| Synopsis | - This is a written short story. Doctor Kennedy's phone rang in his private study one cold winter night. On the other end was his old friend Ed Wikersby of the railroad station, calling to inform him that young Tommy Watson just came in to say that his sister, Betty, has gotten very ill. Doctor Kennedy frowned at the news, knowing the problem resided in Betty's chronic stomach ailment which he had requested an operation for numerous times in the past, but her mother had always been dead set against it. Judging from the symptoms Ed relayed to him, it sounded like an operation was now unavoidable so he grabbed his bag, got into his medical truck, and took off for the station. Little Tommy Watson was sitting on a bench being looked after by Ed when Kennedy arrived. The doctor asked Tommy where he lived, when Tommy recited the address Ed recognized it and said it was located on an island surrounded by river river, but the bridge was taken out by the blizzard the previous night. And despite it's thickness, the ice still may not be able to take the weight of his truck, but Kennedy didn't have much choice. Betty could die if he didn't hurry...
Doctor Kennedy slowly drove onto the icy surface, taking extra care to avoid the melted areas, sometimes missing them by mere inches. Just as he had made it more than halfway across the river, the vehicle ran over a water covered spot and skidded to one side where it plunged hood-first into an open patch in the ice right next to the island. Grabbing his bag, the doctor climbed out the drivers window and crawled onto the safety of the solid ground, determined to reach Betty's home no matter what. He was out-of-breath when a tearful Mrs. Watson had answered his knocking at their door. Because the illness had gotten so out of hand, she finally was willing to consent to little Betty's surgery and allowed him to use their room to operate. For the next few hours, Mrs. Watson was forced to wait outside while Doctor Kennedy used all of his surgical skills and knowledge of medicines to help her daughter.
An hour later Kennedy sank into a chair, exhausted but relieved that Betty was going to live. Though Mrs. Watson offered to repay him, the doctor just smiled and said that Betty being healthy was thanks enough...
- Lieutenant-Commander Don Kerry and his pal Red Murphy are leading a detail of sailors from the U.S. Battleship anchored in the harbor of Shanghai. They are attempting to rescue two american oil men who have been kidnapped by the criminal, Wang Ku, and taken to his hideout somewhere in the foothills outside the city, where Don and Red now lead their detachment. Red is sent ahead of the group to scout out the land for any type of outpost being used by Wang Ku. By following short-cuts through the swamps, Red leaves the column far behind, armed with his rifle and a bayonet. He suddenly drops to the ground after sighting two Chinese brigands through the brush. He overheard them talking about a planned ambush on the detachment, and knew he needed to warn Don before it was too late. First, he knocked out the astonished Chinese before they could utter a sound, then Red took off back the way he came hoping to reach his friend in time! But the sailors have already fallen into the trap! Wang Ku's men outnumbered Don's, though the sailors fight bravely against the overwhelming odds. Red watches helplessly from a low cliff as the group are taken captive, and stealthily follows behind when they are taken back to Wang Ku's lair, a small camp hidden in the mountain brush...
Red Murphy waits until nightfall before making his move. In the darkness, he creeps up behind and subdues the lone sentry guarding the prisoners. Then, with his bayonet, he slices through the bonds of the sailors, but his friend Don Kerry is nowhere in sight. Silently leading the band down the path until they were far enough away from the camp to hold a council of what to do next. Red is told that Wang took Don away with him to a small ship anchored in the bay. After several hours of weary plodding, the marching men stumble across the shore of the bay. Wang Ku's junk was silhouetted in the moonlight on the horizon not too far off, so with an automatic and a flashlight tucked under his shirt, Red swims with long strokes to the waiting boat. Another sentry on deck had his back turned to Red, providing an easy mark to be knocked unconscious. After hiding the body, Red uses the flashlight to send a signal in morse code to the sailors back on land. He then slips below deck and locates Don in the hold. Freeing him, Red told his friend that he sent a signal to the crew on shore to call the navy flagship and give them the coordinates of the boat, and blow it out of the water while Wang Ku was still on board. Together, they ran up on deck and jumped into the water just as the battleship arrived. A moment later the ship's guns fire at the junk, tearing it apart in a fiery explosion.
Later, when all are back aboard the flagship, Don and Red are commended for their success, and are told that the two Americans were released after Wang Ku's death. For now it seems, their adventure in China comes to an end...
