by John Blaine
The scientist thanked him and led the way. Rick kept pace with his father, but he had to stretch his legs to do it. Hartson Brant had a long stride that seemed to cover yards when he was in a hurry. They went up the stairs and found an exhibit of Army Air Forces personnel equipment. It included pressure suits for fighter pilots, jet-pilot helmets, oxygen masks, inflatable life jackets for over water flying, fur-lined high-altitude boots, electrically heated mittens, and similar equipment. Rick’s eyes took in the array automatically. He didn’t slow down long enough for a good look.
Captain O’Malley’s name was on the door. Hartson Brant knocked and a loud voice invited them to enter.
They went in and found the office unoccupied except for a young, redheaded captain.
The officer introduced himself as O’Malley, heard a brief resume of the day’s
happenings,then motioned them to the windows. “Makeyourselves comfortable,” he invited. “This is the first time I’ve seen a real skirmish from a box seat. And watch that green station wagon in the eighth row, counting out from here. I think one of your fugitives is in there.”
Rick, Scotty, and Gizmo squeezed together at one window. They looked out on the entire south parking area with its row after row of cars. They could see the JANIG men and the police moving slowly down the rows of cars,pausing to examine each one.
Around the area, at regular intervals, were the police cruisers and motorcycles.
Reinforcements were arriving from moment to moment and taking their place in the line.
It was dramatic and exciting. The more so because both sides in the strange chess game were playing for keeps. Rick knew that Goss and his men would fight to the end. They had nothing to lose, because capture would mean trial and conviction on a charge of treason. Besides, if they could hold out for a while, their chances of escape were increased.
It would take a long while for the advancing line of Government men and officers to cross the parking area. They had to move slowly, not knowing where their quarry had gone to ground. Now and then Rick lost sight of one of the men in the maze of cars. He wasn’t good at estimating distances, but the parking area looked about a quarter of a mile long and half as wide. He later found that to be a good guess. And the huge area was packed with cars!
A shout from near-by windows made him jump. The watching crowd had yelled as one of the gang crossed an open space between two cars. The brief appearance of the figure made Rick watch more closely. The gang had to stay near the middle of the parking lot.
He was rewarded by the sight of Goss himself, scurrying from car tocarl
The parking lot was crisscrossed with driveways. The gang men had to cross the driveways occasionally as the pressure of the advancing line kept them on the move.
After a while Rick thought he could make out a planned strategy. Goss was moving steadily toward the building, dashing across the open spaces, losing himself among the cars, then making another dash for it. Rick tried to locate Steve, and saw him at the end of the line of cars nearest the building. He calculated swiftly. If the pace kept up, Goss and Steve would meet eventually, about a hundred yards down from where he stood at the window.
If only there were enough men to put rifles at the windows! But that wouldn’t be a sure way. Goss and his men moved fast when they were in the open and the range was pretty great. He wondered why building guards hadn’t been posted and decided that there weren’t more than enough of them to guard the entrances.
Goss appeared again for a brief moment as he crossed an open space. There was no doubt about it; he was making for the building!
Rick couldn’t be sure, but he thought the gang leader was carrying a whispering box. If he had one, he could reach the line of cars nearest the building, make a quick dash, and fire the box at the entrance. That way, he could get past the entrance guard and into the building. Once in the building, finding him would take a huge number of men. Rick wasn’t even sure they would get him. It would be possible to get away somehow.
Prisoners had gotten out of jails that were especially made to hold them. The Pentagon wasn’t a jail or even close to one. Goss was clever enough to find a way.
If Steve and Goss met in the line of cars, his friend might get hurt. Goss was in the fourth line now, about opposite an army car with a cracked window. Chance would decide. If Goss saw Steve a fraction of a second before Steve saw him . . .
Rick said urgently, “Somebody ought to go down and tell Steve where Goss is now.”
Gizmo showed no signs of leaving his place at the window. “Tell him yourself,” he suggested.
