Mystery Of The Sea Horse (20 page)

"Right about here I'd guess." He pressed a panel as he treaded water. It swung narrowly open, making again the faint metallic creaking.

The night outside was clear, the sky a sharp black, and all the distant stars glistened brightly.

Now the masked man heard a dim scuffling sound. "He must be climbing up the hillside."

He swam in the direction he calculated Danton was going, and pulled himself free of the sea. He halted an instant on the scrubby ground, listening

hard. Yes, Danton was definitely scurrying up the hillside.

The Phantom, moving with great speed and silence, continued his pursuit. He must have some reason for heading up here, the masked man thought to himself. Maybe some other way of getting off the island.

He reached level ground. A gentle sea wind was blowing across the little island.

And there was Danton, a darker silhouette against the black of the night, running. There was a barnhouse by itself, away from the other buildings. He looked to be aiming for there.

The Phantom increased his pace, and went flashing through the night.

He intercepted Danton ten yards short of the barn, hitting him with a powerful body block.

Danton went sprawling, cursing. He rolled, boosting himself up off the ground with the heels of his hands. Kicking out at the Phantom with his white-shod foot, he said, "You're not keeping me from getting to my other plane, damn you."

"Afraid I am." He dodged the foot, caught Danton's ankle, and levered the man around once in the air.

Danton fell to the ground with a breath-slamming thud. But before the Phantom was able to leap for him again, the handsome man was up and running.

He ran, straining and groaning, beyond the barn which held Ms getaway plane.

The Phantom drew near him at the edge of a long drop to the sea. "Give it up, Danton."

Snarling, Danton snatched at the gun he carried under his jacket.

Before its barrel could rise toward him, the Phantom's .45 was out of its holster and firing.

The first shot took the gun right out of Danton's hand.

"Do you realize what you've done?" cried Danton, backing away from the Phantom. "You and that grinning fool down there. You've destroyed one of the—"

The masked man kept moving toward Danton.

Danton went back and back and then, all at once, there was no ground underfoot. A look of infinite surprise came to his handsome face and then his full years seemed to touch him. Then he was plummeting, screaming, toward the dark sea three hundred feet below.

The Phantom stood at the edge for a moment, looking down into the blackness. "And that's the end of the
Sea Horse,"
he said.

He turned his back to the ocean and went to meet Diana.

It was two days later and they were in yet another rented car. It was a bright hot morning. Their tan compact was only a few miles from the border between Mexico and New Mexico.

The Phantom's hands rested lightly on the steering wheel.

"This is a very roundabout way to get back to Santa Barbara," remarked Diana. "Coming by private plane to Juarez and then picking up this car. Suppose you tell me now what we're up to, Kit?"

Smiling, he said, "You should be able to guess."

The dark-haired girl frowned. "I thought the
Sea Horse
business was all over. This doesn't have something to do with that?"

"No, that case is closed," he said.

"Well, I'd just as well be surprised then. I have the feeling I've spent the last few weeks doing

nothing but trying to figure out mysteries." She leaned back against the headrest. "Speaking of the
Sea Horse,
though, why did Laura really come to your aid?"

"I imagine her conscience was starting to bother her."

"About time," said Diana. "After she tried to gun us down."

"I don't think her heart was in that attempt, or she might not have missed."

Diana glanced over at him. "You keep taking her part, I notice."

"If Laura hadn't helped out, we might be in the bottom of that cavern lagoon along with the
Sea Horse." '

"You would have done something."

"Even so, she made things a lot easier."

Diana said, watching the hot yellow countryside outside, "What's going to happen to Laura now?"

"Well," he answered, "she's agreed to cooperate with Marcus and Busino and the Mexican authorities, to help them close down as much of Danton's narcotics network as they can. That should help her cause. I'm sure they'll put in a good word, which should help her draw a lighter sentence."

"Did you put in a good word, too?"

He grinned. 'Yes, I did. I told Agent Terry how she'd come to my assistance aboard the
Sea Horse."

I see.

"I didn't bother to add she was a pretty good cook, too," he said.

After a silent moment, Diana said, "I guess I'm sounding sort of jealous. Sorry." She shook her head. "And Chris Danton really was Rolf Langweil?"

"Yes," answered the Phantom. "There'd been

some attempt to alter the fingerprints, but you can't do that as easily as you can change a face. The prints they were able to get off the body match those in the Interpol files on Langweil."

"He was actually—how old?"

^Almost sixty."

"And how did Anderson get into the cavern in the first place?"

"He says he was able to swim in under the camouflaged gate Danton had hiding that cavern. He even got the alarm system turned off and came right up to the yacht unnoticed. Then he placed his plastic bombs, climbed the chain, and waited for his diversion to start."

"He took a lot of chances."

"Yes," agreed the Phantom. "Anderson, or whatever his name is, would like to give the impression he's a cool and calculating professional. But Danton was probably right in calling him a madman."

"He said he had some personal reason for wanting Danton dead."

"He was out to avenge his father whom Danton killed while he was a prisoner."

"It's a harsh kind of justice, the kind he tried."

After a moment, the Phantom said, "I would have preferred to see Danton go to trial."

"Probably it was too late for that," said Diana thoughtfully. "All the things he'd done, all the identities he'd had. Everything finally caught up with him." She touched her fingers to the win- dowsill. "What about that man who ran the All- American Cantina? Did Chris have him killed, too?"

"He intended to, but the man got wind of it and went into hiding," said the Phantom. "His partner wasn't so lucky."

The dark-haired girl said, "I came out to the West for a nice quiet vacation and I've had—well, anything but."

"My thought exactly," said the Phantom. "Which is why we're driving to the Eyrie."

Diana's face brightened. "So that's it," she said. "I forgot all about your private hideway. It is in this part of the country, isn't it?"

"A few hours drive and we'll be there," he said. "Then you can start in on a vacation made up of nothing but peace and quiet."

Diana smiled. "Well, I'm glad we're going there," she said. "But I have a hunch our tranquility isn't going to last long." "We'll see," he said. The car shot along the bright road.