- The Maritime Commision has chosen Tom Brent to uncover the secret behind four ships mysteriously exploding out on the ocean. To find out who's behind the vicious plot, Tom disguises himself as an old derelict and enters a pub out by the docks to gather evidence. There, a liquored-up seaman nicknamed "Spider" is bragging to his buddies about his involvement with the explosions. Tom begins to pull the crooked fellow aside to ask him more about the "blow-ups" and to see if he can infiltrate his way into their operation, when a stranger steps between them and leans over Spider in a friendly manner. The man leaves, and a few moments later Spider slumps over the table in death. After seeing this, Tom suspects the stranger from before and steps outside to pick up his trail, but instead two thuggish figures grab him and take Tom to see Vic Gano, a man who makes shady, water-front deals. Vic is at first suspicious of Tom's motives, but with his natural gift of persuasion, Tom convinces him that he's genuinly interested in joining their operation. He is taken to an apartment building in the wealthy part of town where Vic leads him into a room and starts talking to a blank wall about his interest in joining. A voice then sounds from the other side and tells Tom that he is to go to the Maria Docks in two days for his first job. Tom notes that the voice is very feminine. A woman living the high life, he deduces from the apartments atmosphere, she is most likely attending all the social functions in the area. The following day, in his normal attire, Tom Brent visits the Colonel and requests an invitation to the party he is throwing tonight in the hopes that the woman whose voice he heard would be there as well.
The party is full of aristocrats and entrepreneurs who, aside from the colonel's daughter, Jean, Tom had never seen before. Suddenly, all the eyes in the room turned to behold a dazzling woman with an air of elegance around her walk through the entryway. The colonel introduced Dian Towers to Tom, who gets a funny feeling about her in the back of his mind, and decides to ask for a dance, which she accepted. As they spoke through the music, each seemed to feel that the other had a familiar voice to them. Then Tom remembered the other night, could she be the boss of the exploding ship operation? The following day, he meets up with Miss Towers in her private booth at a high class restaurant where she introduces him to her associate who happens to be Vic Gano! He immediately recognizes Tom as the old man that he had employed two days ago, and tells Dian that he was a spy! She summons her two thugs to grab hold of Tom, and leads him to a waiting boat that she and Vic were planning to take to the next ship due out of port. They force Tom to steer, threatening to shoot if he didn't comply. Thinking quickly, he remembered a reef that was nearby and almost invisible in the waves, and he steered right towards it. What followed was a great crash as the launch's bow was torn off, sending Tom and the two criminals into the water where they remained afloat until a government boat arrived on the scene.
Tom stood in the Colonel's office again answering questions and giving his report of Dian Towers and Vic Gano's plan to sink ships and then salvage them for parts to sell. But thanks to Tom Brent, they would be living out the rest of their days behind bars...
- Three men in a black sedan are waiting on the side of the road. And armored truck starts to pass them by and the men make their move, first firing at the security officers and patrolmen that guard it, and then cleaning out the contents within and speeding off in their car. A call on the radio is made to district attorney Steve Malone and his assistant, Happy. By tracking the bandit's movements on a map, Steve was able to tell state troopers which highways to search. Within minutes a report came back that one of the patrol cars has spotted the sedan heading northbound towards the pier. Steve tells Happy to prepare the hydroplane, while he phoned the coast guard, because he suspected that the bandits were going to try and steal a launch that would take them to a waiting ship. If the ship then took them beyond the twelve mile limit, they'd be out of the police's jurisdiction, and Steve wanted to ensure that didn't happen.
Happy served as pilot, flying over the ocean to a freighter anchored ten miles off the dock. The pontoon swoops down low so that Steve can dive into the water, then Happy proceeds to fly the plane around on the port-side and act as a distraction for the crewmen onboard, while Steve climbs up the starboard side without being noticed. He snuck into the wheelhouse and knocked out the ship's skipper to get to the ignition wires, which he pulls out one by one to stop the engine. Too late, he realizes that the bandit leader was behind him holding a gun. Steve is tied up while the crewmen reconnect the wires and begin to steer the ship away from the national line. But to his good fortune, the coast guard finally catches up to them at that moment and forces the ship to halt. The robbers are arrested and the money from the armored truck is recovered and given back to security.
- Captain Desmo and his party, weary and worn from the adventure in the valley, were returning to the village of Nephul where they had left their plane. As soon as they arrived on the outskirts of the village, they could hear gunshots ring out and men and women yelling. Tartars were attacking the villagers with rifles and machine guns, outmatching the antiquated weapons of the villagers. The Elder directed his men while the women tended to the wounded. The village was all but lost to the invaders and the Elder was about to give the word to flee, when up above, behind a boulder were Captain Desmo and Gabby, aiding the villagers with their guns after quickly assessing the situation. The Tartars fell quickly against the new threat, and soon made a fast retreat to reorganize their forces. Desmo and Gabby walk down to meet the thankful villagers and their elder, who was happy to see them safe and sound. That's when they noticed one of their party was missing... Marie! A villager ran up to the elder to report the sighting of a young white woman being taken by the Tartar chieftain into the hills. Desmo mounts a horse provided by the elder and ride off after their friend...
