Air Wonder Stories, August 1929 — page 51: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

oe sage rey a COTTE OP Ty i pil Lai! THE ARK OF THE COVENANT 145 glass on the Exchange side of the Bank, and two ina ‘sort of courtyard within the buildings. They were perfect-in shape, and showed me what the smears I had found round Wall Street would ‘have been but for the crowds that had trampled them about. We went along Old Broad Street, and there I found traces of the powdered glass, three splashes, opposite the robbed banks. I thought it would be a waste of time to do anything further in the way of investigation. I had seen enough to convince ’me that it was the Wall Street and Parnassic gang, or another allied in method. My next move, I thought, would be to get an ocean track chart. On my return to the Bank, I found Lord Almeric closeted with a military-looking man, alert and keen of manner. “This is Mr. James Boon, Sir Thomas,” said Lord Almeric. ‘General Sir Thomas Basildon, Jimmy, chief of the Criminal Investigation Department.” We shook hands. “J have wanted to meet you, Mr. Boon,” said the newcomer kindly, “I have known your work for sev- eral years—and admired it.” “That’s very kind of you, sir. Are you the General Basildon who was connected with the British Air Force?” uy am.” ; “Then you have something in your old line here, Sir Thomas,” said I. “I’m willing to bet you sireaty have your air police out in full force, scouring the air towards the Atlantic.” : Sir Thomas nodded slowly and looked at me keenly. ; “You're the man who first propounded the theory that the American raids were carried out by, aircraft?” he asked. “Can't claim that amount of’credit, sir. It was just the obvious sort of idea that must have come to a lot of people together, I said an airship, because of cer- tain difficulties of manceuvring, taking up the weight of the stolen stuff, the regular practice of stealing gasoline.” “Let me say at once that I agree with you, and that I have taken a very serious view of the matter as it might concern ts here. I wanted our people to adopt the recent American plan of supplying gas-masks to all guards on banks, and to put up gas-proof glass ob- servation cages at favorable points, That was your idea, too?” he broke off. “No, The suggestion for that came from-a friend of mine, Dan Lamont, sir.” “Ah, yes. Mr, Dan Lamont,” said Sir Thomas. “Well, I wanted our people to adopt these measures, but they are slow to move—damnably slow! They were convinced that the taids were an American con- cern, The measures are being adopted, after prolonged discussion, but they come too late, as usual, to be of any service.” He laughed grimly. “We shall prob- ably have the masks and the cages ready by the time the raiders have been. run to earth.” “Tf you think that, you will have your scouts out?” “They have been in-the air this last hour or so, Mr. Boon,” replied said Thomas, with a smile, “I under- stand from: Sir Almeric that you have been on the scene soon after each raid?” “With the exception of the Westbury, yes.” = “There are some points on-which I should like the benefit of your experience, Mr. Boon——” “Anything I can do, sir——” He questioned me shrewdly, until I had covered the ground of the whole raids, down to the minutest detail. Then when he had ‘satisfied himself that he had ex- hausted all. my information, he got Lord Almeric to have an ocean track chart found for us, and we pored over it together, : It took the Transatlantic Company’s airships a net sixty. hours from New York-to London, but a_less heavily-built machine might do it in fifty-odd. Adding on the difference in time between the two cities brought the time occupied to about sixty, gross, That is to say: if an airship with a cruising speed of about one- thirty kilometres: pershour had wanted to be over Lon- don just after midnight on Friday, she would have had to leave her base on the-American continent not. later than midday on the Wednesday. But the chances were that, to. escape observation, the departure in actual case had been made in the dark of the early Wednesday morning, Calculations FE Louisville raid happened on Sunday night and Monday morning, and. it was likely that the air- ship had made her base either in the dark of the Mon- day morning or on Monday night. Leaving Louisville about four after the raid, it would be six before she reached any likely base in the Alleghanies, and by that time the farm folks would be about on their morning chores. The vessel could hardly escape being seen in the light at six o’clock. This bréught us back to the notion of a base at least twelve hours’ flight from Louisville, and gave additional color to the theory of a base over the Canadian border, probably in some undeveloped district back of Ontario. To berth an airship on the Monday: evening, and to have~her fitted out again for a raid across the Atlantic within -thirty-odd hours, was something of a feat. There was the unloading of the Louisville haul, the refilling of the ballonets with gas, the retuning of the engines, and the general tightening up and over- hauling necessary for such an important voyage, If the raiders were using only one dirigible, she was a wonder of efficiency. Tt’ was quit within possibility that they. had two machines for their operations, and the three of us. discussing the situation in Lord Almeric’s room were not’ inclined to. dismiss the idea idly, when we con- sideted the daring which could conceive and carry out taids on such a wide radius, and the magnitude of the organization behind the conception. Indeed, it seemed not too far-fetched an idea that the organization oper- ated from bases in both the Old World and the New, and that in imagining one solitary Jair-in Ontario we were seriously underestimating the power of this mys- terious force, There seemed to be neither rhyme nor reason in the operations. Of. several millions of pounds sterling in gold lying in the Bank of England, the raiders had abstracted merely one, so Lord Almeric told us, and all the trouble that had been involved in forcing the three joint stock banks had not yet been rewarded by the finding of any gold; but in each of these banks there had been the same insensate destruction by acid of thousands of pounds’ worth of bearer securities, It looked like the work of madmen, impish destructive- ness-and senseless expenditure of energy. Why trouble to force four banks when there was sufficient loot in * the most important? “Tt might have been,” I suggested, “that they broke any Cape ene VOOM we OE ged pv Pry Mh fy PME Pe Seep aS ER a eee