Air Wonder Stories, August 1929 — page 84: what you’re looking at

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

Steaming any of the world’s delicacies when he needed them. When he returned to the laboratory, the wizard was at the table using the vision ray, and Frank, not cating to miss anything, slipped into his chair and donned his head set, and the scene that met-his eyes he quickly recognized as the air line station in London. They had not Jong to wait until a westbound cruiser glided in, stopping to receive its load of passengers and baggage. The wizard swept the three platforms and the in- terior of the liner with the ray, watching the people closely. But he seemed to detect nothing unusual, noth- ing to lead him to think that the detective organization was sending the plans out on that liner. He then tried the telepathy ray on some of the officials and the liner crew, but no thoughts could be read indicating any knowledge of the papers. Frank, connected to. the transforming unit of the telepathy detector, could hear the thought message as well as his host. It aj as if the police were intending to defy him. Suddenly the wizard straightened up, a slight hum could be heard in the ear units. Tearing his head set tigging off, he leaped across to the automatic wireless recorder, and switched on the announcer. There was a-scrapimg noise and, as it died down, a man’s voice sounded clear and distinct in the instrument. “Light Wave plans leaving on air cruiser 49'S. P.” That was all, the instrament became silent. “You see they are beginning to realize the power I hold,” exclaimed the master criminal, his eyes gleaming with greedy pleasure. Returning to the-vision ray apparatus, he swung the tay to the south, and soon had it adjusted on a heavily wooded island. Frank, gazing through his: mask, was unable to determine the location of the island, but. he noticed: that the trees appeared to resemble those seen in the tropical regions. He therefore, decided that the island must be somewhere in the torrid zone. As the scene was adjusted to appear closer, he de-- tected-a small snow-white plane, lying in the water close to the shore, partly. sheltered by the wide-spread- ing foliage of the trees. He recognized the- plane as the one that made the raid on the air cruiser during the trip to London with Riel, and also the same plane that had carried him from the air liner. He could see no sign of the pilot, however, nor anyone else in the island. But he. was sure that the air man had a hut in the woods somewhere, For a moment the scene remained in front. of his eyes, then it was shut off, and he saw the scientist removing his ‘head rigging. “Just gave ny man orders to look over the baggage room of your aitship,” he informed his prisoner, as the latter removed his head apparatus, “T didn’t hear you do any talking,” replied Frank. “I didn’t talk, I just use my thoughts and put them on the beam. He receives his orders direct from brain to brain, as you noticed he was not even in sight, and I did not increase the pressure of the vision ray suf- ficiently to look through the-trees. I merely threw the telepathy ray across the center of the isle where his cabin is, so I know that he will receive the message. Even if he is asleep the thoughts will impress them- selves on his mind that he will awaken with a clear remembrance of the message.” Again he turned to the table, and they were soon following the ray as it was trained onto the air cruiser, which was now well out at sea, speeding ee ee Se AIR WONDER STORIES along the upper air beam towards New York. The vision ray was soon adjusted so that the baggage room was exposed to the eyes of the two men, and with little difficulty, they found the package, a small wooden box a little over a foot square, plainly marked “Light Wave Receiver.” There was no address on the box; in fact no other marking except the three words. It had evidently been placed in the baggage room after the ray had been taken from the ship as it lay in the station, because the previous search of the bag- gage room revealed no sign of the box. : The wizard gave a chuckle of satisfaction which pro- duced an uncanny sound in the ear units. Wallace noticed that there were four men in the baggage room, instead of the usual two. The box was placed: conspicuously as though they wanted to make sure it could be found. He suspected that Riel was at the bottom of the movement, and that they had a trap of some sort to spring on the raider, when he made his usual call. He wondered if the detective knew the full power of the telepathy ray, and if in some way he was going to overcome it. His thoughts were disturbed by the sudden shifting of the ray, as the scientist took a look to see if the plane was on the job. But the little white plane was already swiftly cutting through the clouds, occasionally fading from sight as its-color blended with the white background, disappear- ing altogether as it dived into the white masses. CHAPTER VII New Hope old ‘man was apparently satisfied with the progress of the plane, for he left it and swept the sky for signs of any police planes. The ray de- tected a squad of four planes flying west about fifty miles behind the liner, and flying much lower. They were being outdistanced rapidly hy the cruiser, but the wizard thought: they were too close to be comfortable, and he again switched on the telepathy ray, and under the guidance of his devilish brain the planes were turned north, and led away from the path of the swift air liner. -When they were far enough out of the way to satisfy him, the telepathy ray was taken off, and the vision-ray switched back to the speeding air cruiser. This time the control room was placed on the scene, and Wallace gripped the arms of his chair, as he realized. that he was about to see the manner in which all the previously raided air cruisers of the I. ‘A, L. had been brought down. For ten minutes the ray was allowed to follow the cruiser, and no attempt was made to tse the second ray. The clever wizard was biding his time. He no doubt would-bring the liner down at a certain spot towards which the little white plane was speeding. “We have a number of hours to wait. now,” the wizard said, turning to Wallace. “I will call you when something interesting happens.” Wallace rose and sauntered through the room, rest- ing for awhile in his own. Finally, 2 man appeared to conduct him back to the laboratory. “We have the liner now,” the old man said. “Watch it.’ Wallace put on the head set and saw the interior of the air-liner. The pilot was leaning against the window of his room watching an occasional ship pass on the surface of the ocean far below. Occasionally his view would be ob- Comichooks.con ;