The Scorpia Menace (15 page)

David Palmer turned the wheel suddenly to avoid a truck that crossed without warning to another lane. He blew the horn and raised his voice, momentarily.

"Diana phoned to say she planned to fly in in the morning, and was spending the night with a friend."

he turned his troubled eyes toward the big man at his side.

"She'd never been near Betty Hopper's. We found that out afterwards. Lily said Diana's voice sounded strange."

"That figures," The Phantom said. "Her voice was obviously imitated by someone else and she'd already been kidnapped earlier that night. Anything else special?"

David Palmer frowned.

"Nothing special that I can think of. Lily told me about the call when I came in that evening, but it seemed to me that Lily suspected something was wrong. It wasn't like Diana to make sudden decisions to spend the night away from home. And then Lily said something else. . ."

He paused, waiting for the lights at an intersection to change. "Go on," The Phantom prompted.

David Palmer gunned the car ahead, turning off the crowded main highway onto a secondary road. Then they were making better time, as the built-up areas started thinning out.

"Well, it was something that Lily mentioned next day," lie went on.

"Something about Diana not making her usual signal with the headlights when she drove out of the garage that evening."

The Phantom scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"We certainly haven't got much to sink our teeth into here, Dave," he said.

"What was the police's attitude?"

"Oh, like I said on the phone, they took it seriously, but It's difficult. There's so little to go on."

"Let's get back to the night Diana was threatened," The Phantom went on. "Diana gave you a description, you said."

"Yes," responded Palmer.

"She said he was a thin man with a hard face. He had long blond hair which hung down below the brim of his hat, and he had a small scar on his right cheek, up near his eye."

"That sounds fairly distinctive," The Phantom said.

Palmer shook his head.

"One would think so, but the police had no luck. I saw Chief Mulcade again, after Diana disappeared and they'd come up with nothing in the files."

"Of course, the man might not have a record," The Phantom mused.

"Some crooks are fortunate for a while and aren't caught. But there's always a first time. Some other city may have a dossier."

"Oh, they're keeping at it," David Palmer said.

He looked sharply at his companion as he drove up the winding road through the hills. "You think the same man who threatened Diana kidnapped her?"

"It certainly looks that way," The Phantom said. "Those are the only threads we've got to go on. We can't afford to neglect any clues."

He shook his head.

"It beats me why she chose an ancient pirate band to research."

"That's the strange part," said David Palmer, turning the car off the road and onto another which was sign-posted: WESTCHESTER.

"She only became really interested after she read that The Phantom, your ancestor, had destroyed, or partially destroyed the Scorpia band in 1612."

The Phantom lowered his head. He looked unseeingly through the side window of the automobile.

"Strange and sad," he said gently.

Both men were silent until the car crunched through the gates of the Palmers' Westchester home.

After he had been up to see Mrs. Palmer, The Phantom sat for a long while meditating in his room. He had written notes on a number of points mentioned by David Palmer and he went over them again and again in his mind and on paper, sifting and re-sifting, trying to make some sense out of the tangled pattern of evidence.

Later in the evening, he went downstairs. He found Dav-

david Palmer sitting in the study. For once, his pipe was not belching smoke and flame. David Palmer looked as though the heart had gone out of him. His pipe was empty and unlit, though still clenched between his square, strong teeth. He got up with a smile as The Phantom came in.

"Would you like a drink?" he said.

The Phantom shook his head.

"Never touch it," he said.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot," said David Palmer, embarrassed. "Please forgive me. This business has been so upsetting. . ."

He broke off. The Phantom moved forward to sit opposite him.

"Nothing to forgive," he said. "I wondered whether you have Diana's research notes. I'd like to have a look at them."

"Certainly," David Palmer said. "I think she left them in the drawing room. I'll go and get them."

The Phantom sat absorbing the peace of the study with its dark, panelled walls until Diana's uncle returned.

He took the notebooks and loose sheets David handed him. He spent the next two hours opposite Palmer, studying the notes. Neither men said anything. David Palmer spent the time staring silently into the fire or playing solitaire in a half-hearted fashion. Eventually, The Phantom gathered the papers together with a grunt.

"Well, I've learned one thing," he said.

"What's that?" his companion asked.

"These notes indicate that Scorpia might still exist," the big man said. "I must learn a lot more, though, before I can be certain. I'm turning in now. Tomorrow I'll go to the airport and see what I can find out there."

The sun was shining brilliantly next morning when The Phantom drove David Palmer's car out to McGuffey Field. Today, he wore a tartan check raincoat with a silk scarf knotted at the throat. The dark glasses and low-slung fedora effectively masked the upper part of his face. A short while later, he came down the steps of the Administration Building with one of the senior executives.

