.
"The pigeons are for emergency use only," he said to himself quietly. "Well, this is an emergency use."
He selected the small plastic container with its clip and inserted the message. He screwed on the top and walked past the racks of cages, looking for a particular bird. He stopped by a cage near the end, aware of the beady stare of the pigeon inside. He scratched the back of the bird's head. It arched its back and started shuffling along the cage. It looked like an old-l'ashioned vaudeville comedian playing for a laugh and Weeks couldn't repress a smile.
"Hullo, Samantha," he said absently. "I've got a little job for you."
He reached inside and cupped the bird in his hand. He attached the plastic cylinder to its leg with the clip and took it outside. It cooed contentedly as he held it in both hands and gently stroked it. It exploded upward with a sudden beating of wings as he hurled it into the air. It soared into the evening sky, circled the roof three times, and was then a faint speck against the last of the sunset. Weeks stood, staring after it until there was nothing else to see, before making his way heavily downstairs to his long-delayed dinner.
It was before dawn in the Bangalla jungle. The Deep Woods were asleep. Hardly a palm frond stirred. The forest would be silent until the faint, dawn wind shivered the grass blades and sent ripples across the pool. The tiger had ceased its nocturnal hunting and had returned to its hidden lair to sleep out the heat of the day while the kakar and the langur and all the more timid beasts of the forest briefly slept, conscious that the perils of the night were over.
The hush was broken by the solitary cry of a bird and the cry was taken up by another and then another. Faint shapes flew against the dying starlight; wings flapped uneasily, beaks gaped open. It was time to eat. Down by the pool, ripples indicated where big fish lay. The first pallid finger of daylight crept across the water, and slowly
grew.
The red fiery disc of the sun appeared above the rim of the sea; light spread rapidly across the sky. The blackness of the impenetrable jungle grew less dense and changed to the pale green that would never grow any lighter, no matter how long the day.
With the light came the heat; mist started rising from the ground. Soon quivering heat would change the atmosphere, even in the deepest woods; farther out, toward the sea and the desert, the trees were less impenetrable and briEiant shafts of sunlight stippled the leaves, turning them to liquid fire. Animal noises joined those of the birds. The jungle was coming to life.
A faint speck appeared in the western sky, grew larger. The beat of wings sounded; a tiger looked up curiously, while pausing to drink at a forest pool. On the pigeon flew, farther and farther into the Deep Woods, where only the stoutest-hearted ever ventured. Soon Samantha was flying over the territory of the dreaded Bandar, the pygmy tribe whose noxious poisons and lethal blowpipes were among the most feared aspects of the jungle. Samantha was on the way to the unknown Commander of the Jungle Patrol.
The pigeon was soon circling above a place where outcrops of rock thrust up out of the green of the jungle. Here there was a sheltered glade, one end of which led to sweeping uplands and then to a sandy valley blocked with tall cliffs. The pigeon settled on a branch and looked about. Opposite was a towering rock face and from it stared the delineation of a massive skull, created by the natural formation of the tumbled stone.
Two caves in the crumbling cliff above formed eye- sockets; below, a fall of rock in some earlier time had left a ruined gash which looked uncannily like the remains of the nose; the entrance below, black within, slashed with bars of sunlight without, made an enormous, open mouth.
The pigeon took off again with a flutter of wings, its flight describing a curving arc against the golden light of the cliffs. Samantha flew beneath the cave entrance and over fine white sand into the dim interior.
A few seconds later, it had traversed the length of the natural rock tunnel into an enclosed area where light from burning torches showed the way. At the end of the tunnel was a massive circular cave which was ablaze with light. Modern radio equipment, looking incongruous against the rough stone walls, was in this cave.
The pigeon had obviously been here many times before, for it never hesitated, but flew straight to a nest of metal homing boxes, which were lined with straw. Metal troughs set along the front of the cages contained seed and trays of water. The pigeon cooed contentedly as it thrust its beak forward to drink the cold, clear water.
The beating of its wings had aroused the attention of a massive figure who sat brooding like the spirit of Skull Cave on a huge, thronelike carved chair at one side of this strange apartment. He was an extraordinary sight. His powerful form was well over six feet in height when he was standing erect. The face was craggy, broad, and good-looking. Strong, square white teeth flashed as he smiled on noticing Samantha's arrival. His eyes were covered with a small black mask, and his massive torso with a close-fitting jerkin of some thin material under which his pectoral muscles stood out sharply.
Whenever he moved, the iron-hard muscles of his upper arms rippled under the light-colored material. The jerkin was in one piece and rose to a close-fitting hood fitting tightly to his head so that it was impossible to see the color of his hair.
His legs and thighs were encased in similar material and his feet in thick black riding boots. Two revolvers in black-leather holsters dangled at his hips. Around his middle, he wore close-fitting shorts of a thick striped cloth and over that a massive black leather belt. On the front of this was a triangular motif which bore a tiny skull symbol in the center. The effect should have been bizarre and sinister, but it wasn't.
This was the Phantom, the man superstition whispered could never die, of whom a thousand legends were circulated over as many miles of jungle. He was the very spirit of these Deep Woods of the Bengalla jungle, a man of tradition, whose life was dedicated to overthrowing evil. Men said he had lived for hundreds of years; that he could never be killed, and the sight of him in this strange place would have convinced any watcher that the legends were true, so durable and eternal did he look, sitting at ease on the lofty throne, as though carved of bronze.
But there was no one to see other than the pigeon and the equally striking figure at the Phantom's elbow. This was Devil, the mountain wolf, the Phantom's constant companion in the Deep Woods and one of his most loyal friends. Devil's yellow eyes blinked sleepily beneath the lights of the cave and his red tongue lolled over his white, razor-sharp teeth as his master's hand scratched roughly but affectionately in the fur behind his ears.
"We have a visitor, Devil," said the Phantom, getting to his feet. His voice was deep, resonant, and commanding and it seemed to stir the echoes beneath the high, domed roof of the cave.
"It would appear that the Jungle Patrol has an emergency for our attention."
Electric energy seemed to emanate from his tremendous form as he crossed the cave to where the row of boxes Ntood. Devil sat licking his fur for a moment longer and (hen strolled languidly over to the Phantom's side to see what the fuss was about. The Phantom gently lifted Sa- mantha from the perch and deftly undid the clip from the pigeon's leg with his strong, capable fingers.
"It's the first message from them in a long while," he said.
He smiled again, holding the small plastic container in his hand. His eyes glowed beneath the mask as though he could already see the message contents.
"This looks as though it might mean action, Devil!"
The big wolf, almost like an Alsatian dog, held its head on one side as though it could understand the conversation. Devil's attitude seemed to imply that he, too, would wclcome an adventure. The Phantom was already unfolding Weeks's slip of paper. It was brief and to the point. Above his signature was the message: NEED YOUR ADVICE ON MASARA PRISON BREAKS. DETAILS IN VAULT.
The Phantom went over to the bench and put the message in his files. His actions were rapid and precise. He checked the ammunition on his belt, and then put food and equipment for a short journey into a saddle pack. Then he went down the sandy corridor of Skull Cave, snuffing out the lights as he went.
The great white stallion stirred in his stall as the Phantom approached the corral outside the cave. His wide nostrils sniffed the air appreciatively and he whinnied with delight as his master ran his hands along his silken flanks.
"We've work to do, Hero," the Phantom said softly. "We'll just saddle you up and be off."
Five minutes later the Phantom, mounted on Hero's 39
back, rode through the soft sand, Devil loping excitedly at the horse's heels. Hero snorted as the Phantom urged him forward. As often as they had used the secret entrance to the Deep Woods, the great stallion always had a brief moment of uncertainty at this point. His master could not say that he entirely blamed him.
Rounding a sudden curve, they faced a white wall of water with the brilliant sunshine reflecting back from the cliff face through the curtain of falling jets. The shock of the descending water drowned everything as the group went on and then Hero was splashing hock-deep through a reed-fringed pool, Devil bounding behind, impatiently shaking the moisture from his eyes. Behind them there was nothing visible but the waterfall descending against dark rocks.
No one but the Phantom and the pygmy Bandar tribe knew the secret entrance. It had saved his life on innumerable occasions. Steam was rising from the horse's flanks and from the Phantom's clothing as they came out of the waterfall through the shallow, reedy fringes and onto dry ground. Monkeys chanted defiantly from the treetops at their audacity.
The Phanton reined the white stallion in as a little brown form darted out of the bushes before him. Small brown eyes from an even darker face regarded him anxiously.
"I must leave the jungle now, Guran," the Phantom told the pygmy chief. "I will return soon."
The tiny man, dressed only in a dark loin cloth and with bangles on his wrists, saluted gravely with his spear. He darted back into the green curtain of foliage.
Dust rose from the jungle trail as the Phantom urged Hero on. The great white horse flexed his limbs and galloped swiftly through the forest as Devil loped alongside. Soon they had settled down to a mile-consuming pace.
The shadows lengthened on the ground and threw the stenciled pattern of bars against the bleak stone walls. Zadok sat in a corner of the cell, his head on his hands and pretended to sleep. Night seemed to take longer in coming, no doubt because of the tension engendered by the visit of the Jungle Patrol. Far away, a flat, sour- sounding bugle seemed like a requiem for Masara Prison. As dusk fell, Zadok got up. He put his finger to his lips as he looked at the two new inmates.
"Time soon," he whispered. He went over to the rear wall of the big cell and tentatively tried the loose stone block. He wanted to ease it out an inch or two to make the job less difficult after dark. He was still thus engaged when the tramp of feet sounded in the corridor. Zadok was flat on his bunk when shadows stirred beyond the end of the corridor. Half-a-dozen guards appeared and went down the cells, unlocking them. Two remained outside, their automatic rifles at the ready.
Larsen, the senior prison officer, waved jovially as he strode into Zadok's cell.
"Line up, gentlemen," he called sarcastically. "We've got some little trinkets for you."
The ten men in the cell climbed down from their bunks, grumbling in low undertones. Zadok strode to the front, confronting Larsen.
"What's the trouble?" he asked the big officer. Larsen raked him with his eyes.
"No trouble, sonny," he said easily. "We've been getting high-level complaints about the number of breaks in here. From now on, we're handcuffing you all for the night."
There was a chorus of protests from the prisoners as the guards came forward; chains clinked and the light shone on the metal cuffs as each man stepped forward, his wrists thrust out for the cold kiss of the metal.
"This is illegal," Zadok protested, as the cuffs locked round his wrists.
"Write the United Nations," said Larsen with a grin, standing by to supervise the operation.
There was laughter as the guards went off. The cell door clanged dully behind them. The night was alive with the noises of the guards' feet tramping the corridors; the metallic scream of hinges as doors were opened and closed; the whole prison re-echoed with sound and movement. Zadok went back to his bunk and lay down, staring without emotion at his handcuffs. His face was expressionless.
"What a break!" said a tough-looking giant with a shaven head.
"How do we get out of here tonight, now?" said the dark-haired man, looking across at Zadok The bars made a zebra pattern on his face.
Zadok laughed quietly in the gloom of his corner of the cell. He chinked the handcuff chain derisively.
"This won't make any difference," he said contemptuously.
There was a chorus of cries from his companions, silenced only when Zadok jumped up from the bunk.
"Quiet, you fools!" he hissed, his teeth drawn back in the lopsided grin the two newcomers were getting to know so well.
"Why don't you just go to the guards and tell them we're breaking out?"
When the muttering had died away and the last of the guards' feet had died away along the corridor, Zadok went back to sit on his bunk.
He tapped his forehead.
"You've got to have it up here for this caper," he said significantly. "You obviously haven't get it. That's what makes leaders and followers."
"Never mind the self-testimonials, Zadok," said the bald-headed man bitterly. "You haven't explained these cuffs away yet. Neither will your Arab tricks spirit them off."
There was a soft snigger in the cell and Zadok felt a sudden gust of anger.
But there was patience in his voice as he answered.
"We can still make it," he said. "We've only got to slide the slab out as we arranged. We can replace it from the other side without anybody knowing. The cuffs don't stop us walking, do they? Once we're on the boat we can get them filed off. Simple."
He lay back on the bunk, contempt creeping into his voice as he finished speaking.
There was an approving murmur among his cellmates.
"We've only got to relax until midnight," said Zadok. "Then we break out. Every last one of us!"
The bald-headed man looked at his dark-haired colleague approvingly.
"This is more like it," he said.
The other spat.
"Paper walls!" he said laconically.
The cell settled down for the night. Apart from the supper break with its welcome march to and from the dining halls, the time passed with aching slowness. Even Zadok, normally steel-nerved was unable to relax. Saldan's words about the Jungle Patrol kept coming back to his mind. The big clock in the turret over the main block of Masara Prison had tolled a quarter to twelve before he started his move. The guards had made their midnight round early that night. They were not due to pass by the cell again until 1:00 a.m. at the earliest. Sometimes, in the small hours, they skipped the rounds and it might even be two o'clock before they again passed the cell. By which time the ten men would be at sea. Zadok's eyes gleamed at the prospect.
This was the first time he had made a break personally for some while. He came back into the prison the same way. The guards worked with Saldan, of course, and his own name was never listed as among those missing. He stretched himself and got up from his bunk. The lights had gone off as usual at ten and only dim blue night lights burned in the corridor outside the cells. It did not penetrate to the back wall of their own cell so they could not be observed, even if anyone did come along.
None of the men was asleep, of course, and they crowded round Zadok while he carefully eased the stone out from the wall. One man hung back, sitting on his bunk. He was a young, weak-faced character with sandy hair. Zadok went over to him.
"Come on," he said impatiently, "we're taking off."
The other swallowed and shook his head.
"I'm not coming!" he said.
"What do you mean, you're not coming?" flared Zadok, momentarily forgetting his caution. He saw the pale ovals of his companions' faces turning toward them. He forced himself to be calm.
"You're making the break with us," he hissed.
The young man shook his head.
"I've only got two more weeks to go," he said. "Why should I take a chance?"
A knife blade glittered dully in the dimness of the cell. The convict recoiled in terror as Zadok held the broad- bladed knife against his throat.
"You'll only have two minutes to go if you don't come with us now," he promised grimly.
"No one stays behind to give away the secret of our escape route."
He put the point of the blade against the man's throat.
The young convict's face turned ashen-white. He drew back from the menace of Zadok's knife.
"All right!" he gasped. "I'm coming."
"You bet you are," said Zadok, pushing him toward the dark, square hole which now gaped in the back wall of the cell. He fingered his knife meaningfully as the man wriggled through.
He went over to the bars and peered out, He came back, sheathing his knife
"Get moving," he hissed. "There'll never be a better time. The guard in the next block is fast asleep."
The convicts slipped silently through the opening in the wall like so many ghosts. In less than a minute the cell was empty. A hand came through the tunnel and grasped the block. It was slowly inched back into position. Ten minutes later the wall was restored to its former state. Silence reigned unbroken over Masara Prison.
CHAPTER
5
DOOMED CARGO
It had long been dark and the moon was riding high, silvering the palm fronds and the boles of trees, when the Phantom astride Hero galloped out of the forest and came at last to an old ruined building set far from human habitation on the outskirts of Mawitaan. Devil wagged his tail furiously, his tongue lolling out of his mouth, as he looked inquiringly at his master. The Phantom tethered the horse in the shadow of the trees.
"Wait, boy," he told the wolf in a whisper. Devil went to sit near Hero, his head down on his forepaws, squinting at the Phantom with his glowing yellow eyes.
"I won't be long," said his master reassuringly. Hero tossed his head disdainfully as the Phantom strode away across the rocky ground. In the rear of the building, which looked like a deserted mining headquarters, there was a tumble-down roof, sagging on heavy oaken pillars. The roof was the canopy of an old well. The moonlight glinted on the rusted ironwork at the well-head and on the handle of the winding gear. A big board, faded with time and weather, had written on it in black lettering: WELL CONDEMNED. EXTREME DANGER. NO TRESPASSING.
Underneath was the name of Colonel Weeks of the Jungle Patrol. The Phantom, glancing keenly about him in the moonlight, chuckled at the notice, and not for the first time. The well-head was hardly inviting at the best of times, even without the notice.
When he was satisfied that there was no one near, the big man vaulted nimbly onto the coping of the well. There was a huge iron bucket suspended about two feet below the parapet. It rocked slightly with the Phantom's weight as he got in. The winding gear was a dummy mechanism and the Phantom disengaged it swiftly with a ratchet.
Thick steel cables passed oil either side of the iron bucket. They were heavily greased and performed the same function as those in a lift shaft. The Phantom donned a pair of heavy gloves, also taken from his pack, and started pulling on the cables. The bucket and the Phantom began to sink noiselessly into the depths of the well shaft.
The Phantom had a pencil flashlight with him and every now and then he stopped the bucket to shine the torch on the sides of the well. There were metal figures screwed to the brickwork every ten feet. When he had reached forty feet, he ceased pulling; the bucket gently swayed as it dipped another two or three feet and then stopped on' the top of a heavy iron grille. Warm, dry air blew upward in the darkness. Farther down, still water gleamed in the light of the Phantom's flashlight. The well was very old and very deep.
He got out of the bucket, his boots echoing dully on the grillwork beneath him. Facing him was a massive brick archway. The Phantom walked straight down the corridor in front of him.
Presently he located a light switch at the side of the tunnel. He flipped it over and the dim luminosity of a fluorescent tube trembled into life in the ceiling above him. He walked on a few more yards, his footsteps echoing eerily under the brick arch. At the end of the tunnel was a metal door. It was locked and the Phantom opened it by inserting a special magnetic key in the electronically controlled lock.
Inside, he tripped another switch and found himself in a circular metal chamber. Air filtering through grilles in the ceiling kept the air at an even temperature, neither too hot nor too cold. An envelope addressed to the Commander of the Patrol was lying on the floor.
In front of him was a metal staircase ending in another metal door. This led up to Jungle Patrol Headquarters forty feet above him; here, in this secret chamber below the ground, Colonel Weeks contacted his unknown commander.
The Phantom read Weeks's note, which said:
MASARA PRISON BREAKS REMAIN A MYSTERY—SUPPOSEDLY ESCAPE-PROOF—YET, IN THE LAST SIX MONTHS, FOUR BREAKS TOTALING 48 ESCAPEES, NONE OF WHOM HAVE BEEN RECAPTURED, ARE EVER SEEN
AGAIN—WARDEN SALDAN CLAIMS METHOD
OF ALL BREAKS STILL UNKNOWN. HE IS HOSTILE TO JUNGLE PATROL AND REFUSES
OUR COOPERATION—AWAIT YOUR ORDERS.
Colonel Weeks signed his name after the message.
The Phantom reread it thoughtfully. This was a problem which promised to exercise his talents to the full. He nodded with satisfaction.
"Interesting," he told the unyielding metal walls around him.
At about the same time as the Phantom sat deep in his underground chamber, Chief Officer Larsen hurried up the metal staircases of Masara Prison with a strange expression on his face. He tapped softly at the door of Warden Saldan's inner office. The warden's heavy face expressed satisfaction, as his eyes searched Larsen's face for confirmation of his thoughts.
"All gone, sir," said Larsen. He could not resist smacking his lips. After all, his cut of tonight's shipment would not be negligible. And, unlike Saldan and Zadok, he ran no personal risks.
Saldan's blond hair shone beneath the lamps and his scar seemed more vivid than ever as he rose from his desk.
"Excellent, Larsen," he said. "We'll wait an hour and then sound the alarm."
He permitted himself a rare smirk at this point.
"Though what the hell good that will do, I don't know. You'd better turn in now. But don't undress as you'll be out again within the hour."
He went to stare out into the darkness of the night.
Two miles away, on the other side of the prison, a file of men stumbled down toward the beach. There was a heavy fog tonight and Zadok and his companions could see nothing but swirling whiteness in front of them as they moved down a steep pathway between rocks. Only the faint, faraway pounding of the surf proclaimed that they were going in the right direction.
"This is no joke," the bald-headed man swore as he stumbled and almost fell headlong. He stretched out his manacled hands to absorb the shock as he came up against a huge boulder.
"Well soon be there," Zadok assured him. "I know this path as well as I know the cell back there."
The dark-haired convict was in front of Zadok. He in turn was keeping an eye on the youth who'd wanted to stay behind.
"How about these handcuffs," the dark-haired con complained to the Arab. "We won't get far with them on."
"Have patience, my friend," Zadok assured him. "All will be taken care of. They'll be off before tonight is over."
He held up his hands and appealed for quiet. Over the noise of surf, which had been growing steadily louder, came a muffled thumping noise.
"Oars!" said the bald-headed man. His uneven voice betrayed his excitement.
"Exactly, gentlemen!" said Zadok quietly. "Oars in rowlocks. We shall be aboard the vessel and on our way to safety within the hour."
The convicts almost ran down the last hundred yards to the beach. As the wind blowing off the sea cleared the mist away briefly, they saw they were in a dark, sandy cove. Keels grated on the sand in front of them and dim figures leapt ashore. Turbaned oarsmen waved at Zadok as they came closer.
"Into the boats, quickly!" hissed Zadok imperatively. "This is the time of greatest danger. They could well have discovered our absence by now."
The convicts scrambled over the gunwales of the two whalers which stood by in the shallow surf.
Zadok made sure he was with the bald-headed man and his companion. The young man who had wanted to stay was also in this boat. Zadok didn't want him jumping ashore and making his way back through the tunnel into the cell again. Zadok fingered his knife and kept a sharp eye on his boatload. The other Arabs in the whaler alongside them, which was now pushing out from shore, would do the same.
"Where are we going?" asked the bald-headed man suddenly.
"To freedom, stupid!" Zadok replied crisply. "Or would you rather stay here and chance the swamps? Not to mention the dogs and guns?"
He gazed around him grimly, but there was no reply. The muffled oars dipped into the water and the two boats started gliding out into the mist. They had gone about a half mile from the shore when a distant siren sounded through the fog.
"They've found we've escaped!" said the dark-haired man, gripping Zadok by the shoulder in agitation. The Arab pushed him away with a snarl. "So what, you fool!" he replied. "They can't get us now. We'll be booming out of this bay within a few minutes."
The convicts exchanged glances, their faces indistinct in the mist, despair alternating with hope in their eyes.
"You've trusted me this far," said Zadok simply. "We'll be safe soon."
He turned to look back in the direction of the shore, but all had long been blotted out by a curtain of pallid whiteness. The cons wondered how the steersman knew where they were going. A moment or two later there was a hail from the blanket of darkness ahead of them and the whaler had scraped alongside a large vessel.
On the cliffs far away, the Phantom had reined in Hero as the siren split the night; he could see dowri toward the squat mass of the prison, high on its point overlooking the sea. The ocean itself was invisible beneath the pale canopy of fog, but the frowning walls of Masara stood out clearly from the whiteness beyond.
"Another break!" said the Phantom grimly. "I'd better get over there and sample their efficiency at firsthand."
Zadok turned toward the shore again as the prison siren died in the night. They were nearly all aboard the big Arab dhow now and there came the slatting of ropes and the creak of cordage through pulley-blocks as the five-man crew set sail. The last of the convicts was hauled over the side by the seat of his trousers. The whalers were being hauled aboard as the anchor came up with a rattle, and the bowsprit was already beginning to lean into the slight swell. Zadok had to admit they had an efficient organisation. These crewmen in particular were expertly trained.
He could picture the pandemonium in Masara Prison; the aimless running about, the guards dashing up and down the stairs. He smiled to himself as he imagined Saldan's reactions. Zadok rocked with inner laughter as he visualized the warden's pompous outrage at the flagrancy of the latest break—all designed to impress the civil authorities and those guards not in on the secret, of course.
He walked over to the rail and watched the crew hauling on the ropes. All the sails were set now and the big dhow was moving down the bay, white foam hissing from her bow. The last strands of mist were being dispersed by the sea breeze and the moonlight was gilding the wavelets with a soft glow.
He was aware with renewed annoyance that the convicts were milling about amidships. He wished they would keep quiet or go below. He found the bald man at his elbow again.
"They'll never get us now," he said exultantly. "Well, Zadok, you kept your bargain. How about these handcuffs?"
He held out his manacled wrists to the Arab imploringly as he spoke.
Down on the shore, guards with dogs wandered in the swirling whiteness, whistles splitting the silence as they signaled to one another. Now and again the noise of a rifle shot boomed and echoed among the mournful trees. The dogs yelped, eager to be olT their leashes, but there was no sign of the fugitives. Hoarse cries sounded from crag to crag on the other two sides of the prison. Lanterns and torches bobbed in the gloom.