On the rocky trail ahead the chieftain is leading his fair captive up into his mountain hideout. Marie's hands are bound behind her as he leads both their steeds further along the path. Suddenly a shout from behind momentarily halts the Tartar chief, turning he sees Captain Desmo coming up towards them. The chieftain goads his and Marie's horses into a gallop in an attempt to escape, but Desmo manages to ease up alongside the tartar and tackle him. The two men struggle on the ground, bringing them dangerously close to a precipice. That's when fate took a bad turn for the chieftain, as he pulled out a knife and began swinging it at Captain Desmo, he lost his balance and plummeted off the edge of the cliff to his death far below.
Back at the village, the elder thanks the captain and his companions for all their help in subduing the attackers, and the entire village waves goodbye as the small plane takes off for new adventure...
- Aboard a large transport plane, Skip Schuyler went over the mission in his head once again. He was sent to help the South American Republic track down the source of the revolutionists arms and ammo, and to capture the rebel leader, Pancho Velez. At the landing zone, he is met by a pair of south americans that say the president sent them on ahead to escort him. Skip is ushered into an impressive looking car and whisked off down the dusty streets, traveling for at least an hour before he suspected something was wrong. The area they were in was mountainous and far past the city limits. He spoke up to ask his "escorts" when he would get to meet President Mercaldi, the man sitting beside him responded with a glint in his eye that they meant that he was being taken to meet the soon-to-be president, Pancho Velez, a.ka. the leader of the revolution! They drove out onto a large clearing on a plateau that overlooked a valley. Several rough stone houses lined the dirt path, with the vehicle coming to a halt in front of the largest of homes. Skip is forcibly led inside by his two kidnappers, and presented before Pancho Velez, a gringy middle-aged man who gloats over Skip's capture. On their leader's orders, the guards forced Skip to sit down in a chair so they could tie him up to ensure he couldn't escape once Velez started administering the lashes. The Bull-whip cracked across the american's face creating many welts and scars, proceeding until his arm grew tired. By then, Skip was only semi-conciouss and in a lot of pain, so Velez decided to let him sit for awhile as he went outside to discuss his plans with the others.
Working fast once he was alone, Skip found that the chair he was tied to was flimsy enough to break away if he exerted enough pressure. When that was done, all that was left was to unbind his arms. A candle on the table gave him an idea, with his mouth he grabbed a match and struck it against the rough wall to light it. He then lit the candle with the burning match and held his ropes over the flame. Within a few minutes, he successfully burnt the rope in two, finally freeing his arms. Skip found a gun that someone had carelessly left in a holster hanging from the wall and armed himself. Through the keyhole of the door he saw Velez speaking to his men, and beside him was some else who Skip recognized. A member of the president's trusted cabinet, Pedro Garcia! He was apparently a supporter of Velez's revolution and betrayed President Mercaldi to help with the planning of the imminent attack. Skip had heard enough. He burst through the door to Velez's meeting room and pointed his gun threateningly at the rebel leader and his men. Forcing Garcia and Velez to one side, Skip tells the other rebels to get in the closet and lock the door. After that, he takes Garcia and Velez to the car and ties them up in the back, driving back down to the city to deliver his two conspirators to the president...
- After six months of being in Paris with Inspector Le Grand and Jean, Barry O'Neill has been feeling restless for new adventure. Meanwhile at the home of noted military figure, Major Andre Duval, one of the hired help had stumbled across Duval's body, slumped over dead on the desk in his study with a pistol clenched in his hand. The papers report it as a suicide, but Inspector Le Grand, having known Andre Duval for many years, didn't believe that his friend was capable of such a thing. As he sat in his study with Barry at his side, the inspector recieved a phone call informing him that the plans to the Maignon Fortification had been stolen. Shortly after, the two of them arrive at the intelligence office where the commissioner explained his theory, that the Major felt disgraced after losing the plans and rather than face his superiors, he opted to end it all by shooting himself. But Barry dismisses the story, noting that it would be difficult, if not impossible, for someone to shoot themself directly in the forehead while holding the gun as the Major was. Barry's revelation was interrupted by the arrival of an aide, excitedly reporting that the power at the Maignon Defense has been cut off, with the initial investigation finding evidence of sabotage!
