The Scorpia Menace

by Lee Falk

  He listened intently.

  "Very well, Colonel. That is good. Keep an international alert."

  He concentrated intently for a minute or two. Diana could almost sense the impatience of Colonel Crang waiting in the radio room. Sojin finally made up his mind.

  "Three orders, Colonel. No more radio contact with Westchester. We will accept no messages from them. Secondly, double the guard on the island, day and night. Anything that moves is to be shot! And thirdly, Colonel Crang, join me here in my quarters as soon as you have carried out my orders."

  "Very good, sir."

  There was a click as Crang put down the phone. Baron Sojin turned back to Diana.

  "And, now, my dear, it is time you and I had a serious chat about your friend, The Phantom."

  23

  STRANGE CALLING CARD

  The Phantom slipped cautiously out of his parachute harness and dropped gently to the ground. The harness remained swaying in the darkness, suspended from a branch, ten feet up. The big man could not dislodge it, but he felt certain no one would discover it before morning. And by morning, he hoped to have accomplished his mission. He slipped between the trees like a shadow, making for the dark bulk of the castle, silver-etched in the moonlight, about a quarter of a mile away.

  He moved silently and stealthily, with all the accumulated jungle instincts of his ancesters. Only a few sleepy animals saw him pass and then they again settled down for the night. Presently, The Phantom came to the edge of a steep escarpment. Far below, the ocean dashed whitely against its base. He emerged from the edge of the jungle and walked over jagged, rocky outcrops. It was a brilliant night and he could see a long way ahead.

  Nothing moved in the wilderness of stone, but he kept in the shadows and with infinite caution made his way up the cliff-face until he was within ten feet of the top. Here he paused to get his bearings. All he could see of the castle now was its top-most turrets. Tiny squares of yellow light showed from this quarter. So someone was awake. Perhaps the higher echelons of Scorpia, worried at the message he had sent them? The Phantom grinned to himself in the darkness. Well, they would soon have something more tangible to worry them.

  He moved on, scaling the last few feet, until he put his strong, steel-like fingers over the edge of the plateau. Inch by inch the big man lifted himself until his eyes were at

  145

  ground level. He found he could see several hundred yards. The place was worn smooth and level with the passage of thousands of pairs of boots over the years. From the stone blocks, the saluting base and other military detail, The Phantom deduced that it was nothing less than a gigantic parade ground. And there, not ten yards away from him, was a big man in a military uniform, armed with a sub-machine gun. The Phantom smiled grimly as he ducked down out of sight.

  The sentry continued his pacing. He walked along the edge of the plateau until he was no more than a yard from where The Phantom crouched. The bright flare of a match came from above as the man lit a cigarette. The Phantom moved behind, him. The soldier was just talking the cigarette from his mouth when his ankles were seized in a grip like steel. Before he could react, he was lifted completely from the ground. He screamed once, and then his head was dashed against the surface of the parade ground with stunning force. He rolled over limply as the slap of heavy boots sounded from farther up.

  A second sentry ran into sight, his feet echoing from the cliff-side. He brought his sub-machine gun up with a gasp as he saw the sprawled figure of his companion.

  "What's the matter?" he called nervously. "Did you fall?"

  The other man made no reply. The second sentry came up to him and rolled him over cautiously. Then, he recoiled, looking carefully about him. Stamped into the side of the man's jaw was the mark of a skull which seemed to have been imprinted into the flesh. The sentry's jaw sagged.

  "The mark of a skulll" he gasped. "What does that mean?"

  "Just this!" said a powerful, resonant voice from behind him. As the sentry jumped back, a mighty force plucked the sub-machine gun from his hands. He was whirled like a toy doll by a force he was unable to comprehend. He saw a square, strong face with a black mask over the eyes before he was dashed to the ground like his companion, and consciousness left him.

  The Phantom bent swiftly over the second sentry.

  "This is more like it," he told himself. "The Phantom strikes like a thunderbolt but moves softer than a stalking tiger"—old jungle saying!