Down in the dismal swamps, guards in thigh-length boots splashed about despondently in the slime-encrusted pools, wary of alligators, while the dogs whimpered to themselves, as though in fear.
"They always choose a vile night like this for a break," one guard complained to another. "And it's always cold water."
"I'll arrange the next one on a sunny afternoon when you can get some sea-bathing in at the same time," said his companion sardonically.
Beyond the dhow the last of the mist had cleared and she was now running out to sea, all sails set and the canvas straining in the rising breeze.
The convicts stood or sat about the deck, still dazed at the sudden turn of events.
"How about these handcuffs, Zadok?" said one for the third time in half an hour.
"We've got no keys," said Zadok amiably.
"As soon as we reach a blacksmith on shore, they'll be off."
He went and stood by the rail, the wind cool on his face, now oblivious of the beauty of the night.
"They have good blacksmiths in the slave market of Mucar for these poor fools!" he told the unfeeling sea.
CHAPTER
6
WITHOUT TRACE
The clanging of footsteps on metal stairs, the excited shouts of guards, and the shrilling of whistles re-echoed throughout Masara Prison. It was 3:00 a.m. and the strain of the night was beginning to show on Warden Saldan's face.
Larsen came up to him as he negotiated one of the main corridors.
"No sign of a breakl" he said in a good simulation of surprise.
"How did they escape, Warden?"
"How in blazes do I know?" said Saldan, his face dark with anger. "This demands a full investigation."
He turned as the clatter of footsteps sounded behind him. It was a new guard, Slingsby, who had only been with them a month or two.
"Any news from the search parties?" the Warden demanded curtly.
Slingsby looked tired and there was dried mud on his boots. He shook his head, thrusting his flashlight back into his belt, as he spoke.
"Not yet, sir," he replied.
He went off back down the corridor as the warden and Larsen turned away. Something prompted Saldan to linger as they reached the bend in the passage. Looking back, he and Larsen saw that Slingsby had stopped by the cell which had recently contained Zadok and his companions. He was gripping the bars and peering through into the back of the cell.
Saldan drew Larsen round the corner, where they couldn't be seen or heard.
"Keep an eye on that new boy," he growled. "He's too nosy."
Larsen's tough face broke into a grim smile. He touched the peak of his cap briefly with his forefingers.
"Leave him to me, Warden," he said eagerly. "I'll see he doesn't give us any trouble."
He tapped his belt significantly, before hurrying away. A few minutes later, Larsen sauntered back in the direction of the cell. He found the door open. Inching forward until he could see inside, he saw Slingsby down on his hands and knees at the rear of the chamber, examining the stones in the wall with a flashlight.
Back at Jungle Patrol Headquarters, Colonel Weeks was up in pajamas and at his desk. A rumpled Ricketts burst in after the curt response to his hurried knock.
"There's been another break at Masara," he told the young officer.
"Only one day after we warned the warden about tighter security precautions," said Ricketts.
He dropped into the chair indicated by his superior officer. Unlike Weeks, he had been on all-night duty and was fully dressed. To his surprise, Weeks did not appear at all angered at the news of the break. He was relieved as he felt he could not face the colonel's cold anger at this time in the morning. He realized the news was not a reprimand to him, but at the same time he felt in a way that his mission to Masara had been a failure.
He learned the reason for the colonel's apparent indifference a moment later. The colonel leaned back in his big chair and tamped his pipe with a fresh supply of tobacco. Then he lit up with great satisfaction, sending his spent match spinning expertly into the big earthenware tray on his desk.
"I'll tell you something you don't know, Tim," he said quietly. "Six weeks ago, I sent Patrolman Slingsby to Masara Prison to get a guard job."
He waited until the pipe was drawing properly before he continued.
"He's up there, now—undercover, of course. I should hear from him any minute. Let's hope he has something to report."
A few minutes later the phone rang. The colonel picked it up with a quiet smile of triumph.
It was the main switchboard operator of H.Q.
"There's a message coming over the shortwave, sir," he said. "I'll switch it straight through to you. Urgent and confidential."
"Right!" the colonel said. His face had come alive and he breathed deeply. He had all the instincts of the hunter,
Ricketts thought, as the colonel opened the cupboard at the front of the desk and took out the special shortwave radio phone.
"Weeks speaking," he said crisply. "You didn't waste much time, evidently."
Ricketts could clearly hear Slingsby's voice, coming over the miles of space which separated them.
"Ten men, sir. From a common cell. All of them disappeared without a trace."
Weeks swore.
"I thought you would have some good news," he said.
"Sorry, sir," Slingsby said. "I'm doing my best."
"Never mind," Weeks said in a more placatory tone. "I'm never at my best at three in the morning."
"None of the men have been recaptured, sir," Slingsby said. "It must have been an inside job."
"Right," said Weeks. "Do what you can. And keep in touch."
He put the phone back in the cradle inside the cupboard and relocked the door. He leaned back in his chair again. Then he stood up abruptly.
"I'm going to change, Tim," he said. "Ring for my car. You and I are going to Masara Prison. Let's see how the warden explains this!"
Warden Saldan was in his private bedroom in the administration block at Masara when the doorbell rang. Throwing on his dressing gown, he hurried to open the door. It was Larsen.
"It's worse than we thought, sir," he said without ceremony.
"What do you mean?" said Saldan harshly.
He sat down on the edge of his bed and motioned to the chief officer to sit in an easy chair opposite him.
"You know you asked me to keep an eye on Slingsby?" the latter went on.
"I ought to, seeing that our conversation was less than an hour ago," Saldan said tartly. "Spit it out."
"You won't like it," Larsen said, acid creeping into his voice in return. "I went back to the cell after your warning. The door was open."
The warden was about to put his pajama-clad legs up into the bed, but he dropped them back on the floor with a thump at his colleague's remark.
"Go on," he said quietly.
"I crept up until I could see Slingsby," Larsen went on. "He was examining Zadok's cell inch by inch. I watched him for a while. Then he seemed to make up his mind about something. He got out a miniature radio-telephone outfit. I heard him speak to Colonel Weeks at Jungle Patrol Headquarters. He told him about the break and he said it must have been an inside job!"
Larsen expected the big man on the bed opposite him to go through the ceiling, but he was surprised at his reaction. His only sign of emotion was to put the knuckles of his big hands together and knead them as though he had an enemy's throat between them. His knuckles showed white with the strain.
"An undercover man," he said softly. "Just what we supposed might happen."
He relaxed and, to the astonishment of Larsen, a smile started spreading across his face. Even his white scar didn't look as sinister as usual.
"They outsmarted themselves, Larsen," he said. "This is just what we needed to get the Jungle Patrol off our backs. For good!"
The Phantom was sitting at the top of the cliffs near the prison. It was an hour before dawn. He rested on a small ledge, with Devil at his side. The wolf was silent, gazing downward at his master's shoulder, occasionally turning to give a somewhat puzzled look at the big man, but making no sound. He was too well trained for that. The Phantom's vantage point was a good one. The thin screen of bushes and long grass concealed him from below and he could not be seen from above because of the overhang in the cliff face. But he could see down on to the beach, particularly where the waves met the shore. That was where things were happening at the moment.
Guards were still trudging aimlessly up and down the shore. Now and again, one of the big dogs would give a whimpering cry and try to strain away from its handler into the surf.
A guard came running up and met two more almost below the Phantom. He could hear every word in the quiet night.
"No sign of those guys in the swamp," the solitary guard said. The taller of the other two grunted.
"The dog must have picked up the scent of a crab," he said. "Not the prisoners. Anyway, handcuffed men couldn't swim out into that. Let's go."
The trio turned away along the beach as faint streaks tinted the eastern sky. The Phantom's strong, calm face was alive with his thoughts. He stroked his chin, and glanced at D;vil.
"They could swim out, if a boat was waiting for them, old boy," he told the wolf, giving it an affectionate scratch behind the ear. Devil yawned and looked up at his master as though he agreed.
A moment later the Phantom flattened himself to the ground. He had heard the faint whine of a jeep coming up the cliff-top road above. Then he moved fast, Devil at his heels. Presently he came out on top of an S-shaped bend, overlooking the road about a hundred feet below. All the guards had gone now. He waited three minutes and then the jeep rocketed out of the first bend below. The Phantom had the tiny but powerful pair of night glasses at his eyes, focusing the eyepieces. He only had a few seconds, just enough to make out the white letters JUNGLE PATROL stenciled on the side of the jeep. He grinned.
"That got Weeks out of bed," he told himself.
He worked his way down to the base of the cliff. All was silent now except for the faint splash of the surf on the sand. The light was slowly strengthening, but the mist had gone. Devil followed on behind, cautiously sniffing the air. The Phantom would rely on him to give early warning of any impending danger.
Disentangling the guards' footprints from the mass of marks made by men and dogs in the soft sand, the Phantom worked his way patiently round the bay.
Presently, he passed another headland, a place where apparently the guards hadn't been. The tide sucked sullenly round slime-encrusted rocks. It was an evil place and the phantom had to wade waist-deep in the water, while Devil swam behind him. After a few minutes of this, the Phantom found himself in a tiny cove, almost entirely shut off from the sky by dark, menacing rocks. The sand looked almost black here in the dim light, but the big man could see a muddled trail made by men's boots coming down from a thin rift in the cliff face. They led to the water's edge and were then erased by the swirl of the incoming tide.
"A gang of men, Devil," the Phantom told the wolf. "Question is, how did they break out and get here?"
He looked out to where a faint, thin mist lingered to seaward. The slap of the sea on this hostile shore sounded cold and lonely.
"Handcuffed men couldn't swim in that sea," said the 55
Phantom to the dim shoreline. "A boat was waiting to take them away. But where?"
He retraced his steps up the draw toward the crack in the cliff face.
"If we can't find where they've gone, let's find out where they came from," he told Devil. The big wolf's yellow eye's flashed in the gloom as he followed the Phantom up the trail. A few moments more and they had arrived at a barrier of tall grasses growing out of the base of the cliff. Parting the fronds and branches, the Phantom found the entrance of a deep cave.
They went on in. It was only about four feet high so the Phantom let Devil walk a yard in front, while he followed behind on hands and knees.
"Not a natural tunnel, but man-made," he mused. "This may be it."
They went on for several hundred yards; it was inky black, but occasionally the Phantom's pencil flashlight illuminated the way ahead. The tunnel seemed to stretch on forever. Presently, as its direction curved a little to the right, the big man sensed that it was taking them under the prison walls. A few minutes later, the flash showed him that the place was a cul-de-sac. The tunnel ended in a solid wall of masonry—but it was masonry with a difference. On the bottom center slab was a large metal handle let into the surface of the stone.
"Well, Devil," the Phantom said. "This looks like it. Let's push and see what happens."
He seized the handle in both powerful hands and eased the great slab forward; when it had gone a foot or so a sliver of light came through. The Phantom enlarged the space by cautious maneuvering until he could see in. When he was satisfied that there was no-one about he crawled through.
"The common cell!" he told Devil. "This is how they did it!"
The big wolf licked his jaws with a pink tongue. His white teeth showed in the gloom of the tunnel.
"You'd better stay there, Devil," the Phantom said. "I shan't need you just yet."
He slid the masonry back in Devil's disappointed face and made sure the stone made a perfect joint with its fellows. Faint noises came down the prison corridor but no one was in sight at all. The Phantom stood in deep thought beside the wall. There were faint scratches on the floor where the stone must have been levered to and fro

many times over the years. It did not seem possible that the authorities could have overlooked such an obvious escape route, unless they were incredibly slack. That was a remote possibility, but there was more likely some other sinister reason behind it, the big man felt. He obviously should tell the warden of his discovery at once.
The Phantom spun round as a rough voice sounded through the gallery.
"Hey, you!"
CHAPTER
7
COLONEL WEEKS IS BAFFLED
The Phantom hurled himself beneath the cover of a bunk and crouched down, wondering where the shout had come from. He could have sworn he hadn't been seen. There came the sound of footsteps hurrying along outside the bars.
"The warden wants you, Slingsby!" said Larsen's voice. "And don't be long about it. He doesn't like to be kept waiting!"
The Phantom recognized the young Jungle Patrol man as he went hurrying by the cell. He relaxed then and got in closer to (he wall. He put the pistol back into the holster in his belt.
Colonel Weeks's face was set like a rock as he strode into Saldan's office. The warden was dressed by now and sat blandly behind his desk, a red bow tie crouching like a butterfly beneath his thick jowl.
"Yesterday, I sent men over to suggest tighter security," the colonel said, when perfunctory introductions had been effected. "Now, yet another jailbreak!"
Saldan's eyes looked unflinchingly at the colonel, but his tone was mild as he replied.
"We regret it as much as you do, Colonel."
"Regrets aren't enough," snapped Weeks. "Before I go to the governor, any ideas about this break, Warden?"
Saldan smiled a curious smile. "Maybe," he said, his fingers touching a buzzer on his desk.
The door opened to disclose in the opening a big guard named Mattock and another, younger man whom Weeks and Ricketts recognized at once as Slingsby.
"You sent for us, Warden," said Mattock. He had insincere, piggy eyes which blinked above his Che Guevara mustache.
"Yes!" snapped Saldan. "Jungle Patrol's interested in our break. Where were you guards at the time?"
He spread out his hand in introduction.
"This is Colonel Weeks. Or perhaps you've met?"
He glanced ironically at the Jungle Patrol chief as he spoke, but the colonel's face was impassive.
"No, sir," said Slingsby, facing toward Saldan. "I was in the cellblock."
"That's a lie!" snapped Mattock unexpectedly. "Sir, I saw him hanging around the common cell just before the break."
"You're quite wrong," Slingsby protested, turning toward the big guard. "I was in my room at the time of the break."
"Alone in your room, eh," said Saldan, his face flushing with rage. "Search him!"
"For what?" protested Slingsby, as Mattock grasped him by the shoulder. He dared not look at Colonel Weeks, who remained silent at his own side of the room.
"Maybe this!" said Mattock grimly. "Looks like our pass key!" His hand had come out of Slingsby's uniform pocket with the thick metal key.
"I never saw that in my life!" protested Slingsby, shooting a glance at the colonel for the first time.
Colonel Weeks thought things had gone far enough.
"Now just a minute," he told Warden Saldan. "This guard happens to be Jungle Patrolman Slingsby, so he can't be responsible for your jailbreak!"
Saldan's eyes looked icily at the colonel as he got to his feet. "What is a Jungle Patrolman doing in my prison?"
"I sent him on a mission," said the colonel.
Saldan was pounding on his desk at this point. Veins stood out angrily on his neck.
"To spy on us, you mean! He did more than that! Slingsby took bribes from prisoners—and let them out!"
Taken off guard, Colonel Weeks was nevertheless sufficiently the master of himself not to lose his head. His tones were cool and measured as he retorted, "That's ridiculous, Warden."
"Is it?" Saldan replied heavily. "This key was found in his pocket by one of my senior guards before your very eyes."
He strode to the door and threw it open.
"Let's see if it fits. Come this way, Colonel!"
The Phantom was on his knees, prying the block in the cell wall open again when he heard loud voices raised in anger and the beat of booted feet in the corridor outside.
He had just time to replace the stone and roll under the canvas lower bunk in the opposite wall, before a key rattled in the steel lock of the cell door.
"Yes, it opens the cell!" said Saldan's exultant voice. From under the edge of the canvas cot, the Phantom could just see the warden's legs and several others in military uniforms behind him.
"This is where the prisoners who escaped were," Saldan went on. He waved the key exultantly. "This key also unlocks the outer door and others that lead to the outside of the prison."
He looked round him grimly in the quiet dimness of the cell.
"The key was stolen from my desk, by your patrolman spy!"
"Nonsense!" Colonel Weeks snapped. "What possible reason could he have?"
"It seems Jungle Patrol men lake bribes like any other crooks!" said Saldan, malice lapping the edges of his voice.
"This is a frameup," said Slingsby.
Saldan turned back to the colonel. "Can you prove it?"
He led the way out of the cell and closed the door behind him.
"I run this jail, not the Jungle Patrol, Colonel. Now what were you going to tell the governor about Masara Prison?"
Guards swarmed round the group as Mattock blew a whistle. The huge form of Larsen elbowed his way through.
"Lock this man up!" snapped Saldan.
He turned back to the enraged Colonel Weeks.
"I caught your man Slingsby with this pass key in his pocket," he told the Jungle Patrol chief. "Now maybe the Jungle Patrol will keep its nose out of my jail!"
His teeth set and his jaw straining over the stem of his pipe, Colonel Weeks strode stiffly away.
"Don't worry, Slingsby," he called over his shoulder. "I'll be back!"
Behind him the door of the common cell clanged shut on Slingsby. As soon as the men's footsteps died away along the corridor, Slingsby sank on to a bunk and put his head in his hands. He felt exhausted and bewildered by the events of the past half hour.
I messed up everything, he thought. How could I have let them plant that key on me? What now?
Slingsby was suddenly astonished to feel his ankle gripped by an iron hand. He almost fell off the bunk with sudden shock. He was nearly as startled a second later when he saw the Phantom's strong face, framed by the hood, staring at him from underneath the bunk.
"Don't make a sound," the Phantom said. "We've got to get you clear."
The Phantom got up, his form towering over Slingsby who was himself about six feet.
"Look outside and make sure no one's around," he said. He went rapidly to the back of the cell and pried the block out from the wall.
Slingsby was back at his side. "All clear," he said. His eyes widened as he saw the tunnel gaping before him.
"Who are you?" he whispered.
"All in good time," the Phantom chuckled. He had seen the young man start back as Devil was framed in the opening.
"Don't worry," he said. "You won't come to any harm. He knows you're with me."
Devil eased forward between the young Jungle Patrolman's legs and nuzzled the Phantom's hand affectionately. The Phantom was already on his knees, drawing the stone block into place after them.
"This is slightly extralegal," he said, crouching behind Slingsby.
Devil had gone ahead again.
"But it's sometimes necessary to take this sort of action when dealing with crooks in power," the Phantom concluded.
Slingsby's eyes were popping in his head as he saw the tunnel stretching out before them in the light of the Phantom's pencil flashlight.
"But how on earth .. ." he began.
"Save your breath," the Phantom told him. "Explanations later. Just start crawling."
Slingsby sighed and followed on behind Devil. The two men started off down the tunnel.
Up in the office, Warden Saldan and Chief Officer Larsen were roaring with laughter. A bottle of champagne was open on the warden's desk and Larsen was in the act of handing his chief a cut of prime salt-beef.
"Great, sir," he chuckled. "It was fantastic how we got out of that."
Larsen's cigar smoke rose up straight into the air and he eased himself forward to accept another glass of champagne from the proffered bottle.
"It certainly shut up that uppity colonel," Saldan said. "Remind Mattock to ask me for a bonus. His sleight of hand was masterful."
He sipped at the champagne with enjoyment and closed his eyes to inhale the flavor.
"I don't think well be hearing much from the Jungle Patrol after this," he said. "It must be unique, a patrolman being framed in front of his boss!"
Saldan's eyes narrowed and he modified his mirth.
"All the same, we must be careful," he said. "I leave for Mucar's slave market soon."
"How long will you hold Slingsby, Warden?" Larsen asked.
"Forever if necessary," the warden said. "While he's here, the Patrol's helpless."
Outside the prison, well on their way back to Masara, Weeks's jeep bucked along the dusty roads. Ricketts was driving and Weeks's face was grim as he sucked an empty pipe.
"They must have found out Slingsby was in the Jungle Patrol and framed him," said Ricketts, breaking silence for the first time on the journey.
The colonel nodded, his blond hair glinting in the dawn.
"What do you think, sir?" said Ricketts, spinning the wheel deftly to avoid a big rut.
"Is it the warden or the guard?"
"It must be the guard," said Weeks, his eyes looking worried. "Problem is, what do we do now? The commander doesn't like bungled work."
The dawn light was strengthening on the hilltops, but it was still dark around the prison and along the shoreline as Saldan and Larsen quickened their pace toward the common cell. They let themselves through from section to section. The guards appeared to be exhausted from their night-long exertions.
"We'll just see how Slingsby's doing and then we'll make plans," said Saldan, arriving at the cell door before the other.
A moment later, a shout escaped his lips.
"He's gone!"
The warden's surprise was so complete he had forgotten the need for caution. Larsen went back down the block to reassure the guards while Saldan opened the door with suddenly trembling fingers. When Larsen rejoined him, the warden was master of himself again.
"The block was loose!" Saldan hissed to the big chief guard. "Slingsby found the escape tunnel."
Larsen turned toward the cell door.
"I'll ring the escape alarm!"
"No, you fool!"
Larsen recoiled before the other's blazing eyes.
"Use your head, man," said Saldan. "We're the only ones who know about this tunnel, apart from a handful of picked men. We'll go to the kennels. We've got about half an hour of this dawn light left before full day. We may just catch him. Bring two rifles and ammo."
The two men hurried off toward the prison kennels where Saldan picked the two fiercest dogs in the prison pack. They were enormous mastiffs, highly trained and noted for their savagery. The guard in charge of the kennels was in the warden's pay, so he merely handed the leashes to Saldan without question. The two men and dogs set off on the track of the missing guard.
In the dawn's strengthening light, the Phantom and Slingsby had gained the cave entrance with Devil. They had remained there for some while, debating their position, waiting for full daylight. But it was still dark within the ring of somber crags which surrounded them.
"You think this is the way all the prisoners escaped?" Slingsby asked.
The Phantom nodded an affirmative.
"I've got to get to Patrol HQ and report this," said Slingsby, starting up.
The Phantom pulled him down again. Slingsby marveled at the tremendous strength of the man. He felt that the Phantom could have plucked Ms arm off like a straw if he'd so desired.
"Why do you think I'm waiting here like this until daylight?" the Phantom asked calmly. "We'll see who comes to search for you here. And then we shall know who's behind the breaks."
Slingsby's eyes widened.
"Sorry," he said. "You ought to be in the Jungle Patrol with your brains and initiative!"
The Phantom chuckled and took the youngster's proffered hand.
"Well, I might just apply for membership one of these days if a vacancy turns up," he said.
He smiled again and turned to look back toward the tunnel entrance. A faint scratching was beginning to make itself audible above the dull pounding of the surf.
The Phantom and Slingsby ducked down behind the bushes as two dark shapes became slowly visible against the darker mass of the foliage leading to the secret cave. The Phantom and Slingsby went farther back into a belt of trees and waited. It was darker in here and they would be able to see any attackers coming in against the light.
"Time to release the dogs," Saldan grunted to Larsen. The big man hesitated. "These dogs are trained to kill without mercy, Warden," he protested. "I didn't figure it would come to this."
"You should have figured earlier," said Saldan, rage flaring up in him again. "You never had any scruples when it came to accepting money from the Mucar expeditions. Do you suppose slaves didn't die en route or at the hands of their new masters?"
Larsen licked his lips.
"This is different, Warden," he said. "This is just plain murder."
"So was the other," said Saldan. "Except that you weren't there to see it."
He put his hand significantly on his revolver holster.
"Release the dogs," he said.
Larsen hesitated a second longer, looking down to where the warden was calmly unbuckling the holster flap.
"All right, sir," he said. He bent down and released the two snarling beasts who went bounding toward the Phantom and Slingsby's place of concealment.
CHAPTER
8
WOLF VERSUS DOGS
Slingsby staggered back as the menacing forms of the two savage dogs hurtled through the bushes. His face was white and his eyes wide as he turned to the Phantom. To his astonishment, his gigantic companion had a faint smile on his face. He stood with his powerful legs braced, one hand on his revolver holster and sized up the situation as the two huge dogs covered the ground between them. Devil stood immobile at his heels. His yellow, unwinking eyes were fixed upon the hounds and a deep snarl sounded far back in his throat.
The noise sounded so menacing that Slingsby momentarily felt a stab of fear. He instinctively moved a pace or two as the two dogs prepared to jump. They were no more than fifteen feet away now.
"Stay where you are if you value your life!" the Phantom snapped.
"Use the gun," said Slingsby, his nerve cracking.
The Phantom took no notice. He put his right hand down from his revolver belt on to the huge wolfs head.
"All right, Devil," he said. "Attack!"
The big wolf made a blurred streak in the half light of the dawn as he launched himself full-stretch at his enemies, his howling a horrifying sound. The three animals met in an indescribable melee of barking, growling, scratching, and whining and the bushes billowed and shuddered.