While the commissioner organizes a plan of action, Barry and Le Grand are sent ahead by plane to investigate further. An unsavory fellow sees them take off, and makes a call to Count Guniff, the leader of a ring of spies. The Count sends his best pilot out to intercept Barry's plane before it reaches it's location. High in the sky, Barry guides the plane over mountains and grassy fields. Inspector Le Grand acted as co-pilot, navigating the way. That's when Guniff's plane swoops in and opens fire, pelting Barry's plane with bullets. Inspector Le Grand returns favor, manning the machine gun and guiding it's shots at the enemy plane until he actually manages to hit the pilot... but not before letting him blow out their engine. With the plane catching fire fast, Barry and the inspector had no choice but to jump and hopefully let the parachutes stop their fall. More trouble arises once they land, two of the count's henchman ambush them, and Barry and Le Grand are led at gunpoint into a secret cave where Guniff was waiting. It wasn't yet clear to them how the count was involved in all of it, but the inspector and Barry do know that he was determined to prevent them from reaching the Maignon...
- Tod Hunter and Torog were facing the old magician's squad of bowmen on the dock of the underground river. Strangely though, the bowmen seem to be firing their arrows without them making a single sound. This tips Tod off that they were illusions conjured up by Dante in an attempt to scare them off. As long as Torog's army ignored the bowmen, they could simply walk right through them. Dante appeared on a platform above them with Tamir being held over the edge, threatening to drop her if they did not leave. Tod happened to be standing under the balcony when Dante spoke, and so the wizard did not see him right away. Dante starts to step toward the girl as Torog pleads for his daughter's life, and then suddenly, Tod leapt over the railing and stood between Dante and Tamir! With the Symian Palace back under the rule of Torog, and the evil wizard locked up, Tod decides to continue searching for his friends Gail and Tommy and is given an escort back to the jungle.
Tod retraces his steps as best as he can in the darkness of night until the glow of a campfire catches his eye. Two rough looking men are sitting around the flame, and the conversation they have is of special interest to Tod as it is about a "girl and her old man" that they came across. Tod leaps over the fire as one of the men goes for his gun, immediately stopped by Tod's quick strike. As he is tying their hands behind their backs he notices a crumpled sheet of paper that when unfolded, turns out to be a wanted poster with the faces of the two men printed on them!
::Murder Robbery and Rape
Tod begins to worry. What have his friends wandered into, and where were they now??
- Huge planes thunder through the dark skies, like hawks flying towards their prey, they fly over the fortified city of Kurtzburg where they suddenly release their cargo, bombs. Inside the office of the War Department, a cloaked figure is at work opening the vault, unnoticed in the confusion caused by the air raid. When morning comes, the newspapers are ablaze with the story of the attack. Inspector Kent of Scotland Yard is currently in discussion with the chief about the reports. He has his own theory, that the air raid only served as a diversion for the real goal which was likely to steal the secret documents to the Volker War plans. And it seemed also likely that his old nemesis, criminal mastermind the Raven, was behind it all. The chief then receives a call from the Intelligence Office, requesting Scotland Yards help after finding "definitive proof" of the Raven's involvement in the war-scare. Kent meets with Captain Sutter of the intelligence office a half-hour later in response, who briefs him on the mission they had set up. He was to meet with their female agent, K-4, at a tavern while in the guise of an old sea-man. She will be there dressed as a waitress and hand him a menu that contained further instructions written inside. The captain reminds Inspector Kent that the retrieval of the plans in this case took top priority over all else.
At half past midnight, Kent stumbles into the tavern in his old seaman disguise and takes his seat by the wall. Just as planned, a bar-maid approaches and offers him a menu. When he opens it up, he finds a message written inside telling him to wait at Dock 13. Following the directions, Kent is left waiting for more than an hour and a half before the female agent breathlessly dashes up to him. She had been followed by some of the Raven's men, who move in to attack the inspector on sight. Fortunately, his swift combat skills help Kent fight off the ruthless thugs. K-4 explains that the Raven's hideout was hidden below them, and offers to show him the way. The water level directly beneath the dock is, oddly, only knee-deep, and after only a bit of wading, Agent K-4 and Inspector Kent reach a big metal door, which is easily opened by pressing a switch hidden on the rock wall beside it. Inside they follow a damp, narrow passage to another door, which according to K-4, leads to the meeting room. Voices could be heard within as high ranking officers under the Raven's military oganization have a conference over the plans. Now was the time to act! Kent burst through the door with gun in hand and grabbed the plans and documents right off the table in front of the dumbstruck men. By the time they came to their senses and drew their own firearms, Kent had gone, closing the door and barricading it with a block of wood. A few seconds later, Kent and the girl dash for the exit. A small fishing boat had been left abandoned near the dock, so Kent and K-4 set on board and sailed briskly down the river!