Scotty eyed Rick sympathetically. “Tell you what, let’s toss for it.”
The three boys drew away from the window for a moment and each dug out a coin.
“Odd man goes,” Rick said.
The three coins dropped to the carpet and the boys leaned over them.
Rick’s was a head. So was Gizmo’s.
Scotty’s was a tail.
“Just my luck,” Scotty groaned, but he abided by the whim of fate and ran for the door.
Rick and Gizmo, both grinning their relief, resumed the vigil at the window.
They saw Scotty emerge and head for Steve. For a moment the two stood talking, then Steve ran for the place Scotty had described, Scotty at his heels.
Rick groaned in sudden fright for his friends. “Why doesn’t he take it easy? If he shows himself, he’ll get shot! And so will Scotty!”
“If we only had a rifle,” Gizmo said. “If we only had anything, even one of them boxes!”
“We’ve got one,” Rick said, “but it’s empty. No cartridges in it.” He broke off as Goss sneaked around the side of a car and vanished behind a panel truck.
Goss couldn’t see Steve and Scotty, nor could they see him.
Scotty had picked up a large stone and was hefting it. Rick’s heart did a loop. Was Scotty out of his mind? He couldn’t fight an armed man with rocks!
Steve found the Army car with the cracked window, and moving slowly, he went around it and disappeared. Rick licked his lips. Steve was going into the maze of cars after Goss, and they were only a few cars away from each other.
He got a quick glimpse of Goss again. The gang leader had moved over one row. For another instant he was in sight as he came around a car, and it wasn’t a box in his hand, but a gun!
Steve moved into the maze. Rick saw him move swiftly around a car. Steve had a gun, too. Scotty, moving with more caution, followed after him.
Gizmo gasped, “They’re going in the wrong direction!”
Rick saw it at the same instant. Goss’s change of direction had fixed things so that the gang leader would be behind Steve and Scotty if they continued their present line! Let him get one quick look at them and he would use the gun he held!
Rick started away from the window and almost fell over the whispering box Keppner had placed on the floor.
He stared at the thing. If he had ... he did have!
“Wow!” He let out an exclamation that made the others look up in astonishment. They were just in time to see him dash out the door with the empty whispering box.
Rick’s legs carried him almost as fast as wings . . . right down the hall to the exhibit. He had his fingers crossed. If only the jacket were complete! He skidded to a stop in front of the orange-colored life jacket. It was the kind that could be inflated by pulling cords on the bottom. The cords pulled levers that forced pins into carbon dioxide cylinders.
Cartridges!Like the ones used in soda-water bottles. Like the ones used in the whispering box!
The screw-top containers were in place. He unscrewed the tops as fast as his fingers would move. There was one cartridge in sight! He pulled it out and examined the neck, afraid of what he might find.
The tip end wasunpunctured ! The cartridge was good.
He didn’t wait to get the second one from the jacket. He ran for the stairs, opening the back of the whispering box as he went. The cartridge rammed home, and he
snapped the back of the box shut. The spring catch caught. The box was ready for use!
The guard had no chance to question him; he was out the door too fast, running to where Steve and Scotty had entered the line of cars.
Goss might have moved over a line from the last position he had seen, but he had to chance it. He ran into the maze of cars, and began working his way toward where he thought Goss might be. It wasn’t far ahead. He couldn’t see any signs of other men and he knew that the three ahead of him were crouching low, working their way from car to car. He dropped flat and peered under the line-and he saw legs two cars away, and another two cars away were two pair of legs! He lay flat for a moment until he was sure all the shoes were pointing away from him. He saw the nearest legs bend a little and move slowly.
Goss had seen Scotty and Steve He was going toward them I
Rick got to his feet, his breath unsteady. He bent low and went to the front of the car. In a moment he should see Goss come out to the front of the second car beyond the one that concealed him. He leaned far forward and peered around the chrome grill.
Goss appeared, his back to Rick. The boy took his nerve in both hands and prepared to jump into the open, the box ready for use. And then he saw Goss’s hand lift!