"These dogs are trained to kill!" said Slingsby in a wavery voice. He plucked at the Phantom's elbow.
"Quiet. Stop chattering," the Phantom ordered him.
High, thin screams now began to mingle with the snarling and the scuffling of heavy bodies; noises that started to raise the hair on Slingsby's head. He leaned back against the bole of a tree, all the strength momentarily drained from his body. The Phantom kept his gaze beneath the mask trained fixedly ahead, watching Devil's actions in the center of the swirling dust cloud that surrounded the group of madly contorted animals.
Saldan and Larsen had halted farther back. Larsen's face was white. The warden held an automatic rifle in his stubby hands and there was a light of satisfaction in his eye.
"Listen, Larsen!" he said. He dropped the muzzle of his gun toward the ground.
"That's how they sound when they're attacking!"
He put down the rifle against the trunk of a tree. Larsen felt weak at the knees as he listened to the sickening sounds going on beyond the thick screen of foliage in front of them.
"Jungle Patrolman Slingsby caught by the dogs while attempting to escape," Saldan mused. "Well, well."
He smiled suddenly. 11 was an unlovely sight in the dawn light.
"Too bad."
He paused again as the noises redoubled in volume and vigor. There was pain and distress in the screaming cries now and the mingled tones of despair.
"Listen to that," said Saldan exultantly. "The dogs must be tearing him apart!"
Larsen turned aside, sick to his stomach; be was unable to look at the warden's face. The noises slowly died to a feeble whimpering as the dawn light grew.
Over at the far side of the glade, Slingsby was reluctant to move forward as the Phantom started walking over toward the thick screen of bushes. It wasn't until the big man had turned and faced him calmly that the young officer was suddenly shamed; he pulled himself together. When he joined the Phantom he saw an astonishing sight. In an area of about ten square yards in front of them, the undergrowth and grass had been completely flattened, mute witness of the titanic struggle which had taken place there. Small saplings had been cut completely in half by snapping jaws, grass torn out by the roots. Dark blood stained the fronds for yards around.
Lying in the middle of this chaos were the bedraggled remains of what had been two fierce guard dogs. They lay on their sides, cut and bruised, completely exhausted and whimpering for mercy. Over them the superb figure of Devil stood poised. The great beast, his yellow eyes glowing in triumph, licked his teeth and shot a glance at the Phantom as though for his approval. Then his eyes went back to his two beaten enemies and never left them.
"Well done, Devil!" said the Phantom softly.
Slingsby was staggered.
"Those two man-killers on their sides begging for mercy, sir!" he said. "It's incredible. What kind of a dog is
this?"
The Phantom smiled a brief smile.
"No dog, Slingsby," he said. "Mountain wolf raised in the deep jungle. Devil fears nothing that walks, flies, or creeps!"
Slingsby's eyes opened wide with admiration.
"Great, sir!" he said. "We could do with a few of these in the Patrol!"
The Phantom nodded. Humor flickered at the back of his eyes.
"That will do, Devil," he said softly. "They're alive, but barely."
Devil raised himself from his haunches and took up station behind his master. There were one or two cuts under his rough fur, but otherwise he seemed no worse for the encounter.
The Phantom drew closer and bent over the recumbent forms of the dogs. He opened the casing of a ring on his finger. Slingsby stared as the big man impressed something from the ring on to the collar of each of the recumbent dogs. Then the three of them—the two men and Devil— disappeared back into the bushes on their way along the shoreline.
The light was brighter now. Full dawn was at hand. Every ripple and eddy of the wrinkled sea's surface appeared engraved as in a line drawing. The mist had withdrawn from the shore and the first beams of the sun were sliding their slanting sword-points into the water. The sun burned dimly at the edge of the ocean. The strengthening light made a rosy glow of Saldan's features, tinged his blond hair an even brighter gold. He stood by the fringe of trees with Larsen, smoking a cigar, his face exuding confidence. He finished his cigar in silence, then ground it out beneath his heel.
"Come on," he said to Larsen. "Time we got the carcass concealed."
The big chief guard seemed like a man broken by the events of the night. He made no move to follow, but stood aimlessly by the trees as Saldan strode toward the thicket. The warden turned back in annoyance, amazement shining in his eyes.
"What the hell's the matter with you, Larsen?" he said. He caught the other by the arm.
"That man," said Larsen, turning an ashen face to him. "Torn to pieces by the dogs. I can't face it now."
Anger flared in Saldan. He slapped Larsen's face until Ms teeth rattled.
"You'll do as you're told, you chicken liver," he grated. "We've got to get those dogs back on the leash."
He seized the big man's arm and dragged him along without ceremony. The two crept forward through the bushes until they thinned out into a large glade. They soon saw the flattened bushes, the trampled grass, and the blood. Then they turned a corner and came in sight of the dogs.
"Where's Slingsby?" gasped Saldan, his face turning even more purple in the light of dawn.
"What happened to the dogs?" Larsen replied. He seemed to have recovered some of his confidence now.
"Are they dead?"
He stooped over the nearest animal.
"Not dead," he said after a bit. "Badly beaten, chewed up a bit."
Saldan looked incredulous; he glanced round the lonely shoreline uneasily.
"Chewed up? You mean the patrolman did that?"
He walked out abruptly from the screen of bushes as though he feared something might be lurking behind them.
"What sort of man is he?" he said. "How could he fight those two killers?"
He was aroused by a sudden shout from Larsen. He strode rapidly back in among the bushes.
The big guard was kneeling at the side of one of the dogs, his face alight with excitement.
"Look at this, Warden?" he said. "What does it mean?"
Saldan bent over him irritably.
"On the collar there," said Larsen.
Saldan soon saw what he meant.
"A skull mark!" he said.
Larsen stood up. He looked nervously round the glade.
"The mark of a skull on the collar, sir. What's behind this?"
Saldan's face was a savage mask of mingled hatred and fear.
"I have no idea, Larsen," he said hoarsely, scarcely able to conceal the slight quiver in his own voice.
He turned back toward the edge of the glade.
"We'll send help for the dogs. Let's get out of here."
The two men trudged off through the growing light, both silent with their thoughts.
"How about the escaped patrolman?" said Larsen when they had retraced part of the way back to the cave entrance.
"We can't trail him without dogs, you idiot!" said Saldan. He seemed to have recovered his nerve by now. He turned toward Larsen sardonically.
"You want to go after him?"
His eyes widened.
"A character who fights vicious man-killers with his teeth?"
The two men passed on and were lost among the bushes. Their voices drifted back.
"What kind of training do they give those men in the Jungle Patrol?" queried Larsen.
The Phantom smiled briefly, revealing strong, broad teeth. He gave an approving glance at Slingsby. The young patrolman, the Phantom, and Devil were crouched behind a thick layer of undergrowth. They waited until Saldan and Larsen had cleared the area before emerging. There was admiration on Slingsby's face as the two men got up from behind the bushes. They walked in silence along the shore for some distance until the Phantom started leading them inland.
"Who are you, sir?" asked Slingsby for perhaps the tenth time during that night. His gaze traveled curiously up and down his huge companion's striking costume. The eyes twinkled behind his mask as the Phantom replied.
"Never mind about that now, Slingsby," he said. "We have to get you back to Patrol Headquarters fast."
He stooped to pat Devil behind the ears, then bent to examine the wolf carefully. He appeared satisfied as he straightened up.
"More problems," he said in his deep resonant voice. "We now know who's behind the secret of the tunnel: the warden and the chief guard."
"But we've no proof," said the young Jungle Patrol officer aggrievedly.
"That's true," the Phantom observed calmly. "They'd merely say they found the tunnel as you did."
"But why would they help prisoners escape from jail?" said Slingsby, his face puzzled.
"I said there were plenty of problems here," the Phantom replied. "We'll get to them."
"There's another thing," said Slingsby. "What happens to the prisoners? They're never seen again."
"Two excellent questions, Patrolman Slingsby," said the Phantom as the two men and the wolf halted on a bluff commanding an airy view of Masara Prison.
The Phantom stood brooding over the scene before him as though he were the spirit of the place.
"No good answers yet!"
Saldan's face was haggard and the strain of the night was beginning to show as he and Larsen once more regained the interior of Masara Prison. The big man's face was knotted with anxiety. When he had closed the door and was within the privacy of his office, he poured stiff whiskies for the chief guard and himself. He slumped into the chair behind his desk and loosened his collar and tie.
He drew from his pocket one of the heavy leather collars which had encircled the throat of an injured dog. The tiny skull motif seemed to wink up at him mockingly.
"There's a lot of things 1 don't like about this, Larsen," he said. "Or understand."
He reached in his desk for another cigar. "That patrolman fighting our dogs with his teeth."
He frowned, his heavy jaws clamped round the cigar as he lit up.
"That reminds me, have you sent men out to pick up the dogs?"
"I've already given instructions," Larsen said.
The warden nodded.
He picked up the dog collar and held it close to his eyes, as though it had a message engraved on it for all to see.
"This skull mark on the collar. What's it mean? It's weird."
Larsen leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and took another swig at the whiskey. His uniform was stained with dust and sweat and he was tired. For the first time he was cursing himself for ever getting mixed up with Warden Saldan's enterprises. He didn't venture an opinion.
He jerked upright as the warden banged a big hand on the desk.
"It's too much!" said Saldan, getting to his feet. "I'm packing. I've got to get to the slave market of Mucar!"
9
VOICE FROM THE DARK
There had been a large-scale inquest going on at Jungle Patrol Headquarters lasting well into mid-morning. Despite their tiredness, Colonel Weeks, Tim Ricketts, and Joe Coates had held a three-sided conference that had seemed to get nowhere. Bacon and eggs and coffee had been cleared away from the table in the colonet's big office before they again started to review the salient points. The colonel's pipe belched smoke and flame as he emphasized his thinking.
"If that blasted warden thinks he can stop an inquiry into his crooked jail because he framed Slingsby, he's going to be rudely surprised," he told his junior officers grimly. "They'll laugh him out of court. Trying to pin a jailbreak on my undercover man."
He snorted deep down in his throat and a rain of sparks fell on the desk surface as his pipe belched like a volcano in his indignation. Then he made up his mind. He spoke to the HQ building central telephonist.
"Get me the governor," he said.
There came a tapping at the door and Ricketts went to open it. The colonel's pipe almost slipped out of his mouth, but he managed to save it by strong jaw action. His eyes were wide and round over the bowl of the pipe as he stared toward the door.
"Forget that call to the governor," he said slowly.
He put the receiver back onto its cradle.
Ricketts closed the door behind the bedraggled form of Slingsby. Neither of the two junior officers with Weeks looked as though they believed the evidence of their eyes, either. Slingsby walked slowly into the room, came to a halt, and saluted.
Weeks was the first to recover himself.
"What the hell are you doing out of jail, Slingsby?" he
said. All the anger had long gone out of his voice. It was a calm voice that questioned the young officer.
"Did they release you?" the colonel asked.
Slingsby gulped and drew himself up.
"Actually not, sir," he said in faltering tones. "I escaped."
Colonel Weeks looked staggered. His face momentarily registered bewilderment. But he recovered himself masterfully and put his pipe down in a safe place.
"You escaped from Masara Prison?" he said slowly and deliberately. No one in the room moved for a moment. The silence was heavy, unbroken except for the faint squeaking of the fan in the overhead ceiling. Ricketts and Coates's tanned faces turned toward Slingsby with solicitous interest.
"All right, Slingsby, sit down," said Colonel Weeks in a rough voice which deceived no one. "I expect you're hungry and tired. See about some breakfast for him, Tim."
Ricketts lifted the phone on the colonel's desk and gave the order. Weeks waited until he had finished.
"That was a bloody silly thing to do," he observed levelly. "Now you will look guilty."
Slingsby took off his cap and ran a hand across his forehead.
"I honestly didn't think about that, sir," he said. "I got out through a secret passage, the way all the prisoners escaped. You see, sir, the masked man was insistent."
Colonel Week had a peculiar expression on his face and he dropped his hands on to the blotter in front of him.
"What masked man?" he asked slowly.
"He was under a cot in the common cell," said Slingsby. "He must have been there all the time."
"Interesting," said Weeks. "Go on. What else was there about this man?"
"He showed me the tunnel and brought me out," Slingsby said. "He had a big wolf with him."
Colonel Weeks leaned forward and put both his hands together on the blotter.
"Under a cot," he said. "And had a wolf with him? Just sit back and relax, Slingsby. Here's your breakfast. You'll feel better after a cup of coffee."
"But it's perfectly true, sir," stammered Slingsby, as the native trooper put the tray down in front of him and went out. "I know it sounds fantastic, but that was the way i( happened. He came up from tinder the bunk and gripped me by the leg."
He lifted his coffee cup and inhaled the steaming contents gratefully.
"He frightened me out of my wits, actually. But that's not all, sir."
The colonel cut him short.
"Who was this masked man, a prisoner?" he said keenly.
Slingsby shook his head. "He was no prisoner, sir."
Weeks frowned. He motioned to the young officer to start his breakfast. When he was halfway through his meal, he resumed the interrogation.
"By escaping you make yourself look guilty, Slingsby. Why did you follow him?"
"He told me to," Slingsby said.
The colonel's face looked stern.
"Told you to!" he exploded. "You're a Jungle Patrolman! You give the orders! You don't take them—least of all, from some masked nobody."
"This was no nobody, sir," Slingsby answered quietly. His eyes were serious as he faced his superior.
"It's difficult to explain. His was a quiet voice; used to command. Like a general, maybe. Or even a king ..."
His eyes looked far away.
"You don't say no to a man like that," he said quietly. "You obey."
Colonel Weeks shook his head. "You'd better finish your breakfast and get off to bed, Slingsby," he said. "That spell in jail must have affected your nerves. You obviously need rest. I'm going ahead and smash that prison gang!"
Deep in the underground chamber beneath the well shaft, the Phantom smiled. From a gray-metal grille on the wall in front of him, the colonel's conversation boomed and echoed.
Weeks's instructions finally came to an end.
"I don't think we'll move on Masara quite yet, Colonel," the Phantom muttered to himself. He leaned over toward the banked controls at the side of the room. He flipped a switch.
Up in Colonel Weeks's office the conference was suddenly broken up. The CO of Number Eight Patrol was in great form. His eyes blazed as he seized Slingsby by the hand.
"Why the hell didn't you tell me this sooner?" he said. He turned to the others.
"Always leave the most important piece of news until last!" he told the filing cabinet.
"With the escape tunnel, and what you've just told me about the warden and Larsen, we've got the goods on them!"
He turned back to Tim Ricketts.
"Get me the governor at once!" he said.
Ricketts saluted and made to leave when there was a peremptory rap at the door.
Another young patrolman with red hair appeared. He saluted crisply.
"Sir! The emergency light is on!" he said.
The colonel stared at him.
"The hell it is!" he said. "I'll be right along."
He looked over to Ricketts.
"Cancel that call to the governor," he said. "But hold yourself in readiness. This could mean anything."
He glanced briefly round the room.
"And that goes for all of you."
He stumped on out, his pipe leaving trails of smoke over his shoulder. Slingsby permitted himself a rueful smile as he finished off the last of the coffee.
Far below, in the Jungle Patrol HQ, Colonel Weeks's feet clattered on a metal spiral staircase as he ran to his secret destination. Above, in the central control room, he knew the light would still be winking on the big emergency board. It would not go out until he had cleared the message and he never wasted any time doing this. Presently he came to a steel door which had on it PRIVATE: COLONEL WEEKS ONLY in big black letters. He put a special magnetic key in the lock and it moved back electronically. The colonel moved on through and the door closed behind him.
Dim lights burned here and air conditioning made it the coolest place in the building. The colonel sometimes wondered ruefully why they couldn't have their offices down here. But, of course, security demanded that it be the other way around. He went on down the short corridor and stopped in front of another steel door. This bore the legend: SUPREME COMMANDER: JUNGLE PA-
TROL. NO ADMITTANCE. A big lamp was winking rapidly above the lintel.
The colonel had to insert two magnetic keys in this door. He gained the interior. The lights came on automatically. It was a small and austere chamber, about the same size as the one the Phantom had just quitted and separated only by a short staircase from it. All the colonel had eyes for now was the huge steel safe set into the wall at one end. He took out a small electronic computer-unit from his shirt pocket. He had already looked up the day's combination in his handbook. It was placed against the chromed-steel surface of the safe door and a click sounded as the magnetized surface came within its field.
He swiftly dialed the day's combination. The tiny machine hummed and buzzed to itself for a few seconds and then there was a loud click. Colonel Weeks leaned forward and removed the unit from the front of the safe. After laying it on a table at his elbow, he found himself sweating as he hauled open the big door. There was just one plain envelope inside, on the floor of the safe as usual, addressed to himself.
The colonel sat down at the table and, in that solitary place, tore open the envelope. The ripping paper made an ugly sound in the silence. The message was brief and to the point. Beneath Weeks's rank and title there was merely the message, in block capitals: DO NOTHING ABOUT WARDEN SALDAN.
The message was signed laconically, "Commander, Jungle Patrol." Weeks crumpled the piece of paper in his hard fist and slumped at the table. He felt utterly crushed. He was not disloyal to his unknown commander who had such power over so many square miles of jungle. It was just that he could not see the greater objective. He had the warden in his grasp; now he had apparently escaped again.
"Damn!" said Weeks savagely to the steel wall. He thumped his fist on the table and felt better. He reached in his pocket for his still smouldering pipe, hauled it out gingerly, cursing at the smell of scorched uniform cloth.
"How can the commander do this?" he said to himself grimly. "Just when I'd got the goods on the warden?"
He was simmering for the remainder of the day and Ricketts and the others busied themselves elsewhere whenever they saw him about the corridors. Those officers who had been on duty all the previous night were excused except in case of an emergency. Weeks was tired and by nine o'clock he was exhausted. He had his own private quarters at the top of the building, where he got a little air after sunset. He had no sooner adjusted his mosquito net and turned out the bedside lamp, than he was asleep.
He was so consumed with the problem of Saldan, and the apparent pointlessness of the commander's orders, that he had not thought he would sleep. What had hurt most of all was the fact that the people at the jail had made the Patrol took like fools with their clumsy frameup. The commander was suddenly awake again. He did not know at first whether he had ever slept; he seemed to have been grumbling to himself over the situation when he went to bed and a few moments later he was again sitting on the side of his bed, still grumbling. He reached for the switch at the end of the cord and put on the bedside lamp. He glanced at his watch. The lime was 1 -.00 a.m. So he had slept.
Something must have awakened him. Colonel Weeks knew his own reflexes and bodily limitations too well to permit him to doubt this. Itut what? Some sound, perhaps? Or the shrilling of his phone? But the bedside instrument remained obstinately silent. He ruffled his hair and started to walk across the room. Then he heard the signal which must have brought him awake. Tiny, insistent electronic bleeps coming from the darkness outside the pool of light in his bedroom.
The colonel cleared his throat.
"I'm here, sir," he said.
A calm, masterly voice spoke out of the darkness.
"Colonel Weeks, this is your commander speaking."
The colonel wished he had been more formally dressed.
"Yes, sir," he said. "May I see you, sir?"
"You know that is forbidden, Colonel," the quiet, commanding voice went on. "Since the Patrol's founding two centuries ago, the overall commander has remained unknown even to the Patrol members."
The colonel cleared his throat again.
"Sir, will you identify yourself in some way?"
There was a long silence and then a slip of paper fluttered into the pool of radiance cast by the lamp. The colonel picked it up, carried it over to the lamp, and sat down.
What the paper contained, in curlicue script was just three words: Justice and Peace.
"Our secret password—yes, sir," said the colonel. "I await your instructions. But first, sir . . ."
He hesitated.
"Go on," the quiet voice said reassuringly.
The commander of Number Eight Patrol's brow wrinkled.
"It's not likely that anyone would question your decisions, sir, but I'm worried. I've been Jungle Patrol Commanding Officer here for ten years. I know our traditions. We take our oath to you. But these orders tonight . . ."
"I know and understand your feelings, Colonel Weeks," the quiet voice went on. "I've no time to explain now about Warden Saldan."
Weeks rose to the opportunity.
"Sir, we now have the evidence against him through Slingsby," he said. "If you'd just let me go ahead."
"Be patient, Colonel Weeks," the quiet voice went on. "There's no proof. Worse, dozens of prisoners have escaped, a dozen times over. None have ever been seen again. Have you any explanation or answer to that, Colonel Weeks?"
The colonel was silent for some moments.
"No, sir," he said eventually. "I begin to see your meaning."
"These are not ordinary breaks. Prisoners are never seen again. I must find out why," the quiet voice continued.
"We can help, sir," said Weeks eagerly.
"When I need the Jungle Patrol, you'll be told, Colonel Weeks."
The voice echoed throughout the room for the last time.
"Take no action for the moment. Keep Slingsby here."
There was a metallic click and then silence. Weeks crossed to the window and raised the blind. A bland and beneficent moon bent down upon him, stippling the shadows of palm fronds on his face. Weeks shook his head and pressed his hands to his brow. He still felt like he was dreaming.
"I was actually speaking to the commander!" he told himself. He went over and switched on the light over his wash basin. He rinsed a glass and poured himself a long draught of cold, clear water. Then he wetted a towel and passed it over his forehead and the back of his neck. He picked up the bedside phone. He was wide awake now and master of himself.
When he had given his instructions he sat down again in his dressing gown on the side of the bed and filled his pipe. Five minutes later there was a deferential tap at the door.
Slingsby looked just as tired as the colonel. He had a blue windbreaker on over his pajamas and had obviously just left his bed. He sank down gratefully into the easy chair the colonel indicated.
"Would you like me to send for some coffee?" Weeks asked.
Slingsby shook his head.
"No thank you, sir," he said. "It'll only prevent me from getting back to sleep."
He paused and then went on.
"That is, assuming I do get back to bed tonight."
Colonel Weeks smiled quietly to himself, the glowing bowl of his pipe making an amber mask of his face in the gloom of the room.
"Sorry to disturb you, Slingsby," he said. "But it's the same for all of us when the heat's on. What I really wanted was for you to tell me more about that masked man you say you saw."
Slingsby looked at his superior quizzically.
"Certainly, sir," he said. "I'll try to remember. He had a tremendously powerful build."
Colonel Weeks nodded but said nothing and the young officer went on.
"I'm afraid I couldn't see his face because of the mask, sir. Sorry I goofed in escaping but I trusted him."
"You were quite right, Slingsby," said Weeks unexpectedly. He stared hard at the young man's puzzled expression.
"We're all entitled to change our minds," he added. "Even the commander of Number Eight Patrol."
He chuckled. "Anything else? What about the voice?"
Slingsby coughed as an acrid whiff of Weeks's pungent tobacco caught his throat.
"As I said, sir, quiet but with tremendous authority. And when he raised his voice, it reflected his strength!"
Weeks nodded.
"Thank you, Slingsby. That will be all for tonight."
He strode toward the door and held it open for the young officer.
"Dismissed!"
Back inside the room he struggled with the recalcitrant pipe, filling the quiet bedroom with clouds of reeking fumes. He paced the floor for a long time after Slingsby had gone, shoveling plumes of smoke over his shoulder.
Then he paused by the window, listening to the quiet tapping of the night wind at the blinds. He smiled to himself.
"I heard that quiet voice too, Slingsby," he said aloud. "That masked man is our commander!"
10
HASTY FLIGHT
Saldan was driving out of Masara Town, away from the coast and up into the winding hills. The big car lurched over the rocky road, its springs protesting as Larsen turned the wheel. Despite the power steering the surface was so atrocious that he was at times having difficulty in keeping the limousine on the road. Twice the warden had to warn him not to take the turns too fast and the big chief officer hail the sweat of fear on him as his offside wheels spun toward a ravine.
It was nearing sunset again. Saldan had decided to delay his departure for a number of strategic reasons. First, he had secret preparations to make which could not be hurried. Second, tired as he was by the events and strain of the previous night, even he needed a few hours' sleep. And third, and most important, he was anxious that his departure should not be noted. Daylight was too risky. Darkness cut down the chances of being followed.
His precautions had been wisely taken. Unnoticed by both men as they concentrated on the crazy, hairpin bends before them, a tiny tableau was silhouetted against the sunset. Or at least the group was tiny because of the colossal scale of its surroundings. Far above them easily keeping pace by cutting across country and skipping gigantic bends that followed miles of swooping gorge, the Phantom on the tireless white stallion was eating up the miles. Behind him bounded Devil, apparently tireless also and with his pink tongue lolling from between his jaws as he leaped from hillock to hillock.