The next day, Inspector Kent and Agent K-4 sit in Captain Sutter's office after safely returning the Volker War Plans. With the primary mission now complete, the conversation turns to the capture of the Raven...
- A small lifeboat carrying Long Sin, Steve's foe from back on the ship, draws near the island. On the captain's orders, the small crew aboard drag the boat up onto the shore and Long Sin steps out onto the sandy beach. He points to a light through the trees where a residence may be. But first, as the captain points out to him, they'd need to hide the box of opium somewhere so that they wouldn't be caught with it. At Long Sin's suggestion, he orders the crew to dig a hole in the ground deep enough to bury the box in until they can come back for it. But the men glower at them, finally having had enough of taking orders from an untrustworthy china man and a greedy captain. They declare a mutiny, and one of them moves toward Long Sin with a murderous glint in his eye.. Long Sin reacts by calmly dodging him and then throwing a knife directly into the crewman's throat which kills him. The others are shocked at his quick movements and deadly aim, so they agree, for now, to continue following orders.
Meanwhile, back at the house, Steve still has Ebenezer Slade, the smuggler kingpin, and his henchmen along with the woman called Duchess tied up in the living room. He sends Rusty outside to get a glass of water from the pump, while he thinks about what to do with them. A glimmer of hope appears in Slade's eyes when he notices the face of a sinister Chinaman glancing through the window. Soon after, Steve is surprised by a familiar voice from behind him, and judging from the look of terror on Specs and Tubby's faces, he had a good idea who it was. Turning, he saw Long Sin and his goons standing in the entrance with guns. Acting instinctively, Steve fired his pistol at the Chinese criminal, the bullet grazing his hand. Long Sin's men rushed Steve, who fought back with full force until he couldn't fight anymore and was knocked unconscious by a blow to the head. Ebenezer Slade is set free after talking to Long Sin about his smuggling business, and how it could benefit them both by joining forces. And they plan on marking their partnership by killing Steve Carter and the children! Duchess speaks up then, telling Slade that murder was never part of the deal that she signed up for, which angers him, but before he can reprimand her his other henchman, Hunch, notices for the first time that the boy, Rusty, wasn't among the captives. Long Sin orders some of his own men to go out into the woods to look for the boy, while he and his new partner get acquainted. Duchess is left in charge of guarding Steve and the boys, with the warning that betrayal would be her death. She, however, is finally beginning to open her eyes to Slade's wicked ways and, once she is left alone with the captives, starts to untie Steve's ropes. Neither of them notice the shadowy figure coming up behind them...
- One day, while taking a stroll down the city streets, a pedestrian comes across a dead body on the sidewalk. It was Federal Judge Thompson, a cord around his neck suggested that he had been strangled to death! Steve Carson is called out to the scene to investigate and search for clues to the identity of the killer. Clutched in the judge's hand was a small bit of paper with a single name written on it. Stanley Gaynor, a prominent lawyer and Thompson's opponent in the race for re-election. The police give Steve the address to Gaynor's home so he can question him about the murder. Before he leaves, he asks the chief to look something up for him...
Stan Gaynor seemed genuinely surprised to learn of his rival's murder, but insists that he had nothing to do with it. A man bursts through the door followed by a police officer, accusing Gaynor of murdering the judge and being a liar. He introduces himself to Steve as Harry Rawlinson, a friend of Thompson, whom he believes Gaynor killed out of fear that he'd lose the election. Steve brings both men back to the police station for questioning. The chief pulls him off to one side to hand him a report with a photo attached, the information he had requested earlier. Steve informs Gaynor and Rawlinson that, interestingly, the cord and knots used on Judge Thompson were identical to the kind that were used in a murder ten years ago. The criminal was a man named Benny Saunders, who recieved a life sentence from Thompson, and was reported to have sworn vengeance. He escaped from prison only a few years ago, and Steve knew that he had altered his appearance slightly in that time and proceeded to gain the unsuspecting judge's friendship, until he could lure him into the alley on some pretext so that he could kill him. All this could only mean that Harry Rawlinson was really Benny Saunders! He tries to escape, but Steve lands a flying punch that subdues Harry enough so that the police can take him into custody. Steve reminds Harry a.k.a. Benny, that for escaping and murdering a government official, he'll get the death sentence this time around.
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