Steve and Scotty! They were just coming out from behind a car-and their backs were to Goss!
Rick sprang forward, the whispering box lifting. His thumb found the button. He let out a cry of warning for Steve and Scotty.
Three startled faces turned toward him just as the box whispered.
All three of them wavered, fought for balance,then fell writhing to the ground!
CHAPTER XXIV
Letter from Home
The scientists, except for Bertona, were sitting in Hart-son Brant’s hotel room when Rick and Scotty entered.
Hartson Brant greeted them with a smile.“Everything finally under control?”
“Perfect,” Rick said.“Nails, Joe, and that other man in the hospital under guard. Goss and the other one are in theDistrict of Columbia jail along with our old friendFanning .
We just came from there. Steve is downstairs. He’ll be up in a minute.”
“And that’s not all,” Scotty said. “Guess what happened to the stuff they stole!”
“Let me guess,” Zircon boomed. “Eaten up by mice?”
Scotty grinned. “Try again.”
“Used by the gang for sandwich wrappers,” Weiss suggested dryly.
Hartson Brant chuckled. “Don’t let them pull your leg, Scotty. It happens that Pete Davis phoned a moment after you and Steve left the jail.”
“Oh.” Scotty looked deflated. “Anyway, they didn’t have a chance to sell them.”
“I guess that’s what made Goss try for that last big secret,” Rick surmised. “The others went up in flames when the old mansion burned. He had to make one more try or fail entirely.”
Goss hadn’t been obliging enough to admit that, but JANIG investigators, sifting every last ash of the old mansion, had found the remnants of the secret papers in a strongbox that hadn’t been fireproof.
Keppner smiled. “What’s this about giving you a medal, Rick?”
“Nothing serious.”Rick grinned. “Steve said something about awarding me what he called ‘The Order of the Wiggling Worm.’ He also said something about making Scotty a Knight of theBath .With soap.”
The scientists laughed.
“I’ll wager it isn’t the first time a war has been won by someone lying on his stomach,”
Weiss said.
Rick had retained enough presence of mind to yell, “Get flat on the ground,” and the quick-thinking JANIG agents had known at once what he meant. One agent some
distance away had fired an instant after dropping to the ground, shooting Joe in the leg from under half a dozen cars. After that, the third gang member had howled that he was ready to surrender.
“Davissaid that a conviction is a matter of course,” Keppner told them. “Steve’s men have reconstructed the secret documents from the ashes found in the house, if they need them for evidence. Fanning has already confessed a great deal. Only the judge, jury, and prosecutors and witnesses will know the truth. So far as the public knows, it will be just another trial for armed robbery.”
Rick almost jumped out of his skin as a shrill whisper sounded behind him. He whirled to see Scotty, an innocent look on his face.
“Did I scare you?” Scotty asked. “I was trying to whistle.”
Rick grinned. “You’re just mad because I laid you low along with Goss. I suppose I’ll
have to be on guard or I’ll find itching powder in my bed some night.”
“Forget it,” Scotty said, smiling. “It was worth it.”
Hartson Brant scaled an envelope at his son.“A letter for you, Rick. It’s from Barby. I had one from Mother, too. She wants to know when we’re coming home.”
“Tonight,” Weiss said. “We’ll take a sleeper.”
Zircon chuckled. “And we won’t get off, even to answer a bleat from Gabriel’s horn.
That’s a promise!”
Rick tore the letter open and scanned it briefly, reading the highlights aloud.
“Barby has a fine tan. She says things are dull at home and wants to know when we’re coming back . . . Jerry Webster dropped in for a game of tennis . . . Professor Gordon has been doing the shopping, flying in my Cub . . . Dismal caught the woodchuck . . . Hey!