Saldan would not have been quite so complacent could he have seen the sharply etched silhouettes far above. But he was sunk in his own thoughts, his heavy face resting on one large-knuckled hand as he sat sprawled against the leather upholstery while Larsen continued to fight the limousine round the hairpins. The dying sun thrust bars of blood-red shadow across the windshield and the heat was still stifling. Choking dust drifted across the road, so that they had to keep the windows almost closed, despite the heat.
Larsen broke the silence at last, as they were nearing their destination.
"How about Patrolman Slingsby, Warden?"
It was a question that had been plaguing his mind for hours. The warden lifted his chin from his hand and cleared his throat with a rasping growl.
"I'll take care of him when we get back," he said shortly.
But Larsen's remark had evidently released some thoughts in his own mind for he went on after a few minutes, glancing morosely at the cruel, moonlike rocks they were passing.
"I'll put that Jungle Patrol through a wringer before I'm finished, Larsen!"
Larsen grinned briefly. This was more like the old chief he had known for so long.
Saldan spread his big hands out on each side of him, warming to his fantasy.
"When I'm finished with them, they'll be washed up!" he said. "Nobody will trust them!"
"That's right, sir," said Larsen, nodding in agreement, his arms aching with his constant struggle to keep the big car out of the ruts.
"How long are you likely to be away, sir?"
Saldan frowned.
"I don't rightly know, Larsen," he said ponderously. "As long as it takes. But don't worry—I'll keep you informed."
Neither man noticed the faint shadow that had just slipped away into a rocky draw on their right. The Phantom had left the crossing a little late. He had been worried that Hero might strain a muscle in the treacherous shale underfoot. In any event, horse, man, and wolf had crossed the road safely just before the car approached in a cloud of dust. The Phantom let Hero make his own speed up the opposite draw. He knew the terrain particularly well here and the limousine would take a long loop, giving him ample time to cross over once more and so keep pace with it. He was a little puzzled at Saldan's destination.
Byelo, the nearest port of any size from Masara, was over two hundred miles away and it would take the warden more than two days, particularly as the "first-class road" on which they were now traveling got progressively worse. The Phantom's strong face shifted into a puzzled knot of concentration. Perhaps Saldan intended to meet the escaped prisoners who might be landing at Byelo from the sea. Well, time would tell, and the Phantom was prepared to follow the treacherous pair day and night until they yielded up their secrets. He had enough provisions in his saddlebags to last him and Devil several days.
As the Phantom passed over the hill in the dying light, the limousine suddenly turned off the big road and went slowly down a secondary route that debouched and wound through the foothills toward the sea. In about half an hour the car drove on to the small commercial airport of Masara. There was a military airport in the town itself, but the authorities found it more convenient to situate the civil airport here, where a customs office could handle boats as well as planes. The customs men liked it, too, as it centralized the bribery. And in addition the taxi drivers, usually officials' relatives, had a percentage agreement on the exorbitant rates charged to travelers unfortunate enough to need conveyance to Masara Town.
All this was of no interest to Saldan today, however. The big limousine rocked through the wire gate onto the uneven surface of the stony field and Larsen cut the motor. The air was cooler now and, free of the dust, Larsen had opened the electrically operated roof. In front of them were the tin-roofed buildings of the airport: a gaunt customs shed and a modern concrete control tower, which looked incongruous against the background of barren rocks and bleak escarpment. A twin-engined executive aircraft, painted in scarlet and black and bearing no identification markings, sat in front of the main building warmed up and ready to go.
Farther off, two mining-company light aircraft were parked. Saldan slid out of the car with a grunt, wiping sweat and dust from his forehead with a red-and-white handkerchief. He had a brown-leather valise with him and looked like any other businessman with his lightweight gray suit and neat blue bowtie. He carried a brown homburg hat in his left hand.
His teeth parted ferociously as he barked a parting shot at Larsen.
"Keep things under control until I get back! And don't initiate any moves once I'm gone! Your job is to preserve the status quo!"
Larsen looked quite a smart military figure as he 82
straightened up and gave the warden one of his best salutes.
"Right, sir!" he said crisply, as though Saldan had never had occasion to question his efficiency. He mumbled to himself as he got back behind the wheel of the car. He sat watching his chief stride away toward the plane.
Saldan didn't bother about customs formalities. He had his own arrangements with the airport authorities and a discreet call from Larsen earlier that day had set up the plans. There were no other (lights or landings around sunset at this airport. The surrounding terrain was considered too risky for large-scale commercial flights at dusk— which was why there were no passengers or curious bystanders to see Saldan's departure.
Only the people in the tower would know and a few of the staff who remained at the airfield after dark. The taxi drivers and other commercial employees had all left for Masara Town over an hour earlier. A light winked from the tower as Saldan approached the plane, his coat blowing in the wind raised from the slipstream. A pretty blonde girl in a dark blue stewardess uniform took Saldan's grip as he came up. The warden turned once more and gave Larsen a jocular wave. He got in the plane and the door slammed behind him. The engine roared as the light machine shuddered and started to taxi down the field to turn into the wind.
On the far hills, The Phantom heard the noise of the motor and stopped Hero in his tracks. He glanced back; the dust made by the big limousine had been visible for miles. Now it had disappeared. He frowned.
"Looks like we've been short-circuited, Devil," he said laconically.
The big wolf cocked his ears and fell in behind again as the Phantom turned Hero's head and set the stallion galloping in a new direction. The big man knew that normally the airfield didn't operate flights at this hour. If he didn't act quickly he would lose Saldan altogether.
The plane soared up beyond a ridge as he reached the head of a valley of harsh volcanic rock. The wings of the plane waggled twice as the pilot signaled the airfield controller and then it turned west. A few seconds later it had passed beyond a distant shoulder of hill and disappeared. The Phantom's hands tightened on Hero's bridle in exasperation and the big horse reared.
Then the Phantom leaned forward and patted the stal-
lion's neck, soothing him. He continued galloping toward the road along which he knew Larsen must eventually repass on his way back to Masara Town with the limousine.
"So Saldan got away," the Phantom mused to himself. The horse's hooves made a rapid accompaniment to the equally rapid beat of his thoughts. He had no doubt in his mind that Saldan had been aboard the light aircraft. That the cunning Warden would use an aircraft on his trip had been the last thing in the Phantom's mind.
He tightened his jaw. He could not really blame Colonel Weeks and the men of the Jungle Patrol for finding Saldan a hard nut to crack. He was a tough and determined opponent, full of unexpected twists and turns. The Phantom's lips curved again in a grim smile. This was an opponent worthy of some thought. He urged Hero into a gallop.
"We've got to find out where Saldan's going," he told Devil.
The Phantom found Ihe location he was searching for a few momenls later. He tied Hero to a sapling and ordered Devil to stay where he was. A thin cloud of blue dust started rising in the distance. The sun was nearly gone now, but there would be enough light on the road for his purpose. He scrambled down the hillside at breakneck speed to a steep ledge, about fifteen feet above the road. He waited, poised on the balls of his feet, measuring the distance carefully. Larsen was not driving quickly, could not over such terrain. The car appeared below him. It was going slowly, but it still looked fast from this height. Larsen was bent over the wheel, concentrating on the road. The Phantom sucked in his breath, made a rapid calculation, and hurtled dizzily through the air.
11
THE BREAKING OF LARSEN
Chief Officer Larsen was passing the bluff when he saw a shadow pass across the dying sun. A great form swooped over the ground. He instinctively ducked, and his face was smashed with stunning force into the steering column. It was the whole weight of his heavy body which had caught the big chief across the nape of his neck. The brakes squealed as Larsen's reflexes went into action; the big car swerved sickeningly and started toward the side of the road. Larsen appeared unconscious by then, blood running out of his nostrils. The Phantom rolled over into the passenger seat and reached for the handbrake.
Larsen came alive again, flicking the wheel with the last of his ebbing strength. The big limousine was dangerously near the edge of the gorge. The hood suddenly dipped as the Phantom hauled with every ounce of strength on the brake. Then the world was cartwheeling crazily around them as the rear wheels went over and the entire chassis of the automobile was clear of the ground.
Larsen was awake again now, screaming with fear.
"You're crazy!" he shouted at the Phantom, blinking his eyes. "You'll kill us both."
The hood of the car hit the loose rock with a hard lurch, rocketing the two men in together.
"Not just yet!" said the Phantom calmly, seizing Larsen by the shirt. He hurled the big guard over the side of the auto like a rag doll and dived after him as the machine started to turn over. The Phantom and the guard hit the ground in a cloud of choking dust. They rolled over, Larsen underneath, as the car went bouncing and quivering down the slope. Then the wheels met air and it fell out of sight, turning over and over. It continued for perhaps two hundred feet. There was an eerie silence. The engine had stopped now. The Phantom listened, his hand on
Larsen's throat, recovering his breath. He felt the guard's blood run down his knuckles.
Then a red flame burst out of the darkness of the gorge below them; the dull roar of an explosion followed a second later, slapping back at the walls of the canyon. Then all was quiet.
Larsen was shuddering and retching with fear as the Phantom got up. He adjusted his mask and brushed himself. Apart from a few scratches, he was uninjured.
"I would have been killed in that car," said Larsen shakily.
"You're speaking the truth for once," said the Phantom with a tight smile.
His eyes never left Larsen's face as the guard got to his feet. He could hardly stand and had to support himself against a rock.
He had lost his cap somewhere in the mad dive down the hillside and the whole right side of his face and jaw was a raw mass of caked blood. His uniform was torn and he was covered by dust from head to foot. There was little trace of the immaculate figure which had driven the big car out of Masara Civil Airport only a quarter of an hour before. Even his revolver had gone; the belt had been torn off when they rolled over the rocks. Larsen felt sick; he tasted blood in his mouth and he passed a feeble hand across his forehead. But he still retained some degree of awareness. He had mistaken the significance of the Phantom's mask.
"You sure do a holdup the hard way, you fool!" he said when he could find his voice. "I happen to be the chief of the guards at Masara Prison."
He got up at last and scowled at the big man with a look that was meant to inspire fear.
To his astonishment, the enormous figure in the mask laughed a hard laugh that went echoing round the lonely peaks. Larsen shivered. This man before him was more like a god or a spirit of the place than a normal human being. He felt a sudden stab of fear. He passed a tongue over dry lips.
"Do you think I don't know who you are?" said the Phantom mockingly. "When I have myself chosen you!"
He laughed again, more shortly and less humorously this time. He came closer to Larsen and looked into his eyes. Larsen flinched despite himself.
"You are the man I want!" said the Phantom quietly.
The big guard found himself sweating.
"I don't understand," he stammered. "You jumped me— knowing who I am?"
He stared, recovering something of his old manner. His eyes hardened with suspicion. Perhaps this man's outfit was some strange robber's disguise.
"Are you an ex-con?" he asked suddenly. "What is this? Revenge?"
The Phantom stood tall and menacing before him. Larsen was a big man, but the Phantom towered over him.
"No, you have never seen me," he said in the same quiet voice.
Larsen's nerve suddenly hardened. He whipped round, his hand shaking to where his revolver holster should have been.
"I'm going to shoot you like a dog!" he said in a choking voice.
The Phantom's voice cracked like a whiplash. "It isn't there, Larsen," he said. "You lost it on the way down."
Fear showed in Larsen's eyes again as his hand clawed air. Then he screamed as the implacable figure before him suddenly leaped forward. Before he could move, his body was enclosed in a grip like steel, his head turned back at an angle.
His neck muscles creaked, as the Phantom increased the pressure.
"I want a few straight answers from you, chief guard of Masara," his tormentor said.
Larsen screamed again. Then he twisted in his adversary's grasp and lashed out with one meaty fist. His knuckles struck a chest like rock. He howled with pain again as the Phantom twisted his hand behind his back in an agonizing lock.
Sweat ran down his face as he struggled impotently. Then he gave a moaning cry and relaxed.
"Where did Warden Saldan go?" the Phantom asked.
The pressure on Larsen's neck suddenly increased again. Larsen gritted his teeth; sweat ran down into his eyes and blinded him. He saw with another stab of fear a curious ring on the Phantom's finger—the finger on the hand which was doing such merciless things to his windpipe.
"I shall lose my patience in a moment," the calm voice went on. "Where did Saldan go?"
Larsen tried to tear himself free and with a convulsive effort, found he could speak. A flash of realization came to him.
"Did you leave that mark on our killer dogs?" he asked, fear blurring the edges of his voice. "Did you win that fight with your teeth?"
The Phantom merely tightened his grip again. He held the struggling guard effortlessly.
"Stop chattering," said the Phantom. "I've asked you the same question several times. Where did Warden Saldan go?"
Larsen sobbed with impotent rage.
"I don't know!" he shouted.
He screamed for the third time, like an animal in pain as his neck was wrenched round.
"Please don't! Don't break my neck!"
"I won't ask you again," said the Phantom ominously.
He increased the pressure once more, his muscles flexing beneath his jerkin.
"You're a crook hiding behind your uniform and authority," he told Larsen. "You framed that patrolman!"
"How did you know about him?" gasped Larsen, almost unconscious by this time.
He tried to twist round to look at his captor, but failed.
"Who are you?"
There came no reply, merely another question.
"You let those prisoners escape," said the Phantom. "Where are they now?"
And then again, the question the big guard dreaded most of all.
"Where did Warden Saldan go?"
The distant ring of hills and beyond them the first flickerings of the tropical stars whirled and began to blur as Larsen's consciousness started to leave him. They trembled like an Arab lamp in the wind, an apt simile and a sight he had seen many times.
The quiet voice pierced the mist that surrounded his brain.
"You do not have much longer to tell the truth."
Larsen made a supreme effort. He sagged forward, feigning unconsciousness. The pressure slackened for a second.
"Warden Saldan flew off on a vacation ..." Larsen gasped. "I don't know where."
"That's your last lie," said the Phantom grimly.
The iron band around Larsen's neck tightened, stopped at the chief guard's involuntary shriek.
"I'll tell you," he said. Sweat flew in rivulets down his cheeks as he sagged in the Phantom's arms.
"I lied," Larsen said feebly. "He flew to Mucar. The slave market at Mucar."
He sagged slowly to the ground as the Phantom released him. He lay panting on the sand, breathing the night air greedily into his aching lungs.
The Phantom stood over him, the light of the rising moon etching his shadow lengthily along the canyon wall.
He tapped significantly on the holster in his belt.
"Another lie?" he asked softly.
Larsen's legs kicked convulsively.
"No ..." he whispered. "Mucar is the market. Saldan auctions his slaves there. The escaped prisoners are the slaves."
The Phantom moved away. He went to stand looking out over the canyon at the rising moon. He marveled at the audacity of Saldan's plan. Who could have suspected a scheme enacted in such a setting as a supposedly impregnable prison? He listened to Larsen's gasping cries of pain, his mind busy with other things. He feared nothing from the big guard. He was a broken man. Larsen was sitting up now, massaging his swollen throat with lacerated hands. He looked a terrible sight. The Phantom turned back to him.
"It's an incredible story, Larsen," he said. "Escaped prisoners taken to the desert city of Mucar and sold as slaves. You're sure you haven't been embellishing things again?"
"You can't prove I said it," Larsen said in a beaten voice. He tried to stand and found he couldn't. "You can't prove anything. By tomorrow night they'll all be gone. Sold
as slaves!"
The Phantom had an enigmatic smile on his face which sent another stab of fear through Larsen. The Phantom didn't look like a human being at all. His strength was godlike; he had already proved that and Larsen did not wish to tangle with him again. He winced as the Phantom let out a high, piercing whistle.
The guard opened his eyes with amazement as he heard the thud of hooves on the rough grass and saw the big stallion galloping toward them. Holding the reins in his mouth was the dark form of Devil.
"Well done!" the Phantom called out in his powerful voice. He turned back to Larsen. The big horse was already standing before them, blowing impatiently through his nostrils. Larsen winced as the Phantom lifted him and threw him over the pommel. He lay like a sack of potatoes while the powerful stallion curvetted beneath him.
"Tomorrow night!" the Phantom mused. "Then I'd better get there before them!"
12
NO SLEEP FOR COLONEL WEEKS
Colonel Weeks was enjoying his first deep sleep of the night. He had tossed for hours, debating the extraordinary events of the previous evening and had at last fallen asleep a little before 2:00 a.m. It was a cool, windless night and he was not at first aroused when the shutters of his room were quietly slid aside. A shadowy figure surveyed the room, making sure that the Jungle Patrol Commander was unaware that he was observed.
Then there was a crash and a low moan and something tumbled forward in a heap into the room. Weeks was awakened in a second by the noise which shook the entire bedroom; he bolted upright in bed, fumbling for the light switch, his bewilderment changing into rage.
"What's going on here?" he bellowed, blinking in the radiance of his bedside lamp. A low moan was the only answer. Colonel Weeks swiveled his gaze over toward the window. His jaw momentarily sagged with surprise as he took in the limp and groaning form, dressed in a tattered, blood-stained uniform with its arms tied behind its back.
He bounded to the floor and crossed to the prostrate form. He had not at first noticed the ropes which bound the groaning Larsen.
"What the blazes is this?" he grunted.
His eyes widened as he recognized the big guard.
"The chief officer from Masara Prison!" he gasped. "What are you doing here?"
Larsen had dragged himself painfully upright now and sagged against the wall below the window.
"Doing?" he mumbled, his eyes blinking up at the pajama-clad figure of the colonel, who was none too pleased at being disturbed for the second consecutive night.
"I've been assaulted—savagely attacked, mauled, and 91
dragged here. I demand you get in touch with the prison."
"Colonel Weeks!"
The commanding, incisive voice Weeks was beginning to know so well echoed throughout the room.
"The Commander," he said to himself, looking round keenly. He hurried to the window, but, as on the previous evening, there was nothing but the moonlight silvering the palm fronds.
"Keep this man locked up until further notice!" came the Phantom's voice again.
"Yes, sir!" said Colonel Weeks.
He glanced down curiously at the cowering form of Larsen. The big guard raised his head.
"That's illegal!" he complained. "I demand you call my attorney ..."
"You can have twenty attorneys," the calm voice of the Phantom went on. "You're going to need them. Now, Colonel Weeks, I want you to listen carefully."
Colonel Weeks went to sit in a chair near the window as Larsen sagged back against the wall.
"This man Larsen, the chief of guards at Masara, framed Patrolman Slingsby. Need I say more, Colonel Weeks?"
"No, sir!" said Weeks, gazing sternly at Larsen.
"It's a lie!" the chief officer gasped. "You can't prove that."
"You'll have your day in court, Larsen," the Phantom's voice went inexorably on. "Listen carefully, Colonel. I need the Patrol helicoper at once. I also want Patrolman Slingsby. Tell him only to report to Mr. Walker at the helicopter. Is that clear?"
"Perfectly, sir," said Weeks, his mind turning over the exciting possibilities raised by this strange conversation.
"Slingsby will take further orders from Mr. Walker," the Phantom said.
The voice died away again and once more the night was still. Weeks stood up and put on his dressing gown. He picked up the phone. Three minutes later one of the night-duty patrolmen rapped at the door. He gaped at the sprawled form of Larsen on the floor.
"See to this man's wounds, give him some food and drink, and then lock him up until further notice," said the colonel coolly. "Also tell Patrolman Slingsby to report to me at once."
"Yes, sir."
The big patrolman saluted and then dragged Larsen to his feet.
"I want my lawyer!" Larsen muttered as he was led away. Weeks grinned at his retreating back. He rubbed his hands, and rummaged on his bedside table for his pipe. This was more like it.
Ten minutes later Slingsby reported in full uniform with automatic weapons. Weeks, by this time, was fully dressed and smoking his pipe, though looking somewhat crumpled after his disturbed night.
Weeks surveyed the saluting youngster closely.
"Slingsby, you're off on a special mission," he said. "You'll meet a Mr. Walker on the drill ground, near the helicopter hangars. Take all your further orders from him."
"Yes, sir."
Slingsby saluted and then paused near the door.
"This mission with Mr. Walker, sir? Can you tell me any more?"
"No! Vamoose!" said Weeks curtly. He grinned again at the door closing behind the young officer.
"I wish I knew myself," he said ruefully to the walls of his room.
Down on the drill ground, it was dark and Slingsby made for the helicopter hangar, which showed yellow squares of radiance at its entrance. As he neared the big, eight-seat scarlet-painted Jungle Patrol helicopter, Slingsby reached a high state of curiosity. He wondered what authority Mr. Walker had to inspire Colonel Weeks's complete confidence. Well, he would know soon enough.
A shadow moved behind the big machine and a huge form advanced into the dim light emanating from the hangar doors. Slingsby saw a man in a light check raincoat with a hat pulled down over his eyes. He had a square jaw and a determined mouth, but big, square sunglasses masked the upper part of his face, shielding his identity. Slingsby was not aware of Mr. Walker's exact rank, but he knew it must be a high one, so he gave the huge man a smart salute.
"Mr. Walker?" he said somewhat nervously. "Colonel Weeks detailed me to join you on a mission, sir. I'm to take my orders from you."
The big man bowed slightly. Walker was a name he
used when traveling in normal attire. It was derived from another of his names—The Ghost Who Walks.
"Hop in," he said informally, sliding back the door of the helicopter with a flick of his huge hand.
"Come on, Devil," he said in a strong, resonant voice. Slingsby did not have to see the yellow eyes of the wolf or to listen to the voice more than a second to know that once again he was in the presence of his masked befriend- er of two nights earlier.
"Glad to meet you again, sir," he said, getting up into one of the passenger seats of the helicopter and stowing his gear. The big man didn't answer and Slingsby felt he might be on dangerous ground; so he didn't venture any further comments.
Mr. Walker kept his hat and raincoat on, even in the helicopter. Devil went to sprawl on a rear seat, in apparent comfort, and regarded the two men sleepily. He put his big head down on his forepaws.
"I'll tell you our mission when we're in the air," Walker said, sliding into the pilot's seat and checking the instruments. He closed and locked the door after them and fastened the chest belt. He tapped Slingsby's belt and held it up.
"Strap yourself, in."
Slingsby did as he was told. Walker switched the engine on, it coughed once or twice, and the big blades over their heads chopped the air spasmodically. The rotors cast deep bars of shadow over the pilot's face. He was an incongruous sight at the controls, but Slingsby had no doubt he knew how to fly the powerful machine. Then the motor picked up and the blades were turning faster, invisible now. The cabin began to vibrate and he could feel the lift of the rotor. Devil lifted his head in momentary alarm, but then dropped it again on command from his master. The pilot sat warming the engine, watching the control tower through the plexiglass bubble in front of him. A green light finally flashed twice from the tower and Mr. Walker spoke into the microphone he wore on a harness round his neck.
"GKH-2YO taking off," he said crisply. "Special mission authorized by Colonel Weeks. Over and out."
The light winked again from the tower and then the motor roared; as the r.p.m.'s increased, Walker altered the pitch of the blades and the heavy machine started to lift off. Soon the drill ground faded away beneath them and
then Walker set course. The vibrations lessened as they gained altitude, and shortly Slingsby saw a river like graven steel in the moonlight, following the course of a ravine, wrinkled mountains like the surface of the moon, the sea like a dull shield, the strip of desert and then the green bowl of the jungle below them.
He realized for the first time what an incredible variety of scenery there was in Number Eight Patrol's area; they were fortunate not to be confined to the baking heat of the desert. Then life would be really hard. Slingsby was lost in reverie for the next fifteen minutes, lulled by the beauty of the night; the noise of the motor had decreased now and formed a background to his thoughts.
Then he roused himself, conscious that Walker was pointing down. He saw a long, square-turreted building, beautiful in the moonlight.
"One of the old Arab forts," said Walker, raising his voice above the motor.
Slingsby nodded.
"May I know where we're going now, sir?" he asked. .
The pilot grinned, showing strong, square teeth.
"About seven hundred miles," he said. "To a place called Mucar. To see an old friend of yours."
Slingsby was puzzled.
"Who might that be, sir?" he said.
"Warden Saldan of Masara Prison!" said Walker simply.
Slingsby's eyes widened in amazement.
"Saldan!"
He was stupefied.
"Yes," said the pilot calmly. "He's selling the escaped prisoners as slaves in the old slave market of Mucar."
He moved the controls and the helicopter leaned sideways, following the contours of a fertile valley.
"Normally I'd go alone," said Walker, when they were level again. "But there'll be a few dozen slave guards, not to mention a thousand men in the Prince's army."
