Page 41 - Demo

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ward through Manhattan and across the Triborough Bridge-that was nothing compared to this !
Suddenly he pointed. A shaggy head- land was shouldering the darkness straight ahead.
The plane curved outward from the shore, banking and slackening its speed in preparation for water landing. The pilot was taking no chance with the cove entrance beyond the headland. He
planned to taxi through on the surface
of the water.
But a yell from Jerry Tracy changed
the pilot's mind. Fitz, too, was point-. ing . A lengthening streak of foam showed on the surface of the water where the cove joined the sound. A dark speedboa t was fleeing eastward toward Greenport and the open sea.
It was a fast streamlined craft with a knife bow, but it was no match for the police flying· boat. The amphibion overhauled it with the ease of a drop- ping hawk. It roared less than twenty feet above the cruiser. Tracy, peering, saw the blurred faces of Betty Hilliard
and Ken Dunlap.
Betty seemed to be tied hand and foot.
Dunlap was free. He was springing to the engine controls, slowing the boat's mad speed . The amphibian curved into the wind and landed with a shower of spray. Its momentum carried it along- side the drifting boat. .
Sergeant Kilian risked a ducking with a wide, reckless leap. He was on his feet instantly in the rocking craft, his gun pointed at the tense figure of Dunlap. There was a fishing knife in Dunlap' s
hand.
"Drop it!" Kilian rasped.
The knife clattered. Ki llan scooped
it up. Fitzgerald and Tracy sprang aboard and the seaplane began to drift away from the rocking boat.
"Cuff him, Sarge ," Fitz grow led.
Th ere was a quick scream from Betty
Hilliard. "Let him alone, you fools! He's
have much trouble with the rather hastily knotted cords that fettered her wrists and ankles. Fitz was listening to Dun- lap, watching him like a hawk. His story sounded too fast and too phony.
· He accused Furman and Alice Hil- liard of attempting murder. They had, he declared, lured him and Betty to the Long Island estate with a promise to return cert a in missing love letters that had passed between Dunlap and Hil- liard 's young wife. Furman and Alice had taken them to Hilliard 's boat house at the edge of the cove. Before Dunlap
was aware of treachery, he and Betty were bound hand and foot and tossed in- to Hilliard' s speedboat. The rudd er was lashed tightly, the engine started, and the boat was sent racing .into the Sound to be blown up as soon as the delayed spark of a fuse reached the gas tank.
Killan said, iricredulously, "A fuse? An explosion?"
"Where's the fuse?" Fitzgerald snapped.
"Ove rboard," Dunlap said slowly, his eyes watchful. "I rolled to the knife ju st in time. Gue ss they overlooked that fishing knife in the dark. It was under a seat. I cut my bonds, tossed the damned fuse over the side, a few seconds before your plane showed up."
Kilian said dryly, "Funny you didn't
draw any blood with those quick knife
cuts."
"He's telling the truth ," Betty Hilliard
cried. "Furman and Alice wanted it to. appear as if we blew up accidentally in a guilty attempt to flee. They must have been in cahoots with Lord."
Fitzgerald looked at the Daily Planet's
innocent. Ken, tell them what happened, · eone!1""
was shot twice because a man and a woman murdered him. Each wa nted a hold on the other, so each fired at him, using Lord 's stolen gun. Th en, you see,
with them both witnessing th e other's shot, neither could ever talk. We'd better get back to that boat house."
quick ! Untie me, someo • , Tracy loosened her .bonds. He didn' t
Station K-1-L-L 39
little columni st'. Tracy's dim smile
was
enigmatic .
" Lord didn't kill Hilliard," he
said . "I 've known that ,for some time. Hilliard