5 Detective Novels Magazine Cover — page 70: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

70 pery under the driving rain. It took them forty minutes to reach the boat landing, and when they reached it, it was dark and deserted. Prentiss looked around. He recognized the landing. It was one that had been used by the water-taxis when Jeffries was running the gambling boats anchor- ed offshore. A man came out of the darkness to meet them—a tall man with a yachting cap and a greasy suede jacket. “All set,” he said. They went down the long, swaying runway to the float. There was a water- taxi tied to the float, its powerful Hall- Scott motor turning over idly. Two men were in the taxi, and the whole stern was piled high with cardboard cartons. Prentiss climbed into the taxi. The man in the greasy jacket took his place at the wheel, and they edged out of the slip. The last Prentiss saw was Jeffries standing on the float in the rain, waving to him. He turned and spoke to one of the men. “Where’re we headed ?”’ The man grunted. The taxi continued down the harbor, and Prentiss realized suddenly that they were running with- out lights. The constant drum of the rain and the rolling, breaking sea covered the noise of their motor. It was a fine night for ducks. Off to the left, he had an indistinct view of Long Beach, its bright crescent of lights dimmed by fog that began rolling in heavily as the rain slackened. He wondered grimly if he was ever going to see them again. The powerful boat shot on. As they passed the breakwater and cut into the open ocean, Prentiss tried to figure out just where they were heading. They seemed to have been riding for hours, and still no light showed on the taxi. Then the man at the wheel cut the motor, and they sat silently, rising and falling on the empty sea, the crew lean- ing out and listening. Once he heard one of the men say, “Coast Guard.” H*® REALIZED that they were listen- ing for patrol boats, but there seemed to be none. The angry sea with its giant, rolling combers was entirely deserted, save for them. FIVE DETECTIVE NOVELS MAGAZINE The boat started running again. Pren- tiss began to wonder whether the men hoped to run it to Hawaii. Then sudden- ly a single light showed ahead. The boat swung around in a half circle and came up. Prentiss moved forward to look out. With amazement, he saw the conning tower of a submarine rising out of the water. The craft came up slowly like some gigantic whale breaking the surface as waves washed across the low-railed deck. Then the tower opened and men poured out. The speedboat edged in and moored at the submarine’s side. The canvas top of the taxi was rolled back, and the men began pitching the cardboard cartons across to the submarine’s deck. The speedboat’s pilot remained at the wheel, keeping his engine racing, pulling against the hawser which bound them to the submarine. The boat rocked and pitched. “We brought you a passenger,” the pilot shouted across to the submarine. Prentiss then realized for the first time that he was not heading for South America. Where the submarine might take him, he did not know. It seemed utterly incredible that less than four hours before, he had been quietly hav- ing dinner at the Borneo and listening to an American swing band. The ocean seemed empty, abandoned. He knew he could expect no help from anyone but himself. “Come on, you!” one of the men shouted at him. “Lend a hand!” He moved aft toward where they were hauling at the cases. He could see them in the indistinct light, not sharply, but plainly enough to show the holstered gun strapped around the nearest man’s waist. He stooped as if to heave up one of the cases. But as he straightened, his clawing fingers curved about the handle of the gun, jerking it free. He jabbed it into the man’s side. “Jump!” The man gave him a startled look. “Jump!” There was death in Prentiss’s voice, and the man jumped. His fingers barely caught the railing around the submarine deck. The second man had swung around. Swiftly Prentiss reached over and snatched his gun. “Okay, pal. You, too. Jump!” COMmiclooo S nn