Did you hear that? Dismal got that chuck!” He read on. “ ‘He brought him home, the chuck, I mean, and it was quite a job, because the thing was almost as big as Diz. He must have shaken the chuck senseless, because there wasn’t any fight left in him, but he (the woodchuck) was still alive and not much harmed. Professor Gordon thought we ought to kill him, but he looked so unhappy and defeated (the woodchuck, I mean) that I made Professor Gordon put him in a burlap bag, then we took him to the mainland in the boat and let him go. Dismal was with us, and he didn’t even try to chase the woodchuck.
I guess he felt gallant toward a defeated enemy, and I know I felt proud of Dismal. Like a brave and shining knight he had vanquished the invader and now he was generous toward the fallen foe, refusing his right of the coup de grace.’”
Scotty commented, “She’s been reading Tennyson again. I recognize passages from the Knights of the Round Table.”
“Not knights of the bath with soap.” Rick grinned. “Anyway, I’m glad they let the woodchuck go. He put up a good fight.”
“Anything else?”Hartson Brant asked.
“Let’s see. Yes. She says there is a lot of mail for us.
One letter is from Chahda, inHawaii . There’s another one fromHawaii that’s not from Chahda. She doesn’t know who it’s from because she can’t read the writing and she can’t see anything when she holds it up to a light bulb.” He had a picture of Barby, burning with curiosity, holding the letter in front of the light.
“I guess we’d better go home before she dies of sheer wondering,” Scotty said.
Hartson Brant rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “It may be from Dr. Warren. I remember he said something about a new expedition he was planning. He also said something about wanting Rick and Scotty to go along.”
“What!” Rick and Scotty shouted together.
The door opened and Steve Ames came in.
“Who’s yelling?” he asked.
“We are,” Rick said. “Dad, what’s all this about?”
“Something about a trip down to the islands south ofTahiti.I don’t remember all of it.
We’ll talk about it later, Rick. Steve, do you have any more news?”
“Nothing you don’t know,” Steve said. He looked tired. “The case is almost closed, so far as JANIG is concerned. We have only to locate the gang accomplice inNew York , and Fanning has already given us a good lead. He’s willing to talk, hoping the judge won’t be too hard on him. The case is mostly up to the Department of Justice now.”
Steve’s smile included the
m all. “I won’t try to thank you. Thanks wouldn’t express it.”
“No thanks necessary,” Hartson Brant said for all of them. “It was a privilege to help.
How is Bertona?”
“Pretty disgusted with that cousin of his,” Steve answered. “He feels especially chagrined that he had not mentioned his name at the time the FBI man was making his routine check. He hadn’t seen Goss since they both were boys-up to the time of that meeting at thePittsburgh air terminal.”
He looked at Rick and Scotty and gave them a comradely grin.“How about the two junior commandos? They’ll get bored if you take them back home where no whispering boxes disturb the peace.”
“We’re going on an expedition,” Rick said hopefully.
“ToSpindriftIsland ,” Hartson Brant added. “After that, we’ll see.”
Scotty spoke up. “Steve, I’vebeen wanting to ask you something. Goss and his gang got away with some pretty valuable stuff, didn’t they? I mean the secrets that were burned.”
“You never told us what the secrets were,” Rick said.
Steve sobered. He went to the door and opened it, peered up and down the hall and then closed the door again. He went to the window and looked out, as though expecting to find an eavesdropper hanging from the window sill. Then he turned to the now quiet group.
“You’ve done an invaluable service for your country,” he said seriously. He spoke directly to Rick and Scotty. “Now, I’m going to ask you to do something even harder.”
Rick tensed. Scotty’s voice was hushed. “You mean, not to divulge a word of what you’re going to tell us?”
“Harder than that,” Steve said.“Much harder.” He lowered his voice and spoke in a confidential whisper. Rick and Scotty moved closer, so as not to miss a single word.
The twinkle in Steve’s eyes broke through and the scientists burst into laughter as he said:
“I’m going to ask you not to ask any questions.”
THE END
THE WHISPERING BOX MYSTERY
A RICK BRANT SCIENCE-ADVENTURE STORY, No. 5
By JOHN BLAINE
