Evening Star Newspaper, September 27, 1936, Page 79

September 27, 1936 tion WITHOUT HESITATING, THE CHIEF OF THE FIRE-WALKERS LEDHIS FOLLOWERS ONTO AND ACROSS THE ROCKS IN THE BLAZING PIT THE STORY SO FAR night before their ship was due in . I ‘Tahiti, Lynn Downey and Tracy Burke, chatting after midnight at the railing, were startled by a woman’s screams and sounds of a struggle on the boat deck above. A dagger flashed past them into the ocean, and a sheet of note paper, with Chinese char- acters, fluttered down and whipped against a post. - Burke, believing that someone had been stabbed, rushed to the boat deck, in a fruit-. less search. Lynn soon joined him and re- ported that the paper had blown out to sea. " Turning detective, they took a stroll about the ship. They came upon Roscoe Browning, a collector of primitive drums who lived in Papeete, prowling about one deck and Alton Clegg, apparently searching for the note paper, on another deck. After Burke had left Lynn and returned to his stateroom, he found that it had been -searched. Going into the corridor, he met Lynn, now very much upset, and she led him to her cabin on the same deck. It, too, had been ransacked. Her revolver lay on the floor, and beside it — the body of a dead man! Later that night, Burke saw Lynn with a sheet of note paper like that which had flut- tered down from the boat deck. THIS WEEK The next day it was discovered that the murdered man, Gregory Jackson, was a notori- ous international crook; and only after con- siderable questioning were Burke and Lynn allowed to land in Papeete. The following evening they dined at the home of Roscoe Browning, the drum collector. When their host demonstrated his theory that drums could induce hypnosis, Burke found himself growing drowsy. Suddenly Browning said: “Which of you has a sheet of note paper which came into your possession the night of the murder?” Burke tried desperately to get control of himself, and realized that Lynn, completely dominated by the beat of the drums, was about to speak! PART III RACY BURKE suddenly snapped into full control of his mental faculties. It was as though some obstruction which had damned the mental forces of his mind had been swept away. He saw Lynn Downey’s right hand groping mechanically for the V- shaped opening in the front of her dress. “Don’t answer that question, Lynn!” he shouted. “Lynn, Lynn, wake up!”’ Burke saw Browning coming. toward him, and got to his feet. The man’s face was dark with fury. “You keep out of this,” he said. lllvstrotion by Marshall Frantz Tracy stood between Browning and Lynn. “I don’t know what you’re trying to do,” he said, “‘but if you think you can get away with _this, you’re crazy.” Then he heard Lynn Downey’s voice, no _longer blurred with the loose articulation of one who is talking in her sleep, saying, “Whatever are you two men fighting about?”” Burke sensed that it was the tone of her voice which changed Browning’s attitude. ‘The man returned to his duties as a host. “‘After all,” he said, laughing, “what is the argument about? I asked what seemed to me an innocent question, and Mr. Burke started shouting.” . ““You tried to hypnotize her!” Browning’s smile was ready, affable. “Of course I did. I tried to hypnotize all of us; that is, I tried to illustrate the effect of drums on human psychology.” He switched on lights, then turned off the colored lamps. ‘‘Perhaps,” he said, “I suc- ceeded too well. Looking back on it, I find Magoazine Section 7 [EETH of the JHAGO “When it gets dark they kill you” — such a sinister message leads to a clever deed of daring! Part Ill of a new serial of adventure and murder in the South Seas by ERLE STANLEY GARDNER that I, myself, am not entirely clear as to just what happened. There’s something about the throb of a drum which gets into one’s blood. I admit conducting experiments from time to time which have hypnotized my guests, but this is the first time I've ever been affected He ushered them back into the living room, with its deep, comfortable chairs. Once more he was the polished, genial host, master of himself and of the situation. ‘““Tomorrow,”” he said, “some of the natives are putting on a fire-walking ceremony. Have you ever seen m?” “No!” Lynn exclaimed. “And I want to very much indeed! Could we see it?" . “I think so. I'm sure it can be arranged.” £ “They actually walk on hot stones?”” Burke asked. “Yes,” Browning said with a smile, “and the stones are guste hot. I wonder if you'd care to run out and take a look at the pit where the stonesare being heated?”’ “I'd love to.” Browning ordered his car to be brought, and as he assisted Lynn into the front seat, said, “I'll drive you myself.” stretching up into the heavens. “What’s that?>” Lynn asked. “A village e : “That,” Browning announced, “is where they’re heating the rocks.” He swung the car from the main road; pulled up by a huge pit some thirty feet long and eight or ten feet wide. Crackling flames “Long before morning,” Browning said, “‘those rocks will be glowing almost as bright- ly as the coals. They’ll keep feeding wood into the fire until tomorrow evening, when the per- formance starts.” : “I guess,” Lynn Downey said, “you’d bet- ter drive us back.” “Don’t you want to go closer and look at the rocks, down where you can feel the heat from the pit?”’ She shook her head and shuddered. “I'm e (Continved on page 10)