  As he moved away into the shadows, hard up against the Castle wall, there came the sound of more running footsteps. Torches flickered as a squad of soldiers poured from the open gates of the keep, fanning out across the parade ground. The Phantom continued to move along the wall, then slipped within the Castle walls. Only an animal with its senses hyper-turned to the ways of the wild could have detected him, so swiftly did he move. In the deeper shadow of the inner courtyard, The Phantom hugged the wall and glided silently along.

  Colonel Crang's massive face bisected by his thick, black mustache looked as impassive as ever as he reported to the Baron. Sojin stood erect in his dressing gown and looked from the correct figure of the soldier in his immaculate uniform to the slight figure of Diana Palmer in her night- clothes in the chair.

  "This is a serious situation, Colonel," he told the Chief of his Security Forces.

  "I acknowledge that, sir, which was why I hastened to warn you," said Crang with a short inclination of his head toward his master.

  He looked grimly at the girl.

  "If you will permit me to make an observation, sir, this circumstance might never have arisen if you had taken my advice in the first place."

  Sojin's blue eyes turned piercingly upon the Colonel. His slim body quivered and he took one step forward. Dark blood suffused his cheeks. But Ms voice was soft and low as he replied.

  "You are not permitted to make observations, Colonel Crang. Your remarks are impertinent and out of order. Under less grave circumstances, I would have no hesitation in taking a disciplinary action."

  He paused and Colonel Crang turned pale.

  He made a stiff bow toward the Baron and said in clipped tones, "Believe me, sir, I had only the security of Scorpia at heart when I made my suggestion."

  "Very well then, Crang," said the Baron moodily, Ms anger past. "I'll accept that. We'll say no more about it."

  He turned to Diana Palmer who sat quietly in her chair, taking no part in the heated discussion.

  "This Phantom of yours led the police to our Westchester center of operations. I've had enough double-talk from you. Who is he?"

  All the gentleness and chivalry had gone from his manner now. He spoke harshly and the thin, bleached slit of his mouth made an ugly line across his face.

  Diana smiled.

  "You read about him in your history of Scorpia, Baron," she said. "Don't you remember? He is The Ghost Who Walks, the man who cannot die. . ."

  "Enough of this foolery!" Crang interrupted. "Give us information about him, or you might not like the consequences."

  He put his hand significantly to his belt.

  "Scorpia has long experience in making people talk, my girl," Sojin told Diana in a controlled voice." "Now, tell me everything you know about this person or I'll. . ."

  He stopped, aware that the door had opened unceremoniously and that a tottering figure was framed there.

  "What is it?" he asked the valet irritably.

  "Don't you know after all these years that you should never enter my apartment without permission, much less without knocking?"

  "Your pardon, Excellency!" the man stammered. "The circumstances are unprecedented."

  "Spit it out, man!" said Crang impatiently.

  "If you please, sir," said the valet, looking at his master with a trembling visage.

  "The Phantom is here!"

  24

  UNEXPECTED VISITOR

  There was a moment of stunned silence. Diana was on her feet, her face suffused with happiness. Crang looke
d unbelievingly at the valet while Baron Sojin stood as though turned to stone. Crang was the first to recover himself.

  "What do you mean, The Phantom is here, you fool?" he said harshly.

  The servant screamed with pain as the Colonel jumped forward and seized him by the wrist.

  "Please, sir," he howled. "I only meant that The Phantom has arrived on Scorpia. He knocked out two men on the parade ground.".

  "Old fool!" Crang growled, as he let go of the man's arm. He turned back to the Baron.

  "I'd better investigate."

  "I'll go with you," said Baron Sojin.

  "You stay here!" he told Diana. He led the way out of the room, the valet almost unable to keep up. The three were hardly able to cram into the private elevator that shot them swiftly to the lower levels of the castle. Already the garrison had been alerted, and soldiers and officers were clattering up and down the stairs. Powerful floodlights swept the courtyard and the Castle walls. The ranks parted as the Baron and Crang hurried across to the small group clustered around two men lying on the ground.

  "Let us through," said Crang impatiently.