The pilot smiled.
"On top of that, there'll be five hundred miles of desert to cross with ten prisoners."
He turned approvingly toward Slingsby.
"So I thought the job would need the two of us!"
Slingsby gulped, but thought it wiser not to make any comment of his own. He took out his handkerchief, and wiped his forehead wonderingly.
"Warden Saldan arranges the prison breaks, then sells the prisoners for slaves? That's fantastic, sir!"
"But true," said Walker quietly. "And he's only a few hours ahead of us this time."
Presently they skimmed across a thin wedge of sea, which slid along a shoreline of jagged, inhospitable mountains. Walker took no notice of the solitary dhow which ploughed its lonely way onward. But the handcuffed men aboard the ancient craft had noted the machine's passage with envy.
"How much longer on this cursed boat, Zadok" said a tall, ugly man with a shaved head. "We've been sailing for days already."
"More important, when do we get the cuffs off?" said another.
Zadok chuckled confidently.
"Tomorrow at dawn, boys, he said reassuringly. "It will be all over then. You'll gain your freedom."
He went to the rail, his thin shoulders shaking, and looked across the silver water to the mountains over which the helicopter had disappeared. The men were right. It had seemed a long voyage. But now they were reaching journey's end.
13
A VISIT TO THE PRINCE
Saldan's light aircraft banked and started its final approach to a small oasis at the edge of the desert. It had been a pleasant trip and Saldan was pleased. The refrigerated food on board had been a delicious change from the commissary at Masara and the stewardess had been a delightful companion. He smiled approvingly at her. He tapped the pilot on the shoulder as they rolled to a stop on the tightly packed sand.
"Take off again immediately, mind you," he said. "We don't want to advertise ourselves."
The pilot nodded.
"Don't worry, sir. We'll be off in no time and we never remember where we've been!"
Saldan nodded with approbation. "Just don't forget it," he said. He gave the stewardess another insincere smile and descended through the air-door. With his light gray suit, blue bowtie, brown homburg in his left hand and attache case in the right, he looked just as dapper as when he had set out. This was certainly the way to travel in this part of the world—coolness, after the infernal heat. It reflected off the rim of the desert like a furnace once he had left the plane. He looked longingly back at the stewardess as she closed the door behind him, banging on the panel to let the pilot know he was out.
Then the machine gained momentum across the sand, its slipstream throwing up thousands of particles; it slowly lifted off into the overheated air and was rapidly lost to sight in the cobalt-blue sky. Saldan waited a moment longer, the sun drilling into his back. He walked over toward the fringe of palm trees, conscious of the tall figure of an Arab standing as straight and slim as a tree at the edge of the clearing. The man bowed as Saldan came up.
"The Prince sends his greetings, Mr. Saldan," he said.
Saldan acknowledged his greeting, Arab fashion, but clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"Now, now," he said heavily. "You know we don't use my name here."
He took a heavy case the Arab handed him and opened it. It contained his boots, pith helmet, riding kit, and other desert gear and, of course, his mask. He smiled cynically. The mask was assuredly necessary here.
The Arab went to stand beyond the rim of the trees, as though he were the brooding spirit of the desert. Despite the heat he wore heavy robes and a blanket about him, Saldan wondered how these people stood the heat. He himself, though only out of the plane for a minute, was already drenched in perspiration. He spread out the gear from the case and quickly changed into what he called his slaving outfit. Then he put his suit and other clothing back into the case with his briefcase on top and closed it.
He handed the case to the Arab who had now come back. The man bowed, and led the way between the palms.
"Prince Selim is eagerly awaiting your arrival, sir," he said in his singsong English.
I'll bet, Saldan thought to himself, but all he said to the Arab was, "We have, after all, been friends for a long time, your master and I."
The Arab smiled a lopsided smile and Saldan was irresistibly reminded of Zadok, the only man he had been able to half-trust among all the desert tribes. He was the most reliable Arab he had ever met, which did not bring him even halfway up to Western standards, in Saldan's book. He smiled heavily to himself. Zadok should be nearly here now with the latest cargo.
Two white horses were tethered to the boles of two of the palms, the long halters allowing them to crop the sparse, stunted grass of the oasis.
The Arab vaulted on to a beast which had no saddle or bridle. The other whinnied on recognizing Saldan and thrust its soft nose into the big man's outstretched hand. Saldan got up into the saddle, the stirrup-leathers creaking beneath him. He wondered idly how many trips he had made to Mucar in the past few years. They were many, he knew that. Every bag of gold credited to his secret accounts in undisclosed banks had been hard-earned in sweat, time, pain, and danger.
Saldan and the Arab spurred out across the desert, the horses' hooves throwing up feathery plumes of sand behind them. The serrated ridges of the dunes looked like knife-edges in the clear, hard light; it was amazing the way the wind carved the sand into fantasies which seemed no permanent. Yet disturb one grain and the whole edifice came tumbling down. At the moment a light wind was starting up from the East; as Saldan watched, a whirling plume eddied in the far distance.
Then the dunes nearest them started to blur and dissolve as the skirts of the wind caught them, and long streamers of sand boiled olf the ridges like smoke. The Arab had already put his head into his burnous. Now Saldan reached in his shirt pocket and came out with the heavy black mask he always wore within the walls of the desert city of Mucar. He put it on. Already, grains of grit were flying about, stinging the eyes. He took a large red-and-white handkerchief from the pocket of his riding breeches and tied that round the lower part of his face.
He had always meant to bring sand goggles but somehow, when the time came, they were the one item which seemed to get left behind. He could certainly use them now. He closed his eyes momentarily as the strength of the wind increased, blowing the stinging particles off the ridge edges with knifelike force. The Arab seemed impervious to the bombardment; he rode as though glued to the horse's back, his eyes steadily fixed ahead as though the flying sand were rose petals.
Saldan felt that he would never understand the Arab mind, however long he spent in their cursed country. Masara was bad enough, but at least one did enjoy a better climate and there was always the sea. The desert was something else. He had always abominated it and long experience with its ways and its people had only served to confirm his first impression.
Saldan dismissed these and other thoughts which were crowding his mind. He concentrated on his riding. Tucking his elbows close to his side and keeping his head well down, he galloped onward through the rising wind across the burning desert toward Mucar.
The ancient city of Mucar was as colorful today as any bazaar in old Baghdad. The wind blowing farther out had brought a welcome coolness, and gossip round the wells in secluded courtyards was able to be carried on in a leisurely and proper spirit. Crowds thronged the bazaars and burly drovers from far places filled the wine taverns with coarse laughter and jests.
Even Muzra, the keeper of the biggest cafe-restaurant in the city was contented today; many long-standing bills had been settled. Truly the city and its trade were prospering. He stood on his terrace, his fez at a rakish angle, and surveyed the crowds rubbing shoulders with horses, goats, and donkeys in the narrow alleys and courts that surrounded his establishment.
The crowds were like the seething tides of the sea. The sun caught the turret of the mightiest minaret in all Mucar, which soared above the palatial villas on the other side of the square; and from the fort walls, pale rose in the sunshine. Suddenly, there came the thin crackle of rifles as tribesmen broke into spontaneous and early celebration of the night's feasting. The green-and-white flag bearing the crescent of Islam flew from a flagpole on the massive stone tower at the main entrance of the town and seemed to confer a blessing on the greatest and most prosperous of the desert cities.
As Muzra turned away, his pot belly quivering with excitement at . the delicious stews and sweets being prepared within his establishment, his eye was caught by two men mounted on white horses which forced their way through the throng that seethed like thick currents past the terrace.
Despite the mask which covered the European's face, the figure of the slaver was too familiar to pass without comment and Muzra's contentment increased. If the big one was here, then tonight's mart would be good and he intended to be there. He needed two strong men for his kitchen and maybe a girl or two for his private establishment. He hurried back inside, cuffing indiscriminately at the waiters who ventured too close with their slopping trays.
Saldan and his guide clattered on toward Prince Selim's villa. Soon he and the old ruler were ensconced once more in the familiar private room on the first floor where they had been conducting their business for a good many years. The Prince rose at Saldan's entrance and hurried to embrace him, which surprised the slaver. He told himself that his threat to establish his trading hall elsewhere must have struck the old man where it hurt most—in his pocket. But he would be discreet on this occasion; whatever happened they must not fall out, for Saldan needed Mucar and its slave market as much as the Prince needed his merchandise.
Despite the other dealers and their wares, Saldan's product was invariably the best and he always brought to the markets far more slaves than the other traders could scrape together. So he merely smiled thinly when Selim, the lamps shining on his silky beard, exclaimed with a little birdlike cry, "Ah! Saldan."
He shook his head, proclaiming gently, "Your Highness —my name is not to be used here."
The ruler waved away his protest with an airy gesture. "Well, well, so be it," he said.
He clapped his hands.
"You may retire," he told the assembled courtiers. "This gentleman and I will dine privately. Then we will be entertained until nightfall."
Saldan waited until those present had left the room and the Nubians had brought the steaming dishes of lamb and other delicacies before he removed his mask. The door had closed behind the last of the servants, and only then did he feel he could relax.
The two men were silent as they washed their hands, Saldan observing local etiquette. The big slaver wiped his fingers on the napkin and set to. The long ride across the desert had given him an enormous appetite and more than two hours passed before he and Selim were replete. Saldan belched appreciatively.
"You are too kind, my friend," said Selim, taking the hint. "You overpraise my humble food."
"Not at all, Excellency," said Saldan, belching again. Never have I enjoyed a more delicious repast under your roof."
Selim flushed with pleasure.
Instead of clapping again, he pressed an electric buzzer at the end of a long panel which crossed the floor in front of them.
"One cannot carry local customs too far," he said. "An evening of clapping and I find my palms quite sore."
"There is a price to be paid for tradition, your Highness," Saldan agreed, lighting one of his cigars.
Selim declined the cigar case, as the Nubians began to clear away the short-legged trays which stood in front of them.
"In Europe, yes," he said. "Here, I adhere to local 101
custom during public ceremonies," he added with a twinkle in his eye.
A five-piece orchestra filed in, a wild-sounding flute began a haunting tune, a drum joined the melody and then two ravishing-looking dark-haired girls began to gyrate and undulate in an abandoned manner. Saldan was unimpressed. He'd seen better in Beirut in his time, but it was impressive for Mucar. He paid an appropriate compliment to Selim as the girls' bellies rotated sensuously near them.
"You may, if you wish ..." began Selim.
"I thank your Excellency, but I am here for business only on this occasion," Saldan said. "I must keep a clear head and a steady mind for tonight's work."
The Prince smiled.
"Certainly, certainly," he said in an approving voice. "I was forgetting myself. A most laudable attitude, my friend."
Saldan, who had resumed his mask at the beginning of the public entertainment, nodded. His mind was busy estimating what this evening's shipment was likely to fetch.
Prince Selim leaned forward and waved an appreciative hand to the musicians, who redoubled their efforts.
"The chiefs of the mountains and desert are gathered, awaiting your hiring hall," he said.
"That is pleasing," said Saldan, reaching for a cushion to prop his back and smiling at the two dancers. "They will not be disappointed."
"That is also pleasing to my ear," Prince Selim replied. "I had wondered, in fact ..."
He coughed delicately. Saldan had to lean toward him. It was becoming difficult to hear over the music.
"If it is not untactful to mention it, we have not yet seen your caravan within the walls of the city," the Prince continued. "Your merchandise is quite safe, I take it?"
Saldan smiled grimly. One of the dark-haired girls, mistaking the smile as a compliment to her, redoubled her efforts.
"Quite safe, Excellency," he said. "It will be here, I can assure you. Tonight's market will be one of the best."
Prince Selim gave Saldan a long, shrewd look.
"Then the slaves have not actually arrived?" he said,
Saldan felt impatience beginning to blur the edges of his concentration. Here he was beginning to enjoy himself after the difficult journey and the old fool kept interrupting with business talk.
"They are on their way, Excellency," he said. "You have no cause to worry."
Prince Selim looked at Saldan's burning eyes beneath the mask and decided not to pursue the question. He had no doubt that things would be as the big slaver said. That was his way. The night would no doubt substantiate his words. He popped another grape delicately into his mouth and concentrated on the dancing.
Zadok's face was creased with malicious pleasure. This was his hour of greatest triumph. He stood on a rotting quayside at the fetid, half-forgotten port which he and Saldan always used, and watched the shrieking convicts being lashed down the gangway by the whips of his Arab followers. The stinking dhow rolled to an oily wash as the tottering slaves crossed the frail gangplanks, which bent dangerously beneath their weight.
"Who are those characters?" screamed a thin, bald- headed man with an ugly jagged scar across his mouth. "Where's Zadok?"
"I'm here!" said Zadok with an oily smile.
The convicts had not yet noticed him because the Arab had donned a cloak and turban over his prison clothing.
There were cries of anger and rage as the men discerned the Arab's treacherous features beneath the turban. Zadok spat contemptuously and feathered smoke out through his nostrils from his Turkish cigarette.
He laughed.
"Save your breath for the desert," he advised the raging men. "You've got another short trip in front of you. Twenty-five miles across the desert to Mucar."
There were more cries and threats, but Zadok merely turned his face away and looked across the waterfront as though the cursing men had never existed. This was a scene which had been played out innumerable times and it had ceased to have any meaning or interest for him.
"What is this?" said the dark-haired man to whom Zadok had promised his freedom.
He ducked aside from the rope halter and ran down the dock toward Zadok, stretching out his manacled hands. One of the Arab slavers was after him with the speed of a gazelle. A rifle butt descended with stunning suddenness onto the man's back. He groaned and fell headlong on the dusty wharf. Other guards dragged him to his feet.
"Get back in line, scum," snarled one.
Moaning, the dark-haired man dragged himself forward, hatred for Zadok's treachery erased by his pain.
The bald-headed man passed Zadok a minute or two later, shuffling forward with a halter around his neck like the others. Mindful of his friend's treatment he wisely did not utter any words. Instead, he mutely held out his handcuffs with a contemptuous expression on his face. The clinking of the chain roused Zadok from his reflections. He turned his head and recognized the prisoner.
"You'll be exchanging those bracelets soon," he jeered. "For a ball and chain."
Hopeless expressions on their faces, the convicts started shuffling off into the desert. Sand flew about them, the whips rose and fell, anil another cavalcade of misery set out for the ancient slave market of Mucar.
14
ORDEAL BY ANTS
The helicopter banked and skimmed low over the sand. Mr. Walker was piloting the machine so low that they were below the level of the dunes. Sand rose in great billowing swathes below them. As the helicopter banked and came round again, the pilot turned his strong, calm face toward Slingsby at his side.
"Look over there," he said.
Slingsby gripped the edge of his metal seat and braced himself against the angle of the machine. There, over the top of the ridge, silhouetted against a burning sky, were the turrets and minarets of a city. He gasped at the sudden beauty of the sight.
Mr. Walker smiled at the young officer's astonishment.
"Unexpected, isn't it?" he said. "We're landing out here because I don't want anyone in the city to spot us."
The machine hovered gently as he spoke and then began to sink. Sand spread out in choking clouds on all sides.
"The ancient city of Mucar, Slingsby," the pilot said.
"It seems impossible that slave markets could still be operating in this modern age," said Slingsby.
Walker proceeded with the delicate operation of landing. Then the hydraulic struts absorbed the gentle shock as he put the machine down on the sand. He cut the motor and the blades started to rotate less rapidly, the blur lessened, and then each individual blade appeared distinctly.
"Which is why organizations like the Jungle Patrol have got to keep on their toes," said Walker.
He sat silent for a moment, the still-moving blades of the machine casting flickering shadows over his face. The coughing noise of the air swishing past the blades died away at last and Walker slid back the door and unbuckled his safety harness. The heat of the desert drove in at them swiftly like a sword.
The helicopter had come down behind some rocks. Slingsby was about to get out his own door when he noticed a reflection in a big mirror set over the pilot's head. What he saw disturbed him.
"There's a man with a rifle watching us," he said excitedly.
"Not so loudly," said the pilot calmly. "I'm well aware of that. It's probably one of the Mucar out-guards. I saw him as we came over just now. I haven't spotted any more so we may be in luck."
Walker had already dropped out of the aircraft, on the side away from the guard, where he couldn't be seen. He leaned into the helicopter cabin.
"Listen carefully, Slingsby," he said. "This is vital. I want you to stroll over toward those far rocks. You can see where the guard is coming down now. Say you've come here for the sale. He probably thinks you piloted the machine yourself."
Slingsby brightened. He got out of the helicopter on his own side. Pretending to make an adjustment to the door, Slingsby lingered. He had a sudden thought, not a pleasant one.
"What if the guard can't speak English?"
"Ah, then you're in trouble," said the big man calmly. Sparks of humor were dancing in back of his eyes. "Play it by ear."
He saw Slingsby's expression and added quickly, "Don't worry, I shan't be far away."
He spoke quietly to Devil.
"You'd better stay here, boy, I know it's hot, but it won't be for long."
Devil gave a low whimpering cry and put his head down on his paws again. Walker left the door open so that the wolf could get what breeze there was. Then he was gone, keeping the machine between him and the Arab guard, until he reached the rocks.
Slingsby had already turned and was strolling casually up a rocky path toward the Arab with his long-barreled rifle. The guard grounded the butt and curiously watched him come. Slingsby made his progress as slow as possible. He knew his mysterious pilot had to make a long circuit and he wanted help to be at hand when his alibi ran out.
The sun beat on Slingsby's head and it seemed an age as " 
he walked upward over the rough, rutted surface of the pathway. He hoped the wolf would not break from (he helicopter, but nothing stirred as he glanced back over his shoulder. The animal was too well trained to disobey his master's orders, Slingsby felt thankfully. Not a sound broke the stillness of the desert, except the faint slithering noise made by millions of grains of sand shifting slightly in Ihe wind.
Perspiration poured down Slingsby's back and made a sticky patch on the young officer's uniform shirt. His throat felt dry and he could even feel moisture rolling in rivulets down his cheeks. The guard apparently felt it was loo hot also. He stood for a moment or two longer, and saw that Slingsby was still continuing on course toward him in a perfectly friendly manner. He hesitated and then walked back a few yards into the shadow of the rocks. He put down his rifle against the cliff face and started rolling himself a cigarette.
Slingsby was only a hundred yards away now and ho knew the Arab could fell him with the rifle easily if he made a false move. Not that he would have contemplated it. Perhaps he could have dropped the sentry with a quick shot from his revolver, but sound carried for miles in the desert. Any sudden shot might even be heard by the men on guard at the gates of Mucar and that would bring a camel party out quickly. It would not take long to discover the helicopter and that would be the end. So Slingsby kept on walking.
He was only a few yards away now and was hoping desperately that Mr. Walker could travel as fast as his powerful frame hinted. Even so, gauging the distance carefully, Slingsby knew he would have to hold the Arab in conversation for something more than a sentence or two. And he did not know if he could do it. He could see the man's narrow, cruel face clearly now. He was just lighting the cigarette, his beard drawn back over yellow teeth as he took his first puffs.
He threw the match down at his feet and picked up the rifle again as Slingsby came up close to him.
"That's far enough," he said, to Slingsby's relief. The English was broken and almost unintelligible, but at least the young officer would be able to follow what In- said.
Slingsby came to a halt in the sun and took oil his pith-helmet. He wiped his streaming face with his handkerchief. He spread his arms out.
"Do you mind if I come into the shade?"
The Arab grinned "Ah, you no like desert, eh?" He shrugged. "Okay, but don't try anything."
"Thank you," said Slingsby.
He moved over into the shadow. The Arab shifted round and surveyed him carefully.
"Why should I try anything?" Slingsby asked. He was feeling a little more at ease now. "I am a peaceful traveler. No one has anything to fear from me."
The Arab regarded him ironically, the cigarette drooping from the corner of his mouth.
"Maybe," he said casually. "But maybe Mucar will have something to fear from you."
He spat onto the sand in front of him and Slingsby could have sworn a brief puff of steam went up, for the sand was so hot.
"We no like strangers in Mucar," the Arab said. "Especially those with pale skins. What arc you doing here?"
Slingsby did his best to construct a smile with a mouth that was beginning to get a little rigid from the strain. He hoped Mr. Walker was near, but he did not dare to turn his eyes in the direction from which he expected help to come. Fortunately, the Arab was still standing with his back to the rock.
"I've come for the sale," he said.
The Arab looked at him with hardening suspicion.
"What sale?" he said.
"The slave market tonight," Slingsby said. "I heard there were some good bargains to be had so I came over."
"I no know you," the sentry snarled. "And I go all sales and know everybody. I think you spy."
"Don't be ridiculous," Slingsby protested.
The guard smiled, closing his eyes to narrow slits.
"I think I kill you anyway," he said. "If I'm wrong I apologize tomorrow."
He started to bring the rifle up.
Things began to blur for Slingsby then. Perspiration ran into his eyes, blinding him. What now? he thought. Mr. Walker only told me to say I'd come for the sale. Now I've run out of conversation. He shifted awkwardly on the stony ground and tripped. He started falling sideways, and put out his hand to save himself. The sentry, suddenly startled, took a step back and pointed his rifle at the sky. A great shadow swooped across the sand. The sentry looked up, incredulity in his eyes changing into fear.
The astonishing sight of a hooded, masked man, flying  through the air from the top of the rocks onto him, broke his nerve. He dropped his rifle, turned to run. He didn't cover a foot before a tornado was on his back, driving every ounce of breath from him. His face slammed into the sand and he lost consciousness. The Phantom got up mid rolled over. He bent over the sentry, swiftly examining him. The black pistol holster slapped at his side.
"He's still alive," he said, conscious of Slingsby's astonished expression.
The young man had sagged back against the rock wall, and was trying to regain his wits.
The Phantom stood up. He looked a commanding figure as he gazed keenly across the distant whiteness of the ilunes to the dazzling sky beyond.
He glanced down at the recumbent sentry again.
"We shall need him," he told Slingsby. "Thanks for holding his attention."
Slingsby gulped.
"Don't mention it, sir," he said. "Thanks for saving my
life."
The Phantom did not appear to have heard him. He knelt by the Arab's side. He turned him over. He slapped I he man's face several times. The sentry started to groan. 1'he Phantom pulled his beard. Tears began to run out of the corners of the Arab's eyes. He coughed a few times and was then fully conscious. He blinked his eyes in alarm, anger clouding his face.
"I want your clothing," said the Phantom gently. "And I'm not particular how I get it, so behave yourself."
The sentry spat and struggled up.
"What is the password at the gates of Mucar?" said the Phantom sternly.
The Arab shook his head. A look of cunning came into
his eyes.
"I do not know," he said attempting to shrug but wincing painfully instead.
The Phantom reached down a big hand and shook the sentry much as a terrier shakes a rat.
"Give me your robe," the Phantom said. He pulled it oil him as though he were peeling a banana. The Arab struggled in vain.
"Let's try again," the Phantom said. He gave Slingsby a meaningful look.
"I don't know," the sentry gasped.
"Very well," the Phantom said crisply.
He glanced over behind them to where a red-colored heap of earth towered up to a height of about eight feet. Slingsby knew what it was and he licked his lips, for he had an idea of what was to come.
The Phantom hauled the sentry upright and pulled him round so that he was facing in the opposite direction.
The Phantom jerked his thumb over his shoulder.
"You don't know," he said thoughtfully. "See that? It's a hill of desert ants and I've heard they can strip a man to the bone in thirty minutes."
The Arab's eyes widened in terror. He gave a choking cry as the Phantom suddenly lunged forward. He was as powerless as a child in the big man's grip as he was lifted with hands of steel and Hung over the Phantom's shoulder.
"Let's find out," the Phantom said, striding forward with his struggling burden. Slingsby found himself sweating as he followed along behind.
The Phantom Hung the Arab down on top of the anthill, held him there with an indexible grip. The Arab shrieked and turned a pale gray beneath his dark skin. Thousands of big black ants milled about as the Arab's body disturbed the dust of their nest. An angry buzzing noise came to Slingsby even over the distance of several yards.
"The password!" said the Phantom in a terrible voice.
"No!" the Arab choked. Then he shrieked as the ants started swarming over his recumbent body.
"I talk! I talk!" he said excitedly as the Phantom hauled him to his feet. He collapsed onto the ground again as the Phantom let him go. He started to crawl away, feebly brushing ants from his clothing.
"It's Nadlas," he said. "Don't put me back there again."
The Phantom smiled.
"Simple," he told Slingsby. "It's Saldan spelt backward."
