Bill Barnes Air Adventurer, July 1935 — page 70: what you’re looking at

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

68 BILL BARNES “What-ho, old bean,” a smiling Eng- lish voice said. The words came from a man who could barely raise his head from the bunk where he was secured. But in the flare of the fires outside Shorty could see that the man had fair complexion and hair. He struggled to get control of himself as he gazed at the head of the man who smiled at him. That smile came back to him after seventeen years. He remembered that last smile of Virgil Wyndam_ before Wyndam had died behind the German lines. He had remembered it through all those years and now he saw it again. He could only stare. He tried to speak but no sound came from his throat. He wet his dry lips and tried again. “Is—is that you Wyndam?” he asked. The man’s head came up a bit farther. His eyes widened. “Who are you?” he asked. “Hassfurther. Shorty Hassfurther.” That was all Shorty said. He didn’t dare say more. He knew that if he saw what he believed he saw the other would know the rest. A laugh like the laugh of his old major came to Shorty’s ears as the man threw back his head. “Fancy seeing you here!” he said. “T’m Wyndam, all right. Or I was. Dick Wyndam, Shorty. How in the name of all that is holy did you get here?” Shorty fell back on his bunk for a moment. He felt weak and dizzy. For a moment he had believed that he was looking at his old major alive and partly sound. It was almost too much for him. Miracles like that didn’t happen. But he had found Dick Wyndam. That was the thing he had come for. He knew he must tell Wyndam quickly why he was there before some one stopped him. Painfully, he pushed himself up on his elbow. “T came out here to find you, Dick,” he said: 7 lad: a letter dram your father. He said you had disappeared. He thought I might be able to find you or know something about Virgil’s land here that would help the English off- cials find you. Bill Barnes came with me. We landed at the capital yesterday. “T came when I found some papers Virgil gave me the day he died. I stuck them in the pocket of a tunic that day behind the German lines and forgot them. Your father’s letter and sheer chance brought them to mind. I dug them out.” “The deed and survey of Virgil’s property?” - Dick asked, iis. voice strained. “That’s right,’ Shorty answered. “So I came out here with Bill and a couple more of his men to see what we could do. Some one overpowered me last night and brought me here. Some one who is after the deed. Do you know who it is? Who brought you here?” “Three Germans named _ Boettner, Zimmerman and Heilner,’ Dick said. “They picked me up almost as soon as I . landed. Heilner is one of the men who shot Virg down that day. Virg wasn’t dead when they landed beside him. He regained consciousness and babbled to Heilner about Madagascar and about you. Heilner found a diary in his pocket that told him a great deal. He got Zimmerman and Boettner to back him. They came out to investigate. “Since then they have spent a fortune here because they have learned how valuable the island is. They are all mad- men. They have organized the natives and brought in artillery, anti-aircraft guns, fighting planes, hundreds of ma- chine guns and rifles. They intend to seize the island. When they have con- trol, under a smoke screen of a native uprising, and by putting Boettner’s niece on the throne as a descendant of Ravalona, they expect aid from a power- ful European country to hold it. oO CON) Ghook CO