  He recognized one of the saluting officers.

  "Ah, Carson, I assume you are off duty from the radio room?"

  "Yes, sir," said Carson saluting briskly.

  "Well, take charge here," said Crang, looking around him. "There has been enough panic for one evening."

  He knelt by the Baron, who was examining the recumbent men. The valet was at his side. He gulped as he looked at the soldiers' faces.

  "You see, Excellency," he said pointing to the vivid blotches stamped in their flesh. "There is the skull mark. The sign of the Skull is the mark of The Phantom, sir. It has been so down through all the ages!"

  "Nonsense!" snapped Sojin but, nevertheless, he felt a constriction in his throat.

  He looked furtively round him, reassured by the presence of the soldiers and their weapons.

  "We'd better get these men inside, close the gates and double the sentries," Crang said.

  "See to it, Colonel," Sojin said shortly, getting to his feet. "Then rejoin me in the Armory."

  "The Armory, sir?" said Crang, looking puzzled.

  "You heard me, Colonel," Sojin replied.

  He lingered.

  "We are surrounded by a thousand miles of ocean. How could anyone get here?"

  Colonel Crang shrugged.

  "I heard an aircraft passing over earlier tonight, sir. Someone may have parachuted down."

  The Baron looked at him keenly. He seemed to have somewhat recovered himself now.

  "Well-deduced, Colonel," he said. "That is a possibility."

  "I'll have a search made for parachutes, sir," said Crang. "They may have dropped more than one man."

  He started issuing instructions to the troops as the Baron went swiftly back inside the courtyward. Before his eyes was the livid emblem of the skull.

  "I'll get at the truth," he told himself, as the elevator carried him effortlessly upwards.

  Diana's face blanched as she saw the expression on the Baron's face. He rushed up to the gallery and came back with a book. He seized her by the arm and dragged her down a flight of stairs. They entered through a massive, iron-bound door, which the Baron left open behind them. The chamber inside was a big one, but not as large as the Baron's own private room.

  The walls were of stone and a gallery ran around three sides. There were racks of weapons along the walls and on the gallery; animal heads and other trophies, suits of armour, cutlasses, every conceivable type of weapon, old and new. Large, carved chests stood about the floor and an. alcove at one end was covered by thick curtains. The Baron prowled about for a few minutes, visibly nervous. He went to look behind the curtains and even up the balcony.

  Then he went to stand by a telephone on a big, oak table and looked at Diana with his strange blue eyes.

  "This is my Armory," he said. "There are no windows in this room and only two doors, one of them bolted. When Colonel Crang joins us and the second door is barred, no one—not even The Phantom—will be able to get in."

  There was contempt in Diana's eyes as she looked at the ruler of Scorpia.

  "You're such a brave pirate!" she said in scornful tones. "Afraid of a ghost? You locked yourself in a room without windows."

  The Baron had raised his arm to strike her when there was a clatter of boots on the stairs. Colonel Crang was at the door. He saluted, slamming and bolting the big iron- bound door behind him.

  "Your orders have been carried out, sir. My men are searching the island."

  "Excellent, Colonel," said Baron Sojin. "You are just in time. I was about to question Miss Palmer more intently."

  The Colonel put his hand to a coiled whip at his belt

  "Perhaps you would permit me, sir?"

  The Baron shook his head.

  "Maybe there was something in what you said after all. This is a pleasure I reserve for myself."

  He faced Diana squarely and looked at her with his piercing, blue eyes. His lips twisted in a strange smile as he observed, "I am hereditary King of Scorpia! People obey my commands or die! Tell me who The Phantom is or you won't leave this room alive."

  The girl remained silent for a moment. Sojin, conscious that he had been speaking a great deal during the last hour, felt a dryness in his throat. He reached across the table and picked up a crystal beaker. He poured himself a measure of white wine into a long-stemmed glass. As he raised it to his lips he glanced at the rim of the glass. His hand trembled involuntarily. There, stamped into the surface of the vessel, was that terrible symbol of the skull. Sojin staggered and the glass shattered on the floor of the room. The Baron gazed wildly at the puzzled face of Crang.