He chuckled at the expression on the young officer's face. He answered the unspoken question.
"No, I wouldn't have left him there," he said.
Then his jaw tightened and he stared out across the desert to where the ancient city of Mucar was hidden behind the dunes.
"But you learn one thing out here, Slingsby," he said. "You can't ever be soft with cutthroats."
He started putting the Arab's robe on, turning up his 110
nose at the pungent smell of goatskin which came from it.
"Now tie this man up and put him in the shade of thee rocks," he told Slingsby.
" Then I want you to give me a hand in camouflaging the helicopter. We'll cover it with a tarpaulin and sand in case a hostile aircraft or some wandering tribesmen should come near here."
The next few minutes were busy ones. When Slingsby had finished his task, leaving the Arab bound and gagged, In- rejoined the Phantom and they carried out the work on the helicopter. Devil was glad to be out of the machine and bounded around them in excitement, his pink tongue lolling from his jaws. When they went back to the rocks the Phantom looked every inch a Bedouin, complete with lairnous and headband. But he retained his mask so that Slingsby still could not see his features. The Phantom swung himself into the saddle on the sentry's black horse.
"I'm afraid I shall have to leave Devil with you," he told Slingsby. "He won't hurt you so don't be afraid. He won't obey you, of course, but he will protect you if any marauders come this way. And he will stay here until I return."
He reined in the plunging horse.
"There's food for Devil in this pack."
He smiled briefly.
"You'll also find food for yourself when you're hungry. I suggest moving away a bit in case anyone comes to relieve the sentry. If it's a single man you know what to do. Keep hidden until my return. And don't light a fire, of
course."
"May the people in Mucar not expect the sentry to light a fire?" Slingsby ventured.
"Too risky," the Phantom decided. "And it will give your position away. Pity there weren't two sentries—then we could each have a disguise. I'll be back as soon as I can."
He waved and galloped away across the dunes in the
direction of Mucar.
15
FORBIDDEN CITY
The Phantom followed the contours of the dunes for a mile or two until he felt he had disguised his direction sufficiently, and then rode boldly toward the distant turrets of the city. He knew the wind would blow away his tracks in an hour; so that they would not lead back to Slingsby. The Arab horse was a good one, though badly trained, and the Phantom needed his iron hands on the reins as it tended to jib from side to side.
In less than an hour, the turrets and walled battlements of Mucar had composed themselves before him in the haze and presently he was trotting over a flinty track that wound in and out between scrubby trees that grew in the shelter of the walls. It was an ancient town, he noted, and one that would lend itself well to such a trade as that indulged in by Saldan. He halted finally before a watch tower above which the green crescent of Islam flew and where men with long rifles lolled.
The Phantom hammered with the butt of his pistol on the panels of the massive wooden- and iron-bound gate that barred the entrance to the city. A small postern gate in the main structure opened and a lean, crafty face surveyed him, appraising the Phantom and his mount from head to foot.
"The password?" the man asked in Arabic.
"Nadlas," the Phantom replied. Then adding in the dialect of the border tribes, "May Allah be with you all your days."
The man bowed with an ill grace.
"If it be so willed, brother."
He drew back and a moment later huge bolts rasped back. One side of the main gate opened and the Phantom clattered into the city. The door clanged to hollowly behind him. He found himself in a maze of narrow courts, his mount picking its way delicately between laden carts. herds of goats and sheep, and peddlers pushing their wares on flimsy barrows. The smell was indescribable and the big man pulled his cloak across his mouth more tightly as he urged his mount through the cursing passers-by crowding the narrow ways.
Presently he was clear of the crowd, walking his mount Hi rough a more affluent part of the city, a place of elegant squares and courtyards, where fountains played in I he sunshine and lattice-work grilles, showing the influence of the Moors, threw fretwork patterns across exquisitely tiled pavements. Clouds of white pigeons flew here and tropical flowers grew in great stone troughs. In this place of great space and light, the Phantom found a bronze vessel full of muddy water for horses and he slipped down from his mount, which drank gratefully.
Tying the horse to the metalwork of a filigree balcony, the big man took the opportunity to mix with the passers- by, keeping his ears open for any snatches of conversation which might lead to news of Saldan. He paused beneath the striped awning of a prosperous brass-merchant's establishment and examined a pair of finely wrought vases. Nsar him two men, obviously merchants, by their prosperous bearing, spoke of cattle and sheep prices.
Presently they glanced around and lowered their voices. The Phantom pressed closer beneath the awning, as though examining the brass-merchant's wares more closely. The men did not appear to have noticed him, or, if they had, had dismissed him from their thoughts.
The taller of them, a courtly man with a grave, bearded face, plucked at his belt with long-nailed fingers and said casually, "When is the sale?"
The other glanced around the half-empty court and replied in low tones, "After dark, in the usual place ..."
The first man nodded with satisfaction and the two men stepped away. As the brass-merchant was now approaching from the dim interior of his shop, the light of avarice in his eye, the Phantom moved casually away and walked back to his horse. He remounted and rode farther back into the fastnesses of the secret city.
The prisoners were exhausted. They staggered across the burning face of the desert toward the distant turrets of Mucar as though it were a city in a mirage. One stubble faced convict, his neck chafed red with the grass-rope halter, said bitterly, "We left Masara for this!"
Even Zadok was beginning to feel the strain. He still had his handcuffs and, too late, he had found that there was no spare horse. He would make sure about this detail on his next trip. Saldan should have seen to it. The Arab slavers declined to let him ride two-up with one of them, so Zadok was reduced to bringing up the rear. He did not dare walk among the convicts. That would have been asking for assault. He smiled bitterly to himself. This was his toughest assignment so far. Another dozen trips or so and he would have enough money to establish his own trading concern. That day he would escape from Masara for good. He chuckled to himself at the thought.
It was late afternoon and the sun was casting long shadows before the group came to one of the smaller gates of Mucar town; this was a postern much favored by the slavers and one of three most frequently used by Saldan and his Arab partner. The dejected men filed through in almost complete exhaustion. Zadok was the last through, but his spirits rose when he saw the form of his master in jodhpurs, open-neck shirt, and pith-helmet waiting for him within the shadow of the walls.
The two men exchanged curt greetings, as was their fashion. Saldan's eyes looked at Zadok sardonically from behind the mask, taking in his assistant's bedraggled condition.
"So you know what it's like now, Zadok, do you?" he said raspingly. "You had a nice walk?"
Zadok smiled his lopsided smile, his lips drawn back from the teeth like a dog.
He almost spat out his reply.
"The fool you sent had no key for my handcuffs," he said holding them out and rattling them.
"Too bad," said Saldan, shaking his head. "Had a rough trip, did you?"
"Rough wasn't the word," said Zadok, some of his rage evaporating. "There wasn't a spare horse, either."
Saldan waved away his grumbling.
"Take them to the usual quarters," he called after the Arab slavers. "Give them food and water. I want top price for them tonight!"
He turned back to find Zadok at his elbow.
"Saldan, you should have gotten me a horse," the Arab hissed. "I'm worn out." "Quiet, you fool!" the big man growled, raising his fist to strike the Arab, who dodged back to avoid the blow. "I low many times have I told you not to use my name."
"It was a good job, wasn't it?" said Zadok.
"Very good," said Saldan, stroking his chin. "One of your best." He turned away to follow the slavers.
"Just a minute, boss," said Zadok, plucking at his arm. " You've forgotten something. My handcuffs ..."
"I haven't forgotten anything," said Saldan calmly. He spat expressively upon the ground.
"Times change, Zadok. The pressure at Masara from the Jungle Patrol is getting too much for the trade to stand."
Zadok turned pale.
"Wh-what do you mean?" he stammered.
He held up his handcuffed hands, jangling the chain in mute appeal. Saldan lit a cigar, puffing the fragrant smoke in his assistant's face.
The Arab reeled away, his eyes stinging. He felt tired and faint after the long march and he was light-headed from the heat.
"This is my last haul," said Saldan, looking Zadok closely in the eyes. "After tonight I'm going out of business."
There was a long pause as the Arab stood very still.
"So I don't need you any more, Zadok," Saldan said gently.
The Arab shook his head as though he had not heard properly.
"What do you mean?" he asked, shaking his head again.
"Just what I said," Saldan replied. "I'm going out of business."
The Arab's face cleared.
"I understand that, sir," he said. "But how about these
cuffs?"
There was a tinge of regret in Saldan's voice as he went on.
"Zadok, don't you understand, I can't have you running around loose, shooting off your mouth."
He blew cigar smoke thoughtfully in the Arab's direction.
"So I'm putting you in the sale—with the others."
There was a howl of rage from the Arab and the next moment a bundle of flailing fury sprang through the air at Saldan's throat. Taken off guard he reeled back as one of the Arab's handcuffs caught him across the side of the
mouth. His cigar fell to the ground in a shower of sparks as the Arab traders turned back, aroused by the uproar behind them. One big man spurred to Saldan's side as the slaver fell against the city wall. Blood was beginning to ooze in an ugly trickle from the side of his mouth.
"You're selling me? You scum!" Zadok went on screaming.
He screamed again as one of the slaver's whips cracked across his back, sending him sprawling into the dust.
"Get away from me, you filthy pig!" said Saldan, seizing the whip from the guard. He dabbed at his bleeding mouth with a handkerchief and as it came away scarlet it seemed to enrage him more than ever. The whip descended again and again onto Zadok's recumbent form. The Arab groveled, trying to avoid the blows rained on him.
"You can't do this!" he shouted. "I worked for you for years. I arranged the breaks and brought the men in here. I even stayed in prison to organize the trade—the trade which made you rich."
Saldan finally threw the whip down, his body trembling. Two of the guards dragged Zadok to his feet.
"I took all the risks!" the Arab went on shouting. "I was loyal to you. You can't put me in with them. They know now. They'll kill me."
Saldan had recovered some of his calm. He kept on dabbing with the handkerchief.
"You should have thought of that before," he said.
He motioned to the guards.
"Take him away," he said.
Unnoticed in the general melee, the tall figure of an Arab had been surveying the chaotic scene from behind a shadowed pillar fringing the court. He slipped away silently to mingle with the crowds in the bazaars as the big wooden door closed behind the still-shouting Zadok and his captors. Saldan stood a moment longer. He picked up the whip. Holding it loosely coiled in his hand and still dabbing at the side of his face, he too disappeared among the crowd.
16
VALUABLE PROPERTY
Prince Selim's face looked grave. The light of the late afternoon sun stained his beard a pale rose as he stood on the terrace of his villa looking out over the golden roofs of Mucar to the distant fringe of the desert. The air of the roof garden was heavy with the perfume of many flowers, brightly coloured birds flew among the foliage, and the splashing of many fountains sounded coolly on the ear.
The Prince looked down thoughtfully at the fine pattern of red, blue, and green tiles which infinitely repeated themselves across the floor of the terrace. Behind him the golden cupolas of an ornamental pavilion caught the last of the sun's rays. Soon they would sink behind the taller buildings of the city. Down below the terrace steps, on the inner courtyard, two white horses pawed the dusty paving. palm trees, sheltered by the courtyard walls, shivered slightly in the rising breeze.
The file of soldiers stood in line, facing outward from the bottom of the steps; the breeze fluttered their cloaks until it looked as though the whole line was suffering from I he ague. Saldan's heavy face was enigmatic in the rosy evening light. He stood next to the Prince, smoking the inevitable cigar, drinking in the blessed quiet of the garden.
Selim turned away from the courtyard at last and made a small impatient movement of his hand. His eyes were troubled as he tried to probe beneath the big slaver's
mask.
"Are you really going to put your assistant on I ho auction block?" he asked in a quiet voice.
Saldan sighed a heavy sigh as though he bitterly regretted the action.
"Yes," he told the Prince. "This is our last mart tonight."
The two men, as if by common consent, turned away from the balcony and started a slow pacing along the edge of the roof garden, savoring the coolness. Saldan's cigar smoke rose up above the balcony wall and was then dispersed by the rising breeze.
The Prince clicked his tongue with annoyance; loss of Saldan's supply of slaves would also mean a big drop in revenue for him.
"Is it really necessary?" he asked for the third time that evening.
Saldan shook his head impatiently.
"Zadok? Loose, he's dangerous. He can talk. Or he can blackmail me." He shot Selim a quizzical glance. "Or you, Prince."
The old ruler of Mucar shivered slightly, as though the breeze were a chill one, and drew his jeweled coat about him with one withered hand. He said nothing and as the two men continued their pacing, Saldan went on.
"Look at it like this. Prince," he said. "The way I've organized things, Zadok is taken care of. He's safely out of the way, there's no danger to you and me and in addition there's the profit to consider."
He paused in his pacing and blew fragrant blue smoke out of his mouth. His face beneath the mask tried to assume a look of benevolence, but failed.
"He's worth five thousand to us, Prince."
The ruler of Mucar shook his head doubtfully. His eyes were still troubled. His gaze traveled over the cool beauty of the roof garden without seeing anything.
"You're a hard man, Saldan," he said.
Saldan turned on the Prince with an abrupt movement.
"No, practical, Excellence," he said.
And then he added, with another hard look, "And don't use my name in this town!"
Selim made a placatory movement of his hand.
"As you will," he said. "May Allah forgive you for what you do this night."
Saldan stepped forward to the balcony and looked once again down into the courtyard. Neither of the two men saw the tall figure in Arab robes who regarded them keenly from the dense foliage of the garden. The eyes of the figure were hard and watchful from behind the mask he wore. He flattened himself behind the basin of a fountain as the two men passed near the spot where he crouched, silent and unseen.
"I don't know about Allah, Prince," said Saldan, giving In. companion a contemptuous look. "Or about forgiveness, come to that."
I le paused again, until his cigar was drawing satisfactorily.
"But if He exists then I am sure He will."
"I do not care for blasphemy, Saldan," said the Prince in scandalized tones.
"I didn't know you were so devout, Excellence," said Saldan sardonically. "Do they have a mosque in Deau- ville?"
For a moment, he thought he had gone too far.
"That will do, Saldan!" said the Prince in a voice which echoed something of the man he had been in his youth. "Perhaps it is just as well this is the last auction." He put his hand significantly on the jeweled dagger in his belt. "Otherwise two old friends might fall out."
Zadok sat, a crumpled figure, among the dejected forms In the slave stalls of Mucar, a quarter where he had often supervised the wretched cargoes of merchandise before they went out to the auction block. His misery was such that he scarcely heard the slavers pass among the assembled convicts with their leg-irons and steaming pots of food. The biggest of the Arabs had a particular smile for Zadok as he passed him by.
"This is where we get rid of your handcuffs," he said in reasonably accurate and cheerful English.
"What do you mean?" said the dark-haired convict. He stared as two Arabs approached; they held him as a third Kicked the leg shackle firmly about his ankle. He stared disbelievingly at the heavy iron ball at the end of the chain.
"What are you doing?" he cried anxiously.
There was a burst of laughter from the Arab slavers.
"Removing your handcuffs," said the slave leader. He bent over the dark-haired convict with metal shears and cut off the cuffs.
"You see, we keep our word!"
There was loud laughter among the Arabs and curses and shouts from the convicts as the slavers passed among them, repeating the process until all of the eleven new arrivals had leg-irons substituted for their cuffs. Tin plates were passed out and an Arab went down the lines on the benches, ladling out the chicken and beans in a sticky mass onto each platter. The men were so hungry and so busy scraping up the food with their fingers that the next ten minutes passed in a silence broken only by the scraping noises of their fingers and the masticating sounds from their jaws.
There were murmurs of satisfaction and then the Arabs were among them again, passing out tin mugs of hot, sweet black coffee. Zadok cupped his mug and downed the black liquid, wondering when he would again taste such fare. It would be a rare treat indeed, unless he could escape before the auction commenced. And he had also to elude the vengeance of his former captives. He regretted bitterly the long course of actions which had led to the present situation. But his cunning brain was still turning over the possibilities, as he slumped his shoulders and looked as woebegone as possible.
"What are we doing here?" said the bald-headed convict, when his thirst was satisfied, lie looked round the slave stalls bitterly.
"We escaped from Masnrn Prison for this?"
He glanced helplessly down at the big iron ball and from there to the heavy circlet which shackeled the chain firmly to his ankle. Then his bitter glance found the dark-haired convict. He spat in his direction.
"Paper walls!" he said expressively. The younger man was silent.
The leader of the Arab slavers went down the lines, making sure the guards had gathered up the platters and mugs. He smiled, revealing broken yellow teeth.
"You see, we treat you good," he said. "We got orders to treat you good!"
He paused, savoring the effect.
"You're valuable," he added, grinning at the shackled men.
"Valuable to who?" said the bald-headed man sullenly. "What is this place?"
The big Arab smiled sardonically. He raked his glance over the dejected figure at the end of the bench.
"Zadok knows," he said. "You ask him."
He smiled again wolfishly.
"Zadok knows everything about the slave runs!" he said.
He strode off, leaving four Arab guards to keep an eye on the assembled men.
"What's all this about, Zadok?" said the bald-headed man. Rage was slowly mounting in him. The men had forgotten about the treacherous Arab with their earlier I roubles, but now a gust of resentment and anger seemed to be fanning through the entire group.
Zadok shrank away, as the rancour in the men spread toward him in a tangible wave. For the first time he was beginning to realize what being a slave meant. It was a situation of peculiar horror and his quick brain also realized in a flash that he was in deadly danger from the men he had duped.
"Zadok!" said the dark-haired convict. "Who was the masked man who spoke to you at the city gate?"
Zadok turned away his head. All eyes were concentrated on him. Nobody noticed the huge Arab with the cartridge bandolier standing near the entrance to the slave quarters. He leaned on his rifle and kept his eyes on the ground as though he were tired. But his ears missed nothing of the babble of conversation going on within.
The bald-headed man was standing up now, moving down the bench toward the slumped figure of Zadok. He pulled the iron ball after him. It made a heavy dragging sound on the floor as the chain tightened.
"You got us into this, Zadok," he shouted thickly. "Why?"
"Force the truth out of him!" said the big blond man, knotting his fists.
The bald-headed man had reached Zadok now. He hurled himself on the Arab and fastened two big hands round his throat. Zadok went over backward, the big man on top of him. He made choking noises and his eyes were starting out of his head.
One of the guards came forward brandishing his rifle.
"Stop!" he called imperiously.
The rifle butt descended on the bald-headed man's shoulder. He staggered with a yelp of pain and released his hands from Zadok's throat. The Arab got up, looking yellow. His eyes spat hatred at the convict.
"You are all valuable property," said the guard who had used the rifle. He looked round him grimly.
"You must be in good shape for the sale tonight."
"What sale?" said the bald-headed man in slurred tones. He looked round the tense faces of his companions. "Valuable property?"
Anger thickened his voice again as he turned back to Zadok.
"What do they mean?" he shouted. "What are they talking about when they refer to valuable property?"
Zadok was hemmed in by a ring of hostile faces. The convicts were only kept from tearing him to pieces by the menacing barrels of the guards' rifles. He felt cornered and desperate.
"Here it is!" he shouted. "You asked for the truth and i'll give it to you. I brought you here to be sold like cattle—in a slave market!"
He saw a stupefied look pass across the convicts' faces, to be replaced with a dull and sullen rage.
"Slaves," said the man with the shaven head stupidly.
'There's no such thing any more," said the dark-haired man.
Zadok cowered back, expecting the storm to break any moment. But it had not yet come.
The bald-headed man was openly derisive.
"Everybody knows that slavery was abolished years ago," he said.
"There's no such thing any more. Tell us the truth!"
Zadok's eyes were incredulous. He had told them the truth and they refused to believe him. They were still looking for some plausible reason for their presence in Mucar.
"I've got no more to say," he repeated, backing away until his back was up against the wall.
A group of five convicts gathered about him. Their faces were white and savage as they slowly and quietly looped the slack chain of their manacles round their wrists.
"Tell us the truth or well pound you to pieces with these iron balls!" said the bald-headed man. He stooped and picked up the dead weight. The other convicts followed suit.
Zadok turned white under his dark complexion.
"I told you the truth!" he shouted, squirming away from his tormentors.
"The truth, Zadok," said the dark-haired convict. "We're not joking. We will smash you!"
The biggest of the five guards pushed his way through the throng. He had a rhinoceros-hide whip in his hand and he used the heavy butt of it to flail a passage. A second guard followed behind him. "Get back!" said the first man. He whistled the thong of the whip viciously through the air.
"I warned you already. No fighting! No injuries!"
He glared about him.
"But I'll break that rule and crease a few skins if you don't stop this!"
The five convicts, in a menacing group, stood silent for ii moment like a tableau in a museum. Then, before anyone could move, a blurred streak shot across the room. There were gasps and muffled shouts from the olher three guards, who had remained near the entrance to the slave quarters. In a few seconds, two of them were groaning on the floor. As the other two guards with the whips turned, the big Arab who had burst among them whirled. His rifle butt cracked with a sickening impact on the side of one guard's jaw. His whip flew from his hand, liis eyes glazed, and he was already on his way to the ground when the other Arab turned.
The fifth guard had his whip raised when a fist with a peculiar ring crashed into his jaw; he was flung like a rag doll against the wall where his head came in contact with the stone. A thin smear of blood followed him down as he slumped to the floor.
The gigantic figure of the intruder strode to the center of the room, the two whips in his hand. The convicts recoiled from the blazing courage in those fantastic eyes beneath the mask.
"And now, gentlemen, lets all sit down quietly and have a chat!" said the Phantom.
17
ZADOK IN DANGER
The convicts sat in an incredulous group on one side of the big slave room; behind them, in an untidy pile, were the five guards, dragged there by the Phantom. Zadok sat by himself against the fur wall, behind a bench. His eyes never left the Phantom's facc.
The Phantom sat on the edge of a table facing the group. He looked bigger than ever to the men on the floor and he dominated them all, savage as they were, by the sheer force of his personality. He had been silent for some minutes, looking the group over curiously. He had wasted no time with Zadok, but the loaded pistol at his right-hand side—where Zadok would have to pass on his way to the door—left no doubt that he would deal with the Arab summarily if he tried to escape.
Zadok realized he had no chance, and he sat silently where he was. He had survived many things by biding his time and remaining still; tonight might not be an exception. There still remained two hours until auction time. Darkness had long since fallen over the city. And darkness had always been his friend. The time remaining also meant that Saldan would not return to the slave quarters for more than two hours. He invariably spent the evening immediately before a sale in the cafes with his friends, the other dealers. Zadok kept his own counsel and decided to play things by ear.
In the meantime he was intensely curious to hear what the big man with the mask had to say. Eventually, one of the convicts, bolder than the rest, licked dry lips and asked a question.
"Who are you ... sir?"
There was a stir among the assembled men. They shifted uneasily on the floor, and with the subtle movement, there came the clanking of chains.
"Are you for us—or against us?" said the bald-headed man, casting a nervous glance over his shoulder at the recumbent guards.
"I'm for you—up to a point!" said the Phantom, the deep, resonant tones echoed round the chamber.
He looked grimly at them.
"You men thought you'd made a jail break. Well, you didn't. It was arranged!"
There was a sudden outburst among the men. It was so loud that the Phantom went swiftly to the door of the 100m. The guards in the other sections were all busy with I heir own charges and no one had noticed what was going on in the area allotted to Saldan.
The Phantom came back. He stood, legs slightly apart, lowering over the men. The pistol was in his hand. He would not risk leaving it on the table, especially with /udok sitting comparatively near.
The bald-headed man spoke again.
"You said the break was arranged. Why? What is the point of bringing us here. Where are we and what for?"
"This is the desert city of Mucar," the Phantom said. "Zadok told you the truth. You are to be sold as slaves."
There was another explosive outburst from the convicts mid the Phantom had to hold up his hand to achieve nilcnce.
"I have news for you men," he went on. "Remember •lie masked man who met you at the gate? He's your seller. He is also Saldan, the warden of your jail!"
There was an unnatural and ugly silence, in marked contrast to the babble which had gone before.
"Warden Saldan?" said the blond, shaven convict. "Impossible!"
"Quite possible," said the Phantom dryly. "And inevitable, as you would have found out if I hadn't intervened."
He walked along the group of seated men, trying to impress on them the truth of his words.
"Warden Saldan arranged your escape so that he could sell you all here as slaves. It's a racket he's grown rich on over the years. Your group was only the latest in a long line of 'consignments' of escaped prisoners."
"That rat Zadok!" burst out the bald-headed man. "I'll murder him!"