"That's the man you want," the latter said, indicating a burly mechanic in the airfield's standard blue coveralls.

He introduced The Phantom.

"This is Mr. Walker, a friend of Miss Palmer's. He's making inquiries on behalf of the family. Please give him every assistance."

The mechanic turned a tough, good-natured face to The Phantom.

"Sure," he said. "Glad to oblige."

The two men shook hands.

"It was a terrible thing, Sir," said the mechanic. "I still don't understand how it could have happened."

"I believe you were one of the last people to see Miss Palmer before she took off?" the big man said.

The mechanic nodded.

"That's right. I serviced the aircraft. Everything was in A-l order."

"I know," The Phantom said. "I've just looked at the check lists. Nothing unusual there."

The two men were walking slowly across the apron now. The thundering reverberations of aircraft engines being started up echoed from the hangers further down. The Phantom turned his strong, broad face to the sun and gazed out across the runway from which Diana's plane had taken off.

"The gas tank was full?" he asked.

"I filled it and checked it myself," the mechanic said.

He took off his long-peaked cap and scratched his unruly thatch of hair.

"She could not have run out unless a gas line broke. I heard her on the radio just before the plane went into the sea. She was quite calm. For some reason, she did not give a position report, although the controller asked for it."

The Phantom stood lost in thought for a moment.

"Did you know Miss Palmer?"

The mechanic shook his head.

"I'd never seen her before. Naturally, I knew her reputation as a pilot. I followed all her record attempts."

He scuffed with the toe of his shoe on the rough surface of the apron.

"She didn't look the same as her pictures in the papers."

The Phantom made a sharp movement that startled his companion. He put his hand on the mechanic's arm.

"Say that again."

The mechanic looked puzzled.

"I thought she didn't look much like her pictures, that's all."

"No?" said The Phantom.

A faint suspicion of a smile was playing about his mouth.

"How do you mean?"

"She seemed so much younger and prettier in her pictures. She just looked different."

"Go on," said The Phantom. His face had relaxed now, but there was an air of alertness about his whole body, as though complex emotions were being held in check.

"I didn't really get a good look at her," the mechanic went on. "She wore dark sunglasses and a black beret pulled down over her forehead."

"Thanks very much," said The Phantom. "You've been a great help."

The mechanic took the folded bill The Phantom slipped into his palm as they shook hands; he put it slowly in the pocket of his coveralls.

"Thank you, very much," he said. "Glad to have been of service."

The Phantom drove rapidly back to the Palmer home. Dave Palmer was cutting the front lawn, driving the big mower as though it were an automobile. He shut it off as the car crunched into the drive and rapidly crossed toward The Phantom.

"Any luck at the airfield?" he asked.

The Phantom slid out of the car and slammed the door behind him.

"It was an interesting morning," he said. He took the other by the arm and they went around the house to sit on a bench by the pool.

"I want to ask you something, Dave," he said. "Can you recall Diana ever wearing a beret?"

David Palmer shook his head.

"Not as far as I know. To the best of my knowledge, she never owned one, much less wore one."

The Phantom's face broke out in a smile. David Palmer stared in amazement.

"Just what I thought," The Phantom said.

"I've done a lot of figuring since last night and reached a number of interesting conclusions."

David Palmer got up and took a turn up and down the terrace. He came back to stand facing his guest.

"Just what do you mean, Kit?"

The Phantom passed a strong hand across his chin.

"I don't want to raise your hopes too much, Dave. And I certainly shouldn't say anything to Mrs. Palmer at this stage."

"Whatever you say," said David Palmer. His good-natured features wore a puzzled expression.

"I'm making a calculated guess that Diana is still alive," The Phantom said.

16

A
GUEST AT CASTLE TOEPLITZ

Diana Palmer stumbled up a rocky pathway on the Island of Scorpia, still feeling cramped from her long flight. Two men in loose-fitting denims and flat military caps walked with her. The black snouts of their Schmeisser machine guns were pointed at the ground as they carried them slung over their shoulders, but she knew they could swing (hem into firing position in less than a second.

In any case, even if she could escape, where could she go? For all she knew, Scorpia might be hundreds of miles from the mainland. Diana decided that she must remain calm and try to take advantage of any opportunity that might arise. She walked up a steep stone staircase hewn from rock. The castle of Toeplitz rose dizzily into the sky before her.

The two men with her stiffened to attention and saluted, as they got to a great arid space at the top of the steps, above which the castle gates rose. A huge man, with a massive head like a pineapple, saluted the two soldiers perfunctorily, and looked curiously at Diana. He wore a lightweight tropical uniform, and gold epaulettes glittered in the sunshine.