  "It's The Phantoml" the ruler of Scorpia gasped. "He's been in this room."

  He ran quickly to the door to examine the fastenings. His breath caught in his throat and his heart started thumping faster when he saw another skull symbol, this time imprinted on the handle of the door.

  He turned back to Crang, who looked around him apprehensively.

  "I can't understand it," gasped Sojin, feeling as though he were in a trap instead of the comforting protection of the Armory.

  "It's perfectly simple, King of Scorpia!" said a strong, mocking voice behind him.

  25

  SABRE SHOWDOWN

  Sojin stood as though turned to bronze. Colonel Crang's jaw fell open, his hand stopped halfway to the whip at his belt. Diana's eyes filled with tears of grateful thanks. All stared incredulously at the tall form of The Phantom which had apparently sprung from nowhere. His muscular body rippled with strength as he jumped lightly from a great oak chest which stood against the wall of the armory. From beneath the lid peeped the trembling visage of old Miki, the handyman.

  He stood up awkwardly, and bowed feebly in the Baron's direction.

  "Surrender, Excellency!" he said in quavering tones. "This is The Phantom. He is the Ghost Who Walks, the one who never dies!

  "You old fool!" snarled Colonel Crang. His hand came tip with his revolver, making a blurred arc in the light of the overhead lamps.

  The Phantom whirled with one lithe movement. The surprised face of Crang turned upside down as he seized his gun-arm, and the enormously bulky figure of the Chief of Security went cart wheeling through the air. He came down with shattering force on the table, smashing the candelabra and sending pewterware flying. The gun skidded harmlessly across the tiles.

  Baron Sojin staggered back against the Armory door as Diana ran across the floor. Then she was in Kit's arms, with his strong fingers caressing her cheek.

  "Diana," he whispered over and over again. "I knew you weren't dead."

  "Darling, Kit," said Diana, "If you only knew how glad I am to see you."

  Old Miki shouted as a sword whistled through the air and splintered a stool behind them.

  "We'll continue this in a minute," said The Phantom, grinning.

  Sojin tore free and gained the
balcony, hearing The Phantom's feet pounding up the gallery staircase behind him. He went for a big rack of sabres at the near end. He whirled, the steel slicing through the air.

  "Let's see how you like pirate steel, O One Who Never Dies!" he shouted sarcastically.

  His triumphant cry turned to a howl of pain as a rack of muskets, torn from the wall by the Phantom's steel-strong hands, slid along the floor and cracked against his shins. Then The Phantom jumped to the sabres. His teeth flashed beneath the black mask as he wheeled. The blade in his hand made a dazzling shimmer in the lamp-light.

  "I like cold steel very well, Your Excellency!" he laughed. "You see, I was educated in the United States. And it was there I mastered the use of the sabre!"

  Diana heard the clash of steel from the balcony above as Colonel Crang got up heavily. There was a dazed look in his eyes.

  He howled with pain as the girl cracked him with the shaft of a pike she snatched from the wall. He crashed to the floor.

  The Phantom swerved gracefully as Sojin's sabre cut splinters from a priceless carved table at his elbow. Perspiration was running down the Baron's face, but he was a fine swordsman and there was plenty of fight left in him.

  "Why don't you give up, Excellency?" said The Phantom, jumping up on top of an oak bench and effortlessly parrying the other's thrust. The clash of the steel had an exhilarating effect on him, and, as the Baron redoubled his efforts, it seemed only to increase his energy.

  "Why don't you stand still?" Sojin snapped irritably, the perspiration staining his pajamas. He had thrown aside his robe when the fight began, but he was puzzled at the brilliant technique of this peculiar swordsman, and already the jacket of his pajamas, where it billowed out, was slashed in two places.

  "There are no rules in your sort of fighting, Baron," said The Phantom, jumping down from the bench and parrying his way along the edge of the balcony. He waved encouragingly to Diana. He saw that Crang was now on the floor with an oak bench on top of him and Diana on top of the bench. He grinned.