Zadok shrank back against the wall, but kept his eyes lixed impassively on the Phantom.
"Not yet," said the Phantom. He turned to look at Zadok, gave him a tight smile.
"Perhaps later," he added.
"There's something weird about this whole setup," said the dark-haired convict. "Who has slaves nowadays?"
"Yeah!" said someone else. "Slavery went out in the nineteenth century. Everyone knows that."
The Phantom smiled an enigmatic smile. He went to stand over the slumped figure of Zadok.
"Perhaps this man will tell you what happens after you leave the auction block!" he snapped. "Tell them, Zadok!"
He picked the Arab up by the scruff of his neck and held him clear of the ground. Zadok squirmed for a moment or two and was still. He hung suspended more than a foot from the ground, stupefied at the almost supernatural strength of the huge man who held him so effortlessly.
"Tell them, Zadok," the Phantom said again.
He put the Arab down. Zadok staggered to the table and sat down. All the strength seemed to have drained out of him.
"Slavery still goes on," he said in a low voice. "In distant places, hidden oases, mountain kingdoms."
He was silent for a moment, looking at the floor. He seemed to see Saldan's face there, in the dust, as when they had ridden together on so many expeditions across the desert. He went on in the same low, hopeless voice. "When you leave the auction block here, you disappear forever. To the world you are dead."
The convicts were silent, absorbing every word.
"There are no laws in that world," Zadok went on. "No police. And no escape, except the grave ..."
He stirred, moving his feet awkwardly, the chains clinking. He smiled his lopsided smile, looking at the men indirectly.
"So now you know," he said.
There was a sudden explosion of breath, like the men had recovered from a trance.
"You got us into this horror, Zadok," said the dark- haired man. "You deserve a lingering death."
The Phantom strode into the middle of the angry group. Once again silence returned as he exerted the force of his personality.
"Wait!" he told the men. "You're all in it together now."
"But what can we do?" said the bald-headed man desperately.
"We're in the middle of nowhere."
"Just be patient," the Phantom said.
He left them gathered around Zadok in his corner and strode to the door. He looked out cautiously, sidled into I In- next bay. It did not look as though it would be a very big market that evening. There were half-a-dozen slaves in I lie next section and, beyond that, five men and two women, the latter having the usual bath treatment. That was why most of the dealers and guards were up at that rnd. The Phantom went back to his own section.
He closed the heavy door behind him. He went round Hie whole section carefully. He found another door in the buck and secured that with a wooden bar. Next he turned liis attention to the windows. When he was satisfied with Ins inspection, he turned to the guards. One of them was groaning. The Phantom went over and tapped him on the hack of the head with the barrel of his pistol. The man went back to sleep again. That found favor with the men. I here were one or two sniggers, which moderated the irnsion. Zadok still stood cowering against the wall. With (he barring of the doors, hope had fled. But he had not completely given up.
"I will help you to escape on one condition," said the Phantom, looking round at the grim faces of the convicts.
"Anything!" said the bald-headed man.
The Phantom smiled.
"You haven't heard my condition yet," he said.
18
DECREASING THE ODDS
There was another confused murmur of voices as the Phantom folded his massive arms across his chest. His eyes, beneath his black mask, looked steadily at the men.
"My condition is this," he said.
"I said anything and we meant anything," said the bald-headed man, looking fiercely round the group.
There was a murmur of assent.
Zadok went and sat on the edge of the table again, away from the angry stares and threatening fists of his fellow convicts. He cast longing glances toward the door.
The looks were not lost upon the Phantom and he quickly unbuckled his bolster again and slid the pistol out. He held it in his right hand as he faced the men. Its barrel was inclined in Zadok's direction and began to make him uncomfortable as the minutes went by.
"You haven't heard the condition yet," said the Phantom. "When you do you may not be quite as pleased."
There was another murmur of refutation from the assembled convicts. The Phantom finally had to hold up his hand for silence. Time was passing and he needed more to carry out his preconceived plan.
"I want you all to return to Masara Prison and finish your sentences!" he said.
There was a deep silence which was eventually broken by such a clamor that the big man was afraid the racket would bring the guards from the other sections. Quickly the bald-headed man perceived the danger and rapped the table, restoring order.
"Let's hear what he has to say," he said bitterly, shooting the Phantom a wry glance.
"Exactly what I've just said," replied the Phantom crisply. "That's my offer. I think you'd agree that anything is better than being sold into slavery forever?"
He looked round the group, searching the hard-bitten faces, each bearing the stamp of sullen despair.
"A great choice," said the bald-headed man ironically. "We break out of jail into slavery. Then we break out of the slave market and into jail again!"
"The choice is yours," said the Phantom simply.
The dark-haired man looked round his colleagues quietly.
"We've got no other choice," he said. "Prison is a rest cure compared to the picture Zadok painted."
The blond man with the shaven head disagreed.
"We can still make a break for it," he said, looking round him eagerly. "The guards are out and no one knows."
"With ball and chain—and against a thousand of Prince Selim's soldiers?" said the Phantom ironically.
He moved over toward the door, the pistol dangling from his big hand. He kept his eyes on Zadok's face. There followed another long and despairing silence.
"Better make up your minds quickly," the Phantom said. "I've got a plan, and it all depends on my getting out of here and back in time."
His words decided them.
"As you say, sir," said the bald-headed man, giving him an ironic bow, "we've no choice at all."
He looked round the table.
"We're all agreed?"
There was a hoarse affirmative response from the men.
"Back to Masara Prison, then," said the Phantom crisply-
"But how?" said the dark-haired man. "What'll we do?"
"You leave that to me," the Phantom said. "Just sit tight here and I'll be back with help. Don't let Zadok out of your sight."
"Some chance of that," the bald-headed man said. He spat grimly. Then the Phantom was gone like a shadow.
Devil raised his head. His yellow eyes glowed and his ears pricked up. His tail began to agitate the sand. Slingsby, sitting quietly smoking, keeping an eye on the bound guard, was alerted. He listened carefully. Presently he made out what the hypersensitive ears of the wolf had picked up minutes before. A horse was galloping swiftly across the sand toward them.
Slingsby was on his feet in an instant. He went into the 129
shadow of the rocks, his revolver in his hand. He bent and regagged the sentry. Then he went back to where he could watch the desert. The moon was up now but it was difficult to pick out anything, for the dunes cast deep shadows. Presently he made out a thin plume of sand which advanced in zigzags. The puffs marked the progress of a horseman. Then Slingsby relaxed; he recognized the Phantom.
Devil bounded out excitedly as the rider reined in, greeting his master. The Phantom slid from the saddle and scratched the big wolf behind the ears. He carried Arab clothing on the saddle pommel.
"Everything okay?" asked Slingsby in worried tones.
The Phantom nodded.
"Put these on, Slingsby," he said, tossing the robes to the young officer. "1 need you."
Siingsby took the garments and swiftly put them on over his own clothes.
"What about the automatic weapons?" he asked.
"Better leave them here," the Phantom replied. "They would be awkward to carry and it would look odd if ordinary Arabs were seen carrying them in Mucar."
"Did you get me a mount?" Slingsby asked.
The Phantom smiled, his teeth glinting in the moonlight.
"That would have been ridiculous," he said. "What do you think the sentries would have thought?"
Slingsby bit his lip. He was glad the darkness hid the expression on his face.
"We'll ride two-up," said the Phantom, getting into the saddle again.
"What about Devil?" Slingsby asked.
"We'll have to leave him to keep an eye on the Arab," the Phantom said. "A few more hours won't make any difference. He's used to it."
He reached down his hand and helped Slingsby up behind him. His strength was so great that the Jungle Patrol officer almost flew into the air.
"Did you feed him?" the Phantom asked.
"Devil or the Arab?" Slingsby asked.
"Both," said the Phantom, turning the horse in a plunging curve.
"About an hour ago," Slingsby said, winding his arms tightly about the big man. The Phantom's build was so massive that Slingsby's arms did not reach around his chest. The big man snapped some instructions to Devil. The wolf whimpered once and then went to sit down in Hie shadow of the rock, his eyes glued on the recumbent figure of the sentry.
"He won't be moving," the Phantom chuckled. He kicked his heels into the sides of the horse and they went galloping back toward Mucar.
"I take it you've had success," said Slingsby, adjusting his body to the motion of the horse.
"It's all set," the Phantom said. "I've had a talk with Ihe prisoners and made them see reason. They've all agreed to return to Masara Prison."
Once again Slingsby marveled at a will power that could achieve such things. But then he himself was beginning to understand something of the personality of the huge man who was controlling the half-broken Arab horse as it plunged and slid in a dangerous manner across the dunes. Sand flew in all directions, choking them. Slingsby clung tighter to the man in front of him, and adjusted his burnous across his mouth to keep the dust out.
"Its going to be difficult, sir, to say the least," he said cautiously. "We've got to cross about eight hundred miles of desert."
He lurched sideways as the horse shied over the top of n dune and then recovered himself as they went scrambling down to the bottom. It was like being aboard a ship during a typhoon.
"We also have to get them out of Mucar, through a thousand soldiers, not to mention crossing the desert. .."
The Phantom cut into his speech with a little dry comment.
"Details, Slingsby, details ..." he said laconically.
He chuckled quietly to himself.
"We'll figure that out later—once we've got back inside again."
Half an hour passed and they were close up against the city walls. The Phantom stopped the horse and the two men got off. They both walked the last few hundred yards. At the Phantom's instructions Slingsby was limping and his face was contorted with simulated pain beneath the headdress.
Again came the challenge from the watchtower. Again the big man gave the password, "Nadlas."
A new guard grumblingly opened the postern gate.
"What happened to your friend?" he grunted, indicating the limping Slingsby.
"He had a bad fall from his horse about ten miles back," the Phantom replied in the dialect of the border tribes. "The horse broke his leg so we had to shoot him."
The guard nodded sympathetically.
He opened the main gate and latched it behind them as they walked the horse through.
"Truly the desert is a harsh master but, as Allah says, a true friend."
"You speak wisdom, brother," the Phantom said.
The sentry appeared to be a garrulous type, for he held the Phantom in conversation. Slingsby had already limped some way ahead.
"It is fortunate you come this evening, brother," the sentry told the Phantom. "Your friend will be able to purchase a horse as well as a woman."
The Phantom smiled; he had wound his headdress tightly about him so that his mask could not be seen in the dim light of the alley.
"Ah, then, it is the mart this evening, brother?" he queried.
"Within half an hour," the sentry replied. "You had better hurry if you wish to eat before it begins."
The Phantom thanked him and rejoined Slingsby.
"I thought you'd never get away," said Slingsby.
The Phantom smiled again.
"It pays to be thorough, brother," he said in Arabic.
Slingsby understood enough to get the drift of what he was saying, and he smiled in return.
"I've been looking around while you were talking with the gatekeeper," he said. "The place is swarming with soldiers and they're armed to the teeth."
The two men were walking farther into the city now, the Phantom leading the horse.
"What's the next move?" Slingsby whispered, as they passed group after group of horsemen in the narrow streets.
The Phantom tied the horse to a railing and led the way onward as though he knew Mucar intimately. They were now in a more affluent section of the city, with palaces, courtyards, and public squares.
"We'll pay a little visit to the corrupt Prince of this evil place," the Phantom said, gazing keenly about him as they walked.
"Surely you can't be serious, sir," Slingsby protested. "The city is a fortress. How will we get ten men out of here? Let alone ourselves?"
"Allah looks after him who looks after himself," said the Phantom with a broad grin. "Ancient proverb.'.'
And with that Slingsby had to be content. The two men now came to a white stone wall, on which the shadows of palm leaves were stenciled by the moonlight. It had a liuge postern gate. The two men looked up and down. The narrow alley was deserted.
"This is the rear entrance to Selim's palace," the Phantom whispered.
"But it's guarded!" said Slingsby in uneven tones.
He had just seen the burnous of a sentry appear from round the corner. The two men guarded their station before the postern with long rifles in their arms. To Slingsby's horror, the Phantom prodded him forward and walked boldly up to the sentries.
"We are here to see His Highness," he said in ringing tones.
The two guards stirred uneasily; they looked puzzled.
"Visitors to the palace do not enter this gate," said the tallest of the two men.
"Correction!" said the Phantom. "We do!"
His fist caught the biggest guard squarely on the point of the jaw. There was a sickening thud as he flew like a rocket backward, slamming his head against the grillwork of the gate. Before he had reached the ground, the Phantom had his hands around the other's throat, preventing him from calling out. Slingsby, his hesitation forgotten, laid the barrel of his pistol across the man's head. The man slumped in the Phantom's arms.
Slingsby was already opening the gate and they swiftly dragged the two sentries inside. No one had seen the brisk melee; they had been too quick and quiet.
"Well done," said the Phantom as they bound and gagged the two men with strips torn from their robes. "You're learning fast."
Slingsby grunted.
"One has to around you, sir," he said, "If one wants to survive, that is."
The Phantom grinned. He quickly dragged the sentries across the courtyard and laid them on their backs behind the bushes. His eye had caught a quick flash of white in the distance. Another sentry was hurrying toward them. The Phantom stood up and went to meet him.
"What's going on?" the sentry called suspiciously. "Something happened to the guard," the Phantom said. "Come and see."
The man came on unsuspectingly. Apparently, the Phantom and Slingsby's appearances would pass muster. The sentry bent over the recumbent figures in the bushes. He grunted once and then pitched forward on his face. Slingsby put the pistol back under his robe. It took them just thirty seconds to bind and gag the third man.
The Phantom stood gazing down with satisfaction at Slingsby's handiwork.
"Well," he said at last, "that leaves the Prince with only nine hundred and ninety-seven men. Our relative position is improving, Slingsby."
19
HIDDEN TREASURE
Saldan made himself more comfortable on the perfumed cushion and gazed ahead through the haze of tobacco smoke to where the dark-haired beauties gyrated and weaved in their erotic display. His eyes were sparkling from the wine, and the fragrance of his cigar had never pleased him more. Usually he spent the final hours before a sale in the taverns of the city, but tonight was, after all, a very special occasion. So he had consented to be Prince Selim's guest for the last time.
The old man sat at his side now, smiling gravely as he drew on his hookah. Behind the two men three gigantic Nubians waved fans gently over them. The dinner had been excellent. Selim had really outdone himself this evening, the slaver thought. But then why shouldn't he? Saldan had made the Prince an even richer man than he had found him, while Saldan bore all the risks and hardships. Saldan's eyes hardened as he pulled on his cigar, his pupils mirroring his thoughts.
He adjusted his mask casually and concentrated on the wild gyrations of the girls who, with provocative thighs and heaving bellies, finally sank in exhaustion to the ground. He joined in the thin smattering of applause from the Prince and his courtiers. He was aware that Selim had turned toward him. The old man's beard shone under the light of the lamps and he had a sentimental look in his eyes.
"You are really certain that this will be your last sale tonight, my friend?"
Saldan nodded, perspiration glistening on his big, hard face. The scar stood out dead-white on his cheek as he turned his blond head beneath the lamps.
"I am, Prince," he said. "And thank you for not using my name.
    The prince smiled a thin smile.
"I thought, as this was your last evening," he said, "we should observe every courtesy. And make your stay a pleasant one ..."
Saldan inclined his head toward the old man. Selim shook his head regretfully.
"Nevertheless, my friend, it is a pity," he added, scratching his chin with one clawlike finger.
"Especially as we have done so well."
Saldan sighed. He picked another olive from a dish at his elbow.
"All good things come to an end, your Highness," he said. He puffed heavily on his cigar. "Always quit when you're ahead."
The Prince gazed in front of him to where an almost naked man was doing a complicated and dangerous dance with two razor-sharp scimitars.
"You have a Western proverb for every situation in life, my friend," he said.
Saldan shrugged. "This one happens to fit very well," he said, reaching for another olive.
The Prince stroked his beard, absorbed in the gyrations of the man with the scimitars. He joined in the applause when the trick was over, rubbing his dry palms together as though he were making a fire from tinder.
"You may well be right, my friend," he sighed regretfully. "You may well be right."
Neither of them noticed the figures of two Arabs regarding them from a balcony which ran around three sides of the Prince's reception hall. But then there was no reason why they should have. The hall was, after all, full of robed figures and as there was no restriction on the use of the balcony, which was often packed with Selim's personal bodyguards, it was normal for the men to be there.
Slingsby felt a little tinge of excitement as he gazed down on the colorful scene below them.
"There's our corrupt Prince," the Phantom whispered close beside him. "And there's our equally corrupt Warden Saldan."
The music began again and this time a soloist took his place beside the ornamental pool with its two tinkling fountains. The music seemed to go on for a long time; it was a tuneless Arab melody that made little sense to Saldan's ears and he eventually grew impatient. It would
soon be time for his part in the auction. As befitted the trader with the richest wares to offer, he would be taking the position of honor this evening.
He came third and last, so he would not take the rostrum until about 1:00 a.m. He glanced at his wrist- watch. It was only twelve-fifteen. There was plenty of time. But delectable as the Prince's entertainments were, he must not drink any more wine tonight, and he had eaten enough. He touched the Prince on the sleeve.
"I'd like to take a look at our mutual savings, Prince," he said. "If you don't mind."
The Prince got up. "Of course," he said.
The music had stopped and everyone in the hall had their eyes upon Selim. He clapped his hands again and ordered the music to continue.
Saldan had joined him at the back of the court now and the two men rapidly made their way along an ornate corridor guarded by sentries at three-yard intervals. They stopped before a massive oak-and-iron door.
"I have my key," Saldan said. "You will permit me?"
The Prince bowed. "Of course," he said.
Saldan unlocked the door and stood aside to allow the Prince to enter first.
The room was a counting house. There were scales and balances set out along the wooden surfaces and, most incongrous of all among the Oriental finery, a massive steel-fronted safe.
"Most of my money is in Switzerland, your Highness, as you know," said Saldan with satisfaction. "This hoard, garnered in the last two years, represents the petty cash."
He coughed harshly.
"My life-line, as it were."
He walked over to the safe and examined its heavy surface. His cigar smoke went straight up in the air.
"When things blow up—and blow up they must before very long—Warden Saldan will be the hottest property between here and Mecca. My share of the gold in this room will buy me the passage and immunity that only gold can ensure."
He looked round the chamber, busy with his own thoughts.
"This represents my passport to the West."
The Prince regarded him with a cynical look in his eye. He shrugged.
"When you disappear," he said, "one of my most cherished friendships will be lost."
"On the contrary, your Highness," Saldan said. You will be a most welcome visitor to my home whenever you decide to come to Europe."
The Prince drew back his lips and smiled beneath the
beard.
"In Deauville, my friend?" he asked.
Saldan bowed with irony.
"Alas, no, your Excellency," he said. "Deauville will not be ... exactly suitable. It is too convenient for Interpol. Now Switzerland ..."
"Or Buenos Aires!" the Prince interrupted calmly.
Saldan blinked amiably.
"Who knows, your Excellence," he said. "I will find some way to get word to you. Now to business."
He rubbed his hands.
"Not bad for the last two year's work. What's your estimate, Prince?"
"About half a million each," said the Prince casually. "Give or take a thousand or two. But it's no estimate. I kept an accurate count."
"That's funny, Prince," said Saldan. "That's exactly what I make it. Give or take a hundred or two."
The two men bared their teeth at each other from opposite sides of the chamber.
The Prince passed his long lingers over his beard and sat down in an ornately carved chair at his desk.
"Did it ever occur to you, Saldan, that I might covet your share as well?"
A silence fell upon the room. Saldan ceased his pacing about. He turned to face the ruler of Mucar.
"It has indeed, partner," he said.
His smile was amiable enough, but his eyes beneath the mask were like tempered steel.
"But I have made sure you won't," he said quietly.
The Prince's eyes sparkled.
"But we're in my own city, my friend," he said. "We are surrounded by a thousand men of my army. May I ask how you propose to carry off your money without my agreement?"
_ Saldan blew smoke out of his mouth, jabbing with his cigar to emphasize his points.
"If you took my share of the gold and I disappeared, all sorts of drastic things would happen," he said.

"Like what?" the Prince replied.
Saldan stabbed the air with his cigar butt again,
"Like this, partner," he said. "A letter is in existence fn a safe place. If anything happened to me, it would go straight to your king. Never mind how. You can take it from me that it would get there, delivered into his own hands."
He puffed at the cigar again, savoring his triumph.
"I need not tell you the contents of the letter," he said. "Slavery, as you know, has been outlawed by the United Nations. The letter gives all the dates and details of every sale held at Mucar with your connivance and it also lists every payment made to you as local ruler."
Saldan's jaw tightened.
"Do I make myself clear?" he said.
The ruler of Mucar had a strange look in his eye. His hand visibly trembled as he adjusted his jeweled coat around his thin frame.
"Perfectly, my friend," he said.
His lips opened in an unconvincing laugh. "You surely
did not think I was implying a threat. Just a little joke
»
"Sure," said Saldan. But there was no humor in his eyes. He patted the Prince's thin shoulder.
"So long as we understand one another."
He walked over toward the balcony doors at one side of the big room.
"You'd better made sure my share is packed ready for departure."
He glanced at his wrist-watch again.
"It's under an hour to auction time. I have to get my merchandise ready. Will you attend, your Highness?"
"I shall watch from my private balcony at the market as usual," said Selim.
"Naturally, you wouldn't want to be involved in such sordid dealings," said Saldan satirically.
The Prince shot him a quick glance of dislike, but said nothing. He let Saldan out through the door they'd come in through and locked it behind him. Then he came back into the room. He unlocked the balcony doors; the light of a magnificent moon streamed in. He walked out into the shadowy coolness.
"A scoundrel, but he's made me rich," he mused to himself. "A pity. I'll miss the excitement and the gold."
He went farther out and stood with his hand resting on the cold iron grillwork of the railing.
"But he's right," he told himself. "It's best to quit when we're ahead."
His musings were interrupted by a slight noise from the darkness at his side. He turned and saw a gigantic figure in a mask step out of the gloom. He tried to scream, but found a hard hand clapped over his face. He lost consciousness as he fell backward.
20
GOLD BY THE BARROW LOAD
The ruler of Mucar coughed as he regained consciousness. Water was being thrown in his face. The outrage was so shocking that he struggled up on the cushions, spluttering with indignation. His anger changed to terror as he saw the huge figure in Arab costume looming over him. Another figure, not noticeably smaller, was at his side. Blue eyes flashed sardonically from behind the mask.
"Who are you?" said Selim, rage getting the better of his natural caution.
He looked wildly round him and saw that they were alone. The guards were in the corridor. As he opened his mouth to shout, the huge hand covered it again. Selim choked with mingled rage and mortification.
"Not a peep out of you or your noble line faces extinction," said the Phantom calmly.
"Thieves!" hissed the ruler of Mucar. His cheeks were flushed beneath his beard. "How did you get into my palace?"
"You are wrong. We are not thieves, your Highness," the big man said. "We have come to end the slave market."
The old man cowered back as the Phantom towered over him.
"Just keep calm, Prince," the big man said. "If you remain seated and don't make a noise, things will be just fine."
"But who are you?" the old man quavered.
The Phantom exchanged a glance with Slingsby.
"There's no time to go into that now," he said.
He took a turn around the room, looking at the scales, the leather sacks, the worn surfaces of the counters, and the big safe.
He turned back to the Prince.
"Saldan has gold stored here," he said. "I want it."
The Prince fumbled in his jeweled coat.
"This is the key to the gold store," he said.
He handed it to the Phantom.
"Go with my friend here to the slave market and watch from the usual balcony," the Phantom said to Slingsby.
Slingsby stepped forward with his rifle.
"One false move and there'll be a large hole in your head," he said grimly.
The Prince flushed.
"Call a servant," the Phantom ordered him. "And be careful."
A thin, nervous-looking young man of about twenty-five answered the Prince's ring. He gaped at the two big men standing at Selim's elbow.
The Prince indicated the Phantom.
"Go with this gentleman, Pctra, and do as he tells you," he said.
"First of all go and find two wheelbarrows," the Phantom ordered.
Petra raised his eyes to the ceiling and went out. The Phantom grinned as he watched the old Prince and Slingsby go off down the corridor. He picked up the key of the gold store and hurried along with his preparations.
The dark-haired convict gripped the bars and looked out across the courtyard.
"Hey, you guys, here comes Saldan!" he said. "What's happened to that character with the mask?"
There was a chorus of groans and whistles as the burly form of Saldan strode into the slave quarters. Several Arabs followed behind him. Saldan's jaw dropped as he took in the unconscious forms of the five guards.
"What happened to these men?" he barked.
"They took sick," said the bald-headed man.
"Yeah, they complained of headaches," said the blond giant with the shaven head.
Saldan bent suspiciously over the tangled pile of unconscious guards. They were breathing stertorously through their noses. He started back as he saw the familiar motif of a skull stamped on to the right hand cheek of the first man he looked at.
He glanced about him nervously. The skull mark was the same as the one on the dogs at the prison. Outwardly
he was master of his nerves. He stood impassively as the convicts started to shout at him.
"We know you're Saldan," they chanted. "Hiya, Warden! Some warden!"
Saldan smiled grimly beneath the mask.
"If Zadok told you that it makes no difference now," he said. "By tomorrow your destinies will be settled."
He turned back to the Arab guards.
"March them out!" he ordered.
The whips sang through the air as the convicts dragged the heavy iron balls behind them over the floor. They shot glances of hatred at Saldan as they passed. The slaver's face was impassive as he stood with the biggest of the Arab guards, checking the prisoners off as they went by. He remained unimpressed by Zadok's viciously twisted face as his former assistant passed him. When the shuffling footsteps had died away, he turned his attention to the groaning guards.
The remaining Arabs were already throwing buckets of water over them as they lay on the floor.
"When those men come to, find out what happened to them," he ordered.
He hurried out of the room, bound for the slave mart, his head full of disquieting thoughts. That skull mark means trouble, he told himself. I don't like it. I shall be glad when the night is over.
Back at the Prince's villa, the Phantom, eyes smiling grimly behind his mask, had taken up his station beside the door of the counting house. Petra and another palace servant were filling the two wheelbarrows with heavy leather sacks. The sacks were sealed at the mouths with stoutly laced eyelets, but Petra at least was in no doubt as to their contents. His eyes were wide with greed as they completed filling the two barrows.
"Who is he, Petra?" the other servant whispered.
"A friend of Prince Selim," Petra whispered back nervously, casting an uneasy glance at the big man by the door.
They bowed as they finished and walked over to the Phantom for instructions.
"Take the barrows," the Phantom ordered, "and go straight ahead and out of the palace."
The two men sweated as they eased the wheelbarrows inch by inch down the staircase and across the courtyard.
The second servant, who was a dull-witted fellow, grumbled.
He nudged Petra as they trundled their burdens across the court.
"What's in these sacks—lead?"
Petra shook his head and didn't reply.
The old Prince was mounted on his white horse at the far side of the courtyard, waiting for the main gate to be opened. Slingsby was just behind him, mounted on a similar horse with his revolver invisible under his cloak, pointed straight at the Prince's back.
"So you are thieves after all?" said the old man bitterly.
"It's a fine distinction coming from a slaver like yourself, Your Excellency!" said Slingsby ironically.
The old Prince seemed as though he were choking on his beard as the horses clattered through the gate into the night air of the city.
At the slave market, the proceedings were in full swing. There were an enormous number of buyers present for this time of the year. The earlier lots had sold fast and, contrary to the dealers' expectations, prices had been high and had maintained their level throughout the evening.
So when Saldan's eleven specimens appeared behind the block, expectations were high among the buyers who had come from a wide area. The slaver's reputation for fine merchandise was known throughout the desert lands and the jungle beyond. A slave mart at which he was represented was always worth attending.
There was a murmur of expectation as the big man in his pith-helmet with the mask, stepped out onto the rostrum, holding his rhinocerous-hide whip in his hand.
The prisoners started marching in, as the bald-headed man turned bitterly to Zadok and grumbled, "That stranger said he would help us. Where is he now?"
Up above, in an unlit house facing on the market complex, Prince Selim and Slingsby were taking their places on the balcony. From there they would have an excellent view of the whole proceeding. For Slingsby, too, it was a good location. With the rifle he held, he could dominate the area and help the Phantom if necessary. He smiled wryly to himself. It was not often that such a man needed help.
The Prince went to stand with his hand on the metal 144
railing and looked down at the milling people and Ihe busy scene below him.
"Has this whole thing been a setup?" he asked Slingsby. "By that masked friend of yours? Just a new trick, so that you could steal the gold?"
Slingsby's reply was interrupted by a loud crash as the gigantic Nubian at the auction block below them smashed his hammer down on a block of ebony.
"A sale of fine merchandise is about to start!" Saldan shouted, stepping forward onto the rostrum under the glare of the arc lights.
"Prepare to make your bids!"
He whistled his whip through the air menacingly as the convicts marched in, trailing their chains behind them.
One of the Arabs pushed the bald-headed man forward so that he stood alone in front of the rostrum, surrounded by a sea of silent faces.
"Our first parcel," shouted Saldan. "What am I bid for this strong, healthy specimen, gentlemen?"
"I bid two thousand," an old man at the edge of the crowd quavered.
"Make that three thousand!" said a deep, resonant voice, as a huge Arab entered the arena. Behind him came two servants wheeling barrows laden with leather sacks.
21
MYSTERY BIDDER
There was a murmur from the people in the audience and up on the balcony Prince Selim gasped as he leaned forward to grip the railings with his wrinkled hands. Saldan had stopped and blinked at the wealthy stranger who seemed to have so much money to throw about.
"Three thousand, five hundred!" called a fat man in a fez in the front row of the dealers. Saldan recognized him as the proprietor of the most successful restaurant in the city of Mucar.
"Come along, Mr. Auctioneer," called the big Arab cheerfully. "Is this an auction or isn't it? Four thousand!"
There was another gasp from the crowd as Saldan recovered his wits.
"Certainly, certainly," he mumbled. "Four thousand I'm bid."
"Four thousand, five hundred," said the first old man.
"Oh, don't let's play about," said the Arab calmly. "Let's make it ten thousand, shall we?"
There was a deep sigh from the crowd. In all their years of attending the slave auctions, they had never heard prices like this. It was beyond belief. Saldan stood as though he had been turned to stone. It was preposterous and he almost doubted his ears. Ten thousand was double the highest price he had ever received for a slave.
But others present had begun to get the idea. On the balcony Prince Selim, his Eastern mind amused at the notion, had a broad smile on his face. He stroked his beard as he spoke to the smiling Slingsby.
"He's buying the slaves back with Saldan's own gold."
"He thought that would appeal to you," Slingsby replied.
The bald-headed man too was smiling. He had now recognized the Phantom and knew that help was at hand.
Saldan recovered himself. After all, what did it matter if these people had more money than sense? Some oil-rich sheik who did not mind what he paid, he supposed.
"Sold to that bidder for ten thousand!" he said. He pointed to the bald-headed man.
"Take him away."
Zadok, standing at the edge of the arena, was frowning. He was nearer to the mystery bidder than Saldan. As he moved, something flickered in Zadok's memory. When the bidder spoke he was certain.
"Remove the ball and chain from that purchase," said the Phantom in ringing tones. "Put him over there."
Zadok fell back against the wall, his mind a confused mass of emotions. He felt that some advantage might yet be made of the situation.
On the rostrum as the dark-haired man was brought forward, Saldan felt excited. He noted that the big Arab with the barrows full of gold had stayed. If he remained throughout the sale and paid comparable prices, the slaver would have the biggest profit of his life from one single sale. He metaphorically rubbed his hands. This was the way to go out. Then his jaw sagged. He had glanced over at the next lot and had seen that the dark-haired man was smiling broadly. He must be an idiot, he told himself, pressing on with his sales talk.
The sale went on and each time one of the convicts came up the big Arab easily outbid everybody else. The piles of gold in the barrows steadily diminished and the group of freed convicts in the corner of the mart grew ever larger. Rumors spread round the auction hall; the newcomer seemed to be the most wealthy prince in the realm; money was no object.
Saldan was getting hoarse. He had the Nubian pour him a glass of cordial from a crystal beaker on the dais.
"These have been record prices this evening, gentlemen," he said.
"Surely you will not let all these fine specimens go to one man?"
He bowed with an insincere smile in the Phantom's direction.
"No offense, sir, but business is business."
The Phantom had his burnous across his face, hiding his mask, and he bowed in his turn.
"Run the bids up as much as you like, Mr. Auctioneer," he said. "No one present will out-bid me."
Only Zadok and the blond man with the shaved head remained. The crowd groaned. The prices being asked— and paid—were now almost treble what slaves had ever fetched at Mucar, even in times of grave shortages.
Old Prince Selim chuckled to himself as he watched the closing stages of the auction.
"Even with a gun in my back I find this amusing!" he told Slingsby. "I should like to see Saldan's face when he finds out!"
"I hate to agree with you, Prince, but I will this once," said the young officer.
Down on the floor the sale was over. Saldan was staggered at the haul. He went over to look at the heaped sacks, where the officials were checking and weighing the gold coins. He overheard an old sheik complaining bitterly, "I came over five hundred miles for this!"
He smiled to himself and (hen went over to the mystery purchaser. The Phantom drew himself up so that he towered over Saldan.
The slaver inclined his head.
"Sir, I thank you for your generosity," he said. "I need these barrows. May I buy them from you?"
The Phantom bowed gravely.
"They are yours as a gift," he said.
He stood and watched as Saldan and his men started loading the barrows. Then he went to stand near the group of eleven slaves. His whisper was heard only by the group. "Wait here for me. Don't ruin it by trying to escape."
He looked round to where Saldan was loading the last sack on top of the second barrow. "Believe me, you can't leave this city alive without me," he added.
He glanced keenly at the bald-headed man. "And keep a sharp eye on Zadok."
The other grinned. The group parted slightly. The Phantom smiled as he saw that the bald-headed convict had his brawny arm round Zadok's neck; the treacherous Arab looked half-choked.
Arabs with rifles guarded Saldan's haul as his men pushed the heavy barrows back to Selim's palace. There was only a skeleton guard on duty now, as it was nearly morning. After much effort, the group struggled up the stairs. Saldan led the way to the counting room. He was so excited his key trembled in the lock of the door.
An appalling sight met them as they opened up. The 148
room was empty—coffers were opened and leather sacks were strewn about. The chest which had contained Saldan's own personal fortune was open; he staggered toward it but a quick glance showed him that not one coin remained.
His voice rose to a bellow as he glared about him.
"My gold's all gone!" he shouted.
22
SHOWDOWN
There was a long silence as the echoes of his voice died away. Saldan's face was a mask of hatred as he raged about the accounting room, searching the drawers and chests. The Arabs fell back before the fury in his eyes.
"Half a million gone!" he screamed.
He plucked at his belt and pulled out the big revolver. The Arabs broke, thinking he was going to shoot them outright. But Saldan's thoughts were in other directions.
"That thieving old Prince!" he ranted. "He has the other key! If he thinks he can get away with this . . ."
He choked and raised a trembling hand to his lips. He brushed by the Arabs and went down the corridor at a loping run. He burst open the door of the royal audience chamber without ceremony.
Prince Selim looked a frail figure on his elaborate sandalwood throne. He looked steadily at the menacing figure of his partner, though if the other had been in control of himself he would have seen that his face was white and drained of blood.
"Greetings, Saldan!" the Prince quavered.
"Greetings, hell, you miserable old skinflint!" Saldan shouted. "I want my gold."
"He didn't take your gold," a powerful and mocking voice sounded in the slaver's ear. "Just stop where you are and drop that gun!"
Saldan stiffened as the chilling barrel of a revolver pressed firmly against the flesh behind his left ear. Some of the strength seemed to go out of him. His gun barrel wavered and dropped toward the ground- Prince Selim saw astonishment begin to replace the anger in his face. Despite the menace of the gun behind him, he walked on a few steps toward the Prince's throne. Then he slowly turned. His blurred eyes focused on the massive figure of the Phantom who was now dressed in his jerkin, hood, and mask once more. There was blank astonishment in his eyes.
"One of your men?" he asked the Prince.
"No indeed," said Selim, uneasily aware that he was in the direct line of fire.
"I said drop the gun." The implacable tones of the Phantom rang out again.
Saldan slowed, mouthing obscenities; his hand raked up with the pistol. The Phantom moved like lightning. There was only a blur as his pistol came up in a shimmering arc. Flame lanced from the muzzle and smoke momentarily hid him from view. The boom of the explosion slapped across the room. Saldan spun stupidly, his heavy pistol slammed into a corner by the impact of the Phantom's bullet. His right hand hung uselessly by his side. Blood started oozing from his fingertips. Behind the Prince an ornamental mirror had starred into fragments. The noble ruler of Mucar was cowering ignominiously, like one of his own slaves, beneath the table.
"You can get up now, your Highness," said Slingsby, coming forward into the room. He had been concealed behind a curtain on the other side of the main door.
"Who are you?" said Saldan thickly. "And you, Slingsby. What's the Jungle Patrol doing here?"
The Phantom came quickly back into the center of the room and sheathed his revolver. He put his hands on his hips and stared at the cowering figure of the warden. He reached out and ripped the mask from his face.
"You won't be needing this any more," he said calmly. "I'll do the talking, Saldan. Your game is over."
He laughed. The echo sounded mockingly round the chamber.
"The Prince didn't steal your gold, Warden. I used it—and his—to buy all those slaves."
Saldan was stupefied. Rage grew in him as he realized how he had been duped.
"You were that spendthrift buyer and you were using my gold?" he gasped.
He turned on the old man, his fist clenched to punch the Prince.
"You old fool," he ranted. "You let him use our gold, to buy our slaves?"
The Prince had recovered from his fright by now and was again seated at the table. Reassured to some extent by
the massive presence of the Phantom between him and his former partner, he spoke weakly.
"I couldn't prevent it," he said. "But I must say it was all rather amusing."
Saldan's rage was building again now.
"Amusing?" he boiled. He turned back to the Phantom.
"Why have you done this?"
The Phantom's eyes were stern behind the slits in the mask.
"I'm returning those slaves to your own prison, Saldan," he said.
He drew himself up to his full height.
"And I'm taking you back to face justice, Warden Saldan."
Saldan trembled and his face turned pale.
"Who are you?" he asked for the last time.
In answer, the Phantom opened the casing of a curious ring on his hand and held it out for Saldan to see. It bore on the front of it the grim symbol of a skull.
Saldan drew back, his jaws trembling. He passed his uninjured hand across a suddenly perspiring forehead.
"That sign's haunted me from the beginning," he said. "I've seen it everywhere. In the jail cell, on the dogs, on the unconscious guards."
His eyes blazed and his jaw tightened.
"It's been you!" he shouted at the Phantom. "All the time—trying to ruin me!"
He rushed forward, fists flailing like windmills. But the Phanton was no longer there. He had side-stepped with all the skill and precision of a circus acrobat. As he turned, his massive forearm chopped backward into Saldan's beefy chest. The warden gasped, all the breath driven from his body. Before he could recover, the side of the Phantom's hand had smashed like a piledriver along the side of his neck. Flame ran through Saldan, seemed to burn all his body. He lost consciousness. The whole room lost perspective as he crashed to the ground.
There was a long silence as the Phantom looked down at his fallen enemy.
The Prince was the first to break the silence.
"A neat dismissal of a brutal opponent, sir," he said calmly. "But I have a thousand soldiers around this palace."
A shrewd and calculating look was back on his face.
"Beyond that are nearly eight hundred miles of desert.
You have to cross that with eleven prisoners. Twelve if you count Saldan."
He smiled again as his long fingers caressed his silky beard.
"I would be deeply interested to learn how you intend to get out of here alive," he said.
23
TUNNEL OF NO ESCAPE
There was another long silence in the room. To the Prince's astonishment, his speech was greeted with a confident smile by the big man in the mask. Warden Saldan was conscious again now, groaning as he bled on the Prince's Bokhara carpet. Slingsby helped him up into a chair, where he sagged, moaning to himself.
The Prince went on preening his beard. He looked from the Phantom to Slingsby and back again.
"You know 1 am right, gentlemen," he said. "One call from me ..."
He shrank back as the Phantom came swiftly to stand over him.
"Which you won't make, if you value your life, Prince," he said.
He bent down and Selim felt fear coursing through his body as the Phantom's stern eyes behind the mask seemed to bore through into his soul.
"I'll tell you what we'll do, Prince," the Phantom continued. "First, you will supply horses to all the prisoners. Your soldiers will escort them across the desert. You'll fly with me to insure performance."
The Phantom's eyes were again sparkling with humor.
The old Prince rested his head on his hands and regarded his two captors benevolently.
"You've planned it all neatly," he said. "Suppose I refuse to help you."
"This isn't a game, Prince," the Phantom retorted. "Too many lives are at stake."
His eyes were stern once more. Before the Prince could move he had drawn the pistol from his holster and put its cold muzzle up against Selim's ear. Sweat broke out on the brow of the ruler of Mucar as he saw the trigger go back slightly with the big man's finger pressure.
"Your life is on the firing line, Prince!" the Phantom whispered. "Do you wish to live or not?"
The Prince passed a tongue over suddenly dry lips.
"Yes," he quavered back.
The Phantom put the pistol back in the holster.
"Good," he said.
It was still dark when a strange procession left the ancient city of Mucar. First went Prince Selim, closely followed by the Phantom who held the pistol steadily in his back. The gold had been loaded into the saddlebags of the horses. The head of Selim's household troops had been summoned an hour before. He knew that his life depended on the gold safely reaching Masara. The Phantom knew he would not fail.
The prisoners were heavily guarded by picked troops of the Prince's own cavalry. The prisoners' horses were sorry-looking mounts that were no match for the Arab stallions if they should try to make a break. Behind the Prince and the Phantom came the handcuffed figure of Saldan, his head hanging dejectedly. He had to bear the triumphant laughter of Zadok as he was marched past the convicts. In the rear of Saldan was Slingsby, who carried an automatic rifle.
Selim's commander bowed as the procession formed up in the courtyard.
"As head of your cavalry I shall not fail," he told the Prince.
Selim smiled ironically.
'Try not to," he advised the head of his troops. "My life stands with yours on this issue."
The officer saluted, with a puzzled air. All the way to Masara he was trying to unravel the enigma. Only on his return to Mucar would he learn the truth about the Prince's strange companions. And by then it was too late.
The great gates of the ancient desert city, the crescent of Islam proudly touched by the dawn light flying above them, slammed to behind the long cavalcade. Some miles out they came upon an oasis. A light aircraft was waiting there. The Phantom smiled at the expression on Saldan's face.
"You figured a rather different getaway than this," he chuckled. The big warden's reply was unprintable as he got up into the cabin, prodded on by Slingsby's automatic weapon. The stewardess looked puzzled and frightened.
"Nothing to worry about, miss," said Slingsby. "Government business. Returning to Masara with prisoner."
Slingsby turned to the Warden, once they were within the aircraft.
"No monkey business. It'll give me pleasure to blast you apart. You framed me, remember."
Saldan scowled as the plane lurched across the sand and took off into the dawn light. The Arabs and the convicts on their horses receded into the vastness of the desert.
Slingsby smiled as he looked ahead at the growing light on the horizon, over the pilot's shoulder.
"I'd love a cup of coffee," he told the pretty hostess.
Down below, the group of horsemen watched the light aircraft fade from sight before starting off across the desert. Another mile farther on, the Phantom and the Prince left the main body and made their own way. In the shadow of the rocks, there was a welcome growl and the great form of Devil was scampering across the sand toward them. The Prince's eyes were wide with astonishment as his huge companion dismounted and scratched the wolf's ears affectionately. He was even more astonished when he saw the Phantom untie the cramped figure of an Arab who was lying in the shadow of a rock.
"One of your colleagues," said the Phantom.
He handed over his horse to the Arab.
"You'll be at Mucar in an hour," he said. "Don't bother bringing troops back here. We shall be gone."
He and Devil watched the horseman out of sight. Then the Phantom turned back to Selim.
"Well, your Highness," he said, "it is time you occupied yourself with some useful work."
In another half hour, he and the Prince had uncovered the helicopter from its hiding place. The Phantom stowed the canvas cover on the rear seats and Devil jumped up into his accustomed place. Five minutes later they took off, the Prince clutching apprehensively at his seat. The Phantom dived low over the Prince's horse, watching it gallop back in the direction of Mucar.
"I do hope your household doesn't think you've been involved in an accident, your Highness," he said.
The Prince kept an apprehensive eye on Devil.
"Why have you brought me along?" he quavered.
"Insurance," the Phantom replied, tilting the machine to follow the contours of a rocky gorge below. "Just so that your officer obeys orders."
"I never knew who Saldan was or where he got his slaves," said the Prince imploringly.
"Makes no difference," said the Phantom crisply. "The offense is the same."
The Prince looked about him keenly. He eyed the wolf sitting behind his pilot.
"That's a curious dog..." he began.
"It isn't a dog, it's a wolf," said the Phantom calmly. "So just watch yourself."
The helicopter chopped its way forward, annihilating the miles between them and Masara.
The Prince glanced at Devil and then shrewdly at the Phantom.
"Sir, I could use you in my household," he said. "Per- haps as my general or city governor."
The Phantom laughed.
"You'll have neither city nor army long, Prince," he said grimly.
Colonel Weeks, Slingsby, and the Phantom saf in Warden Saldan's office at Masara Prison. Colonel Weeks couldn't keep his eyes off his unknown commander. Slingsby felt he might tear off a salute every time the Phantom turned toward him. Of course, only Weeks knew that the big man was the overall commander of the Jungle Patrol, so perhaps he should be forgiven. To overcome his agitation he started to stuff the bowl of his pipe with tobacco.
"There are a few loose ends, Colonel," the Phantom said. "The slaves sold earlier. Saldan listed them all in his records here. They must be traced and brought back—no matter how long it takes."
Weeks sat behind Saldan's desk and nodded.
"We'll get on to that, sir," he said. "The slave gold is being distributed to humanitarian agencies like the Red Crescent and UNO's efforts in this part of the world."
The colonel lit his pipe and inhaled the fragrant blue smoke gratefully. He sat back in the chair again and puffed contentedly.
"Steps have been put in hand to see that Selim is exiled by the King. I was on to the governor just now."
"You followed my instructions about Saldan?" the Phantom asked.
Weeks grinned.
"Just as you said, sir. The incoming governor will be here tomorrow. I've got the dossier for him."
Slingsby looked worried. He turned toward the Phantom.
"I just remembered something, sir. We put Saldan in the common cell ... He'll ..."
The Phantom interrupted his excited chatter.
"Relax Slingsby," he said in a kindly manner, his eyes gleaming with amusement behind the mask. "The colonel and I didn't forget anything."
Down below in Masara Prison, all was quiet, apart from the occasional pacing feet of a guard. All of Saldan's own men had been arrested and now occupied cells once inhabited by their former charges. The big clock in the tower boomed the hour of three. The distant desert shimmered with heat. Most of the inmates of the prison slept.
All except one. He was a big, burly man with blond hair and a white scar on the side of his face. He sat, in rough prison clothes, in the common cell. He was the sole inhabitant, having been brought in only that morning. Saldan had been sunk in dejection, but now he was beginning to take an interest in his surroundings again.
At first he had not noticed where he was, he had been so stunned when the cell door had clanged to behind him. Now the cunning was back on his face as he rapidly took in the familiar details of the common cell. He stood up quickly and took a turn or two about. He frowned at his bandaged right hand and then looked again at the cell's rear wall.
The fools, he thought. This is the old cell; they forgot about the escape tunnel out of here. He knelt down and using his good hand inserted his fingers behind the edges of a big stone block. Slowly, looking furtively about him, he levered it forward into the cell. Five minutes later he was wriggling through and had pulled it to behind him.
Saldan was sweating with fear and excitement. Later, he would have revenge on Zadok, the masked man and all the others who had thwarted his plans. Particularly Slingsby and Prince Selim, who had behaved in a craven manner. But first he had to escape. He held out his left hand in front of him in the pitch darkness and crawled onward. When he had been traveling in this manner for what seemed like hours, he saw faint light ahead. The tunnel entrance. Which led, he knew, to the coast and eventually to freedom.
He found he was sweating as he went forward the last few yards. The light grew until it was almost as light as day. Saldan scrabbled forward in triumph until he suddenly came up against an unyielding surface. The light was coming from a narrow slit at the top. He gazed uncomprehendingly at a newly built brick wall which barred his path to the outside world and to freedom.
Saldan gave a great shout of despair and fell to the ground. He passed his hands desperately over the surface of the unyielding brickwork. His eyes were caught by something on the lower course of heavy blocks. Before him he saw the symbol he had come to hate and fear. A tiny skull smiled mockingly up at him.
WATCH FOR THE PHANTOM- HE WILL BE BACK.